Edmonton musings

So I would like to start off saying that these blog entries are difficult!
Hagen mentioned how "every community needs a town square." This had more meaning looking back on it then I had thought about during class. It all started when I was looking through the Edmonton Archives online earlier tonight, because I was bored and decided not to be creeping around on Facebook. Looking through the pictures I realized, I have no roots in Edmonton. I have lived on the fringes of Edmonton my entire life but my family is not from here, my parents and grandparents will have no pictures in the archive. It just was...a weird moment. We have family photos that remind me of the ones in the archives but none of them are from Edmonton. I have never thought about how little of a footprint my family has left on this city, when some people can trace their roots back for generations. My parents talk about their hometowns and it's awesome, but at the same time it is annoying because I have little information on what their time in Edmonton was like before I came along. This is not something I ever thought about but it actually showed how much I rely on my friends to be my community. It may not be the community that Darrin was talking about, but I think it suits well. My community is made up of all sorts of people, from different parts of the world. Our parents decided, however many years ago, to move to the Edmonton area. I am who I am today because of these people, my community. We all have different traits, we all go our different ways but find ourselves back together again. It ended up making me feel better, knowing I have this community and I hope with their help we can leave a little bit of footprint on Edmonton. If not at least I can have memories like my parents of their hometowns. This probably seems very jumbled so I am sorry that it is, but all of these thoughts sort of came together this way. My community has made Edmonton be what it is to me, has helped me form my own footprint. ^_^ Anyway, I am done rambling now.

Traffic me Edmonton! First spark!

Okay, so I was taking the bus into Edmonton this morning, you know, doing the usual commute when I happened to look up from my ipod induced oblivion to realize that we had stopped moving. So St. Albert from as far back as I can remember has never had really bad traffic which makes it frustrating for me to go into Edmonton. There is so much traffic on 137 ave and "St. Albert Trail" (which brings me onto a tangent, ok! there is nothing like confusing anyone from not around Edmonton by making the road St. Albert Trail, Mark Messier, St. Albert Road, St. Albert Trail, St. Albert Road... in that order!) so if there is any kind of accident you are screwed and might as well call your first class a write off. Today however was the day I realized that there is bottlenecked traffic from 118th ave traffic circle and "St. Albert Trail". This is why I end up late for my first class when it snows!! Stupid bottleneck. I mean, come on! I don't really drive and I can relate to Jane Jacobs. If there was less roads going into the one centralized area we would be better off, we need to start thinking on a mirco level instead of the macro. This reminds me of L.A. actually. I was in California a couple of summers ago and the best invention I have ever heard of is a carpool lane. We would pass the cars going slower because there were 5 of us in the minivan, and of course being teenagers straight out of highschool...we totally pointed and laughed. However, even with this lane for car pooling traffic in L.A. it is ridiculous how bloody awful the traffic is there! This round about talk is how I basically want to say, I now have a greater appreciation for St. Albert and its named streets and its NO traffic. *Even if I dislike living here* :P Until next time ~Emmy