Edmonton: City of Dust and Festivals

Officially, I have been an Edmonton resident for one week today. I think a YEEHAWWWW is needed to celebrate this fact! All I need is to git me a darn-gosh cowboy hat to complete my celebration!

My first impressions were one of mild disappointment. The prairies have always reminded me of Australia; the sky is big and blue and much wider than Vancouver. The dust and dry air, hard water and evening thunderstorms take me back to a yesteryear of lifetimes ago of growing up in Adelaide. The brown river flowing away from the ocean is the only give-away that I am not standing on the banks of the mighty Murray river (that, and the fact that there is flowing water...). I feel like I have moved half-way across the globe to a city that looks just like home. This is not what I signed up for! Criticisms aside, it has been an easy transition so far. I really can't complain - it is summer, we are walking distance to Strathcona and the river. The Farmers Market features a delectable assortment of yummy goodies and I always seem to catch a random festival or event when I wander around the streets of E-town. Let's just say I wore my Canada-day T-Shirt proudly on July 1st and the fireworks were lovely.







We were lucky enough to find a fantastically over-price apartment close to the university to make me at least feel like I still lived in Vancouver. Our oasis is doing its job of keeping me sane and materialistically happy. My days are spent traveling by car between one big-box store car park to the next big-box store car park, purchasing homey items to fill our new abode. Latest purchase: flat-screen TV. I actually enjoyed the social experiment of going without a TV for 2 weeks. Chad and I would sit on the couch together and stare uncomfortably at the walls, or out the window. Conversation was stilted and awkward. One night quite late, he looked at me and said, "I might go out, 'cause there's nothing to do here."

When the TV came, it was like having to compete with a mistress. There was a spring in his step, a reason for coming home. I wonder if I can purchase a 'naughty flat-screen TV' outfit from the local sex-store to entice him into realizing that there is more to life in our apartment than 'Miss Samsung and her 46" pleasure platform.'

Mostly, I am excited to see how the next 2 years play out. I am optimistic that there is something interesting to find here in Edmonton.