I always knew in my heart that PEI was never to be the place to call my Forever Home (sounds like something they say in SPCA or Humane Society commercials) but it will be heart wrenching to leave this place. I've been here for the better part of 5 years now and I've made some amazingly amazing friends and people who I can easily call family. I am trying my best to not think about the days leading up to my departure because I know they will be nothing but a disarray emotions and me, a big blubbery mess.
I'm not going to lie though. There are things that I will be relieved to get away from. For instance, PEI is famous for everyone being in everyone else's business. I am a very private person and it is a rare event for me to share something highly personal, even to some of my closest friends and family. I am not one to talk about myself, so when everyone I meet wants to know every single detail of my life, I become hugely overwhelmed each and every time I am bombarded with question after question. Working in a bar is basically the worst place for someone like me to work cause the clientele are known for a little overindulging of the booze, so they'll forget asking me all of these questions, only to do it all over again the next time they're in.
As much as I may bitch and moan about certain aspects of "island life", there are many things about this place that I know I will miss tremendously.
- Feeling safe! I can walk home at 2:30 in the morning and not even flinch if something is rustling in the bushes. I truly feel safe in Charlottetown and I know that that is a rare feeling for a person to feel in the city they live in. It's very comforting and I will miss it very much.
- Saying "hi" to randoms on the street. Quite often I enjoy acknowledging a stranger walking towards me down the sidewalk and it's nice getting the salutation reciprocated back to me. I know that if I do this in Vancouver then I might end up gagged, bound and tied up in the trunk of someone's car.
- People got your back and look out for you. In some instances this statement is taken to extremes in this city (like the neighbour who has her nose in everyone's business and somehow knows that you made pasta 3 night ago), but most people here are looking out for each other and there to lend a hand when needed. Like the men who came to my rescue when the car was broken, even when all I asked was where the nearest garage was to bring the car to. They were lovely enough to fix the car themselves and send me on my way.
- Familiarity. You can strike up a conversation with nearly anyone and find someone the two of you know in common and instantly become acquaintances. I know the guys at work enjoy it when I see them pull into the parking lot and have their beer open and ready on the bar when they stroll into the restaurant. Some may call it Alcoholism: but I prefer familiarity.
- Short walk to work. Really, its a short walk to anywhere!
- It's cute! - PEI is a very cute province. I especially love the people who dress up in historic costumes and guide you through historic downtown Charlottetown, teaching you along the way about PEI's rich history.
- Beautiful - Between the beaches, sunsets, red dirt, flowers/fields and heritage houses, no one can dispute that PEI is absolutely gorgeous (you know, when it's not raining and miserable).
- PEI sayings - I've tried with all my might to refrain from developing an islander accent and apart from slipping in the additional "awww" sound in the word "coffee", I think I've done alright. Some things about the language here really makes me shake my head, such as adding the letter R to random words, like "warsh", instead of "wash". What is the reasoning for that? Plus there's the creation is new words, such as "slippy" which came from the word "slippery". Completely eliminating the er from the word seemed like a completely logical thing for people here to do when talking about the icy sidewalks. Hmmm.
But there are some great things that are said here that I never get sick of. "God luv ya" is a great one. Adding the work "some" to the beginning of pretty much anything will create a sentence. For example, "Hey Jim. It's some hot!" or "That's some spicy." "She's gettin' some heavy." Yep. That would pass as a perfectly logical thing to say around here. Then of course, the most famous thing that islander say is "from away." This is a common expression describing someone who was not born and raised on the island. Whether you came here when you were 50 or if you moved to PEI when you were 10 and lived here for 30 years, you'd be "from away".
The list of sayings and expressions is truly endless and I wish that I could write them all out someday, but I could never accomplish such a massive feat! Where to even begin!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c65Cxo0xenA
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