I find it's kind of hard to wander in Edmonton, not only for reasons of weather and distance, but because of it's embedment into my subconscious.
Maybe this goes against everything this class is giving me, but I just can't seem to feel lost in Edmonton. It's incredibly large, yes, but it's still my home, and I know it well, even if it's a subconscious knowledge. I may not know the ins and outs of every street and alley, but it's familiar enough that I still have a solid sense of space and direction, and if I happened to get lost, I could simply walk in one direction towards a place that I am familiar with. (This doesn't include Mill Woods, where the cardinal directions don't exist.) It's almost as if, from wherever I may be standing, I can enter this mode where I picture the immediate area from above -- whether it's a block, neighbourhood, campus, or the entire downtown core -- like I'm a bird, or some omniscient being looking down at a maze. I can mentally locate myself within the area, and calculate where I need to go and how to get there. It's something that's done every single time I'm "wandering" and I'm sure it's something that all of you do as well.
Downtown Sydney is pictured above. It's fairly linear, and the blocks more or less intersect as they do here. It's fairly easy to navigate. When I spent some time abroad, I spent a few weeks in Sydney, and despite the fact I carried a map of the CBD in my back pocket, and I was able to find places, the city was still so foreign to my inner compass that I never had a clear understanding of size and direction, and I never knew where I was standing within the downtown core, or which direction I was facing. That's not something I feel in Edmonton.
In Edmonton, I always know which way I'm facing and (roughly) where I'm standing in the grand scheme of things, and I find this is a bit of hindrance to my ability to wander. I've never done so much amazing, fulfilling wandering as I've done in Sydney, where I truly couldn't pinpoint (even roughly) where I was.
I feel the same way about Edmonton. It's very difficult to drift in a place that is so familiar to you. Personally, I find it both boring and comforting. I never feel panicked, even if I'm "lost" because I know I can always find a major road or a bus stop. Comfort in the familiar, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea that your sense of being geographically rooted is connected to 'knowing where you are in the grand scheme of things.' I take it that's not just about the city. And so it raises a whole set of questions about what it might mean to dislocate yourself from all your coordinates - familial, cultural, educational, habitual - and not just the geographical ones. It's interesting to think about.
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