train voyage part three
portage la prairie
grain elevators
questions about etiquette
12:20 pm central time, october 27
the train stops again, waits for freight trains to pass, we are slipping further behind schedule. then the engineers open up her throttles and we race ahead, on time, then another stop, then another rush. henry enjoys speculating wildly about how early or late we will be in winnepeg, and how early or late we will make toronto.
somehow i seem to never be in the dining car when it is busy. last night for the third sitting of dinner, there were only 10 people there. it may have been reserved for everyone who got on at edmonton. for breakfast, only about 8, for lunch, maybe 12. i keep ending up being sat with Tracy, who, she interjects at any opening in the conversation, was jumped by 12 girls in a bar in calgary and had all her id stolen. otherwise, she insists she would have taken a plane. she's very small town, small minded, and prone to random racist statements. last night i was shocked by them, i didn't know what to say. i was too shy to just blurt out "that's racist!" it seemed rude and uncouth. not something one could just announce in the vintage fine dining car with etched glass panels featuring canadian birds. by breakfast i resolved to simply interrupt and tell her that she was being racist. it was really no more rude than racism at the dinner table. what did i care if i offended anyone, anyway. i didn't know these people. i could not just be compliant to her "so they (the hutterites) are like the portugese? or no, i guess worse, like the arabs then."
she missed breakfast, so i didn't get my chance.
luckily, at lunch henry spoke up and was much more tactful than i could have been. he managed to convey her ignorance and wrong-headedness while still being fine-dining-car appropriate and not just pissing her off.
portage la prairie. no station stop for us here, we are running behind schedule. i was quickly corrected from my francophone "porh-tazhe-la-prhai-rie" and informed that in manitoba, it's called por-tidje. we are mere kilometres south of the geographic centre of north america. we are at the old point where the voyagers and hudson's bay company men hauled out there canoes and carried them to the assinoboine. a portage across the prairie.
there are grain elevators and the world's largest coke can. it looks like it was a large grain silo in a former life. i don't think it's full of pop at all.
the elevators are covered in silvery foil. they are lovely. very prairie looking.
we have a stop in winnepeg, i hope to get out and get some postcards and a bit more cash. there seems to be tipping at dinner, which is awkward for me, i have no success with bluntly asking people about how much or when to tip. i have observed that asking is seen as perhaps even ruder than not tipping. no one tells you how much you actually should tip, not earnestly. and tipping is so subtle, it's an act that is concealed slightly, so i can't just watch and see. i left 4$ last night, all the coin i had other than a 20$ which seemed too much. the couple at the table left 5$, and Tracy (who i judge not the best one to take etiquette cues from) left 8$. there is no cash changing hands for dinner, it's all included in the train fare. tonight i will try and spy others leaving tips and see how much i should give. maybe 10? 5 seems cheap... it was a very nice dinner. and there is a lot of staff to split it amongst.
the prairies roll on forever. the grain elevators line the tracks and mark where towns once were.
12:45
grain elevators
questions about etiquette
12:20 pm central time, october 27
the train stops again, waits for freight trains to pass, we are slipping further behind schedule. then the engineers open up her throttles and we race ahead, on time, then another stop, then another rush. henry enjoys speculating wildly about how early or late we will be in winnepeg, and how early or late we will make toronto.
somehow i seem to never be in the dining car when it is busy. last night for the third sitting of dinner, there were only 10 people there. it may have been reserved for everyone who got on at edmonton. for breakfast, only about 8, for lunch, maybe 12. i keep ending up being sat with Tracy, who, she interjects at any opening in the conversation, was jumped by 12 girls in a bar in calgary and had all her id stolen. otherwise, she insists she would have taken a plane. she's very small town, small minded, and prone to random racist statements. last night i was shocked by them, i didn't know what to say. i was too shy to just blurt out "that's racist!" it seemed rude and uncouth. not something one could just announce in the vintage fine dining car with etched glass panels featuring canadian birds. by breakfast i resolved to simply interrupt and tell her that she was being racist. it was really no more rude than racism at the dinner table. what did i care if i offended anyone, anyway. i didn't know these people. i could not just be compliant to her "so they (the hutterites) are like the portugese? or no, i guess worse, like the arabs then."
she missed breakfast, so i didn't get my chance.
luckily, at lunch henry spoke up and was much more tactful than i could have been. he managed to convey her ignorance and wrong-headedness while still being fine-dining-car appropriate and not just pissing her off.
portage la prairie. no station stop for us here, we are running behind schedule. i was quickly corrected from my francophone "porh-tazhe-la-prhai-rie" and informed that in manitoba, it's called por-tidje. we are mere kilometres south of the geographic centre of north america. we are at the old point where the voyagers and hudson's bay company men hauled out there canoes and carried them to the assinoboine. a portage across the prairie.
there are grain elevators and the world's largest coke can. it looks like it was a large grain silo in a former life. i don't think it's full of pop at all.
the elevators are covered in silvery foil. they are lovely. very prairie looking.
we have a stop in winnepeg, i hope to get out and get some postcards and a bit more cash. there seems to be tipping at dinner, which is awkward for me, i have no success with bluntly asking people about how much or when to tip. i have observed that asking is seen as perhaps even ruder than not tipping. no one tells you how much you actually should tip, not earnestly. and tipping is so subtle, it's an act that is concealed slightly, so i can't just watch and see. i left 4$ last night, all the coin i had other than a 20$ which seemed too much. the couple at the table left 5$, and Tracy (who i judge not the best one to take etiquette cues from) left 8$. there is no cash changing hands for dinner, it's all included in the train fare. tonight i will try and spy others leaving tips and see how much i should give. maybe 10? 5 seems cheap... it was a very nice dinner. and there is a lot of staff to split it amongst.
the prairies roll on forever. the grain elevators line the tracks and mark where towns once were.
12:45