I set out from home this sunny morning with a plan to hit the used record and cd shops in the cool part of town in order to try to sell off 4 records (not originally mine; I don't even own a record player) and 4 cds. It was also a chance to take in the sun since it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days, and more importantly to take in this city which I love so much and which I will be forced to leave in just two short months. I managed to sell / simply give away the records and cds. I didn't get much for them, but I was mainly happy to get rid of them since they were emotional baggage I did not want to take with me when I move (I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff from my late spouse lately in anticipation of this move and starting over somewhat afresh and unburdened by material objects from that relationship).
Anyway, I finally arrived back home a shocking 8 hours later extremely happy and weighed down with an immense pile of second-hand treasures! And when I say immense, I mean immense. I ended up hitting just 5 second-hand cd and books stores, but I browsed away almost the entire day and ended up buying 8 books, 7 dvd's, and a whopping 18 cd's!!!
I have never shopped like that in my life. I have never splurged that much at a single time before. To be fair, it wasn't entirely splurging since everything was so cheap, no where near what one would pay for all that new. But given how fiscally responsible and conservative I am when it comes to money, blowing $300 in a single day on books, dvd's, and cd's is a big deal for me.
I am absolutely thrilled though and don't regret a single penny. I am cultural stockpiling. Yes, this splurge was all about stocking up for when I cross the border in two months into the big, bad U.S. of A. where I know that everything that is normal, abundant popular culture around here will suddenly become a rare "import", if lucky enough to be available for importation at all.
Presque tout ce que j'ai acheté est en français. Des livres sur le nationalisme (technically some of these could count as "research"), des films que je pense peut-être pouvoir jouer pour mes futurs étudiants dans une espèce de ciné-club qui existe (je pense) sur le campus, ou bien que moi je devrais fondé en arrivant, avec l'aide des profs de français, et tout simplement de la musique québécoise pour me consoler une fois que je serai pognée là-bas, triste et en peine d'amour pour mon pays. For both of my countries, actually. A third of the cd's were pure English Canadian, the kind of English Canadian rock that couldn't be any more canuck if you doused it in maple syrup.
Cultural stockpiling. It doesn't make forced exile any less emotional, but it does provide some solace. It's money well spent. I can't wait for the next sunny day to hit the second-hand shops and stock up some more... No matter how long I end up stuck south of the 49th, mon âme et mon coeur seront toujours ici dans mes pays.
