Okay. I’m a bit shocked I haven’t written this post yet.

Well, here I am. I live in the bustling metropolis of Fort St. John.

By metropolis, instead think small, transplanted suburb of Calgary. Equipped with lots of medium-to-big sized market dining options and a Winners. (New favourite store. High fashion, holla.)

But it is bustling. This town looks much more modern than I was expecting, which is a good thing – the city has expanded greatly in the past 10 years, from what residents have told me, due to population growth.

Without hesitations, here are my observations about this city:

People talk about the weather here like a roadside farmer from a sci-fi horror film about a snowstorm would. It snowed heaps over the weekend, and when I visibly wasn’t prepared for this, I keep hearing, all eerily, “It’s not even cold yet – this is just the beginning.” What???

I can’t tell yet if my shock over this snowfall on November 1st is just saturated in the fact that I spent my last two winters on the coast – where there was only skiff of snow in January – or if this amount of snow makes me panic. I’m praying for the former because this will be here until at least next March.

Anyway, I’ve noticed there aren’t a lot of single people here. So I’m not sure if people just end up together because it’s cold, or what the deal is with that? Most people seem to be workers coming up to live in camps, so I’m not sure how everyone acquires life partners so quickly?

Is it cuffing season year-round, maybe?

Regardless, I’ve been told a few times I’ll ‘meet a guy here eventually’ – and while it’s nice to dream about the oil field worker that will sweep me off my feet, I’m not positive that I’m going to stay where my first job takes me and settle down without at least making a pros and cons list.

Everyone drives a truck. I can think of …. three. Three people I know who drive cars.

Now, this affinity for trucks has lead to a serious issue in the city. Long. Drive-thru. Line ups. I honestly will never complain about a long line up at Tim Horton’s again after some of the things I have lived through and seen.I could say it takes 15 minutes to get through, but I don’t think that provides the visual I need you to see.

You know how a tim’s drive thru has two lanes? Imagine both full, and traffic eventually pouring out into the street and wrapping around the corner to the street light. That’s almost every morning. And I’m convinced it’s because trucks are bigger than cars that this happened.

Anyway, I have essentially learned in my years travelling though cities: no matter how small one is, there is always a ‘hip’ cafe with better-than-Starbucks lattes and funky art on the walls to go to instead anyway.

Speaking of Starbucks, there is one in the entire town. One! And it’s in a Safeway. See, Starbucks is one of those things I think will always be successful, even beside another Starbucks. Bring it to Fort St. John! I need a place to drink expensive coffee and people watch that is also open on Sundays. Of all the things, this is probably what I miss most. A full-operating Starbucks establishment.

There’s a place called Ernie’s Sports Experts that is a carbon copy of Sport Chek. It brought me great relief when I walked in.

One of the beautiful things about coming to a smaller city is that sometimes you find people are more engaged with the community and making fun things happen – rather than waiting for everything to happen to them.

I also do think, despite this early dump of snow, the weather was very gracious to me when I first got here. Sure, some people looked at me strange for wearing sandals in mid-October, but if it’s dry out, I’m good.

I never thought I’d get comfortable in the prairies without mountains, but the sunsets aren’t bad, either.