A stranger is just a friend you haven't met

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met.
This was evident the moment a stranger offered  me a place to live.

On Thursday morning, realizing that I was 4 minutes behind Google Maps's schedule, I booked it out of my house and ran to the bus stop. I was out of breath and falling over but looked to my right and saw the heavenly sight of my usual bus. A lady to my left commented, "don't worry, you made it!"

I sat down first and she took a seat in front of me. Turns out, she works for my university doing administration stuff. She was really interested in my exchange experience so I told her my whole story, including the part about me being homeless in exactly one week.  Megan immediately suggested that I stay with her.

"For a whole month?"
"Yeah, if you don't mind."

Mind? This random stranger was offering me a room for a month, free of charge. She also suggested that I take their campervan, park it on the beach, and sleep by the water. We exchanged numbers and parted when we got to campus. This morning, when I was walking with Dito to do my groceries, she drove by, honked and waved.

I've been having problems with my debit card and since I forgot to tell my Canadian bank that I was travelling, they decided to freeze that too. So Dito and I stood outside the Freo markets while I shook out the last pieces of change I had. One dollar and fifty-five cents. That was the only money I had and I won't be receiving my debit pin for another 2 business days. And of course Vancouver is 15 hours behind so I gotta wait for the bank to open. Should've opened a visa account with TD (This one's for you, Sunny).

Fortunately, I've been making friends with this Chinese lady and her brother that work in the market. I purchase most of my groceries from their stand. Today I walked up to her, explained my situation and asked what I could buy with $1.55. "Poor you", she sighed, and gave me some chard at a third of the price and threw in a free banana. I now have 55 cents. 

Thank goodness for nice people. My next mission is to find something in Perth that I can buy with the remainder of my money. Any suggestions?

Thanksgiving eh?

Back in Vancouver, I've been known to organize parties that are way too big for me to handle, lose track of my guests, and never do the dishes because I'm passed out drunk on my bed. But my friends keep coming back for more, and they keep on washing my dishes and carrying me up to my room, tucking me in and making sure that I have a huge glass of water beside my bed. This year, I lost my cleaning crew.

But that whole day of prep and one hour of cleaning today was definitely worth the trouble. Despite never having made a gluten-free vegan pumpkin pie, the boys' constant worry that the party would be a sausage fest, and that I was only slightly acquainted with half my guests, it turned out to be a wonderful evening. We had a mix of Ausssie, Irish, German, Hungarian, Swiss, American, Finnish, Norwegian, Pakistanian, and Candian. The majority of this group had never celebrated Thanksgiving before and I'm still shocked that pumpkin pie doesn't exist outside of North America. Poor souls.

Chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie

We had a ridiculous amount of delicious food. I'm actually eating some of the leftovers right now and I have a feeling this food baby is going to stay for a while. My guests were eyeing the food and getting antsy, but there was one more thing we had to do before we started eating - say what we were thankful for. We were thankful for the people around us, for food, for couchsurfing, for our lovers, for learning how to cook, and for being able to live in Perth. I came to this city with no friends, no home, and no job. Thankful to be able to say that I have all three (although I'm about to be homeless in 2 weeks, but we'll save that for another story!)

Above all, I'm thankful for everyone who put up with my Canadian shenanigans. Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't live without facebook

Last night after leaving the pub, I headed over to the Perth train station to meet up with my couchsurfer. It was about 11pm, and I had a bit of time before he would arrive so I grabbed a local newspaper and propped myself up on the railing. 10 minutes later, this boy walks by and says hi and asks me how my day was going. He had just missed his last bus home.

I watched him light a cigarette and inhale the fumes. He smoked like he had done it a million times, yet it looked so awkward, as if the cigarette was too big to fit between his teenage fingers. Only when we stood up did I notice he was the same height as me. He had a young face, beautiful eyes, and curly brown hair with blond streaks. He had not eaten for 2 days.

I decided to walk over and sit on the ground beside him. Michael was 15 turning 16, still in high school and had already done more drugs than I ever had. He had just come from his best friend's funeral. She hung herself because her classmates had been constantly making fun of her.

"I'm gonna get back at every single person that did this to her."
"How?"
"By beating their heads off."

I tried to find the right words to say but I honestly could not come up with a solution. Put me in his situation and I probably would've shit kicked everyone in that school.

For my creative writing class, I'm currently working on a piece that discusses the dreams that kids have and that we lose as adults. Suddenly realizing that I was sitting beside a 15-year-old, I asked,

"What are your dreams?"

He didn't even hesitate when he answered "I want to be a singer". I asked him to sing me something and he agreed. I asked him if he wanted to study music and his eyes lit up. But when I started talking about university, he looked down and said there was no way he could afford it. I told him I was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck, but I'm still able to do what I want because I wanted it so badly.

"Are you on Facebook?"
"Yeah"
"Add me on Facebook. I can't live without Facebook."

WHAT?
I could hear myself going no, please no, oh my god no.

I tried to convince him that there was a world outside of the internet, outside of Perth, that was just waiting for him to discover. He asked if he could go home with me. I said I couldn't take him, but walked him over to the police officers. We said our goodbyes and I went to catch my train.

I only spent an hour with this kid but I can't stop thinking about him. I hope he's okay.