Seeing Edmonton Like A Tourist

This week's topic is an extremely interesting one because I came to Edmonton as a tourist but that tour never really materialized. I came here to visit my family who had moved from Ontario just a month after I started university there. But I ended up getting into a car accident several days after my arrival here and just stayed. So I'd like to suggest for all tourists who come here to go to the following places.

Old Strathcona/Whyte Ave/Rivery Valley

The River Valley is one of the most serene places that I have ever seen in a city of Edmonton's size. And it's beautiful in the summer. After you've taken a long walk in a warm sunny summer day, it would be ideal to end the walk at Whyte Ave after you've traversed a little bit of Old Strathcona. The afternoon hustle and bustle of Whyte Ave and just the sheer number of people walking in groups trying to avoid, and in some cases not, street vendors reminds me of Pakistani open markets and bazaars. Just priceless!

Bruce Peel Special Collections

I can't help it. I'm a book worm and so should you! There's something inexplicable about the smell of old books that nothing else can ever match. Looking through books hundreds of years old, especially if they have margin notes or even a squiggly line from a previous owner can give you an amazing trip into history. Much more than the books themselves, the ability to peer back into hundreds of years of history is just pure bliss. We're fortunate to have this here at the University of Alberta and everyone should go there at least once.

West Edmonton Mall

I have mixed feeling about this one. I hate the concept but it still draws you once in a while. Also, I worked at Galaxyland for almost 3 years. The feeling in my gut right before the Mindbender's first drop is something that never gets old. Also, everyone should experience what an ex-world record looks like.

South Common Mall

This is like visiting hell. I imagine if we could visit hell and witness what goes on there, we might behave a tad bit nicer. So visit South Common Mall to learn about the atrocities of urban sprawl and to make a vow never to let it happen anywhere else. (Also, the owner of the South Common Mall is building another massive mall on the North side. Woohoo!)

I don't want to make the post too long, so I'll stop here. If you're interested in knowing what else I'd recommend, just ask!

Nature in Edmonton

Despite the fact that my father is a forester by training, the way I interacted with and conceptualized nature was not much more different than an engineer student. And yes I'm generalizing here and claiming that engineers don't have souls -- at least when it comes to nature.

It was in Edmonton, or more specifically, after my trip to Jasper and Banff National Parks, that I realized how crucial natural systems are to our well-being. The moment we begin to think that we can live outside, that is conceptually, of nature, is the beginning of the end. I thoroughly enjoy Edmonton summers because of the opportunity it gives me to walk and bike in the River Valley. Since

But I also feel that the River Valley is being threatened with the kind of rapid expansion that the city is going through. The 5 years that I alone have spent in Edmonton have seen tremendous growth in the city. And that tremendous growth comes from a new sub-divison after new sub-division. The city is being built for cars, not for people. I wish residence of the city and the planners at City Hall would take a second look and consider whether that's really what they want to do?

It's hard to understand this rapid 'development' and the River Valley co-exist. One represents nature at its best, the other materialist consumerism at it's best. So Edmonton has a split personality disorder so to speak. It doesn't know what it wants really. Is it a nature friendly city? Or is it a city of gas guzzlers? Is it both? Can it be both?

What have I learned so far?

So what have I learned so far? Probably the most important thing I have learned so far is how much our surroundings and the people we interact with affect our intellectual growth.

Let me explain what I mean. I grew up in Ontario and moved to Edmonton when was 19 years old. Not that I had been an imbecile prior to coming to Edmonton and the U of A, but there were certain experiences I have had in Edmonton that are exclusive to this city. The most striking example is the multicultural nature of the city along with its extensive population of Aboriginal people.

Growing up in Ontario it was common to see visible minorities like it is in Edmonton, but I had seen no more than 5 Aboriginal 'Canadians' in my six or seven years in Ontario. Seeing them here, have experienced hateful comments expressed against them by many of my own acquaintances, has allowed me to appreciate the sufferings that have been meted out to our First Nations.

I want to refer here to Alice Major's reference to caragana as a "tough colonial." Would I have had the same appreciation of this line if I had lived in Ontario? I highly doubt it. It's impossible to appreciate the significance of this line until you have experienced the evidence of colonization. As far as I'm concerned, that evidence has ceased to exist or is very had to access in Ontario.

Despite the fact that I hate Edmonton's winter, I value the space--that I have referred to the 27th dimension--it has provided me and encouraged the kind of critical thinking backed by experience which would never have occurred elsewhere in my opinion.

A single Edmonton location

If I had to pick a single Edmonton location to write about, I wouldn't write. I simply can't pick a single location.

Despite having lived here for more than 4 years now and not knowing much of the city, I don't think I can strip my experience of Edmonton down to one location. For me, there is no one location that in itself represents the city I have come to despise in the winters and enjoy in the summers.

I enjoy the River Valley for instance. It plays, at least as far as I am concerned, an important role in defining Edmonton.Yet green space like the River Valley is not unique to Edmonton. There are many similar spaces in the places where I have lived.

The University of Alberta has been the site of my intellectual growth. I am not sure if being at the U of A caused it or whether it was merely a coincident. Either way, a learned a great deal about my self and the world around me while here and perhaps even because of being here. Yet, the U of A alone does not in itself make Edmonton what it is for me.

There exists a space that is built of patches of all the places that I frequent in Edmonton, the University, the River Valley, the various bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, and homes. It is this space within which I locate my own existence. If that space could be physically located, this post would have been dedicated to it. However it can not. It exists because I recognize it. I'll call it the 27th Dimension--just for fun.

So this place called 27th Dimension is where I exist. All of my activities take place within it. That may not necessarily be walking, talking, or eating and sleeping. Rather it may be me listening to The Economist podcast or reading the New Left Review in the ETS (very nerdy, I know). Or it may be that I am staring blankly into oblivion. So yeah, that's it!