Nyotaimori

last week (as evidenced by the last few posts) I went to Quebec for 6 days to attend the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). It was their annual conference and I was luckily chosen to present a poster session there. Poster sessions, for those of you not in the know, involve having some concrete printed out visual proof of your research and findings which you can post on a board and people can gawk at. At IFLA we were required to stand by our posters for 2 hours (12-2) on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was the typical lunch time during the conference so even though there was some traffic, it wasn’t a lot.

My poster was on the research I did as part of a group project last fall in a class about International Librarianship. We wrote our paper on suggesting various special collections a library at the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya could develop. Some people I talked to about my poster included individuals from Africa (primarily S. Africa), a representative of the World Health Organization, the collection manager of Aluka (an online database of digitized works having to do with Africa), a bizarre group of Kazakhstani women, and a smattering of US and Canadian librarians.

Though I did spend most of my time in Quebec at the convention center, I also managed to shop, eat-out, and sight-see around the Vieux-Quebec (“Old Quebec”: the portion of the city that still has walled fortifications). Quebec is a gorgeous city which is sort of like being in Europe without having to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone’s first language is French and they lead with it every time you walk into a shop/restaurant. They all immediately switch to English if you make faces of distress at them though.

Overall, traveling alone wasn’t as bad or scary as I thought it would be. And the conference was worth attending, I think. I did get/hand out some business cards, I made friends with another library science student (at Rutgers in New Jersey), I learned about some amazing programs and libraries around the world, and I bought a ridiculously cute platter from Ketto. (Seriously, why can’t I buy more stuff from them online? Or why didn’t I take a bigger suitcase?)

I posted some pictures. I find them boring because most don’t have people in them. But if you want to see how pretty the architecture is over there in Canada, here’s your chance. 🙂

Pro: Cheap. Really, really cheap.

Con: Still have to share bathroom facilities with a whole floor. Which oddly seemed mostly to comprise middle-aged Asians and Middle Easterners.

Pro: My own (albeit tiny) room.

Con: Locking myself out of my room at 3:30 am.

Pro: A room full of librarians dancing to YMCA, “When you want to party, come on now move your body”, and ABBA. I cannot stress enough how hilarious this is. LIBRARIANS. Pick a stereotypical librarian (not me) and now imagine her/him seriously getting down on the dance floor to Madonna or Michael Jackson.

Pro: A man bearing a striking resemblance to a Bee Gee doing disco while images of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever flash on the screens.

Pro: A ridiculously tall Indian man, who earlier that day delivered his entire paper in a slow monotone, ripping off his jacket in order to better express his “moves”.

Con: There are no cons to Cocktail and Fun Night.

The middle Bee Gee, I swear, dead ringer.

Cons: Full on Renaissance dress in a gorgeous teal color can run up to $300 CAD.

Pros: You can choose from 2 (Yes! You heard right! 2!) Renaissance geared stores on Rue St. James within a block of one another–La 3ieme Tours and La Table Ronde.

Pro: When it is resting on a bed of delicious risotto, itself floating in a sea of compote made of pureed carrot and nutmeg spices.

Con: When you flake the incredibly tender rabbit meat off the bone and are left with the highly recognizable hind legs of a bunny; consigned to have bunny bones on your plate for the rest of the meal.

more pictures of evan and dead animals here.

on saturday i saw ‘evil dead: the musical’ in martinez with nuala, garren and matt.

thoughts

1. who knew you could bring it, martinez? not i.

2. drinks named ‘evil tang’ are delicious while drinks named ‘what the fuck was that?’ both look and sound disgusting. from the expressions on matt and garren’s faces i’d venture a guess that it also tasted unpleasant.

3. trees (guys in tree costumes) possessed by evil candarian demon spirits who walk out and say their lines out of sync in a bored monotone are absolutely fucking hilarious. “join us. join us.” they said, while holding up their leafy hands. “excuse me, booooooorrrrred. spot of tea? light game of scrabble? bore you to tears of laughter. yes. join us. (world weary sigh). ennui. booooooorrrrred. join (yawn) us.”

4. the character renamed cellar-sister by us stole the show. cheryl, ash’s sister in evil dead, becomes evil, gets tossed in the cellar, and pops back out to spout evilly awful puns. sometimes she sings! sometimes she just screeches “join us, ash!” and slams the door back down. the best time was when some dead animals fell out of the sky and she slyly opened the cellar door, reached out, and pulled them in, all without saying a word.

5. it’s coming back in january and we (matt and i) were thinking maybe the splash zone wouldn’t be half bad. who doesn’t want to get drenched in blood colored water? plus it’s hilarious and there’s theme drinks. genius.