A few days ago, as we were in the thick of a severe cold snap, I was thinking back to the time in Chicago when my heat went kaput and how miserable it was. And I thought to myself, “imagine if that happened here, that would *really* suck” but then comforted myself with the VERY false idea that such things can’t happen in Edmonton because surely they make heartier, sturdier heating systems.

Well last night I awoke to a cruel wake-up call that heating systems can fail here, there, anywhere. And to think that it is -17 F/-27 C outside. Please please, send the heating fixer upper SOON!

So it is hard to believe that in less than a month I will be somewhere, to be exact, Puerto Rico, that will be 80 degrees warmer than it is right now. And after weekend, it will be 100-105 degrees warmer. Yep, the cold (frikken) snap has arrived to Edmonton and it is preety intimidating. So long as there is no wind, it is tolerable but so long as there is some wind, it is unbearable. And I will park myself at home if that is the case. We were going to make a big trip to the mountains this weekend but with that type of weather, that may have been the end of me. And being that I think I am the only person in Edmonton from Puerto Rico…. that would be a shame.

And speaking of the RICO… WikiTravel has chosen La Isla del Encanto as the spot for the Wiki Travel Get-Together.

HAY Mamita y Papito, que HOT, as one would say… Evan Prodromou a.ka. MrBad, also a Debian developer, kick started the travelpedia and is going to be lucky enough to go.

I am not sure if I can make it but I hearby promise to provide a detailed “map” of where the travelpedias should venture as I know the really good goods.. And they range from the Nuyorican cafe in El Viejo San Juan to hitting a couple of beaches on the amazing island of Culebra, going to Pinones Sunday night to listen to Rumba and anyway the list goes ON AND ON… I will be inspired while baking in 86 degrees (as opposed to freezing in-20 of Edmonton) and will provide le map.

Since the last few days have been:

Cold…
Snowy….
and thus utterly and totally northern (Albertan) Canada, I thought I would write a little about what, in the last couple of months has taken my fancy here and what I have found a little annoying.

Since the general tenor of life in Canada is similar to the US, many of the differences are subtle. Take for example that coke (the drink) is not made with the high fructose corn syrup but “fortified” instead with plain ol’ sugar, (I guess they don’t have as strong of a corn lobby here); the radio station “Joe FM”, is like the American counterpart “Jack FM” (which has taken over the radio waves in the US, playing “what we want” minus the DJ), in that it has the same collection of cheesy 80s and 90s music, and the same generic Jack(ass) announcer, but in fact, there are still Djs for most of the day… Canadians I guess do put some limits on what large megacorporations can do to destroy people’s livelihoods.

Other differences are a little more noticeable. Top among them is radio in Edmonton is about a million times better than the US, even in major cities. There are 4-5 alternative type FM stations, including CJSR the U of Alberta radio station, which I would say is a notch up or two from most college radio stations. They really know what they are doing and I really recommend The Terradome as well as the dance music they play on Sat night.

There are a few things that strike as remarkably different, and of course, health care, is totally number one on the list. I have been fairly impressed with health services and so far, 2 out of 3 doctors I have seen (one to remove my staples, one to check up on my moles, and one just to set up a visit with my primary doctor) totally dissed on American doctors and medicine. And I don’t blame them. With so much hysteria, almost moral panic, among right winged Americans, about the awful state of Canadian socialized medicine, I too would want to vent in whatever way I could when some American specimen came by the office. When I leave here I will probably miss the most and it will be a very tragic day if Canadians move even an inch closer to our broken system

There are a class of differences that are just a little odd like:

Curling… There is a curling club literally right around the corner from where I live. One night, when I was in a foul mood, I was dragged there, pretty much against my will, in the hopes of purging my bad mood. It mostly worked. I have never been up and close with curlers, and this club and two viewing decks. We went to the cozy upstairs one, with a wooden bar, smooth wooden tables, couches, and warm fire places. 80% of the people in the club were up there… And of course… Why would you spend time on ice when there is beer and warmth upstairs? But then again, brooming outside of house cleaning does seem like a heck of a lot of fun.

Another odd thing is they just don’t plow the streets here or shovel much. It does not snow much (although it already dumped a lot since Friday) but because it never melts, it does mean a constant white and icy swath over the city streets and sidewalks. Thankfully there is free health care because I bet a lot of people fall and break some collection of bones.

People don’t lock their homes, but they do for the most part lock up wireless access. Maybe it is just in my hood which is close to the University so this bears a little more research but I find it annoying and ironic given that you can just go into people’s homes.

The West Edmonton Mall… For those who don’t know it is the largest in North America… Aside from the crazy indoor water park and amusement park with upside down roller coaster and all, it is not all that impressive because it is long instead of tall. What I liked about it the most though were the postcards proudly displaying the mall that were being sold in various stores, were clearly from the early 1980s…. I picked up a few they were so retro.

There is a small class of frustrating things and number one of them so far is:

Teleus… I don’t even want to go into it but trust me, they suck.

The mail is slow and spotty. But this is also a US problem too. Though there is supposedly mailforwarding from Canada to the US, it is basically a lie. Don’t fall for it if you move! While I had changed my address for the most important mail, I did not change it for things like my Alumni college magazine. And basically will never see that stuff (which is probably ok).

But mailing stuff to the US also kinda is unpredictable. I mailed something to PR, for example, and it was supposed to take 6 days… It is now bordering on the 3rd week.

There is a little window into life here in Canada… And so far, so good.

Micah and I have made it to Canada! Wow. We keep driving and well, we are not there yet because Edmonton, like the map shows, is far in that Western and Northen sense.

We first went to Vermont last week to visit some friends and family but then decided not to cross in Montreal and drive that way, for a number of reasons. One was that we would not have cell access, the second was the higher gas prices, and the third is that it would be slower because the highways here are not like the MASSIVE American ones but more like one to two lane unlit roads where the speed limit is 60 miles per hour. Now that we are in Canada and on the Trans Canadian Highway to Saskatoon, I am glad we made that decision. It is super nice here and there are cool road attractions like the Happy Rock in Gladstone, Manitoba, but we are just unfit to drive on these roads, at least late a night.

But one of the wildest things is that I am online, typing on a computer, via the phone/blue tooth and a Cingular Data Connection Plan. We decided against the North American Phone Plan because it was PRICEY (what good is NAFTA if you can’t just your same phone??) but the Data Plan was not too expensive and since Micah has to be connected 16 hrs of the day, we decided to go for it. We have been using the Internet all trip but it was only recently that we can now use it through the computer, which makes it a lot nicer. But what is even better is that the connection is like double the speed in Canada (prolly because it is a UMTS network and because Canadians rock) so while we may go slower on the highway, we do go faster on the information highway. Not a bad trade off.