Way out Here, Way up there...

Well. As I said before I was planning a trip out to Canada and after a few mellow and sunny days in Vancouver,



I now find myself in the Slocan Valley, a community of 600 or so sipping tea in the cold, rainy morning next to a crackling fire in a house surrounded by lush, moist greenery in every direction. If Mexico City has an opposite, it is somthing similar to this. Nevertheless, it's a great opposite at the moment and it's also good to touch base with all my old friends here and see my Ma and Pa. It's colder than I expected for my home town considering it's often sunny and hot right up until the end of September, but then again, I've been away for awhile. The air is so clean and pumped full of sweet nourishing oxygen in Canada I can hardly believe it. I didn't realize how my body'd adjusted to the high altitude and pollution of DF. Vancouver has so much room on the streets it's hard to believe I ever felt crowded there. Now I know why people from other places are always remarking about the neatness and cleanliness of the place.



After DF, I felt like I could eat tuna sashimi off the streets. It's so relaxed and easy to feel relaxed in. But like many things, it's easy to miss what you don't have and then grow to hate it once you've had it for too long. (I just realized that this is a more complicated way of saying, "You don't miss it til it's gone." but who cares? I still expect you to find the observation intelligent and thoughtful.) Anyway, Van Can is crisp and clean and no caffeine - well actually it has lots of coffee drinkers and a much more developed coffeehouse lifestyle than DF. I guess that can only be expected when you're living in a "coffeehouse lifestyle developing nation". Well I did miss it while it was gone but I now I am more familiar with why people flock to Vancouver to get away from some overstuffed megapolis and why some from Vancouver might rush to overstuff themselves somewhere. I noticed that things in Vancouver seem to be much the same. There are still condos going up everywhere and basement suites galore to fill with English language students. I ate affordable Thai, Chinese, and Canadian fusion fare. The drive to the interior was nice.



It rained and fogged but I did ride a short ferry and the whole, big world seemed to stretch on forever. I didn't get to see and greet all the friends I wanted to, but, well, there's always next time.



For those of you in Canadian climes, it looks like winter's already on it's way. I won't miss skipping out on the below 0 temps but i do feel nostalgic about the cold at times. Don't forget to repair your roof, flash your nationality, and keep a thermometer handy for judging weather, latte temperature, and possible flues. Hope to see all whom I didn't get chance to next time around.