Weekending

These past couple days have been busy, busy. I spent Thursday and Friday doing water quality testing at Camrose's landfill. Wow, was that an educational experience. The engineer I was working with told me, "I wish everyone could visit a landfill at least once." There's a lot of truth to that. I found old couches in amazing condition, recyclable electronics and water bottles, the environmentalist's new enemy du jour, littered all over the landfill's most recent cell, which is the engineer's euphemism for "pile of garbage."

On my way back home, I decided to make a detour through the city of Camrose (on company time) for one particular reason: I really needed to see Augustana Campus. You see, I have this weird bourgeois complex where I'm constantly second-guessing my choice of schools. Back in high school, I applied to Augustana, a tiny satellite campus of the University of Alberta. I actually got rejected by them, which is probably one of the only times I've been rejected from anything in my entire life. Anyways, I was pleased to discover that the campus was super dull, and super small. And Camrose is one of those cities that are great places to die: packed full of old people and businesses that cater to old people.

I got a much-needed break this weekend and skipped out of town this weekend to camp at Pembina River. I got to hike around and catch some sun, and hang out with my friend's Frat, which is half made up of people from my high school, so it was an awesome chance to do some serious catching up!

Pembina River <3

One Hot Mess

Apparently, getting trashed on expensive drinks is becoming a cherished hobby of mine. Some friends and I went to Julio's Barrio last night (aka the best Mexican food in Edmonton) to celebrate a friend's birthday. After hearing that it would be an hour for a table, a friend and I decided to fuck everyone and get saucy at the bar.

I had spent my afternoon watching a Home at the End of the World and getting buzzed on some Sauvignon Blanc that I picked up in Bordeaux, and I was feeling newly inspired to live eclectically. I ended up having 3 Mexican Bulldogs (at $12.00 each) before wandering out onto Whyte Avenue for some impromptu dancing.

Me sipping on a delicious Bulldog at my 19th.

I had an amazing heart-to-heart with an old friend from high school out on the street, and he told me I looked "hipster skinny." It was probably the best compliment I've gotten in a longgg time.

Minus doing questionable things involving questionable substances, and calling my 16-year old sister to pick me up, it was a good night.

Le Snobisme

I'm starting to settle into my summer here in Edmonton and, as usual, I'm starting to second-guess my "life choices." In case you didn't know, my life has been interesting lately. I spent the first 18 years of my life living in the white-washed suburbs of Edmonton. Then, I did a year of liberal arts and got accepted into a really good Business School for International Business, and I threw it all away on a whim, as I figured I'd never be happy building a career on helping corporations maximise profits and take advantage of people, while infusing buzz-words and schmoozy language into everyday conversation. I left the Texas of the North to study Urban Planning at Waterloo. Ever since then, I've been bouncing back and forth between the two places, never staying in the same spot for longer than 4 months. It's always been my dream to go away for school and relish my newfound independence. I began to over-indulge in telling people about how I was so glad that "I got out of St. Albert," and I started to show contempt for people who "just didn't have their shit in gear."

Nowadays, I feel so unsettled, like I'm rootless. I don't really have strong relationships with anyone simply because I only see most people about four times a year and have terrible time keping in touch with old friends. My concept of home has become a "grey area." I have a hard time feeling grateful anytime I have a change of scenery. On top of that, I'm constantly poor, which kinda sucks. Bourgeois kids just aren't raised to have budgets and make sacrifices.

These uncomfortable feelings really bitch-slapped me in the face a few days ago. I got in a fight with my parents after they let my brother drive the family truck to the U of Alberta campus to drop off his writing portfolio, while I took the bus there just two hours earlier to do homework. My mom got mad a t me and awkwardly described me a "Toronto Snob who intentionally acted like he wasn't part of the family." She apologized almost immediately and has been especially nice to me since then, waking up early to make me breakfast smoothies and letting me drive her Toyota.

To be honest though, it didn't really offend me. Well, the part about hating my family offended me, but I actually took the "Toronto Snob" name as a compliment. I've never actually lived in the city, but I wouldn't hesitate to pack up and go there after my undergrad. But whyyy you might ask???

Well for starters, Toronto is actually a city. Edmonton might legally be a city, but it's not actually a city. Relatively speaking, Edmonton is small. Only a million people are brave enough to live this far north, and for some reason they all feel they need to live on a half-acre of cheap land and still have a 20-minute commute as their reward. Our only claim to fame is a shopping mall, a decrepite shrine to capitalism and over-consumption. And it's not even a nice mall......

On the other hand, Toronto has a lot going for it. It's Canada's largest city and one of the most multicultural cities in the world. They actually consider social progress and sustainable living to be a good thing, rather than some toxic evil that's just going to make it harder to drive your Hummer H2 to work.

Does Edmonton's Riverfront look like this?

The whole incident reminded me of this awesome quote from one of the most random movies I've ever seen, Hamlet 2. At the end of the movie, the whole cast goes to NYC to celebrate the launch of their Broadway play (OH SHIT, SPOILER ALERT!!!1111). One of the kids, Chuy, tells his teacher about how awesome New York is compared to Tucson, their hometown. Their drama teacher responds, "Chuy, you're going to live a magicial life because, no matter where you go, it's always going to be better than Tucson." This will sound stupid, but this quote kinda motivates me and gives me hope that these restless feelings will shake off as soon as I peace out for new adventures!

The City of Lights

Sorry for the lack of recent blog posts! I just got back from an internet-free trip to Paris and France's Aquitaine region. After spending a week at a restored French farmhouse in the heart of wine country (soo much wine) my family rented an apartment on l'Avenue des Bordonnais in the 7ieme arrondissement of Paris. We got to the city during a long weekend in France, so we definitely picked the worst time to tour around the most visited city in the world. There were tons of people everywhere, but I still managed to see a lot of the city.

The view from my apartment window=magnifique!

I left feeling a little jealous that I wasn't living in such a beautiful city and the birthplace of modern democracy, in a country where people are entitled to two-hour lunch breaks and five weeks of vacation. Some of my friends that have visited Paris have told me that they want to live there in the future, and I was starting to agree with them....

However, I think tourists seem to wear the thickest rose-colored glasses. Hell, I've had people who have visited Edmonton tell me that it's the best city in Canada? Before I could wallow in the reality that I'm trapped in miserable/white-washed St. Albert, while millions of people are living within a stone's throw of Champs d'Elysee, I hit up Wikipedia to learn what's really up in old Pareee. Here's what I discovered:

1. While North American cities are infamous for white flight and sprawling high-income suburbs, European cities are the polar opposite. Parisians will pay millions of their shitty currency to buy a 500-square-foot apartment on l'Avenue de la Grande Armee, while the banlieues (meaning "suburbs") contain some of the world's largest social housing projects for low-income immigrant families, which are beautifully referred to as les cités in French. These poor living conditions came to light to much of the world during the 2005 riots in Paris' northeastern suburbs. (On a side note: If you can understand French, try and find a copy of La Haine, it does a pretty good job of showing life in les banlieues).

2. Their currency is worth as much as dog poop, thanks to Greece. (On a side note: I actually predicted this in a term paper I wrote for a Poli Sci class four years ago and got like a 75. Thank god for appeals...)

3. Nobody in Paris recycles, like actually nobody. I'm pretty sure I only saw one recycling bin during my entire visit. On top of that, nobody picks up their doggy dooty (And you think they would, seeing as they can now buy their morning baguette and pack of Marlboros with it).

4. French people are actually kinda racist. While Canada is trying to attract as many skilled immigrants as possible, immigration to France is becoming heavily restricted. As the nice French lady that sat beside me on the plane explained to me: They have some of the best social programs in the world. Why would they want an influx of newcomers to ruin them? Meanwhile, their "world-class" schools won't let students wear articles of clothing that reflect their religious beliefs while they teach them about the "positive consequences" of French colonialism.

5. Paris actually does smell bad, like a musty/mothbally urine smell, probably from all the dog poop.

Great, I feel slightlyyy better about not missing my flight back to frigid northern Alberta....