Wide Open Spaces

come on hurry,

ain't no time for worry'n

got a go

move on

just leave the lights on

grab some clothes set your sights on

that four lane road

i'm gone

- Leave'n Paul Brandt

For the past 5 months the song Leave'n by Alberta's own Paul Brandt has been playing in the background of the movie that is my life. (Luke Mackinnon, a young tumbler of mine, would have me title this movie "The Life of a Don Keyball" though strangely funny I'm holding out for something a touch less 'off-the-wall'.) No, do you ever get the feeling like there is a camera on you and you are staring in your own reality show. At this specific moment you feel like the opening scene has just concluded and the camera is pulling out creating an establishing shot. It's not just pulling back, the camera is in a helicopter widening out over the entire city, hell the entire country and your world, that one scene, is a small but integral part of a world that is much larger, much more profound, than the singular storyline that you have been introduced to.

Okay, maybe some people don't have that feeling but I often feel awash in it. A few minutes ago as I was putting my new, EF provided, DVD player into my, EF provided, wide screen TV, it felt like the camera outside my expansive bay window was pulling back, my apartment becoming this little box of light amidst may other small boxes until my apartment window becomes lost in the obscurity that is the Daqing night-line. The camera pulling back over the manicured lakefront, the carefully designed urban sprawl, the pumping, writhing entity that is this ever evolving microcosm. My little story, a single thread in the silk tapestry that is modern China.

Pretense on the shelf, I had a good day. A wonderful young couple decided they would take me to find the best pool in Daqing, only 15 minutes away by cab. The adventure was extremely rewarding. The pool was great, cool, but great. I think what really set today apart was the integration that came along with the adventure. I was asked who I was, where I was from, how I can do the things I do (I wandered into a beginner kung-fu class and used the mats to show off a bit for my friends who were eager to see this 'ti-cao' (gymnastics) stuff that I keep talking about. I was invited to come train with the kung-fu students. I was invited to come back to the pool to swim with the hard-core masters swimmers, and I think I managed to convince some people to see if we could start a diving class at the pool. My new friends are coming over for a movie night tomorrow which will mostly turn into a Chinese lesson because I don't stop asking how to say things. Finally, I was invited to dinner by Pat, my new best friend, another Canadian who has been here in Daqing for 5 years, so that we could entertain a fellow university professor of hers. Dinner was marvelous. We fell into conversations about Chairman Mao, about the Great Leap forward, the famines that have and are afflicting parts of our world, about cultural differences, about Russian architecture, etc., etc., etc.

My circle of friends grew, my mind filled with new thoughts, my comfort level rose, and more importantly my DVD player works. Ha!

The Chinese National holiday has begun. It's very similar to Thanksgiving. Many travel home to visit parents and have a rest before the winter hits. Today it loomed and I felt myself preparing to nest. Gathering myself for the winter ahead. No fear, just a feeling of being content.

Trying putting these words into simple Chinese when asked why I left my good job in Canada. It just doesn't come across, ya know?

I think the non-stop festival outside the EF school has also made this weekend and start to this week feel so exciting. It feels like the Milverton Fall Fair picked up and came to Daqing including some wind, some rain, and some bursts of luminous sunshine.

Here are a couple shots of the festivities which are actually for the grand opening of a department store but the 20th and Saturdays are both considered good luck so they decided to party all weekend instead of just one day. I'm sure the National Holiday week also has something to do with it. Lucky me!