Regina, Saskatchewan

My stay in Regina was an interesting one for a number of reasons, not all of them positive.
I arrived late at night on September 1st after passing through Moose Jaw from Gravelbourg.
The only person whom I knew in Regina at the time was my old friend and classmate Brandon, and he welcomed me into his house to the sound of loud barking from one of his two dogs, while his heavily pregnant partner Mandie was already in bed.

Brandon and I both attended the UCEP program (the P in UCEP stands for "program", just like the N in PIN or SIN stands for "number" - type in your PIN number, please) at Concordia University College in Edmonton back in 2007 but afterward we hadn't seen much of each other and he eventually moved to Regina to attend university, while I remained in Edmonton.
Brandon had put on some weight and lost a bunch of hair, but otherwise he looked the same, and our reunion felt quite natural to me.

The next day he showed me around a bit, we visited downtown, went to the library to try and get me a membership, then we walked around the university campus and had a beer. On our way back we passed through Wascana Park and stopped at the Regina Casino, where Mandie works a few nights a week.

On my second day in Regina, I started working at the Spirit Halloween store, whose owner I had helped out in Saskatoon and who offered me work here as well. I spent a week setting up all the scary props and effects, helping out fellow employee Ron, with whom I got along wonderfully. I continued at the store for the remainder of my time in this city, an additional two weeks. This part of my stay was less enjoyable for me as I didn't enjoy the work very much, the pay was not impressive, and I felt anxious to get moving again especially as the weather was cold and unpleasant most of the time.

Besides that, I made sure to explore all corners of this small city, visiting both campuses of the university, setting up a slackline at Wascana Park on an unusually warm and sunny day, and basically cycling from one end to the other. I visited a few local eateries, donated blood, and played a couple of squash games with Brandon at the YMCA.

One Saturday I joined Brandon, Mandie, and her daughter Scarlett as they went to visit Mandie's parents at their farm just north of the city. We helped pick vegetables, then went on a quadding adventure. I got to see some wildlife cameras as well as footage of a trespassing bear.

Lastly I put in a number of hours working two moving jobs, so I got to meet a couple of local guys doing something very similar to what I used to do in Edmonton before leaving.

The most unpleasant experience for me in Regina happened on the day I set up my slackline at Wascana Park. At one point I was about to jump on the line, barefoot of course, and I stepped down hard on a piece of wood, which got stuck in my left foot. I didn't clean it out properly but it seemed to be healing well though after two weeks it was still somewhat achy. The day after my second squash game with Brandon I went slacklining again and later climbed some trees, putting strain on the foot. The next morning it was swollen, inflamed, and I knew I was in trouble. That day I spent eight hours doing a move, and finally on Sunday morning, when I was planning to head towards the US border, I could not step on my left foot so I decided to go to the hospital to get it checked out.
I waited for eight hours to see a doctor at the Emergency Department, who told me I had an infection and the abscess had to be drained. She proceeded to do this, and though the incision itself didn't hurt, the anesthetic injections did quite a bit. I thought that was somewhat ironic.

I wrapped up my Regina visit on a painful but equally relieved note, and before leaving the hospital I made friends with someone whom I'd previously met at the Halloween store and one older Francophone lady.

All in all my 21 days in this city were not unenjoyable, but the unhappy moments did help me make an important realization: I knew I had to stop worrying about a specific monetary goal I had set myself, because trying to attain it would only lead me to suffering through work which I didn't enjoy and it would also unnecessarily extend my stay in a place which I felt I was ready to leave.

On Monday morning I said my goodbyes to Regina and drove south toward the Regway border crossing.