Anna Overseas

3/4/2005

Still playing. I've got some of the links fixed, but the archives themselves are a mess. Blah.

On to something positive!

Exciting Things I Did In Halifax Last Week, a list, by jo

• I bought a lobster! On a stick! It's made of Pure Sugar and Food Colouring! It's very red, and I was quite hyped up upon eating it.
  
• I got to ride a ferry that was part of their transit system. It was 2$, and I loved it.
  
• Ate yummy East Indian Food at a tiny restaurant.
  
• Got to see a lot of cool museums and stuff, which I loved, especially Pier 21.
  
• Squished a jelly bean for Kristi. (Which reminds me... Kristi, I have a squished jelly bean for you in my luggage.)
  
• Saw the Ocean, lots, and kept a lookout for mermaids. (I also saw lighthouses. I love lighthouses!)
  
• Cooked a lot of food, which is always fun.
  
• Walked up a lot of hills. Why is Halifax so steep?
  
• Mocked young people in a club because... dude... they were so generic. It was really weird.
  

Things I Did Not Do in Halifax Last Week, a list, by jo

• See Dalhousie University.
  
• Squish a jelly fish for Kristi.
  
• Eat sea food.
  

Eh, I don't like fish, but I wouldn't have minded trying a real lobster. *grin*

The whole experience was at once strange and wonderful. I'm intellectually aware of the regional differences in Canada, but other than a few brief stays in Ontario, I've always lived out west. So, spending a week and a half in this city that is so different and yet so the same... It was very eye opening.

Just a few random differences: In Halifax, they actually stop on green traffic lights to let people turn left. They don't do that here in Edmonton. I was just so taken aback. People on the street seemed friendlier, for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on why, since we didn't really do a lot of walking around where there were people. (I loved the city, don't get me wrong, but the weather was HORRID the entire time I was there. That last day, there was freezing rain, not-freezing rain, snow, and huge wind gusts, all at the same time. Awful.) But the customer service expectations there seem a lot lower. The hotel I stayed at was fine, but everywhere else... woah. The grocery store was the worst, but the restaurant and the book stores we went to were pretty bad, too. I was totally taken aback.

As for the bar scene... The place we went was so generic it hurt. I mean, they were playing good music (Great Big Sea and the like), but everyone was dressed almost identically. I guess I've gotten used to Edmonton, where you can regularily see people downtown wearing leashes and collars and the like. I was wearing all black, with a bit of a gothic turn to my makeup, and I stood out like a sore thumb. It was strange, because Halifax is a college town. There's a huge number of students there. I guess I thought that the diveristy of the students would wear off onto the bars, but not where we went. Oh well, I'll know for next time.

But the ocean was beautiful. I could have spent hours staring at it. I was really drawn to it.

Halifax is a city that is so rich with history. It felt like every other house we passed must have had a story attached to it. I kept an eye out for a book about Historical Buildings and the like, but couldn't find one. I was so in love with the whole city, though, and wish I could have stayed longer, or explored more. There were so many things to see, so many places to look, and time and the weather just seemed to be against me.

I must return there one day, and spend the time to find that book, or find the information on the houses that captured my interest.

There. New life goal hatched.

Anna stopped here at 1:53 AM