Somebody stop me!

So I am falling in love, rapidly, with this city! Somebody stop me!

It has something for everyone - cycling/walking/jogging/skate boarding/wildlife for the outdoorsy; museums and art galleries by the galore for the arty types; the wonderful university and excellent libraries and stuff for the geeky. Sigh! The atmosphere is also so benign and friendly, everyone greets each other and the people in stores and all are so cheerful! I love all that... Plus public transport is very friendly towards what they call 'priority' customers - that would be the elderly, physically challenged, pregnant women and people with babies or pets. Oh pets are allowed
everywhere here!! Nice..

So today I had plans to go to three museums. I got half off everywhere after flaunting my IISc card, hee hee.. There is student concession everywhere! I finally managed only 2, because they were so awesome. The Art Gallery at Alberta is this eccentric (I cant think of a better word) building that has many interesting exhibits.



There was a section which tried to capture Canadian history and how its current identity was shaped by a series of paintings. All of them were landscape paintings of different types - black and white and colour, water and oil; some were so well done they had a 3D illusion to them. This section made me think a lot about the place. For such a young country (many places are as young as 800 years), there is a very strong sense of identity, of belonging. I won't call it pride, because that is just not it. It is like a collective conscience that permeates all Canadians - there is a bunch of stuff that they identify with, which holds them together. Among them is a sense of wonder about their natural wealth. The urban parks here - their signpost is "Park" with a heart symbol next to it - is testimony to that. This gives all people here a very strong civic sense, which is very apparent.

The gallery also had a section on Walt Disney and the creation of the first cartoons. I had read about the process earlier - painting frame by frame, using a special camera to take the pics and processing them rapidly - but to see all of it is somthing else. There is so much detail to be taken care of, my god. I also watched some Bugs Bunny ;). There was also a modern art thing which I quickly glanced through - found it weird and un-evocative (always my reaction to modern art).

Close to the art gallery is the Edmonton City Hall (not the mall, the administrative unit). It is pyramid shaped and again a testimony to the vibrancy of the city; it has activities catering to all age groups. It is built like a gallery around an enormous central space and is just breathtaking. All over the walls - thematically arranged - is information about everyone Edmonton has produced who did anything the city may be proud of, all beautifully presented. It has all mayoral offices' equivalents - but all extremely citizen centered and friendly.

The second museum I went to was Royal Museum of Alberta. Man what a place. They have an amazing natural history and first nations exhibit. The way these exhibits are arranged is very special. Enclosed in a large space; concave backdrop painted over with landscape shots of the place they are depicting; large stuffed animal in the foreground; the concave face ending in the glass casing enclosing the exhibit gives a very nice 3D effect, which is also helped by the brilliant lighting. Very clever illusion that you are standing in its habitat!The information displays in front are intuitive and highly informative. For the wildlife - virtual habitat digital displays; call recordings; faeces in a case (!!); horns of antelopes/claws of raptors in a special varnished display. All this arranged as a trail that takes you through the prairies, then the Rockies, then marshes and badlands. Amazing man. Really. Kids are obviously absolutely fascinated! Especially brilliant was this First Peoples' hunting scene they had re-created, life size, with the habitat illusion. Too good! Unfortunately photos not allowed. They had an awesome insect collection as well. Pinned butterflies and moths; live tarantulas and beetles! Also fossil displays. All immaculately maintained and self explanatory. Brilliant.

To wrap up the day, I semi-walked and semi-bussed this old Edmonton (but still ishtyle) area called OLd Strathcona Drive. Very nice! Each part of this city has its own unique flavor and I just can't get over (or get enough) of it!! Sigh..
But I am feeling quite tired now, I have been walking so much over the last 2 days! So came back early. Have to go finish my conference presentation . So, Ta Till Tomo.
:)

Edmonton

So I thought that I will be horribly jet lagged and slumped today, but contrary to my expectation, I was jumpy enough :) figured out lots of stuff today. Bus, train, calling card.. not bad, feeling quite uppy about it!

Edmonton is a vibrant city - a lot of culture - concerts, street plays, theaters; the whole city is also kind of built around the Saskatchewan river; at any point, you can reach riverside by walking for about a half hour. Where I went today there was this street corner where there was a live band and random couples were dancing salsa! Nice. People are extremely friendly and answered questions like - "does the bus driver give me a ticket?" 'No, there is a box where you put exact change'. And, even better - 'the ticket machine at the station - does it give back change?'. Pat came the reply - 'As long as you don't give it CD$100'.. lol..

So more on the river - it winds through the city and its banks are still left green.. So to get down to the river bank, they have made wooden stairs that do not disturb the underlying greenery at all! very nice. And yes, I am lucky enough to be here during the Edmonton jazz festival. Since today is a Saturday, there were concerts all day. I was there only in the afternoon - but it was awesome to walk around the river, with the music playing in the background. I did that for about 2 hours without realizing it! If you cross over the river to the other side there is a botanical garden called Muttart Conservatory - very nice, set amidst rolling grassy hills. Once on this side of the river you wont feel you are in the capital of a province! The conservatory had quite a nice concept - glass pyramids depicting various biomes, each with humidity and temperature controlled as much as possible to the natural conditions. Nice. I went just before closing and the last half hour is free - that was good!

Before going to the river, I walked up and down downtown Edmonton. The heart of it is called Jasper Avenue. All around are interesting places - the Winston Churchill square, full of these old quaint buildings; the Art Square, which has many theatres and also hosts an on-the-street art exhibition where anyone can exhibit anything. City Hall at Edmonton has a mall (why am I not surprised?) which extends over many levels and is beautifully organized (was like an un-crowded Mantri if you can imagine that! I got the calling cards there from a Pakistani 'dude' ;). Had lunch in the food court at this place called the Mediterranean, run by - get this - a Gujarati couple who immediately asked - "are you from South of India?" - I think with the nose stud I leave very little in doubt! So I had falafal for lunch (remember Rachel's sis and Ross in Friends?).

So there is one thing about Edmonton in general that I really liked - murals. Everywhere! There are so many of them. Every brick a different story, a whole wall without windows that is painted, sometimes according to a theme and sometimes completely random, which is even more interesting. Also, the city is obsessed with sports, with state of the art stadiums and clubs that people actually use! Separate set of summer and winter activities, which is also nice. And finally - lots and lots of open spaces, mostly green. Very very pedestrian friendly; most of the places also have a separate cycling trails. Oh I forgot to mention, there is an awesome network of small urban parks that run all along the river, right in the middle of Edmonton. Lovely! And even better, there is a superb cycling trail that runs through them all. The jazz thing was happening in one of these parks. Free music; a lot of stalls all around, people wearing comfy clothes (read almost no clothes) lounge around and enjoy the music however they want!

Overall I walked lots and lots and had a great day. Super sleepy now but wanted to put all this down, more for my memory than anything else! So before I go, I will just tell you one more thing that I noticed. There is an ad for a management institute that is stuck all over the place. Guess what it reads - "your business future will most likely be connected to Asia, a dominant force in the today's economy. How are you going to get a competitive edge?" - so this place offers a six month project in India/China. How about that!!!