Ten Day Blogging Challenge: Day 1

My good friend Katie Price (whose blog can be found here), a fellow spouse down here in Dominica, has asked me to participate in her “Ten Days in Dominica” Blogging Challenge. It’s a pretty nifty idea, and Katie is almost genius-like when it comes to blogs, so hey, why not? I won’t be posting this on facebook every day, so that I don’t piss anyone off, but feel free to check back regardless. Hopefully, I’ll stick to the schedule.

What do you miss most about home?

I think the thing that I concentrate most on, and which most do, is the products that we don’t have here. In particular, I often crave a nice, cold, pint of India Pale Ale from Vancouver, where there’s a great market for local brews. A good, strong pint of IPA should kick you in the face with bitter flavour, and then soften into the most delicious thing in the world. It’s a beer that makes you work for it. I definitely miss IPAs a great deal, but I don’t think it’s what I miss most. Indeed, I didn’t really even realize what it was that I missed until this last break in Vancouver.

Never had this, but damn it looks good.

I miss the bustle of a city. There’s a certain charm down here to the slow paced life, inasmuch as it’s relaxing and it gives me the opportunity to work on projects that I wouldn’t otherwise have time for (ie. blogging). As some of you know, I’m fond of writing, and I’ve been trying to use my spare time to write as much as possible on a couple of books. The trouble with a small town, though, is that nothing is new. When I walk out the door, I know that I’ll probably see the same people, do the same things, and if I want adventure I have to really go and seek it out. This would be fine if I was naturally adventuresome, but I’m really not. What I miss is the controlled energy of a city. In Vancouver, I could walk out my door, walk around, and something will happen. Ideas flit around my head because I run into so many different personalities, locales, art forms, music, smells, and tastes. It was exhilarating being in Vancouver again, and it filled my head with ideas for writing that I’m currently poaching on, but I can feel the ideas lose steam here. It’s in the swirling bustle of a city that I feel most engaged and inspired, if not the most productive.