During the third year, I actually spent very little time in cow town. For the Spring (Winter, really) semester, I opted for an exchange program at the
. (Smarter classmates went on to London, Italy and sunny CA.)
Tina came to Maine that Christmas to see me off on my Canadian adventure... It was a sad day on our wintry beach.
When I got to Nova Scotia, it was -15 degrees. I was put up in a shared dorm room at a local engineering school (luckily, my would-be roomy never showed up, so I had the 15' X 15' place to myself). This is the view I had for 5 months - complete with harbor vistas, prostitutes and the occasional junkie.
Sometimes, it would snow so much, it was nearly impossible to walk the 1/2 mile to the studio. So, I stayed in my box and occasionally ventured down to the cafeteria with all the pale engineering students.
Fortunately, I did have a couple of comrades in the tundra: Chad (who was a visiting art student from Saskatchewan) and my friend
Dana (another disoriented refugee from KC).
Dana and I took a train to visit my family in late February. It was a slow train took us to
Brownville Junction - a small, snowed-in outpost I'd never heard of in the middle of the state. Other KCAI classmates abroad were taking trains to southern Italy or France.
A very young looking Tina also came to the little harbor town for a visit on her Spring break. (As Cecil always likes to say,
"she became obsessed with nails" that semester.)
Even though it was bitter cold, I discovered a few interesting sites in and around Halifax.
Point Pleasant Park, right on the water at the edge of town, became a favorite spot. I spent many days there talking to Gulls and tinkering with frozen nature.
Further away, I found an amazing provincial park called
Kejimkujik. Along the way, there were these amazing
Avon mud flats, on the north side of the island - huge, vast fields of mud as far as you could see!
When it was too frigid to explore the great outdoors, I sometimes did some research at the library. However, I was always distracted by the nesting pigeons in all the cozy window nooks. There were dozens of them. Dirty pretty things.
When the winter was over, spring came and we were in Maine for another summer. Tina and I camped on my Mom's lawn (house rules: not yet married, we weren't allowed to sleep "in sin" under her roof). We'd intended on getting jobs for a few months before heading back to KC in the fall. However, our plans suddenly changed when the local economy plunged and the state government closed down (really - everything but the essential offices shut their doors).
So, we hit the road and headed west - naturally. We'd heard from a friend that there was adventure (and work) in
Yellowstone Nat'l. Park, a place we'd always wanted to go.
We drove across the country and camped or stayed in cheap motels along the way to Wyoming.
We had some car trouble after we cleared the
Black Hills (apparently, you can only load so much crap into the back of a little Nissan before the tires give out).
We reached the Park 5 days later and entered the wonderland through Cody, WY, to the east.
One of the highlights of this trip was meeting our longtime pal,
Subburdenite! We all got really lame, but age-appropriate jobs at the Canyon Station Park employee kitchen. Having waived or failed the hands-on meat slicer test, the three of us were assigned front-line kitchen duty. Minus room/board, I think our hourly rate averaged about $2.36. That was worth the drive.
After our shift, we'd often gather outside our lodge and play board games until late at night.
Fortunately, employees were given 2-3 days off every week and given back-country passes to the Park's interior.
Hiking into the Park's interior was amazing. The forests were still recovering from the
big fire a few years before, so the hills were peppered with charred trees and new growth.
We camped a few times in the northern and central sections of the Park and drove the figure-eight loop road every chance we could.
A few times, Pronghorn Antelope and Bison would wander through our campsite. They were typically very tolerant of the intruders...
...and, being shutterbugs, we were always sure to follow the Park rules when it came to critters.
When we left Yellowstone in July '91, the last thing we saw in our rear-view mirror were the big, beautiful
Grand Tetons. Although we drove south with just enough cash to get us back to KC with one month's rent in our pockets, it was an amazing experience. We still promise each other we'll go back someday (and tip those kitchen employees something
big).
During the third year, I actually spent very little time in cow town. For the Spring (Winter, really) semester, I opted for an exchange program at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in lovely little Halifax. (Smarter classmates went on to London, Italy and sunny CA.)
Tina came to Maine that Christmas to see me off on my Canadian adventure... It was a sad day on our wintry beach.
When I got to Nova Scotia, it was -15 degrees. I was put up in a shared dorm room at a local engineering school (luckily, my would-be roomy never showed up, so I had the 15' X 15' place to myself). This is the view I had for 5 months - complete with harbor vistas, prostitutes and the occasional junkie.
Sometimes, it would snow so much, it was nearly impossible to walk the 1/2 mile to the studio. So, I stayed in my box and occasionally ventured down to the cafeteria with all the pale engineering students.
Fortunately, I did have a couple of comrades in the tundra: Chad (who was a visiting art student from Saskatchewan) and my friend Dana (another disoriented refugee from KC).
Dana and I took a train to visit my family in late February. It was a slow train took us to Brownville Junction - a small, snowed-in outpost I'd never heard of in the middle of the state. Other KCAI classmates abroad were taking trains to southern Italy or France.
A very young looking Tina also came to the little harbor town for a visit on her Spring break. (As Cecil always likes to say, "she became obsessed with nails" that semester.)
Even though it was bitter cold, I discovered a few interesting sites in and around Halifax. Point Pleasant Park, right on the water at the edge of town, became a favorite spot. I spent many days there talking to Gulls and tinkering with frozen nature.
Further away, I found an amazing provincial park called Kejimkujik. Along the way, there were these amazing Avon mud flats, on the north side of the island - huge, vast fields of mud as far as you could see!
When it was too frigid to explore the great outdoors, I sometimes did some research at the library. However, I was always distracted by the nesting pigeons in all the cozy window nooks. There were dozens of them. Dirty pretty things.
When the winter was over, spring came and we were in Maine for another summer. Tina and I camped on my Mom's lawn (house rules: not yet married, we weren't allowed to sleep "in sin" under her roof). We'd intended on getting jobs for a few months before heading back to KC in the fall. However, our plans suddenly changed when the local economy plunged and the state government closed down (really - everything but the essential offices shut their doors).
So, we hit the road and headed west - naturally. We'd heard from a friend that there was adventure (and work) in Yellowstone Nat'l. Park, a place we'd always wanted to go.
We drove across the country and camped or stayed in cheap motels along the way to Wyoming.
We had some car trouble after we cleared the Black Hills (apparently, you can only load so much crap into the back of a little Nissan before the tires give out).
We reached the Park 5 days later and entered the wonderland through Cody, WY, to the east.
One of the highlights of this trip was meeting our longtime pal, Subburdenite! We all got really lame, but age-appropriate jobs at the Canyon Station Park employee kitchen. Having waived or failed the hands-on meat slicer test, the three of us were assigned front-line kitchen duty. Minus room/board, I think our hourly rate averaged about $2.36. That was worth the drive.
After our shift, we'd often gather outside our lodge and play board games until late at night.
Fortunately, employees were given 2-3 days off every week and given back-country passes to the Park's interior.
Hiking into the Park's interior was amazing. The forests were still recovering from the big fire a few years before, so the hills were peppered with charred trees and new growth.
We camped a few times in the northern and central sections of the Park and drove the figure-eight loop road every chance we could.
A few times, Pronghorn Antelope and Bison would wander through our campsite. They were typically very tolerant of the intruders...
...and, being shutterbugs, we were always sure to follow the Park rules when it came to critters.
When we left Yellowstone in July '91, the last thing we saw in our rear-view mirror were the big, beautiful Grand Tetons. Although we drove south with just enough cash to get us back to KC with one month's rent in our pockets, it was an amazing experience. We still promise each other we'll go back someday (and tip those kitchen employees something big).
