My Trip to Ottawa
My Trip to Ottawa
Saturday, May 28th.
I think to myself it is an adventure since I am going to Ottawa in someone’s car I do not know, and staying in a hostel with people I have not met. I use the service on internet, “ridesharing”. Ridesharing is like hitchhiking, except that it is posted on the internet, and the price is settled before going. He says his name is Kavi, and we are meeting in Scarborough Town Centre. I decide to put everything I need in a backpack and leave for the trip. I know I will be seeing some historical buildings, the parliament, and the Ottawa River and visiting friends in Ottawa. At this time I am not sure, where I am staying, and how long.
Sunday, May 30th.
I sit in the Kavi’s car in Scarborough Town Center. He tells me to put my backpack in the trunk, and I am little worried, should I really do it, what if he goes, and leaves me behind. I just trusted him, I put my backpack in the trunk. Kavi is a Sri-Lankan-Canadian, a software engineer, who travels often between Ottawa and Toronto. We had long chat about many topics: politics in Canada, ethnic nationalism in the old countries we come from, and life in immigrant communities in Canada. It amazes me to see the vastness of Canada, the two inches of distance from Toronto and Ottawa is connected with cities, I have not heard; numerous farms and fields.
In Ottawa, I am welcomed by my friends Ali, Maysam, and Nazira. We have coffee in the Second Cup in a beautiful space in the University of Ottawa. We talk about the subjects we study in University, politics and history in Afghanistan. Ali and Maysam are the generations of Afghanistanis who are born in an instable Afghanistan, but have managed to get education, and get scholarship to study in Canada. They are both finishing their masters. It makes me ever hopeful that best minds like Ali and Maysam can compete with the great minds in the world. They are Afghanistan’s answer to the questions of the world.
Tonight, I am staying in Backpackers Inn. I get a bed for $29 a night. I am still thinking how long to stay.
Tuesday, May 31.
Today I decide that I will stay in Ottawa for a week instead of two nights.
It is a very hot day, and I go to visit a friend Inayat, who lives in Gatineau, on the other bank of Ottawa River. They prepared a lot of good food for dinner, and they were generous to let me stay the night there. Inayat has three children; the oldest is three year old and youngest is about a year. I think about the difficulty of raising children as a nuclear family in North America. The children do not get to see grandparents, aunts and uncles; cousins and nephews; neighbourhood and community. I was lucky to be born in a small town with an extended family and other children to play with.
Wednesday, June 1st
Ali and Maysam come and we go for a bike ride from the Rideau Canal, and go around the Ottawa River, and after we are very tired we go to the Indian buffet to eat. There we talked about different ideology, about traditions in Afghani community in Toronto and Ottawa. The restaurant closed and we took our discussions to the Second Cup. We talked until the Second Cup closed too.
After that, Maysam leave for home, and Ehsan and Hamid come and we including Ali drive to a Middle Eastern Restaurant and have tea and play cards till very late in the night and early morning.
Thursday, June 2nd
I go the tour of University of Ottawa, and in the afternoon go to the Museum of Civilizations. There I am so tired that I cannot move I just sit on a chair and cannot move, and almost sleep. I watched the performances by native people of Canada. There were great aboriginal music and dance.
Friday, June 3rd
I go to the Bytown Museum. It is a very small museum by the Rideau Canal, and it is one of the oldest Stone buildings in Ottawa, it was made as storage house when the Canal was being built in 1836. The museum is about the Canal. Rideau Canal is the only world heritage site in Ontario. At its time it was the biggest public project of its kind by the British government. It took two thousand workers to finish the canal. The canal was built by the British to protect the Northern colonies of Canada against the Southern Americans invasion. The canal connects Ottawa with Kingston. The canal was supposed to provide a protective measure or supply place for the big cities of Montreal and Kingston. Today, the canal is used for the tourist ships. The history of canal is very much connected to the history of Ottawa and why she becomes the capital. The museum attendant, a young woman tells me, that it is because of the canal that Ottawa become the capital of Canada. Then, there I ask her a question, and she brings me a book and says if you read this book you will find the answer to your questions. I do not take the book but thank her.
Saturday, June 4th
I am lucky it is Open Doors Ottawa that means most of the places will be open for me to visit. In the morning, I go to visit the Delegation of Imamat Centre that has quite interesting architecture. It is all transparent, the roof is made up of glass and one can see between the walls. The color of the walls, floor and door is all white that has interesting effect on the person. They have also courtyard with garden that is called the Chahar Bagh, modelled after the garden of paradise “the garden beneath which river flows”.
From there, I walk and pass-by the American Embassy that is on the same street. It is also one of the buildings that have its doors open to the public for that day. On the other hand, to get in, one must have registered online. I see a big line-up in front of the doors of American embassy. There are several different kinds of barriers to get into the building. To get in, one need wait in line, open the heavy doors made-up of metal and glass, and pass the security officers.
I also visit the Supreme Court of Canada and the Conference Center.
Sunday, June 5th.
I go the National Art Gallery. There is good collection of Inuit, Canadian, and International artists. My favourite is a work by a Canadian artist Bourgeois; it is “the giant cell”. Bourgeois made this in the last years of her life. It is a metal cell or cage the size of a small bedroom. In the middle of it is a staircase going up and out of the cage. There are two big wooden balls on the floor of the cage representing the artist’s parents. There is a tear drop suspended in the middle of the cage that is attached by needles to the walls of the cage with threads; representing artist’s self or any individual attached to the world of materials. The staircase moving up from the cage in circles shows the spiritual enlightenment of a person or ascendance into the heaven or the spiritual sphere. It is all my interpretations of the sculpture based on the objects.
On this last day in Ottawa, I meet Maysam in the evening in the same Second Cup and talk about our family, growing up, and the future paths. After, I meet Nazira and I have dinner in the Shawarma palace, and we walk and talk in the beautiful Ottawa night.
Monday, June 6th.
I rideshare with a Sikh Indian-Canadian man, co-incidentally another software engineer, giving me a ride to Toronto. There is an Ottawa born painter who is a music fan and college student ridesharing with us. We go towards Toronto talking about religion, music, apocalypse, and ridesharing. They all have wonderful stories to tell that makes all the ridesharing all the more entertaining.
by Barakat Rastgar (Notes) on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 3:08am
I think to myself it is an adventure since I am going to Ottawa in someone’s car I do not know, and staying in a hostel with people I have not met. I use the service on internet, “ridesharing”. Ridesharing is like hitchhiking, except that it is posted on the internet, and the price is settled before going. He says his name is Kavi, and we are meeting in Scarborough Town Centre. I decide to put everything I need in a backpack and leave for the trip. I know I will be seeing some historical buildings, the parliament, and the Ottawa River and visiting friends in Ottawa. At this time I am not sure, where I am staying, and how long.
Sunday, May 30th.
I sit in the Kavi’s car in Scarborough Town Center. He tells me to put my backpack in the trunk, and I am little worried, should I really do it, what if he goes, and leaves me behind. I just trusted him, I put my backpack in the trunk. Kavi is a Sri-Lankan-Canadian, a software engineer, who travels often between Ottawa and Toronto. We had long chat about many topics: politics in Canada, ethnic nationalism in the old countries we come from, and life in immigrant communities in Canada. It amazes me to see the vastness of Canada, the two inches of distance from Toronto and Ottawa is connected with cities, I have not heard; numerous farms and fields.
In Ottawa, I am welcomed by my friends Ali, Maysam, and Nazira. We have coffee in the Second Cup in a beautiful space in the University of Ottawa. We talk about the subjects we study in University, politics and history in Afghanistan. Ali and Maysam are the generations of Afghanistanis who are born in an instable Afghanistan, but have managed to get education, and get scholarship to study in Canada. They are both finishing their masters. It makes me ever hopeful that best minds like Ali and Maysam can compete with the great minds in the world. They are Afghanistan’s answer to the questions of the world.
Tonight, I am staying in Backpackers Inn. I get a bed for $29 a night. I am still thinking how long to stay.
Tuesday, May 31.
Today I decide that I will stay in Ottawa for a week instead of two nights.
It is a very hot day, and I go to visit a friend Inayat, who lives in Gatineau, on the other bank of Ottawa River. They prepared a lot of good food for dinner, and they were generous to let me stay the night there. Inayat has three children; the oldest is three year old and youngest is about a year. I think about the difficulty of raising children as a nuclear family in North America. The children do not get to see grandparents, aunts and uncles; cousins and nephews; neighbourhood and community. I was lucky to be born in a small town with an extended family and other children to play with.
Wednesday, June 1st
Ali and Maysam come and we go for a bike ride from the Rideau Canal, and go around the Ottawa River, and after we are very tired we go to the Indian buffet to eat. There we talked about different ideology, about traditions in Afghani community in Toronto and Ottawa. The restaurant closed and we took our discussions to the Second Cup. We talked until the Second Cup closed too.
After that, Maysam leave for home, and Ehsan and Hamid come and we including Ali drive to a Middle Eastern Restaurant and have tea and play cards till very late in the night and early morning.
Thursday, June 2nd
I go the tour of University of Ottawa, and in the afternoon go to the Museum of Civilizations. There I am so tired that I cannot move I just sit on a chair and cannot move, and almost sleep. I watched the performances by native people of Canada. There were great aboriginal music and dance.
Friday, June 3rd
I go to the Bytown Museum. It is a very small museum by the Rideau Canal, and it is one of the oldest Stone buildings in Ottawa, it was made as storage house when the Canal was being built in 1836. The museum is about the Canal. Rideau Canal is the only world heritage site in Ontario. At its time it was the biggest public project of its kind by the British government. It took two thousand workers to finish the canal. The canal was built by the British to protect the Northern colonies of Canada against the Southern Americans invasion. The canal connects Ottawa with Kingston. The canal was supposed to provide a protective measure or supply place for the big cities of Montreal and Kingston. Today, the canal is used for the tourist ships. The history of canal is very much connected to the history of Ottawa and why she becomes the capital. The museum attendant, a young woman tells me, that it is because of the canal that Ottawa become the capital of Canada. Then, there I ask her a question, and she brings me a book and says if you read this book you will find the answer to your questions. I do not take the book but thank her.
Saturday, June 4th
I am lucky it is Open Doors Ottawa that means most of the places will be open for me to visit. In the morning, I go to visit the Delegation of Imamat Centre that has quite interesting architecture. It is all transparent, the roof is made up of glass and one can see between the walls. The color of the walls, floor and door is all white that has interesting effect on the person. They have also courtyard with garden that is called the Chahar Bagh, modelled after the garden of paradise “the garden beneath which river flows”.
From there, I walk and pass-by the American Embassy that is on the same street. It is also one of the buildings that have its doors open to the public for that day. On the other hand, to get in, one must have registered online. I see a big line-up in front of the doors of American embassy. There are several different kinds of barriers to get into the building. To get in, one need wait in line, open the heavy doors made-up of metal and glass, and pass the security officers.
I also visit the Supreme Court of Canada and the Conference Center.
Sunday, June 5th.
I go the National Art Gallery. There is good collection of Inuit, Canadian, and International artists. My favourite is a work by a Canadian artist Bourgeois; it is “the giant cell”. Bourgeois made this in the last years of her life. It is a metal cell or cage the size of a small bedroom. In the middle of it is a staircase going up and out of the cage. There are two big wooden balls on the floor of the cage representing the artist’s parents. There is a tear drop suspended in the middle of the cage that is attached by needles to the walls of the cage with threads; representing artist’s self or any individual attached to the world of materials. The staircase moving up from the cage in circles shows the spiritual enlightenment of a person or ascendance into the heaven or the spiritual sphere. It is all my interpretations of the sculpture based on the objects.
On this last day in Ottawa, I meet Maysam in the evening in the same Second Cup and talk about our family, growing up, and the future paths. After, I meet Nazira and I have dinner in the Shawarma palace, and we walk and talk in the beautiful Ottawa night.
Monday, June 6th.
I rideshare with a Sikh Indian-Canadian man, co-incidentally another software engineer, giving me a ride to Toronto. There is an Ottawa born painter who is a music fan and college student ridesharing with us. We go towards Toronto talking about religion, music, apocalypse, and ridesharing. They all have wonderful stories to tell that makes all the ridesharing all the more entertaining.
by Barakat Rastgar (Notes) on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 3:08am
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