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Although my assignment for the Day 4 was to write an article on the highlights of the walking tour, I felt that I must also include an article on my shopping experience with the Ontario delegation boys. After a tour of either the National Gallery or the Royal Canadian Mint, each of the students were broken into small groups with other members of their provincial delegation. After consulting with Mr. Steve Fessenden it was decided that I would join Steve in his group, with Ontario students Kawin, Phelan, Jordan, Brett, and Aman. It was truly an entertaining experience shopping with this rambunctious group of boys. I found myself laughing throughout the entire afternoon as I watched the Ontario boys browse through stores, select souvenirs, and navigate through the Rideau Centre.
Our shopping afternoon began at the Beaver Tails shop, where the boys carefully chose between the many tasty pastries. While Phelan chose a cinnamon flavoured beaver tail, Aman chose the garlic and cheese option on the menu. At one point, Phelan realized that the shop sold glass coca-cola bottles and quickly rushed to the line to purchase the old-fashioned soft drink. After leaving the Beaver Tails shop, several of the boys wanted ice cream. We browsed through not one, but two ice cream shops, the boys considering all of their flavour options, before ultimately deciding that they did not want ice cream after all.
At this point in our shopping excursion, the boys decided that they should begin looking for souvenirs in the Byward Market. They browsed through the goods of several street vendors, stopping by the vendor selling mini inukshuks. The boys showed little interest in the extensive jewellery collections and clothing booths, but were fascinated by the man who could write their names on a single piece of rice.
After about twenty minutes of browsing, we came to the realization that Phelan had not brought any usable money. He did tell us that he had been given twenty euros from his grandfather. Phelan did not quite grasp the concept that only Canadian currency would be accepted by the street vendors. When we asked Phelan to show us his European currency, he pulled from his wallet a folded piece of paper. Upon examination, we could see that the bill was in fact a twenty euro bill. However, it had been folded, using origami, into the shape of a shirt. Phelan was insistent that we could not unfold his origami shirt!
There is no doubt that the highlight of the shopping excursion was the trip to Sugar Mountain. I could visibly see the boys’ faces light up with excitement as they entered the impressive candy stores. Sugar Mountain held every sort of candy imaginable and, needless to say, the boys had a hey day. Even Steve became caught up in the excitement of putting together a bag of assorted candy, priced at only two cents a gram. Phelan even found a glass Sprite bottle, to go along with his coca-cola bottle. I knew that, within minutes of leaving the candy store, the boys would all be on a huge sugar rush.
As predicted, the boys could barely contain their excitement and energy for the rest of the afternoon. We finished browsing through the Byward Market and headed over to the Rideau Centre. Not surprisingly, the first stop on the boys’ list was the food court. Kawin just had to have a Tim Horton’s Iced Capuccino, and Jordan, though originally intent on Kentucky Fried Chicken, decided on New York Fries. We then walked through the Rideau Centre, stopping in some of the boys’ favourite stores; Aman browsed through shorts at Foot Locker, and all of the boys spent several minutes in EB Games. Kawin asked if we could go to a souvenir shop, and after several minutes spent looking for a mall directory, we came upon a store called Ottawa Souvenirs. We even took a group photo in front of the gigantic RCMP moose!
It was finally time to make our way back to the meeting point, the boys still hyped up on sugar. The shopping trip had flown by! I found myself laughing endlessly at the boys’ antics throughout the entire excursion. I had a most enjoyable afternoon with Steve, Kawin, Phelan, Jordan, Brett, and Aman.
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