parade:A large gathering of tourists, orientals, or small teenage girls. Usually offending people by their presence.

“Citizens of the Streets: Parties, Processions, and Revolutions” was a prime example of what I have missed in my now twenty three years of existence. I never realized how important it was for me to be a part of that Remembrance Day parade when I was a young girl, all I could think of was people looking at me in my dorky Girl Guide uniform. It is important though, I now know that. My cousin two weeks ago graduated from the Marines, my mom describes it as an awe inspiring event. She said she almost cried when she saw 500 uniforms walking in formation, especially when she thought of what could happen to them. It was an important event for so many people, but before I would not have thought anything about it. I can remember being in school and wanting to go protest student rights so badly with my friends. Everyone had left school except for me and another girl in my class, we had been left behind because our parents would have murdered us if we had left school to protest. I had wanted to be involved, to have my voice heard and my feet to pound the pavement but I was unable too. I remember yelling at my parents for weeks after saying "Damn the Man!". To be a part of that group of people walking toward a certain goal would just be amazing, I want to be apart of something bigger than myself and hopefully one day I can be.

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Concrete Jungle

Something was said in class today that really stood out to me; that there is whimsy in walking. I never thought about it before, but it strikes me as true. I never once have questioned the way I walk, but when I am in between classes I walk very quickly and with my head down (which is more to avoid ice than anything else). However, when I am not trying to get somewhere in a hurry I generally stroll. I never knew I did this, but I see why I do. When I am just walking along I try to take in everything, every sound and movement because I can. I find that I see parts of Edmonton I have never seen before when I allow myself to take it in. Whether it be the construction on campus, or new graffiti on the side of a building, it is always interesting to see how life is ever changing. I find I can drift through the streets and go unnoticed even by my friends if I so choose, which is nice when I am having an adventurous type of day and want to explore the world around me. I like walking down the street with my ipod on so that I can compare the beat of my music to the beat of the city, and more often than not it seems to mesh well. The best of any city though is when you can walk through a forested area and hear the trees rustle and the birds sing. Bringing nature and city life together like that, to me, shows how society can interact with nature if we give it a chance. It is nice to escape from the stresses of every day life and walk around the city whether it be in nature or walking down the street in our urban jungle.

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