Day 1 in Dawson Creek

It's 9:19pm. The Sun is setting. I'm struggling with my wireless internet connection that I'm stealing from around. 

It's my first day at Dawson Creek, a medium size Northern BC community and more usually known as the starting point of the Alaska Highway. 

It's quite nice here. Very quiet. Lots of time on my hands. There's a Safeway nearby. Walmart slightly further. There's your usual chain restaurants and fast-food chains. There's a small little downtown that tries hard to live up to the classic Alaskan/Gold-rish era architecture. There's a very small creek. 

I share a room with a Dentistry student at the Northern Lights College. It's clean and appropriate. It reminds me of the time I stayed at Memorial University campus in Newfoundland, or when I first moved into the Grad House in Toronto. 

I'm here in part because I want to try my hands at doing rural medicine. I'll be doing a month of anesthesia/emergency medicine here. Last time I was out rural was in a 3000-people rural community in Springdale, Newfoundland. I'm here also because I needed to get away. 

I needed to get away from my restless wandering mind. So that I can refocus my life, so that I can refocus about being a doctor. It's nice what a slow day can achieve for you. Today I did nothing but commute. And during commuting I read almost an entire paper from beginning-to-end, something that I rarely do. I also completed an entire chapter in my Obama book, something that usually takes weeks. And I previewed the anesthesia review chapter for tomorrow. I even took a nap, and went for a run. 

So I'm also here to remember what it's like to live a simpler life. It seems there is never enough time for anything back home in Vancouver. Here, it appears that there'll be more time than ever for doing nothing with. 

Today on the way here as I passed by Grande Prairie, the first two people I met had nothing Northern-Canadian about them. Or maybe that's what it's like all around Canada. I didn't ask for their names, for I'd rather just remember their faces and their stories. The first was a Somalian cab-driver who's a mother of 8 children and came here with her husband looking for a better life. In the 9 years that they were here, they brought and ran a convenient store and is earning enough to feed the kids and is planning to move into a new house this year. Her oldest son is going to U of C next year, and wants to become a scientist. The second person I met was a Philippino young man who actually lived in Taiwan for 3 years and spoke almost fluent mandarin as he was serving me my lunch at Arby's. He still refers to Taiwan as his home and frequently visits his brother who is married to a taiwanese girl there. 

Interesting people, none of which I expected to meet on my first day here up North. There are no stereotypes in Canada. You never know who you're gonna run into next.