Canadian girl out and aboot

I haven't updated because I have either (a) had company or (b) been company. A came into town for work earlier than planned, so he was able to attend a Pecha Kucha night with me. Pecha Kucha is a Japanese word meaning "chit chat" and it's a global movement that allows for informative presentations of about 6 minutes each. These presentations bring young global creatives together. Mari was doing a presentation on Winterlight at this one, so we went to sit in the balcony to watch and offer moral support. This Pecha Kucha was a little uneven, but still rather interesting. A lot of bloggers said that it was the weakest Pecha Kucha that Edmonton has ever had, but I still thought it was pretty interesting and I'd go to another one.

Other highlights of our time in Edmonton- taking A to Barb and Ernie's, where they make pancakes the size of dinner plates and bake the bacon in them. (Good if you're into that sort of thing)

We then drove to Calgary. Around Red Deer, we heard a radio ad for I need a wife , a personal assistant service for people living in the Red Deer region. This is one of the most sexist, stereotypical ads that I have ever heard in my life and I was dumbfounded. We checked out the website and found out it is legit!!!

A few other random highlights- I drove in Calgary! I was nervous driving into town, but this is partly because my memories of Calgary were shaped by my childhood. I went to Calgary a lot as a kid, and the highway always seemed really fast and intense. So I was a bit nervous, but since I've been driving around Edmonton for a year and a half by myself, it wasn't that scary, especially since I had a good navigator. The day after that, we even drove to the Calgary Farmers' market, which reminded me of a cross between Granville island and the Old Strathcona market in Edmonton.

I was in the Safeway parking lot when I spotted the most horrific decal I have ever seen. The decal was on a Suburban and it featured a cartoon of a woman wearing a bikini. The woman was on her back and her feet and hands were tied up, as if she was a calf that had been captured at a rodeo. The sign underneath the tied up woman read "Alberta Bound."

I was extremely horrified by the sheer sexism of this decal. A loud "Ew" escaped my mouth and I frantically looked around so I could point this horror out to someone. The guy stopped his car and got out. He was a big dude, and I even thought about commenting on his horrific decal, but then I decided it wasn't worth my time or effort.

Still, I had to mention it here because the sheer sexism and violence of that particular decal was jarring and disgusting for me. I wonder about the kind of person who could put this on his car. I suspect it's a person that I wouldn't like very much.

I'm here in a hotel room, as I have a conference to attend in the morning. I often get lonely in hotel rooms, so I brought some DVDs to watch on the computer. Hopefully this will help.

I drove a different way here and stopped off at Hobbema, which is a little hamlet located in the middle of a bunch of reservations. It's got a bad reputation for gang warfare, but I really wanted to check it out and see for myself. It was pretty interesting. The only white people I saw were the people working as all the rest of the people were First Nations. People were extremely friendly and there were a lot of stray dogs running around. I wandered around and took a lot of pictures. I wandered into a little mall which was run by a Chinese family who employed First Nations people. I took a bunch of pictures of them, and then they took a pic of me, which was pretty funny.

After that, I wandered down to the cemetery and took pics of some of the graves, which were decorated in ways that I'd never seen before.

Pics will be up on flickr and facebook soon.

Last night I accidentally fell asleep at 9:30 and slept through most of the election. I could not bear to watch it anyway, as I was too nervous. I read some updates on the computer before I fell asleep, then woke up again at 4 am in a bit of a panic. I checked the computer again, saw the good news and then drifted on and off until about 8 am.

Today I drove to Red Deer to attend Agri trade. It's the largest agricultural trade show in Western Canada, with over 500 exhibitors. I have to go around and interview people at their booths and do crop related stories to post on the web for a site called Grain News.

Red Deer itself is sort of interesting. It has a cute and well developed downtown, and more restaurants than a person could imagine. It also has a lot of massage studios (not parlours). My hotel is attached to a casino and a Tandoori grill. It's quiet and clean, so I have no complaints.

Not much to report from this end. I have been busy, just getting things done around here. Today I head to Stettler, which is in Central Alberta. I'm staying overnight there because I'm attending a full day sheep seminar tomorrow. It's a 2.5 hour drive and there is no way that I'm attending a full day of lectures and driving for 5 hours. It's just much easier to spend the night there.

My work load will be ramping up in the next few weeks as there are two major farm conferences/trade shows in my area. So right now, I'm just laying low and enjoying the slower down time. Yesterday I worked on a short story that I'm writing, which was nice.

I went for coffee with a woman I'd known as a child on Monday, and went to see The World according to Monsanto at my local coffee shop last night. If you're at all interested in agri-business, I'd recommend this movie.

The learning curve for my new job is pretty intense. I have to spend a lot of time driving all over Alberta, and then I have to attend events that can be very technical in nature.

Wednesday, I drove back to my old stomping grounds of Wainwright. Loyal readers will remember that my first journalism job was in Wainwright, and I lived there from 2001-2002. I learned a lot of things at that job, and covered some pretty major stories. It was a good learning experience for me. I must admit that I did not readily adapt to small-town life. I sometimes feel badly about some of the ideas and attitudes I had while I was living there. But life is a learning experience, isn't it?

Anyway, I drove into town to meet up with the marketing coordinator of Wainwright's Buffalo Adventure , who I'd met when I was living in Wainwright. She is originally from Wainwright, did her master's thesis on the Buffalo park and is only a few years younger than me. We also met up with my counterpart from the Western Producer, another agricultural paper. Jen, the coordinator, showed us a film about the buffalo park, which was one of the Canadian government's first conservation efforts. The Canadian government build a buffalo park at Wainwright, to breed and preserve plains bison. The park was in operation from 1908-1939, and some early Hollywood movies were filmed using the buffalo. It's a pretty interesting and little known piece of Canadian history.

The Buffalo Adventures are a series of agricultural tours, featuring local people and living history. You can tour an archeological dig with a professor, tour the ruins of a 100 year-old farmhouse with a local farmer (actually Jen's dad), eat homemade food at the ranch (cooked by Jen's mom and Dad), tour some fields with a farmer who explains different crops to you, and tour the Wainwright base where they kept German POWs in the 1940s.

The people of Wainwright started exploring the concept of promoting their local history back in 2001, when I was living there. I read about their Buffalo adventures in an Alberta based magazine, and was determined to do a story about it. I was thrilled, because I think it's fabulous that members of the community have embraced such a cool agri-tourism experience.

One of the highlights of our day, which included snippets of various tours, was a visit to a working buffalo ranch. The rancher, a man named Barry, took us out to visit his herd in his truck. He told us that he normally took the jeep, but that it was breeding season and his bull had charged the jeep the last time he had been out. So we all went in the truck, and stayed a distance away, just watching the herd while Barry explained the difference between wood and plains bison, and told us some other things about the animals. I learned that Syncrude, a major oil company, has a herd of buffalo that they are using to reclaim the area around the tar sands in Fort McMurray. For some reason, I found this absolutely hilarious. Barry bought a few of Syncrude's animals to add to his herd.

The big bull didn't pay much attention to us, so he must have calmed down. He rolled in front of us, but basically ignored us. Barry wanted to show us how fast the bison could run, so he honked the car and drove at them so we could get them going around in a circle. It was utterly quite bizarre.

After our tour, I drove around the town, just looking at some of the buildings. I couldn't believe how much the town had grown and changed in six years. It was absolutely amazing.

Anyway, if you're in Canada and want to experience part of the Canadian west, then I highly recommend A buffalo adventure

My first journalism job was in Wainwright, Alberta. I learned a lot at that job, but I really didn't like living in Wainwright. In retrospect, sometimes I feel very ashamed about the way I thought about the place that I was living and my refusal to fully embrace it. I'm older and wiser now, and am much more ready to take on new challenges and ways of life that aren't familiar to me.

Anyway, that's part of growing up, I guess.

I was reading a travel publication when I came across a small article about Buffalo Adventures , a new tourism initiative created by people in Wainwright and Provost. This project was in the works six years ago, and I'm so happy that it has finally come into being. Agro-tourism is hot and sexy, and hopefully people will take the opportunity to go on this kind of trip. I think this is a great way to teach people about the history of Alberta and rural life. While browsing through the website I encountered numerous familiar faces, which was uplfiting. I'm really excited about this.