The Blank Canvas- Week 1

Any traveler can enjoy a destination that looks like it’s part of a vivid canvas painting, mounted on the wall of some overpriced museum, squared off so that you can only see it from four feet away. It takes an unusually talented, open-minded being to appreciate the blank canvas that I was handed when I first landed in Edmonton, Canada. It is up to me to find paintbrushes, pallets, and artistry skills—the whole 9 yards. This canvas is not just for me to stair blankly at and perhaps snap a photo for a scrapbook waiting to collect dust. I’m no observer here, but the artist. This research job, this new, blank life, is mine to make paint and make beautiful.
5/8/09: People love to blame America for stereotyping everyone in the world. Well, news to the world—Americans get stereotyped, too!!! It’s big, it’s real, and it’s unavoidable. The first night I flew into Canada, my host family already had, waiting for me, a bowl of ready-made Easy Mac® with sugar-fruit juice and Keebler Elf® cookies on the table. Their fridge was freshly lined with processed drinks, sodas, and the most unappealing white sandwich bread ever artificially hydrogenated. After peering past this superfluous food layer (I mean that in more ways than one), I discovered Cantonese-style wontons, whole grain bread, vitamin juice, herbs and pretty much any vegetable, fruit or legume the fiber-god could think of that late at night. It looked like a Megan’s dream fridge. I felt like I was being terribly rude by refusing to eat the “Americanized” meal they crafted and just eating what they normally eat instead. I felt embarrassed that they had to GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to buy all that fatty, disgusting food JUST FOR ME.
5/10/09: Running has never before been such an empowering skill. Running is how I find the beauty that Canada has to offer. Only those who are really in shape, or terribly lost, can see these sites. Without running, Canada would be a boring, destitute place.