Why bad hospital cafeterias are good.

I don't mean what the patients eat (they usually have a separate kitchen), I mean the cafeteria where the employees eat. Tim Horton's is becoming a staple at hospitals in BC - every other hospital seems to have one. The doughnuts are tasty but boring, the coffee is bad, and the smoothies never change, so it really doesn't do too much damage. The FSJ hospital has an independent coffee shop for  a cafeteria, right on the main floor so I walk by ALL THE TIME. Their sandwiches are good, the soups are good, the muffins are amazing and usually still warm in the morning, and they make a MEAN soy chai latte. I love spicy tea, my favourites at present are Hot Lips (it has pepper in it!) and Cinnamon Hearts (so cinnamonylicious) from David's Tea. The chai lattes here are fantastic, they're super spicy. I may or may not have had three this week. Thank goodness I only paid for one (seriously, this has been a good week for me, spoiled rotten), because they're Starbucks-priced. I can't actually afford $5/day for a drink. I almost never eat out if left to my own devices because I'm too cheap. I really need to start making these at home, sick expensive plus so much sugar from the chai syrup. I could probably make a london fog with chai tea, yeah? Is that the same thing? If so, why am I paying so much for it?

Eating out up here is different, for sure. There simply isn't really anywhere good to do so. The best place I've come across is Whole Wheat & Honey, a Vancouver-esque coffee shop off the main street. Sadly, it is also expensive (so now I really feel at home :P). Not ridiculously, but enough. I went out for dinner with a friend of a friend to another place in town, Roustabouts, which was actually pretty good. And because it was some special Thursday, the lights were dim, the beer was cheap, and the food was 15% off. WIN. Most of the food around here is very diner-ish though, and not particularly exciting. You can find the list for FSJ restaurants that have merited any sort of rating here: http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/85/49244/British-Columbia/Fort-St-John-restaurants. That't not all of them, but it's pretty close.

After dinner, I walked home in the snow. Apparently this is a bit strange; I've been told by several people now that I have a strange indifference to cold. Anyone who knows me quite well knows I'm always boiling hot, and have been known to shop for clothes based on how thin the fabric is. It was about -9 C, but I had a hat and mittens and winter coat, so I don't think it's THAT weird.

How can anyone not like it here? I don't understand! I'm starting to find that a large number of the residents here are from the south, and they're here for the same reason I am. Who wants to compete for casual jobs at home and pay ridiculous rent when you can come up here and jump into something full-time and with better money?

Well, there are a few things. Of course, the snow is hard for some people. It is harder to find things here. You like Indian spices? TOO BAD. People who are used to that sort of thing apparently often bring an extra bag on any travels and stock up on spices and condiments. I can't find Pantene conditioning mist (my LUXURIOUS CURLS!) There's only one movie theatre so far as I can tell, although it's playing 6 movies (I don't know if it's all at once.) I have no idea where you'd go to buy a pair of jeans. There is a Walmart, a PriceSmart, and a Safeway, as well as a Shopper's Drug Mart. There are probably more, but not much, I don't think. The closest big town is Grande Prairie, Alberta, which is about a 2 hour drive.

There's also the small town thing. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. It can be a little strange. There is also more racism than I'm used to - not in a 'DARN FURRENERS' way, but there simply aren't a lot of non-caucasian people here. A few times I've overheard something that to me seems so off-colour, but no one else seems to notice. It is improving, I'm told, as more people come up to work in the mines and oil fields, but it's a bit off-putting. Homophobia is another thing; not in a 'GET OUT YOUR PITCHFORKS' kind of way, but I certainly wouldn't want to be a gay person in this town. A - there isn't exactly a gay 'scene' here, and B - you couldn't keep it on the DL if that's what you wanted, your neighbour's aunt's friend's sister's acquaintance would know about it pretty quickly. In short, there are some hick-ish qualities to FSJ. Not everyone is like that, of course, and with so many people moving north the accepting population is increasing at the same time as the somehow-perceived-as-scary population is, and people are getting more used to it. Come on people, we're still Canadians. Politeness overcomes fear in most of us :-)

Here are some fun Canadian stereotype comics from Kate Beaton at www.harkavagrant.com just for fun!