Day 35- 7/11/09

This is a good one. I hope I can do my best to capture this character. I met an old student and her friend in London for the morning. We planned a street art day, me taking them to an area of the city(East London around Brick Lane) filled with street art/graffiti- where it was on every wall in small alleyways and streets. The walls had been cleaned up a bit since I last saw it, but we did see some amazing pieces. A very fun day with the two girls, its exactly what I needed.

During our walk we went by a building that had some great pieces inside-chairs and tables, shoes, mirrors, light fixtures. We stared mouths open pointing out the great pieces. The man inside walked over to the windows and motioned us to come in....We went in and I said..."What is this place??" (As it was so unique in how all the stuff was placed around the room, I couldn't find any rhyme or reason to it, but really what a dumb question). He looked at me confused and says "um...A store! Do you not have stores in America?".....

We laugh say "of course we have stores in CANADA". This opens up a can of worms with him discussing the difference between Canada and the States, why can't he call us Americans, though we are still North Americans ect. The conversation may sound dry but his energy and enthusiasm for every word that he spoke was amazing. We talked about London and why its so great, as he was born and raised and been there his whole life. He asked about Canada and we said it was "wholesome, and beautiful, and unique"....My old students friend is from Ireland, and lived in Canada last year, she also starts to explain how fantastic it is.

Confused he asks us "So if Canada is so great, so wholesome, why are you here?!".....This gets us all into another discussion of how we know each other and why we are here. We go back to Canada and I start selling him to visit-and of course focus on Alberta and BC-lakes, mountains, great cities, nice people, cowboys and the stampede. He lost his mind when we told him about cowboys and the western side of our country. He loved it. He also asked about Mounties and if they still exist, and why the French wants to become their own country.

I could have stayed talking to him for hours more. Genuine and full of life, so friendly. However we had more art to see. Before leaving I asked to take a photo of him in his shop and he was like "Sure! But wait, let me get this leather jacket on, its amazing, its going to make the photo".

This guy made my day.