Somebody tell the snow its already equinox time!!

Its snowing today!! Sitting at my home, inside the glass window , it feels like I am in a snow globe :) Thank god no one shook up this globe :)

Equinox is just 5 days away but its snowing all day in Edmonton! My friends back in India sent me a warning message of a heatstroke thats expected in South Asia during equinox. I sent them a picture of icicle forming in my balcony and told them I am experiencing a cold wave rather than a heatstroke.

From the time I have been here except for a few initial weeks, I have been covered in a winter jacket and snow boots. When I was in India, I would crave for snow. now I crave to get out of winter jackets and snow boots. They say this winter has been mild and nothing compared to the winters Edmonton experiences. I completely enjoyed the winter, but I would also love some continuous sun soon :)

The Senior Hairstylist

#PeopleofEdmonton
"Your hairstyle has nothing to do with the shape of your face. It's about who you are and how you carry your attitude. All hairstyles suit everyone" said Sarah, senior hairstylist at a salon here, while she cut my hair today. I wanted to go with a shorter than usual haircut and mentioned that I was always told that some styles won't suit my round face.

We went on to talk about various other things like American politics, especially Trump who makes her worry about moving to the US with her American boyfriend, vegetarianism, her animal rights activism, and of course beauty and beauty products. " I am glad that my niece goes to a classroom which has people from different countries and cultures and she will be able to really know people and appreciate who they are" she said as we discussed her travels around the world which let her meet with people from different cultures and know more about other cultures. A rather interesting haircut conversation for the first time in my life smile emoticon

The ETS Bus Driver

#PeopleofEdmonton
"So you are heading home from your art class? Show me what you have drawn" said the ETS bus driver to me and my friend Miriam, looking at the huge drawing boards and sheets in our hands. We thought he was just being nice and said " oh!! It's not that good". He went on to say " that's ok, I would love to see" and then a few more passengers joined in,asking us to show what we have drawn. We decided to showcase our amateur work to the driver and our fellow passengers and got heaps of encouragement from them.
The bus driver then went on to tell us that he also paints and would love to get back to classes to hone his skills. We shared info on our class schedules and the good things about City Arts Centre. As we got down at our stop, we were sent off by the whole bus "continue drawing and have fun!!". Friendly Edmontonians, always smiling and encouraging fellow Edmontonians!!

Tony- My Swim Instructor

I have been taking swimming lessons for the past one and half month. I have the most patient and encouraging instructor- Tony. I tend to ask a lot of questions ( Jai can share enough tales on how irritating I can get with questions).

Coming back to Tony, while most learners just observe him and go on to practice, I end up asking him many questions to clarify a move. Something like this " Tony, the hands and legs should synchronise? Does my body have to be shaped like a boat? And how does it help? The water is pushed by my legs or the whole body? So my tummy should be pushed up? So this move is like a frog? Do my feet have to be like a ballet dancer? Isn't that quite like a duck? etc etc.

Now Tony has understood that I am going to ask him a lot of questions before I try to float and practice. So today, he taught everyone how to do an elementary backstroke. He asked me to wait and then went on to explain everything. "The legs and hands have to be synchronised , Flap and kick at the same time, your stomach and bum shouldn't sink, let your hands flap hard and legs not be shaped like a ballet dancer but be more like a ducks feet" I look at him and we both burst out laughing. He then told me that he actually likes me asking questions and trying to understand the techniques through examples.

Another Cab Driver

#PeopleofEdmonton
" I came from India in 1986, I studied art at Nait and was doing signages for a while. I also was into home building business but I suffered losses while doing a project in Downtown. Thats why I drive taxi now to cover my losses" said our cab driver in Punjabi mixed Hindi.

" My son works with the Govt here. He is a civil engineer. My daughter also works at an IT firm, she got married a few years ago and has a daughter. I got my parents with me after I settled down. They are also here with me. Its good to stay in this country as long as you have a job. You dont have to struggle much. I do miss India, afterall I was born there.But after years of staying here, I dont feel comfortable going back. I have seen my relatives there struggle even with jobs. No matter how much money they make, they all struggle for everything.Waha chain nahin milta.... ...I am not going to charge you the meter. You are from India. It feels nice to talk to someone from my country"

And so he left charging us less than the meter and not accepting the money despite us insisting.

The Cab Driver!!

 #PeopleofEdmonton
I was having a conversation with a Taxi cab driver the other day on my way home from picking the groceries and I asked him how his New Year was..He shared a personal experience " When I was a child, I thought something special will happen on 1st January every year, maybe something will change. But as I woke up on 1st January, I realized nothing had changed and I had to continue doing what I have been and work to make something change myself".

The best part about my visits to Farmers market is the number of interesting veggies and products I see. Some of them I have never seen in Indian markets. 

I happened to see this interesting looking Cauliflower/ Broccoli which I must say tastes very yumm. I had to figure how this vegetable was grown and how it is cooked ( I made it into a regular Sabzi/Palya). This veggie is called Romanesco and I found this interesting link about it. 

http://www.gardenbetty.com/2012/04/romanesco-broccoli-a-fibonacci-fractal/

It's interesting to note how public parks are used in Edmonton apart from the regular relaxing, jogging, exercising and dog walking. I have seen weddings happen here, Corporates have their fun team building games, birthdays being celebrated, schools having picnics for toddlers and little kids. Some of these activities do require permissions and payments. People who organise these activities also take up the responsibility to clean and maintain the park along with the govt ( I saw a man sweep dry twigs and leaves all day before a wedding and the wedding crew clean up after the wedding, I see some people actually bring some water everyday during their walk and water the flowering plants).

Catarina & her yummy pasta

#PeopleofEdmonton
Meet Catarina !! She makes the yummiest pasta and pasta sauces at the Saturday farmers market ( also makes apple pies and other desserts which I haven't tried yet) !! She knows I am East Indian, so she advises me on how to cook the pasta and which sauce will be more suitable to my palate. From the time I have been here, I have got pasta from her every weekend.

She has been on a break since October and I eagerly await her return in May :)

The Landing

Its been quite some time since I landed at Edmonton. I wrote a "oh!! here I am in Edmonton post", but I didn't post it for I was not quite happy with what I wrote. Later,there were many things I posted on Facebook and my diary but I never took the effort to post them here. I have noticed that in a place as beautiful as this, I rarely look at my phone or tablet. There is so much more to notice. So the next few posts will be a sharing of stuff I posted earlier on Facebook. Hopefully I will continue to write on this blog about my experience.

The Landing

For almost 7 months now, I was supposed to travel to Edmonton with my Husband who was here on a project. To be honest, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to travel. I had a cosy life back in Bangalore, I knew the city very well, had a lot of friends, had newly set up my own crochet handicraft firm. Moving out meant more change and I had gone through a lot of changes in my life in the past few years , not to mention a lot of shifting homes. But I decided to take the ride and pack.

Its always difficult for an emotional person like me to pack my world in 46 Kgs. Coming to Canada means you pack sweaters, which end up occupying most of the space ( even with vacuum seal bags and only picking light sweaters to layer) and then as an East Indian you want to carry at least a saree and Salwar suit and these aren't easy to pack. With a dress it's just one piece of clothing, but carrying a salwar suit means, you pack 3 pieces at the minimum. Same with the saree, A saree will come with a blouse, underskirt, saree pins, and some nice chunky jewelry to go with it. I had other emotional "baggages" to deal with- my books, my collection of yarns and tools for my crochet and coconut shell jewellery making,my shoes, bags, sketch books. I could have got new ones here, but all these things had memories attached and I had a huge issue with leaving my memories behind. So I picked and chose which ones I would take and which I would leave behind. It was decided to pack my books and leave them at my parents  while I slowly downloaded some of them on to my Kindle. My yarn and tools were to be taken with me, Sarees and Salwar suits were reduced to one each given the weather in Edmonton would rarely provide an opportunity for showing off the magic of Indian saree. Till the day of travel, clothes were put in and taken out till finally we figured, we just couldn't reduce the size of one bag and ended up paying for extra baggage :)


Post packing , it hit me that I was actually leaving. Tears flowed as I said bye to my little girl ( my dog) Nithya and my parents. My flight was to leave Bangalore at 1:20 am on 12th August 2015 and reach Edmonton the same day ( local time 8pm) with two stopovers at Hongkong( 6 hours) and Vancouver( 4 hours). I was already very sleepy by the time I got into the flight at 1 :30 am. and slept till the plane almost landed at Hong Kong. 6 hours at the airport was spent walking down and window shopping at about 500 gates of the Airport. Though most airport and airline food is bad. I particularly enjoyed my vegetarian asian food at Pak Loh Chiu Chow restaurant.