Boxing Day on Robson

As I observe the local Vancouverites in the natural habitat, I am shocked at what I see. Yes, it's the local festival of Boxing Day on Robson. People line up for a quarter of a block to get into Guess to get $5 off an item of clothing. I guess time is less valuable in some parts of the world that appear on my itinerary.

But in all seriousness, I don't get the Boxing Day phenomenon. Every year, the news interviews people and asks them how much they saved and it's always a really small amount. Hardly worth the effort of fighting the crowds and waiting in line. But I guess it's just one of the irrational traditions. Nobody in the world in any country is immune to the irrationality of ridiculous traditions. In the United States, people give worthless crap to their friends and family in exchange for worthless crap from their friends and family. OK, not all is worthless crap, but I'd still rather have the money and decide for myself what to buy.


Fortunately, Boxing Day is over, so I was able to actually get a seat at the Starbucks at Robson and Thurlow (the southern one) and read L'Express. I'm finding L'Express to be much more difficult than Le Point. I read an article about the internet in Africa. It's getting me excited because, I'm learning more about the places I'll be going. I know so little about Africa--which I guess is why I'm going.

I also found a cool site that has travel blogs. I'm starting to follow this one as she goes through some of the same parts of Africa that I'll go through. She would fit into my Seattle neighborhood very well--both Capitol Hill in Seattle and Kitsilano in Vancouver. Maybe she's from one of those... http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kelebek/