I knew it would be raining all day long, so I checked the timetable for the MOA – the Museum of Anthropology, a tip that Gordon had given me. The museum offers free guided tours that are known to be excellent. I took the bus, because the campus of the University of British Columbia is quite far away from where I was staying. I was wondering how annoying it must have been for Gordon to go there every day when he attended UBC a couple of years ago. It rained heavily so even with all the time I had, I was not in the mood for a bike ride there. I got there just in time to take part in the tour. The guide was a german lady. She did such a great job that most of us attended another tour she did right afterwards. I learned a lot about the different styles of carvings and totem poles of the first nations groups of western Canada.
The MOA building is beautiful and you can easily spend a whole day there.
It has an amazing canteen, too and as it was still pouring outside, I indulged myself with a bowl of pumpkin soup and a chocolate muffin. My ankle hurt quite a bit. Somehow the shoes I had been wearing for weeks, started pushing against my ligament and made me limp. When the rain stopped, I took the bus back downtown, because I didn’t feel like going home already. It was only three in the afternoon. I checked my ankle on the bus, but there was nothing to see.. no blister or any scratches. It started to get really uncomfortable.
I decided to check out the Vancouver art gallery. I had to change busses at some point and when I got off the first one I froze in agony. I wasn’t able to move any further, but managed to put a tissue between foot and shoe, which softened the pain a little bit. Sadly the gallery closes pretty early… maybe normal museum closing time, but too early for someone who is on a culture frenzy. There was only time for the Takashi Murakami exhibition, which was great.
I went home by bus and I think it took me twenty minutes to walk from the bus stop to the apartment, a way that usually took me five minutes, but this time I had to jump on my left healthy foot. At home, I got into my sneakers and the pain was gone. I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and writing. For dinner, I went to a little pizza place and bought a couple of slices that I could only eat half of.
