streets of calgary

In so many ways Calgary is a strange place coming from Chicago. Business buildings fill downtown and yet the city holds on to its western roots. Last month during the Stampede festival "networking" consisted of flapjack breakfasts on business rooftops where country bands made it impossible to not have 7 different renditions of "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" stuck in your head. On these 10 glorious days the city also ate things called doughnut burgers (I kid you not these are actually burgers on glazed doughnuts) and somehow managed to get Kate Middleton to don a cowboy hat.

The mayor of Calgary was elected mainly because of his twitter and tweets things like "my fave Thai is probably Thai Sa-On or Thai Boat and my friends at Tazza do great Mediterranean." This I must say is the most useful piece of information I've probably heard from any politician. #bestmayorever #pleaseeatpadthaiwithme

Also people are super nice which freaks me out. Wait why didn't the bus driver yell at me when I forgot to count my change beforehand and now have to sort out my American quarters from my Canadian ones? I don't know. I don't get it. In addition I don't think I have ever opened a door in Calgary. They have always been held for me which I'm not complaining about since it makes the push/pull dilemma nonexistent.

Calgary's kind of like that one kid at school that still brings his sandwich in a Toy Story lunchbox but it's ok because it's kind of really hard not to like him. Or at least from what I've seen so far. And minus the fact I don't have friends here it's definitely not all that bad of a place to be.

Also this photo was taken on my lunch break. There will hopefully be more street photography lunch outings to follow.