Friday, January 4, 2008

I Took A Pretty Picture

As I mentioned, I'm spending the next few months in Ann Arbor. As everyone keeps telling me, "It's a little warmer than Toronto. But there's more snow!"

This picture is the view outside my office window.

It's always funny when people, places, and things live up to their stereotypes. I haven't spent much time in the Midwest, but of course, fresh-faced wholesomeness is the story you always hear. And guess what? There's a hell of a lot of fresh-faced wholesomeness around here.

We had this snowstorm just as I arrived; as you can see it's the kind of snow that sticks to the trees and makes everything pretty. So not only are the people scrubbed and happy-looking, the scene itself is like being inside a snow-globe.

And yet, I don't like it. I feel bored and isolated. I also feel like I stick out like a sore thumb, since the scrubbed look never really came naturally to me. I feel like I'm the only person in a 100-mile radius wearing nail polish, with bags under my eyes.

Ann Arbor's the kind of town where everyone recycles and they try to make it real easy to take the bus. That's nice. So it took me by surprise to discover it's almost impossible to get to Detroit and back without a car. I mean, Detroit is not far away, and there's stuff there: music, a great museum, bus and train stations, etc. etc.

There's a Greyhound bus, but the earliest one gets there at like 3:30 pm and the latest one back leaves at like 6. So you can spend 2.5 hours in Detroit. Which I'll do, one of these days. In the meantime, though, I'll just try to relax and enjoy the scenery. Pretty!

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