First impressions: Calgary
Barry and I have been incredibly busy since we got here with furniture shopping, weekend road trips to Banff and Edmonton (and Radium next weekend), and getting used to the new city.
So… What are my first impressions of my new home city? Allow me to put them into point-form:
- Calgary is a city of neighbourhoods. There must be 150 of them, if not more… And everyone seems to expect me to know where each is. Most of these developments are perhaps 200 houses! Thankfully, Aurburn Bay, when the building is complete, will be 6000 homes… Which is significantly more than most areas we’ve explored so far.
- The urban sprawl is crazy here! Almost no one lives downtown, unlike Vancouver, which has a ton of residential towers… And, almost everyone I talk to says the “downtown core is boring” and they never have a need to go there. I’m sure I’ll meet plenty of people in the future that work there, but so far, I haven’t yet.
- People here are different — And, I don’t mean that in a bad way. The mindset is definitely more “family-oriented” (thus the suburban culture here) and Barry and I are definitely in the distict minority having chosen not to have children. Again, I’m sure we’ll find plenty of friends that won’t have children, but I can already see that the majority of people we surround ourselves with, will. I can say, though, that people in Calgary are very friendly… And unlike the Yaletown scene, people on the street make eye contact with you, and smile. That’s going to take some getting used to!
- I’m looking forward to getting to know people in our neighbourhood — It sounds like everyone on our street is very friendly (according to the current homeowners of our new house, whom we’ve met a couple of times) so it’ll be nice to know our neighbours for a change. Unfortunely, the timing isn’t going to allow us to really settle in, before we’re away for a month for the wedding and the honeymoon, so our housesitters will probably have more of a connection than we do when we get back in late May.
So… There’s my first impressions! I’m sure I’ll have many more in the coming weeks, once we’re moved in and a little more climatized.
Your turn: Do you know your neighbours? When you moved to your current home, how long did it take you to settle in?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Hi Tanya! I had someone tell me that they are personally jealous of the block parties that have happened on the street you bought on – looks like a great neighbourhood that you’re going to enjoy
See you tomorrow!
Hey Jeff (aka #LeAwesomeRealtor
)
Sounds like we have some very big shoes to fill… The current owners had to have carpet cleaners in yesterday after yet another big party with the fun-loving neighbours. Thankfully, we love hosting, so there’ll be plenty of further good times at our new home!
ps: The current owners told us about a party they had a while back, where the fire dept and police were called, because the firepit flames were massive, and the music was full-on from the hot tub… Sounds like a great party to me, but the neighbours across the entry road were not pleased.
Hey NetChick,
I missed the M&G ‘cos it was our first re-enactment event for 2010 over Easter – bleeding cold it was too!
Me and MB are fairly insular and we take a while to bond. We live on a little 6 house cul de sac on our road and we know our neighbours by name but are not involved on each others’ lives.
cq
.-= craziequeen´s last blog: Company of Chivalry First Event 2010 =-.
There are only about 10 houses in my cul-de-sac. Four of the families have children the ages of my children. The rest are older folks. Pretty much everyone here has their own business or works from home. It’s a cozy, safe -feeling place.
There are about 4 of the 10 whom I interact with. One neighbour and I have a mutual fairly close friend. Said mutual friend and I were able to squeeze her into our “dress” club.
There’ve been hot tub parties, coffee dates, children’s get togethers and chore sharing.
I know you’re going to enjoy your new neighbourhood a ton.
Welcome to Calgary!