America's Hat

Well, a few things have happened since I wrote last. Sorry about that. Two weekends ago I took the LSAT. It went sort of hilariously badly. A parade went by our building about halfway through and let's just say there were a lot of sounds. I didn't cancel my score so I'll find out in a couple of weeks whether I have any chance of going to law school at all, but luckily that's not my first choice anymore anyway. Still, I did take the darn test, and it was about as unpleasant as you'd imagine, and I decided that I deserved some kind of reward, so I booked myself a ticket at a Sherlock Holmes play in Winnipeg and basically started getting excited. Yesterday I went, and let me tell you, I'm ready to move to Winnipeg. Let me tell you some things about Winnipeg.

1. Winnipeg is a huge city -- with nearly 650,000 people, it's bigger than Minneapolis, Cleveland, and much bigger than Fargo.

2. The French Canadians have apparently forced the regular Canadians to put up French signs alongside all the English ones, which is charming and occasionally very amusing (my favorite was the French sign over the Plum River, "La Rivière aux Prunes"). This also gives Canada a European flavor, but it's obviously much better than Europe because it's close to 'Murica.

3. Manitobans are terrible, terrible drivers, but they're extremely polite, which is the opposite of pretty much everywhere else. The polite bit, that is. Although they may be worse drivers than pretty much everyone else.

4. There is a mystery bookstore called the Whodunit Bookstore in the Corydon neighborhood, and it is adorable and a little overwhelming. The guy working there helped me pick out a bunch of books that I'm looking forward to reading and sharing with Emily. I'm looking forward to going back and asking for more recommendations soon.

5. The theater company is terrific and incredibly not-amateurish. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, but I haven't seen any other plays since last fall, and as I recall that one revolved around farting noises, so this was quite refreshing. The only issue I had with the play was the fact that, for... reasons... I have a hard time now imagining that Sherlock Holmes could be heterosexual, but otherwise it was a great show.

6. I might be alone on this, but I find downtown Winnipeg quite aesthetically pleasing. There are a lot of old bank buildings and insurance companies, which I find, I guess, reassuring? Plus, insurance companies = insurance jobs = potential future home for Amanda!

7. Strangers are nice to you in Winnipeg, and I don't mean they compliment your shoes or something, I mean they're unnecessarily helpful, which is something I value in strangers (see: crying in Bern when a nice man walked us to our hostel). When I parked for the theater I got confused about where to pay because there were four different machines, and as I was about to pull out to look for a different lot, an attendant came over, showed me exactly how to use which machine, told me not to worry if there wasn't quite enough time on the ticket, and then did in fact not tow my car when I went an hour over.

8. Here is a very strange website about Winnipeg architecture.

9. Here is a great song about Manitoba:

Anyhow, great trip, future home? <3 you, Winnipeg!