[Oe List ...] Jaime for Wednesday ST

[via OE]

Looks like I will be writing a daily (Monday-Friday) till the end of the month.  You will get a posting with the usual caveat: curious, you are welcome; not, meet you at the bend.


Jaime


P.S.  The Edmonton House.  It is a tall building that looms above the Holiday Inn Express where the Red Arrow bus picks up passengers.  T'is less than ten blocks from the old EI Edmonton House.  Did not bother to go by the old house.




Edmonton
 
I worked through my last two years of College as a discjockey and a commentator in a local radio station in the Cagayan Valley upnorthern Luzon.  One of my Englishteachers thought that I could improve my English if I used it more often, soshe had me introduce songs on the airwaves as well as read dedication wishes.
 
Before I knew it, I was doing a social commentary in Ilokolike a seasoned politico, dispensing advice to the forlorn and thelove-distraught pretending to be an experienced Don Juan or seasoned lover boyRomeo, if not a tested gigolo/lothario massaging egos while reading flowerydedications.  I found out early also thatI was not in the air for the quality of my broadcast voice for I sounded likean old man, thus, my early morning commentary in Ti Ayat ken biag ni Tang Jaime (the love and life of old Jaime); butmy teacher allegedly saw wit in my gab.  
 
At noontime, when our VOA-voiced announcer was absent toread the daily news, I reluctantly subbed. My voice cracked more than it gelled. Our announcer Mang Kiko with the deep throat (before the phrase meantsomething else) turns out to have a niece who lives in Edmonton, Alberta.  The connection, albeit thin, occasioned thetrip from the Calgary Stampede where I wore a black cowboy hat, a plaid shirtand a bolo tie, to a visit Mang Kiko's relation in the festival town ofEdmonton!
 
I had been to Edmonton before, on the second half of the 70swhen my family and I resided in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  My second daughter was born in Canada.  I was to drive my Calgary host's car but Iforgot my Hawai'i driver's license in China, and rules will not allow forfacsimile even if a copy is available from the Internet.  So we took a Red Arrow bus, instead.
 
I arrived in Calgary before Canada Day on the First of July.  I learned that the city was voted in onetally as the cleanest in the world.  Eventhough the Province has abundant tar sands that the oil industry wishes to processfor electric power, Calgary and Edmonton are cities with clear skies and amplefresh air.  The healthy ambience comes,however, at a steep sticker price.  Bothare on the top ten of the most expensive cities in the world.
 
Edmonton sits at the junction of the prairie that rollssouth all the way to the Mississippi river and heads north to boreal hills fullof aspen, poplar, birch and Manitoba maple trees.  Railroad development first came through with theCanadian Pacific line from Vancouver to Calgary, so the second city of theProvince is ahead on the population count. The Provincial government supported other lines that could compete withthe federally supported Pacific line that traversed the nation close to the48th parallel, and the Canadian Northern line developed routes connectingToronto to Prince Rupert in BC of the northwest Pacific coast, and Churchill upnorth.  Edmonton became a gateway city.
 
The City leads to the oil sands of the north, and thediamond mines of the NW Territories.  It isalso the highway gate to Alaska via the Yukon. Though at a more northern latitude than Regina in Saskatchewan and Winnipegin Manitoba, it has milder winters than both.
 
The Red Arrow bus came equipped with a fridge full of popsoda and water, with clean washroom and comfortable seats provided withthree-pronged electrical outlets for the laptop, USB power sources for tabletand cellphone, a socket for the earphone, and volume and TV channel controls.  
 
Halfway into the trip, we were welcomed by the familiar greenfarm equipment of John Deere in Red Deer.  The red deer that named the town is often mistaken as an elk, a wapiti, anda moose, but with bison on the horizon, I was reminded of a recent trip toErg'una near Hailar in Inner Mongolia to an old elk-tending tribal group knownto be part of the tribes that crossed the Bering Straits into the continent,later carried Amerigo Vespucci's name, some now identified with members of the Firstnation of Canada.
 
I napped a bit and awakened in a populated settlement so Iasked my seatmate where we were.  I wastold that we were in L.A., which made me wonder if I was asleep in a surrealisticdream until I saw a sign that said: Le Duc, Alberta.  We were in L.A. of the French trappers.
 
In the farmland, the 3500 Duramax 4x4 GMC was the chariot ofchoice of the farm warrior of boots and hat.  Edmonton loomed not too far alongside what I previouslysaw were but trickles of the Saskatchewan River in the Athabasca glacier in theRockies, now a wide and deep cut in the middle of the city; the English Edmontonof 1977 has become a glitter of metropolitan polish in the midland of Alberta.
 
My welcome was very warm. Our host was a retired pediatrician who spent sometime in Zambia withher miner hubby.  Sprite as a Doris Day,we knew people in common.  Meeting otherPilipino elders at the local Legion center introduced me to other folks whoknew or were related to other people I also knew.  Attending a baptismal gathering got usmultilingual Pinoys; the diaspora suddenly was kin.
 
It did not take long for Edmonton in my heart to cry out: Yahhoo!


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!


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