dear nathan: don't read this and the next couple of posts. i just mailed you some letters and have one more to send, and they talk about all the stuff i blogged about. so don't read these posts yet or the letters will be redundant.

july 30th:
my mom drove me to the airport at 9:00 so i could catch my flight to vancouver at 10:15. i got stopped at the screening place, i think probably because of the epi-pen i had in my carry-on (i try not to fly with checked baggage whenever possible). i guess the lady who found my epi-pen was in training, because some other lady stood over her and for 15 minutes made the first lady unroll and re-roll every single article of clothing i had in that bag. gah. i wouldn't have minded so much, except for the fact that the lady checking my stuff didn't change her latex gloves before she touched all my stuff, which meant that she transferred everybody else's germs on to me. which may explain why most of my trip was plagued by a bad cold. yeesh.

i took a couple busses from the airport to UBC. i spent my first hour or so on campus at the Museum of Anthropology, taking a few guided tours and crushing on bill reid. at 2:00, i met with an advisor from UBC's anthro department regarding their master's program in museum studies. after that, i met with a professor who i hope will be my advisor if i am accepted into the program for september 2010. it looks like a really incredible program. most of the classes are held at the Museum of Anthropology. the museum itself seems to be really cutting-edge (that sounds so lame, but i can't think of a better word to use) in terms of classifications, physical/figurative repatriation, bi-cultural education, and making the collections accessible to the public for research. woo. cross your fingers that i get in. i'll be applying in january.

after my meetings, i bummed around the museum a bit more until robin picked me up at 5:00. he was in vancouver doing an art project, which i wrote about in an earlier post. we went to granville island and ate a little bit (iced tea, donut, fruit salad, couscous...) and then went to a cute stationery store. then we went to a theatre to see "(500) days of summer." unfortunately, 45 minutes through the movie, the power went off, so we were all issued free passes for another day and sent back out into the un-air-conditioned streets. robin and i went to uncle fatih's for cheap, delicious pizza, and then we went home. robin graciously allowed me to sleep in the bed, which meant that he had to sleep out on the couch in the living room with the noisy kittens. thanks, friend.