We watched Into the Wild last night... after we finished I stepped out my sister's cabin door and could not believe that I am there, in Alaska. The bus where Chris McCandless took shelter is only a 2 hour drive away.
The film made my last post, full of superficial worries and thoughts, seem ridiculous. It's frustrating, too frequently I find myself caught up in material things... works like this one just remind me to wake up and do something about it.
That said, I don't think people should martyr Chris McCandless, or try and live his life exactly, he did make many mistakes. But that spirit of living the life you want, the courage to defy the norms, is something that I think we forget frequently. It shouldn't have to be made into a movie to recognize and praise it... I guess we should support those with that courage more often in our own lives. Or at least I know I really need to :)

An odd sort of patriotism

So I think my promise to post more often was a bit of a death wish. I doesn't seem like it's been that long since December, I cannot believe that it's been 7 months! (Curse you Facebook!)
To sum it up, spring basically consisted of watching the US Democratic nomination (I can't believe Obama actually won!), a sweet Hawksley Workman concert and the annual trip down east. And school. Lots and lots of school...
By now I'm sure that the few people who used to stop by have given up by now (I would have too :P), but I still enjoy blogging, so on I shall go! Hopefully the free time I have in summer will mean more time to write.

So far this summer I've been visiting my sister, who goes to university in Alaska. I've been before, but never to the interior of the state, where she lives. It's odd to be in the country which is the focus of such constant media attention and discussion. I find both the similarities and differences between our countries to be fascinating, although my sister is convinced that I've just fallen victim to the "elephant-mouse" syndrome. Frankly I don't think it to be, as she insists, an inferiority complex on our part... I don't know what it is! Whatever it is, it's interesting.
Unlike in Edmonton, here Vietnam and Iraq aren't just news items and history books, but instead a large and painful part of the social conscious. Today we went on a bike ride through the local military base... it was odd to be "inside the machine". There was even a mock up of an Afghani village, complete with street signs in Dari. That was quite surreal... a life or death situation set up as if it were in an amusement park, or a playground. But still it was just an everyday part of the base, I suppose everyone was just used to it.

I didn't quite realize how much I appreciate Canada until I was in America for so long. Not to get me wrong, everyone here has been amazingly kind and helpful. I just miss the feeling of Canada, or perhaps that which is familiar. I can't imagine a life without the CBC, coloured money, or the word "washroom".
I suppose I've always been more patriotic to the things that make Canada unique than I have to the actual country/government itself. And I think that's quite alright for me, for that way there's of a chance for getting the "my country can do no wrong" attitude.
Anyways, I'm enjoying it here, but I do miss Peter Mansbridge ;)