Vancouver and Other Observations

Tomorrow I go to Vancouver with Rasha and Emily. Well, I'll meet them there and come back on Saturday, so long as there's room on the flight. I'm not sure if I should fly via Chicago or Denver -- if Iget stuck in either city because the planes are full, I think I'd rather explore Denver on a mini vacation. I am very excited as I've heard that Vancouver is a really nice city, and we'll be there Thursday and Friday, so we'll have an opportunity to enjoy the nightlife. I liked Portland and Seattle, and Vancouver is supposed to be even nicer. I will also be able to wear more creative outfits I wasn't able wear in Panama because it was so hot, and hot cities aren't generally on the cutting edge of fashion. Not that I am either. I haven't seen Rasha in almost six months, so I'm extremely excited to see her! Maybe I will run up to her like in the movies and she'll twirl me around and everyone around us will cheer at our emotional reunion.

Today I biked to Fairfax Corner -- it was a serious, 7 mile uphill ride and I was extremely proud of myself because I could feel the burn. I was only going about 8 miles an hour most of the way, but still, being the lone biker en route, I kept thinking how impressed the passing cars must be with my high level of fitness and endurance. However, when I arrived at Caribou, I felt an uncontrollable urge to order a high rise caramel cooler that, it turns out, has 430 calories. I'll have to bike at least 15 more miles to burn that off. But I've been dreaming of a frappaccino for weeks now, so at least I've satiated that craving.

Fairfax Corner is pretty nice; there's quite a few these planned community type things spread across Fairfax County. You have miles of highway and unimaginative strip malls dotting the landscape, and then you have this little town square type thing every now and then with upscale boutique shops, a nicer than average movie theater, European style street signs, attractive brick buildings and plenty of midrange restaurants with lots of outdoor seating. I guess we're all attracted to this layout because it makes us feel like we have something authentic and quaint, but when you think about it, it doesn't exactly work as a planned community because the nearest grocery store is a couple miles away and beyond the .25 area of the town square, you have to drive everywhere. And another thing that's funny is that the people who work at these coffee shops like Caribou and Starbucks are the kind who dye their hair black and have lip piercings and pride themselves on their extreme individuality, seemingly without realizing they're working for massive chains in which each store must offer the exact same thing as the other and stick to the same layout/atmosphere/ambience in order to promote a united, well-recognized front.

But even if the idea of being able to walk everywhere doesn't quite pan out with this relatively new town square idea, it's still nice to have something pretty once in a while. I think it's a pretty American thing that nostalgia and quaintness is thoroughly planned out and created to the last detail to mimic something else. But I was also thinking that the U.S. is a pretty nice place to live if you like stability, moderately friendly people, convenience, dependability and opportunity. I think there are places with happier people, a higher standard of living, more social services and more efficiency, but I think that the U.S. probably has one of the best overall standards of living. Maybe it doesn't win in any one category, but it's near the top in most, so it comes out pretty well. There's a lot of waste and excess, but I think that's a result of relatively few people per square mile in a very, very large country. I wonder if in the end I'll end up back here or if in the end I'll sacrifice some stability and convenience to live in a place with happier people. Colombia does, supposedly, have the second happiest people in the world....