Every time the question of what "My Edmonton" is comes up, I flashback to an occasion on a forum, where I was asked "How are things going in Canada anyway? What's it like there? I've always wanted to go there." And I was at a loss for what to say. I went with "It's... cold? Well, even then, not really. Winter's pretty late this year. So it's... fine, I guess. It's home. *shrugs*" For that's exactly what Edmonton is to me - home. I have no real frame of reference, since I've never really lived anywhere else.
For the where I go in Edmonton, it's a fairly regular thing. I work usually four times a week, down at the big Chapters on 170th, so I bus from the university to the mall, and then walk from there (an unpleasant walk at best in the winter, but rather nice once the weather warms up). On Fridays, I'm done classes at noon, so I go down to City Centre to see a movie - sometimes meandering about, depending on my mood - before going grocery shopping. On pay day Fridays, however, I also go down to a pub on Jasper and meet with some girls from work, and then we go comic book shopping down on Whyte.
I've been known to visit Mill Woods Town Center and Kingsway on occasion, in a search for fabric, but I'm usually not willing to make the trip unless there's a convention coming up, I have a costume to finish, and I can't bum a ride off someone.
Once a year I also go to Grant MacEwan for the annual anime convention - and I only bring this up that I actually know my way around there better than some of the students because of it, a fact I find rather humorous.
Where do I not go... Well, anywhere I have no reason to be. Anywhere I can't get by bus/walking/LRT. I never go anywhere for the sake of being there, and I never explore "just because" (I have a friend who used to do that, drove me nuts), but if I have somewhere I need to go, I'll manage to get there somehow, no matter how long or difficult a trek it might be.
As for how I inhabit it... hm... Well, let's just say, if I could, I'd be a hermit when I grow up. I stick to myself for the most part, and more often then not I stay home if given the option, but that's the way I like it.
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- GarnetVengeance
- Augh, I hate it when I have to write these bloody blurb things.
i would say that what we take to be boring patterns in our daily lives amongst the city is taken for granted. in your story, i see a lot of myself, my friends, and a lot of people's stories about edmonton. but perhaps that IS our story about edmonton. we have patterns that we follow that are reliant on financial or transportation issues. this probably isn't exclusive to edmonton either. we often compare ourselves to "interesting lives" in "interesting cities"--like heather pointed out, edmonton tries very hard to be classified as a "world-class" city--but our patterns are not necessarily that boring nor are they that different. exploring places off your daily pattern perhaps isn't the answer to having a more interesting experience in edmonton, but maybe just interacting more with the patterns that we seldom pay attention to. not to say that it is absolutely necessary to be involved and interact or that these acts are somehow better, but it might be the way to find novelty in our patterns.
ReplyDelete@mia and garnetvengeance: i often think habit is the basis of city life - of all life, actually, but especially what it means to live in a city. there is a kind of indulgence in not having to pay attention to your surroundings, knowing your butcher, your comic book store, the place you buy chocolate or cigarettes or whatever.
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