Cultured

Last night I spent some time downtown Hamilton with my youth group.

First we walked to Wass Ethiopian Restaurant; on the way:

• (and I hate to call it staring) I people watched. People watching is not staring, you are simply observing who and what is around you, and what they are doing

• Old lady pushing her shopping metal cart on sidewalk, says "Beep Beep. Volkswagen coming through"

• Some inner city kids (they were probably around 10) walking down the street without their parent. If I had lived in the city I wonder if my parents would have let me do that. Doubt it.

Arrive at the Restaurant.

• Restaurant in a downstairs of a building.

• Washes hands before eating because we eat with our hands

• Sign on floor "Watch your step". I did not fall

Chatting with friends-- about the army, musicals, Toronto, CSM

• Waitress of arrives with water. Her friendly smile and casual dress made it feel homely (less institutional/uniforms)

Food

• they brought huge platters filled with colourful foods on top of a huge crepe (but not actually a crepe)

• tasted every single thing even though I had no clue what half the stuff was ( one was beets and there were some red peppers too)

• what I discovered was our favorite was actually lamb. After someone pointed out that lamb was baby sheep some of the girls didn't like it as much

• Mystery meat was pretty good. Still a mystery though

• Was weird at first ripping off from the same bread and eating with our fingers but it was very communal and an enjoyable meal together

Headed to the Street that the Art Crawl (James St. Hamilton). Every Second Friday of each month you can go and see the different artists art

• headed to some of the art studios

• Loved the 3-Story buildings looking over parts of Hamilton

• An old theater, cob webs on the chairs

• Saw some art we liked and some that had a little too much skin showing

• Girl balancing crystal ball and man dressed in tin suit reciting Shakespeare

• Collecting Business cards

We walked back to the Youth leaders' house, on the way getting a Blue Fanta Slushie.

I felt cultured and privileged to have the experience of seeing a different side of Hamilton last night. Its a different setting with different places, with different people. It was something I would love to do again.

Cultured.