from biscuits to borsht

today is my last day in “the hood”, I have transferred to another branch closer to home(5 min busride as opposed to four trains) and the local menu is Russian. What a switch, the Russians have a saying apparently(much like the Korean one) that smiling without reason is the mark of an idiot. Of course there are plenty of very friendly people that visit the branch, its just the overall atmosphere that differs.

Why is it that so many cultures associate happiness or kindness with stupidity? University culture was like that in some ways, not during my MLIS, but during the seminars I attended for my arts degree some of the less enlightened professors and a lot of the students seemed to think that sardonic =brilliant. Maybe it’s that competitive streak that arises when people only feel valued for one thing, be it looks OR brains OR humour OR etc, I guess I’ve digressed…I’ll continue this in The Creek, maybe.

I am definitely getting a chance to walk the walk in terms of one of my main interests during my MLIS;Multicultural librarianship is a topic I was interested in and wrote about, from almost a strictly theoretical level I now realize.