Between Cities
I have now been in the city of Regina for almost two weeks, so I guess I can now start to say that I am living here. During my first week I made four different trips into the city and wasn’t really ‘living’ anywhere.
On the 15th I started a position as project officer with the Assemblée communautaire fransakoise (ACF). My project right now is to coordinate the Francofièvre concert for 2008 and I am sure you will hear more about that later.
Trip #1- Arriving at the airport from Ottawa (so I went on a short trip out East in early November)
As soon as my tiny plane had landed I set out to find some friendly local to answer some of my many questions. I had to wait a while, but eventually a security guard came to the information desk. He told me I should take a taxi, but then showed me where the nearest bus stop was on the map and I decided to walk. The cold wind that greeted me while stepping out into one of the flattest cities in the country nearly changed my mind. Then I thought about how it was only a year ago that I was hiking the Camino to Santiago and I stubbornly continued on to the bus stop. No sooner had I arrived and there was a bus. I cautiously asked, ‘are you going to the Golden Mile Mall?’ and being told yes I sat down to study my map. I found Retallack street, my friend’s apartment, a pay phone (hooray for 25 cent calls!) and then went to wait for her brother to bring over the key. By the time he arrived I had already met the neighbour and my bags were waiting inside the front door. Really it was all a little too easy, so I set out to do some exploring. As I took a short cut to the nearby mall I told myself don’t walk through the alley this is murder capital of Canada and it’s night time, but nothing happened.
Having grown up in Saskatoon I am a little bit biased towards my city and have been told all the bad things about Regina. How the lake smells, the water tastes bad, the university is small, etc., and the original name ‘Pile of Bones’ didn’t make it sound very appealing.
The next day I was immersed in all things Fransaskois at a conference organized by the ACF. I even made it so far as to get caught up in a conversation on language politics with so
me displaced Québécois critically commenting on the French language and culture in the province.
It was a very long first day and I only started to feel more at ease as I drove back to Saskatoon. I caught a ride with two friendly Fransaskois and a new immigrant from Cameroun. It was a fun trip and the man from Cameroun was highly entertained with the sight of the lone Saskatchewan ski hill ‘Mount Blackstrap’.
Trip # 2 - Moving
The next day I ‘ moved’ to Regina by packing my parent’s car full of things, driving down to the city with my mom, dropping my stuff off and then driving back to Saskatoon again.
Trip # 3 – To Regina by bus
On Wednesday I eventlessly took the bus back to Regina. Outside the bus station in Regina seemed a little sketchy, but soon enough I was on a city bus back to Golden Mile Mall, my point of reference in the city. I still don’t quite understand the layout. If I think about Albert St. like the river in Saskatoon I feel a little bit oriented.
Two days later I embarked on my second carpool experience with the daughter of a woman who sings in my dad’s church choir. It was dark while we drove and I tried to make conversation to pass the time. When she dropped me off she warned me on the drive back she was bringing her cat so there would probably be lots of meowing.
Trip # 4 – The winning adventure
Sunday morning we were greeted with snow and it was the day Winter had decided to settle in. The weather really in fact had little effect on the drive back it was instead the cat. I got in the car and looked in the back and Moe was sitting inside his traveller bag meowing piteously while staring out through the netting. It sounded a little like crying and I imagined him saying ‘stop the car ! get me out of here ! take me home!’ It bothered me a little, but there wasn’t much to be done. After having been on the highway for about ten minutes I noticed him pawing at the corner of the bag and soon enough there was a little hole. Then he started biting at the hole and it got bigger. I incredulously watched as the cat first pushed out his nose, then his head and then emerged from the bag.
At first I was a little scared. I thought ‘the cat is angry and is going to attack me, the cat is going to destroy the rental car trying to dig and escape and without a seatbelt the cat will get hurt’. Luckily the driver was much calmer, she pulled over and the cat climbed into her lap. I tried to ease the awkwardness with the newly acquainted stranger by asking if she knew how other people travelled with cats. She said some of her friends just let the cat wander around the car and she figured he would eventually fall asleep. ‘Okay’ I told myself we’ll see. Moe was not interested in sleeping because he wanted to be up at the front with the driver. Eventually I ended up holding the cat, petting him and for a while he stopped meowing. I became covered in masses of cat fur and tried not to think about my allergies. I would wiggle my nose so I wouldn’t sneeze too much as my eyes teared up. It was a long two and a half hours and I felt almost victorious upon arrival because I had survived.
I still think car pooling is a fun idea; something like organized hitch hiking and for the time being I am going to try and create a network of Saskatoon commuters. Other than being reminded that Rick Mercer calls Regina ‘the city that rhymes with fun’ and seeing a bus advert encouraging STD testing since the city also holds the title of ‘ Chlamydia capital of Canada’ I am slowly adjusting to queen city.
I have now been in the city of Regina for almost two weeks, so I guess I can now start to say that I am living here. During my first week I made four different trips into the city and wasn’t really ‘living’ anywhere.
On the 15th I started a position as project officer with the Assemblée communautaire fransakoise (ACF). My project right now is to coordinate the Francofièvre concert for 2008 and I am sure you will hear more about that later.
Trip #1- Arriving at the airport from Ottawa (so I went on a short trip out East in early November)
As soon as my tiny plane had landed I set out to find some friendly local to answer some of my many questions. I had to wait a while, but eventually a security guard came to the information desk. He told me I should take a taxi, but then showed me where the nearest bus stop was on the map and I decided to walk. The cold wind that greeted me while stepping out into one of the flattest cities in the country nearly changed my mind. Then I thought about how it was only a year ago that I was hiking the Camino to Santiago and I stubbornly continued on to the bus stop. No sooner had I arrived and there was a bus. I cautiously asked, ‘are you going to the Golden Mile Mall?’ and being told yes I sat down to study my map. I found Retallack street, my friend’s apartment, a pay phone (hooray for 25 cent calls!) and then went to wait for her brother to bring over the key. By the time he arrived I had already met the neighbour and my bags were waiting inside the front door. Really it was all a little too easy, so I set out to do some exploring. As I took a short cut to the nearby mall I told myself don’t walk through the alley this is murder capital of Canada and it’s night time, but nothing happened.
Having grown up in Saskatoon I am a little bit biased towards my city and have been told all the bad things about Regina. How the lake smells, the water tastes bad, the university is small, etc., and the original name ‘Pile of Bones’ didn’t make it sound very appealing.
The next day I was immersed in all things Fransaskois at a conference organized by the ACF. I even made it so far as to get caught up in a conversation on language politics with so
me displaced Québécois critically commenting on the French language and culture in the province.It was a very long first day and I only started to feel more at ease as I drove back to Saskatoon. I caught a ride with two friendly Fransaskois and a new immigrant from Cameroun. It was a fun trip and the man from Cameroun was highly entertained with the sight of the lone Saskatchewan ski hill ‘Mount Blackstrap’.
Trip # 2 - Moving
The next day I ‘ moved’ to Regina by packing my parent’s car full of things, driving down to the city with my mom, dropping my stuff off and then driving back to Saskatoon again.
Trip # 3 – To Regina by bus
On Wednesday I eventlessly took the bus back to Regina. Outside the bus station in Regina seemed a little sketchy, but soon enough I was on a city bus back to Golden Mile Mall, my point of reference in the city. I still don’t quite understand the layout. If I think about Albert St. like the river in Saskatoon I feel a little bit oriented.
Two days later I embarked on my second carpool experience with the daughter of a woman who sings in my dad’s church choir. It was dark while we drove and I tried to make conversation to pass the time. When she dropped me off she warned me on the drive back she was bringing her cat so there would probably be lots of meowing.
Trip # 4 – The winning adventure
Sunday morning we were greeted with snow and it was the day Winter had decided to settle in. The weather really in fact had little effect on the drive back it was instead the cat. I got in the car and looked in the back and Moe was sitting inside his traveller bag meowing piteously while staring out through the netting. It sounded a little like crying and I imagined him saying ‘stop the car ! get me out of here ! take me home!’ It bothered me a little, but there wasn’t much to be done. After having been on the highway for about ten minutes I noticed him pawing at the corner of the bag and soon enough there was a little hole. Then he started biting at the hole and it got bigger. I incredulously watched as the cat first pushed out his nose, then his head and then emerged from the bag.
At first I was a little scared. I thought ‘the cat is angry and is going to attack me, the cat is going to destroy the rental car trying to dig and escape and without a seatbelt the cat will get hurt’. Luckily the driver was much calmer, she pulled over and the cat climbed into her lap. I tried to ease the awkwardness with the newly acquainted stranger by asking if she knew how other people travelled with cats. She said some of her friends just let the cat wander around the car and she figured he would eventually fall asleep. ‘Okay’ I told myself we’ll see. Moe was not interested in sleeping because he wanted to be up at the front with the driver. Eventually I ended up holding the cat, petting him and for a while he stopped meowing. I became covered in masses of cat fur and tried not to think about my allergies. I would wiggle my nose so I wouldn’t sneeze too much as my eyes teared up. It was a long two and a half hours and I felt almost victorious upon arrival because I had survived.
I still think car pooling is a fun idea; something like organized hitch hiking and for the time being I am going to try and create a network of Saskatoon commuters. Other than being reminded that Rick Mercer calls Regina ‘the city that rhymes with fun’ and seeing a bus advert encouraging STD testing since the city also holds the title of ‘ Chlamydia capital of Canada’ I am slowly adjusting to queen city.
