You miss the weirdest things....
(This idea came to me while reading The National Post. It's a column that I will probably submit when I finish here in Yellowknife to the Toronto Star. It's in its rough stages, and grammar will not be perfect. But that's what editing is for. Note: article is copyright Jessica K. Ya steal it, I kick your butt!).
When I moved to Yellowknife I expected to miss certain things; family, friends and pets (not in that order, I figured it would vary). Oddly enough I found myself barely even missing them. This is because I had little time to miss them, and missing them was a given. So I shoved it out of my mind.
But it's when I'm walking somewhere, waiting in line somewhere, searching for something, that I start missing the random things.
Food wise; I miss Thai food. It's not that I love Thai food (though I do), I just miss experimenting with the food and doing it with my father and my friends. Thai was more than just food to me; it was an experience. And that's what I miss. Oh, sure, Yellowknife has a great variety of restaurants (I recommend The Noodle House), and I have similar experiences with Vietnamese, but it's not Thai.
Going to Subway is a fun experience. It's the same as back home. But Subway causes me to miss two of the most random things.
Firstly; I miss Mr. Sub's assorted subs. Having worked at a Mr. Sub restaurant for nearly a year I experimented with a lot of subs, but assorted were always my favourite. Subway just isn't the same.
Secondly; I miss the Toronto Star. Up here in Yellowknife we don't have the Toronto Star. And certainly I can read the paper on the Internet, but it's not the same. Again, the Toronto Star is more than just news to me; it's like Thai food. By that I mean it has certain memories attached to it. Also I'm a newspaper girl, not an online girl, when it comes to my news consumption. There's just something about the pages. Maybe that's why I became a journalist; to feed my newspaper page addiction.
I grew up with the Toronto Star on the breakfast table. It was just as constant as my bowl of cereal in the morning. Of course as a child I didn't read it for the news, just the cartoons.
But as I grew up I started reading it; first the A&E section, then the What's On, and by high school I had graduated to skimming the news section (I didn't read indepth, unless a story piqued my interest).
Towns. I miss being able to drive out anywhere and getting to a different place, with different people. I could drive 30 minutes in any direction and hit another town back home. If you drive 30 minutes in any direction here you might hit a bison, but no towns. There's a reserve about an hour outside of town, and even though it's a cute little place, it's not a town. It was 200 people there (approximately).
Nope, the closest town is Hay River. That's an 8 hour drive away. Enterprise is on the way, but that's just a truck stop that had houses built around it.
I've adjusted to a lot of the big things however; like sunlight. Or the lack thereof right now. I figured this would be a big deal. But I've come to accept that when I get up and go to work, the sun will be down. When I leave the office for lunch the sun is already setting, and when I go home the sun is gone.
I also adjusted to the summer hours of sunlight, though my shock was vast when I got off the plane; it's 10 p.m. and the sun is still out! And much later that day; it's 2 a.m. AND THE SUN IS STILL OUT! I definitely haven't missed the 'regular' hours from back home.
When I moved to Yellowknife I expected to miss certain things; family, friends and pets (not in that order, I figured it would vary). Oddly enough I found myself barely even missing them. This is because I had little time to miss them, and missing them was a given. So I shoved it out of my mind.
But it's when I'm walking somewhere, waiting in line somewhere, searching for something, that I start missing the random things.
Food wise; I miss Thai food. It's not that I love Thai food (though I do), I just miss experimenting with the food and doing it with my father and my friends. Thai was more than just food to me; it was an experience. And that's what I miss. Oh, sure, Yellowknife has a great variety of restaurants (I recommend The Noodle House), and I have similar experiences with Vietnamese, but it's not Thai.
Going to Subway is a fun experience. It's the same as back home. But Subway causes me to miss two of the most random things.
Firstly; I miss Mr. Sub's assorted subs. Having worked at a Mr. Sub restaurant for nearly a year I experimented with a lot of subs, but assorted were always my favourite. Subway just isn't the same.
Secondly; I miss the Toronto Star. Up here in Yellowknife we don't have the Toronto Star. And certainly I can read the paper on the Internet, but it's not the same. Again, the Toronto Star is more than just news to me; it's like Thai food. By that I mean it has certain memories attached to it. Also I'm a newspaper girl, not an online girl, when it comes to my news consumption. There's just something about the pages. Maybe that's why I became a journalist; to feed my newspaper page addiction.
I grew up with the Toronto Star on the breakfast table. It was just as constant as my bowl of cereal in the morning. Of course as a child I didn't read it for the news, just the cartoons.
But as I grew up I started reading it; first the A&E section, then the What's On, and by high school I had graduated to skimming the news section (I didn't read indepth, unless a story piqued my interest).
Towns. I miss being able to drive out anywhere and getting to a different place, with different people. I could drive 30 minutes in any direction and hit another town back home. If you drive 30 minutes in any direction here you might hit a bison, but no towns. There's a reserve about an hour outside of town, and even though it's a cute little place, it's not a town. It was 200 people there (approximately).
Nope, the closest town is Hay River. That's an 8 hour drive away. Enterprise is on the way, but that's just a truck stop that had houses built around it.
I've adjusted to a lot of the big things however; like sunlight. Or the lack thereof right now. I figured this would be a big deal. But I've come to accept that when I get up and go to work, the sun will be down. When I leave the office for lunch the sun is already setting, and when I go home the sun is gone.
I also adjusted to the summer hours of sunlight, though my shock was vast when I got off the plane; it's 10 p.m. and the sun is still out! And much later that day; it's 2 a.m. AND THE SUN IS STILL OUT! I definitely haven't missed the 'regular' hours from back home.