The conference has begun! The first speaker (not in the picture) was Frank O'Day. He was an inspirational speaker- I enjoyed him very much. There wasn't much room in the room- I was a bit late because the breakfast here didn't allow much time (which I knew) but I had been successfully navigating Ottawa by "sense" and I had seen the Shaw Center on my walk to the B&B so I wasn't much worried. But I didn't realize there was nothing visual to the Shaw Center coming the other way and that the entrance was around the other side.
I did not take a picture of the breakfast as I was sitting with Europeans and they don't do this sort of thing. It would have been worth a picture though. He told me what the eggs were but I forgot - it was like an omelette but it was round. Toast (fancy bread), potatoes, fruit. It was really, really good. This is important as you will see later.
Frank talked about Hope, vision and action, how his life changed around from living on the street and how people helped impact that change.
After that I went to a session on first year communications and how to carefully plan your communications. At the session I met lots of great people but one from Queen's -Wesley who I knew the name but had never met in person- now he is the sort of person that conferences are really good for as he is very social. It is more difficult for me but I am trying to stretch myself. This is a pretty good space for this as most people are in student support to tend to be at least supportive types!
Then on to lunch, which presentation wise was very good. What could be wrong with pulled chicken you ask? Well, I got my plate, had to walk 5,000 hours to find a table, which was fine, but when I took 1 bite, the tortilla completely fell apart and was so dry that I finished my glass of water on pretty much the first bite. And didn't want to have to walk back to the water station before finishing my meal. So I ate a few bites more and the veggies, gave up on the lunch and headed for the water station where I drank 2 full glasses to try to recover.
Then on to dessert. This is not an egg. I don't know what it was but it was pretty good, except there were forks by it and not spoons and it needed a spoon.
These coconut bites were good as well. the breakfast and this dessert sustained me.
Shaw Center facts found in the bathroom, put me on a quest to find the wall of three rivers.
I asked at the help desk but noone knew where the wall of 3 rivers was, so I went to my next session that was about supporting students on the Autism spectrum. Then there was another nutritional break. Which looked fine but the chips were very dry. I drank a lot of water on this nutritional break.
Then I returned to the help table and they had found the wall of 3 rivers in plain sight! All logs are redeemed from the bottom of the 3 rivers.
Then another session that was communication featured- using new technologies to communicate with students.
Then off for dinner. I went to the Rideau Center as I googled there was a crepe store there- I had to wander all over to find it, but I found it!
I ordered a popeye dinner crepe (spinach, tomato, cheese) and an apple and caramel dessert crepe. The dinner crepe was ok and I ate it because I am an adult. But the dessert crepe was amazing!
I found a disney store at the Rideau Center. The staff were pretty peppy (as I suppose one would expect at Disney) and offered to let me pick the sing along song. However, I was too old to know the list they offered me and so they had to help me pick. We did a Beauty and the Beast one.
After the Rideau Center I headed back to the B&B and dropped off my stuff at the B&B and headed out on another Ottawa walk. Yesterday I did tourist Ottawa. Today I did inner city Ottawa. The demarcation zone happened quite quickly. As soon as I crossed Rideau street there were guys happily cleaning car windows with dirty squeegees. Then there were lots of people sitting by the street. Then there were angry guys having a fight. It was very hot out, so I wondered why they wouldn't go to the Rideau Center for AC but maybe that crosses a zone. Anyway I didn't take pictures in the zone as I figured that would make me look more like a tourist than whatever they were taking me for. But when I came out of the zone I realized that I had missed the road that I was looking for, so I decided to go to my second planned stop of a park by the river. I knew I was on the road that it showed but I didn't find the park, only what seemed to be the Chinese consulate with bars and wired and electric devices. Maybe the park was misnamed. Traveling on from there I found a seniors home. This is the bridge to get there.
The old bridge I guess. I got to the river and realized that I had gone further than I planned, so I turned around, no park to be found.
I took this for my mother to show how the bike lanes are protected.
Here is something to watch out for- I kept expecting them to pop out of the bushes, but nothing- I didn't see even 1.
Then I went back to trying to find my first stop but the way Ottawa works is that roads start and stop and bend in very random sort of ways so I wandered around zig zagging around the streets until I found the first street that I had missed. Back on track I walked down Murray St. by the low imcome housing. Passed some security people. The road was a dead end but I knew the road on google maps looked like it extended. Google maps did not see the fence. So I hiked through a parking lot and was correct that the street I was looking for began there. I found the national house of Prayer. I stopped to take a picture and a man with a very nice dog asked me if I wanted to look inside. Did I ever! His wife Fran showed me around. It was a beautiful old house that used to be a convent, but no AC so they were pretty hot. I wonder how they handled the heat when it was a convent? I love old buildings.
Then Fran and I walked out as she was heading to SDM which was on my way so we walked together and she told me about the community. I was interested in their needle drop boxes.
After leaving Fran I walked on Rideau St and there were lots of police cars at the LCBO. There have been lots of sirens in the night but hopefully it will be a quiet night now!
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