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London, Ontario
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morbane asked me to talk a little bit about where I am living these days.I'm in London, Ontario, and there are things I like quite a lot about the town and the immediately local area. It is definitely a chance for the better for me form College Station. The transit system is a million times better... Everyone here complains and I've had some problems, but hey - it exists! Busts run more than every... what, half an hour at best? Just as I was leaving CS was starting to integrate the city transit (pretty laughable) with the university buses some... London is a million times better.
I live very close to the downtown areas, so I am lucky in that regard - the buses might be worse in a more outlying area. There are also some nice little parks around for walking the dogs and taking the kids to when it is nice out. They have walking/biking trails that run though the city along the river and creeks. There is a pretty decent Italian bakery/grocery a few blocks up the street and on weekends I like to take them up and tie them outside, then stop in and get some morning /breakfast snacks. There is a cool looking shut-down pub up that way as well that apparently someone has been trying to reopen since last October. No success yet I guess? I read something that said it used to have a pretty rough reputation, so maybe that's why.
My walk to work it pretty nice, though it is at the opposite end of town. I have to go partly through a conservation area, and there are some old apple orchards right there. I meant to pick some of those apples this fall but I never had enough time/good clothes for it, alas! I'm looking forward to the apple trees being in bloom this summer though. I've seen lots of deer tracks in the snow, but no deer!
What else can I say about London.... it is sort of tin the middle of the little peninsula of Southern Ontario that dips down between the Great Lakes, so I'm in the southernmost bit of Canada, and the climate shows it. In theory being where we are means we get a ton of snow in the winter compared to other cities around us, but that has not been in evidence this winter. I think we have had more relative to our neighbours, but it hasn't been very snowy at all (at least not so far).
I don't know a whole lot of the local history - I think the development of the city is linked to it being a center of military organization in WWI. there were big training bases here I think? I'm trying to remember some stuff from the exhibit I saw last year ;p The town/city was already here, but I do think it got a boost then. This is also a brewery town - big breweries, that is, though I'm sure there are also microbreweries. The Labatts/Budweiser brewery is very close to my house. I can sometimes smell the fermenting grain, which is sweet and cloying and super gross. I already dislike beer and it sure isn't helping!
I feel like I had more I wanted to say but now I can't remember, boo!
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And I haven't been to the beach here yet. There is a nice little beach town about half an hour out of town, but we don't have a car, so we have to be a little organized to make it down there, especially with kids, etc. The kids went this summer I think while I was away house sitting and their grandmother was in town, but I think there was some kind of water quality issue and they couldn't actually swim? I did go down there for valentine's day this year, to a little B&B, but it was super stormy and we didn't really go out much >.> I think thee is a big park/nature preserve to the north of town as well that has a lake, but possibly is not of of the "Great" ones (but still pretty great?). But on the whole I haven't been able to take much advantage :(
Unrelated to your comment but I just learned that the pub I mentioned *is* opening soon and I'm super excited :D