September 31: Another day in Winnipeg

I ended up spending a week in Winnipeg, and although it may not be the most exciting place in the world, it seems that most nights I felt too tired to write up the day's events in my journal. Similar things happened while out on the river; when I realize I've gotten behind I usually make a bullet list of significant things over the last few days. But while I was working out my time spent in Winnipeg, I could not for the life of me recall what happened September 31, or even what day of the week that had fallen on! So, I decided when it came up I would just have to go over a typical day in Winnipeg and maybe some things that didn't make it into my other posts.

I believe the hostel had six bunks in the men's dormitory, but they seemed to have a policy against filling them all because there were never more than four guys in there. Although my schedule slipped later and later as I stayed in Winnipeg I was usually the first one up, to stumble around between the snorers and take my shower, get dressed.

Breakfast was often at the HI-Cafe in the hostel, which for real cheap would serve a pile of pancakes, hash browns, and eggs, plenty of fuel to get going in that cold city.

Almost every day I tried to find a pay phone and put in a call to the people I had met in Spruce Woods Provincial Park who thought they might be able to hook me up with a ride to Minneapolis. This never came through.

Out of habit I usually returned to the hostel before sunset, cooked myself a dinner out of a can, and usually ran into interesting people. There was Alex, from Rochester, a high school grad who ran butterfly houses at summer fairs and had won a year's worth of free movies by producing a first place student film. We played chess and watched the presidential debates with Tyler and Calin, a gay couple who subscribed hopefully to the hypothesis that Obama was far more liberal than his words or actions indicated. Monsu, a Pakistani, didn't care too much who won because neither one was likely to stop the unannounced bombing raids in his country's western provinces.

Melanie and I fought over pots and burners for a couple of night's before going out to watch a film at the nearby independent theatre about Hunter S Thompson. Melanie was a German, but she worked on a farm in Ontario which was powered strictly by clean energy: solar in summer, wind in winter.

I was at the hostel long enough to catch the vice presidential debates for a while -- there was an Ausralian couple watching as well, who told me John Howard had banned student unions because students shouldn't be forming organized labor movements.

There were other interesting folks who went through the hostel, but it became more difficult to meet people the longer I was there. My social energy lagged and more and more I was ready to move on.

Day 101 1/2 ended: (HI-WINNIPEG DOWNTOWNER)