Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Locals- questionaire

Some question seem simple, but are complex to answer.

I'll work on it in the next days, do we have a limit date to give our answers?
I'll try to post pics, the information is richer that way.

Carolyn

These answers are fantastic! I love the pictures. We'll have an entire scrapbook by the time you guys are finished. And I'll take answers as long as you'll post them.

Thanks again. FOLCs are the best people on the net!

SQD

Hey, Woody, who says that Australia is down under?



(Can you find Scandinavia in the picture? It's on the far right, below the middle, and it looks vaguely like something that you can only mention in the nfic folder.... )

Ann

Wow, Ann, you've turned the world upside down with your picture posting.

Hey, Lisa. My home town of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is a sister city of Jacksonville, Fla! High five, town twin.

Now we're supposed to 'foster human contact and cultural links'.

Originally posted by Woody

Sorry didn't reply earlier, but the answer would be to the best of my knowledge no. If I refer to anything above the equator I refer to the country I'm talking about.

I'm using no sources other than Wikipedia, but I boast a good knowledge of Greek and Athenian history. Hopefully I still remember what I learned in school, heh!

Where do you live? City/State/country? Athens, Greece.

Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects? Greek (modern).

Is this rural or urban? Rough size? Urban area, the size of which depends on what you decide to count as Athens. The 2001 census gave a population of 745,514 for the Municipality of Athens and approximately 3.8 million for the metropolitan area, although if you count citizens registered in other areas that live in Athenian suburbs, plus immigrants, the population is estimated around 5 million. That's about half the total population of Greece, interestingly enough.

What do you like most/least about where you live? Well, I like the fact that it's a huge city, with variety in places and people - from purely urban areas with big buildings to open areas with small houses and parks. There's something here to satisfy every want and need. Also, the city is built in a basin, surrounded from three sides from mountains and from the south bordering to the sea, so there's easy access to many different landscapes
The biggest downsides are the pollution and the overabundance of cars. The greenery/cement ratio is much smaller than it should be, in some areas making for an ugly atmosphere. Also, sometimes you get the feeling that there's no respect for the city - graffitis, garbage thrown on the road and parks...

Most historically significant points about your town/country? The city of Athens has a long history that goes back to ancient times. The 5th century B.C. was when it peaked, economically, politically and culturally, becoming the most powerful Greek city of all. It has also been the capital of Greece since 1834.
The history of Greece goes even further back, with the first evidence of civilization appearing around 6000 BC in Peloponnese, Crete and the Cyclades islands. Greece, which was actually organized in a number of cities, was overtaken by the Romans in 146 B.C., when they won the battle of Lefkopetra. Since then, the area of Greece was under Roman reign. The Eastern Roman Empire later evolved into Byzantium, a state with a character rather close to the modern Greek one, since Greek language and Orthodox Christianism were prevalent. It was then overtaken by the Turks, officially in 1453 A.D. with the Fall of Constantinople. Eventually, Greece became an independent country in 1828, after a revolutionary war that started in 1821. Today's boundaries were set in 1947.

Climate? The mediterranean climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and mild winters, and it's pretty much what you'll find in Athens. During the past decades, we had a series of winters when, especially the northern suburbs, would systematically get temperatures around -5 to 0 degrees Celsius and an abundance of snow, a sight rather unusual in older times. Last winter, however, was warmer than that and quite dry. Summers keep getting hotter every year, hitting temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius in the early afternoon many times over the course of the summer months.
The mediterranean climate is generally characteristic of Greece, with the average temperatures being lower in the mountainous or more northern areas.

Type of government? Name of current leader? The government is Parliamentary republic. The person with the most responsibilities in this type of government is the Prime Minister (currently Kostas Karamanlis of the Nea Demokratia party). The Parliament is comprised of 300 members and the president is Dimitrios Sioufas. Finally, the President of Democracy is Karolos Papoulias.

What are the major industries? Greece doesn't have heavy industry such as cars or electric appliances. I believe that the biggest part of the Greek industry is devoted to food and tobacco processing.

Major religion? Christian Orthodox.

Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College? Most people graduate at least junior high school, since it's obligatory. There's a big number of people graduating high school and a relatively big number graduating universities or technical schools. A law first employed in 2006 introduced extra requirements for people who wanted to enter universities and technical schools, because the big number of admissions was judged as responsible for the decline in the quality of studies and the overabundance of educated but unemployed young people.

Most popular sport? Soccer, with basketball coming second.

Most popular trend at the moment? Uh, nothing springs to mind. I'll get back to you about that.

Most popular food? Everyone likes souvlaki ! It's basically made by some kind of meat (usually pork or chicken) and vegetables (such as tomato, onion, fries) rolled in a fried, bread-like leaf called pita.

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live? Everyone seems to think it's the history of the place, but I will have to reiterate how refreshing it is to live in a place where everything is accessible someplace

Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? Well, there's plenty of mythological tales, in case those count. Here's the story of how Athens got its name:

Poseidon (God of the sea) and Athena (Goddess of wisdom) were fighting over who would be the protector of a new city, then called Kekropia after its king Kekropas, who was half human and half snake. They agreed that each of them would offer a gift to the city and that Kekropas would choose based on the gifts.
Poseidon offered a fountain with salt water, whereas Athena offered an olive tree. Kekropas judged that the olive tree was more useful, because of its edible fruit. So, he chose Athena as the protector of the city, and also named the city after her. The symbol of the city became the owl, the favourite animal of goddess Athena and symbol of wisdom.
As for Poseidon, he cursed the city never to have enough water - and it's true that Athens has never been rich in water.

Hope this helped!

AnnaBtG.

Where do you live? City/State/country?
Riverside, California, USA. To be more specific, I live in the Orangecrest area of Riverside, which is the southeast corner of the city, just a few miles away from the border between Riverside and Moreno Valley (which used to be part of Riverside years ago) and the March Air Reserve base. My area is one of the newer parts of the city. It used to be nothing but acres and acres of orange groves until around about 10 years ago when farmers decided it was more profitable to sell their land to developers looking to build middle class tract homes and McMansions.
A big thank you to Wikipedia's entry on my city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside%2C_California for vast amounts of information.

Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects?
Most people speak English, but there is a large Spanish-speaking population as well.

Is this rural or urban? Rough size? I live in the suburbs. Wikipedia says the area is 78.4 square miles. Riverside is part of the Inland Empire, which is part of Southern California. Many people would say that we're just the place that people move to when they can't afford to live in Los Angeles or Orange County.

What do you like most/least about where you live?
I love the affordable housing. I live in a 5 bedroom, 2 3/4 bath home with 3755 square feet, which I bought brand new in 2001 for a fraction of what it would have cost had it been located in San Diego, Orange or LA counties. I love that within a two-hour drive I can be swimming in the ocean, skiing in the mountains, relaxing at a desert spa, visiting a foreign country, attending a tv taping, or shopping 'til I drop - the possibilities are truly endless. I hate the traffic - that two hour time frame can expand exponentially during peak rush hours or if there's a major freeway accident. Our annual Santa Ana winds and wildfires are scary. I'm not concerned about earthquakes, though Southern California is overdue for a major one.

Most historically significant points about your town/country?
I live a few miles away from the Riverside National Cemetery http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/riverside.asp#hi and the California Citrus Historic State Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Citrus_State_Historic_Park .
According to Wikipedia, Riverside is home to the world's largest paper cup, but I've never heard of such a thing! If you asked this question to most people, I think they'd mention the Mission Inn http://www.missioninn.com/hotel-history.php because famous people have stayed there.

Climate? We're actually in the low desert, so summer can get hot (can reach over 100 F) and in the winter, nights can get cold (but only rarely does it ever get cold enough to even frost, much less snow). Usually, we're in the 70s or 80s. The Inland Empire is well known for its smog - pollution that blows in from Los Angeles and settles into our valleys.

Type of government? Name of current leader? We are a representative democracy, despite the abysmal voter turn-out rates. Our mayor's name is apparently Ronald Loveridge http://www.riversideca.gov .

What are the major industries? Hmmm…I'm not sure. Like many suburban cities in the Inland Empire, a large number of people commute to Orange County or Los Angeles for their jobs. I wouldn't be surprised if more people were employed in education or service industries than any other fields due to sheer numbers.

Major religion? Judeo-Christian…Catholic, Protestant (of many varieties), Jewish, non-denominational

Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College? I don't know the statistics, but I would venture to say that many people graduate from high school and a good number go on to higher education. Riverside is home to a large number of K-12 schools http://www.rusd.k12.ca.us/ , Riverside Community College www.rcc.edu , the University of California, Riverside www.ucr.edu , and California Baptist University http://www.calbaptist.edu . We also are home to the California School for the Deaf http://csdr-cde.ca.gov , which teaches students from 7th-12th grade.

Most popular sport? Most sports fans here support an Orange County, Los Angeles, or San Diego team because we don't have anything of our own to speak of. Kids enjoy baseball, basketball, football, and soccer - our AYSO (youth soccer) league has a huge set of fields for the games http://www.ayso47.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=37 .

Most popular trend at the moment? Complaining about traffic (always a popular topic of conversation)

Most popular food? You can just about eat any kind of food from anywhere on the planet if you look in the right place. But honestly, any place you can drive through is probably the most popular.

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live? I think our city's commitment to alternative energy is exciting http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/comm-gp.asp . Riverside Public Utilities is a recognized leader within the state for its Green Power program.

Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? (My son's enquiring mind wants to know!) If you want ghost stories, there's a web site that lists a bunch of them http://theshadowlands.net/places/california1.htm . Scroll down to the Riverside listings to check out what may be lurking around my corner.

Still working on mine...

Ann, as mentioned before I will give you answers for Australia AND for Sri Lanka. Here are the Australian ones:


Where do you live? City/State/country?

I currently live in the 'West End' a historic district of the City of Fremantle which is part of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Perth which is the state capital city of Western Australia which is a state in Australia.

Here is a map of the West end part of Freo:


Here is a map of Fremantle and Perth in WA:


Here are maps of Perth and WA in Australia:

Map is too large so here you go.
[img]http://www.geographicguide.net/oceania/maps/australia-map.jpg [/img]


Usually my address goes like this, Fremantle, W.A. 6160 Australia without a mention of Perth.

The Dutch used to get shipwrecked along the coast because they used to sail straight across the Indian Ocean from South Africa on their way to Indonesia but if they forgot to turn left too late, they ran straight into the coral reefs along Western Australia's shoreline. The French were thinking of settling it so the British put up a military outpost at Albany in the southern part of the state to discourage them in 1827. However the very first settlement of the state happened in 1829 in Fremantle. Fremantle was named after one of the captains of the first ships that brought the settlers from England over. England had just finished fighting a long war and had downsized it's military so there were people out of jobs who were soliders, weapon manufacturers etc as well as people who were flocking into England's cities because it was the time of the first wave of the Industrial Revolution and England's urban areas were overcrowded and there were no jobs and no housing. So they sent them off to found a new colony in W.A. and they landed in Fremantle with the mistaken impression that it was fertile land. Fremantle and the area around it is limestone - the fertile area is far further inland. However they set up a makeshift port of sorts here and they kept it despite all the changes over the years and even made some drastic changes in the 1880's to the mouth of the Swan River where Fremantle is located to make sure it became a better deep water port so that the ships could come all the way upriver to unload.

We call it 'Freo' now. We even have the 'Freo Doctor' which is our name for the afternoon sea breeze that wafts in and turns our umbrellas inside out. We had the Freo Festival yesterday that's been celebrated since 1905 and this year's theme was 'Wind' so we celebrated the Fremantle Doctor.

In the 1850s due to politics and a severe overcrowding of prisons in England we started getting convicts who built a lot buildings and roads and infrastructure that the colony needed. Up till now all settlers who had come were free settlers who made the choice to. Convicts stopped being shipped out in the 1860s.

In the 1880s gold was discovered further inland - way further and there was a huge gold rush. The third gold rush if you will - the first to California, the second to NSW on the east coast of Australia and now the third to WA on the west coast of Australia. The population of the colony increased dramatically and Freo developed because all those who had to come into the colony for whatever reason had to come through Fremantle since it was the port. All the gold had to be shipped out as well. So Freo developed and Perth which is further upriver and was established at the same time as Freo was designated the adminstrative capital while Freo was to be the official port. But they had to deepen the port, and build a railway to the mines. This is still the case.

In 1901 we had federation - we stopped being a British colony and we joined in with the other states to become a state of Australia.

The third gold rush never stopped. Gold is still one of WA's biggest exports. In fact the rest of Australia benefits from WA because WA is the source of most of the country's exports and the backbone in that sense of it's economy. WA exports sheep, cattle, sandalwood oil, timber, timber for paper, gold, iron ore, bauxite for aluminium, pearls, fish, wheat, diamonds, and a certain amount of silver.

Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects?[B]

English - WA's English can be directly linked back to 1830s London slang which you won't find anywhere else in the world. The native Aboriginals in WA (and it's a huge place - the size of 16 Frances - whole Western half of Australia) are from the Nyoonyar/Nyungar (you can spell it a dozen different ways) and they have different dialects according to the tribes. In fact, counting all the Aboriginal languages and all the immigrant languages, Australia beats India for the most number of languages - 160 odd.

[B]Is this rural or urban? Rough size?

Perth and the surrounding metro area is urban - so where I am is urban. Everything else is rural. Very rural but easy to get to, easy to stay in and absolutely wonderful. My boyfriend is a farm boy who grew up in sheep country in the mid south west in a place called Yealering next to a town called Narrogin but his family moved to the lower South West region to a place called Mt. Barker where they now have a beef cattle farm.

What do you like most/least about where you live?

What I like least is the weather because I grew up in the tropics. It is good weather compared to other places I have been in but I still yearn for hot humid days. We have winter during April - July and summer is coming up right now from November till about January. But here we prefer winter because the winter brings the rain which we need desperately for farming. In the summer, we get desert summer - no humidity, dry air, hot days and you bake not sweat. In the winter we don't get snow (though on the east coast Melbourne will because it's just further south and in a better position to do so and they do have ski resorts on the east coast) but we get rain and huge gales. Sometimes in summer we get hurricanes (tornadoes/tropical cyclones) and sometimes they cause damage and sometimes they bring much needed rain.

The weather moves across the globe from west to east so whatever we get in Perth first, the East Coast gets it about two to three days later. My mother asks me all the time what the weather is like so she can be prepared.

Most historically significant points about your town/country?

I could give you a lecture on this and I have already given you some answers. There are lots of points - are there any that you are particularly interested in? Any specific subjects of history?

Climate?

Weather - see above. Climate is technically a southern mediterranean climate. We do a good wine trade ;-) And we have a lot of Italian and Greek immigrants and Parisian style cafe culture has caught on a lot here in Fremantle.

Type of government? Name of current leader?

Technically it's a democratic system. Officially it's the Commonwealth of Australia. That means we are independent but because we don't have an official head of state we recognize that the Queen of England as one - ie we originated as country from a British colony.

Current leader is John Howard of the Liberal Party - he is our Prime Minister.

Australia has states and territories. Federal refers to all of Australia and at the Federal level we have two houses - Senate and the Lower House. At the moment, the Liberal party has a majority vote and therefore the majority of seats in both houses. This is called proportional representation. Because John Howard is the leader of the Liberal Party, he gets to be Prime Minister and he has members of his party who get appointed as Treasurer, Minister for Foreign Affairs etc. The Liberal Party is now called the Govt cos they won.

The second runner up was the Labour Party in the last election so they get to be The Opposition and they get to yell in Parliament at the Liberal Party aka the Govt.

Federal level politics is responsible for higher education, military, foreign affairs, taxes and economy, and anything that functions at a national level. They debate bills that have to be passed through the senate and then through the lower house before they become part of the law.

Then they have the exact same system at the state level - ie each state has a Premier and a Senate and a lower house of its own. This enables you to dabble in politics without having to wander off to Canberra (Australia's national capital) all the time. These are filled with different people voted for at a different election. The current Premier of WA is the leader of the State Labour Party in WA and he is Alan Carpenter. At the state level in WA currently, Govt is Labour and the opposition is Liberal, and at the state level whoever is govt is responsible for primary and secondary education, fisheries, imports, exports, state economy, state infrastructure, tourism, state health, police, housing, etc.

So we have one election where you vote for who has power overall at the national level - you get two papers at this election where you rate 1-10 all the people from all the parties who can get a seat in the national/federal senate - this ensures that who you want to open debate on certain issues at a federal level might get into the senate where everything has to be discussed first nationally before anything gets done. The second paper asks you to choose either your party preference (Labour/Liberal/Greens/Australian Christian Democrats etc) or to rate 1-45 the people you want to be in the lower house which is the next stage of debate for anything at federal/national level if the senate decides to pass it.

Depending on which party gets the most votes this way, they will choose a new opposition, govt and prime minister.

We will be having this kind of election this Saturday 24th of November so it's a big deal at the moment.

Then they have a similar kind of election about two years from now (every four years or so but not at the same time as the federal one) for each state and you only vote for your state representatives. and you vote for those you want to who will debate the issues you want them to - and then you have a premier who takes everything into consideration and goes off to canberra to lobby the prime minister on your behalf.

For example, the Prime Minister wanted to put nuclear waste in WA and our premier said no because nobody in WA wanted a dump site within our borders. So that's how it is supposed to work, and sometimes it actually does.

What are the major industries?

The mines employ a lot of people and are actually doing a damn good job of a) bringing money into the country and b) doing it with minimum effort to the environment - we make them plant trees and develop new technology etc - they aren't allowed to mine if it's an environmental risk or a cultural heritage area or a sacred place for aboriginals and they have to do all sorts of tests before they get to go ahead.

Gold, sheep, wheat, iron ore, pearls, bauxite, beef cattle, dairy, olives, wine, silver, fish, tourism, eco tourism, sandalwood, timber, timber for paper.

Major religion?
Secularism??? It's hard to tell, probably Catholicism though they have been losing numbers lately. In the 70's Freo was the centre for a huge Hari Krishna movement and they are still around. They even get their own float in the parade. Protestants, presbyterians, buddhists, hindus - all sorts really. Fremantle has: a) a fairy shop, b) a shop that sells new age stuff where you can get psychic readings. It's a multicultural town where everything is accepted. We even have a regular psychic fair at the town hall. Yoga classes are everywhere. As are sex shops - I have two on my block.

Freo is a town where everything rebellious and eccentric can find a home - where all is accepted and then even years later, still celebrated.

Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College?

Fremantle's West End has been conserved historically because the University of Notre Dame Australia was set up here. This is where I study and I get to do it some of the old warehouses and buildings from the 1800's. I even live in one.

Most people graduate high school yes, and after that it's not considered a horrible thing if you get a trade via an apprentice or choose not to go to college. Plumbers and electricians make more money in a year than a lawyer will. So you can go to college or get an apprenticeship. The options are there.

Sadly for most Aboriginals, the clash of cultures and other issues to do with perceptions and past history means that not many of them stay in school or can stay in school. Some do yes. And the number is slowly increasing but it needs to increase some more and one of the issues at the moment is how to include them more fully in society and still ensure their culture is preserved. It's an issue that crops with more recent immigrant cultures too.

Sometimes learning is just learning - and you will know that you are intelligent without needing a piece of paper to prove it - but unfortunately the world now needs that piece of paper before you can go ahead. Plus we all have our own different ways of learning things - hence why you home school your children.

It's a very hard thing to discuss and talk about. I am not sure I can fully explain it here.

Most popular sport?

Cricket!!! Sri Lanka and India both have teams too and they are currently playing against the Australian national team as part of their tour over the summer. The biggest matches in cricket are:
a) The World Cup Series which has all the cricketing nations involved. Sri Lanka won it in 1996 but Australia has won it quite a few times :p . If Sri Lanka is playing Australia, I usually support SL but though my favourite team used to be Australia - I now rather support individual players than a whole team. Besides Australia is fighting dirty at the moment which I don't approve of. Because cricket is a gentleman's game. The world Cup happens once every four years.

My favourite player is either Adam Gilchrist who is wicketkeeper for Australia or the only player to wear glasses while he plays - our very own cricketing Clark Kent - Daniel Vettori from New Zealand. Will post pictures later so you all can perve.

Daniel Vettori aka Cricket's Clark Kent from New Zealand:


Adam Gilchrist:


b) To tide us over between World Cups we have the Ashes series. Way back when, only England and Australia used to play cricket so they played a series between them. Then Australia won it once and they took the wooden wickets that they used during the game and burnt them and sent the ashes back to England in the trophy. This was their way of saying "Don't treat us horribly because you think we are from a colony and therefore have to bow to you or can't play!" sort of thing. Ever since then it's been called the Ashes and they play every year and alternate between playing in England or Australia. And they get terribly angsty and territorial over it. Very patriotic. And we all get to watch (esp if you're from another cricketing nation) - because it's like a watching a comedy drama.

Australian rules football is played as well and they have matches leading up to two big cups each year. They call them Derbys. They have state teams as well - in WA we have two major state teams called The Fremantle Dockers (ie dock workers or port workers)

and The West Coast Eagles

who are in constant competition with each other. We also have football teams for districts ie South Freo vs East Freo etc. Football on Saturday is a huge thing - because we can only play cricket in the summer but rugby or football can be played all year around.

Most popular trend at the moment?

The most popular trend far as I can gather is to try to be glamourous - homewares are all black and white and are copies of 1920/30s furniture and design (and erring badly). Sort of 1930s Paris French elegant boudoir feel. The clothes are trying to evoke that era as well but a lot of designers can't seem to visualise what people wore in the 1920s -30s very well. They have the hairstyles down well though. This is seen randomly in Freo but is more obvious elsewhere in Perth. Freo is such a melting pot anyway. This is slowly giving way to either the 60s/70s bold print pattern look for beachwear or to ethnic exotic (or what they think passes for it) travel wear - caftans and the like. I myself wear either 40s inspired stuff or classic combinations or mod dresses with stockings ... and that's when I can be bothered. The rest of the time I am in jeans. ;-)

Most popular food?

Since we don't have a white Christmas in Australia - everyone does a barbecue Christmas lunch and you must have a) pork/lamb and b) grilled prawns.

Other than that Freo has Indian, Chinese (very popular), Sushi (Japanese), Mexican, Italian, seafood of all sorts, French bistro, Kebabs, etc.

Very Australian would be a meat pie with tomato sauce. And a bottle of Coke. Very aboriginal would be kangaroo steak with bush pepper sauce. And there is place in the southwest of WA called Pemberton - they have these freshwater crayfish called marron or bugs and these grilled with butter are wonderful.

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live?

As mentioned before, the ability to be eccentric. Freo is like a country town - everyone knows everyone else. There is a sense of community. Last night they had a Bhangra (Hindi pop) street party and most of the people dancing like mad in the street were Caucasian not Asian. They just accept you here and they love what you do even if they don't understand it completely. How many people last night would have understood what any of the words meant given it was all in Hindi? But they danced anyway. And it makes you - a foriegner feel that much more accepted as part of the community. I have been here four years and so many people I can't even name know who I am. It's just amazing.

Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? (My son's enquiring mind wants to know!)

Ha ha. Yes there are. For instance when the settlers came over in 1829 they were told they would get land and they thought it would be land with manor houses and the like built already so they brought horse drawn carriages and pianos with them on the ships. We have proof that they were on the ship but urban legend says that there is at least one piano buried on the beach somewhere because as soon as they landed they found that there was land but they had to build their own houses and farm it and that the pianos were of no use in their immediate future so they left them on the beach.

As part of the archaeology dig that I do, we found a piano key to unlock the cover of the piano before lifting it up to play it but we haven't found the piano itself yet.


I will be back to put more pictures in. For now here's your info on Australia. Stay tuned for pictures and info on Sri Lanka.

Cheers, The Little Tornado.

I love that information, Tornado, especially the Clark Kent cricketeer and the mental picture of all those Caucasians dancing wildly to Hindu pop!!! Itwas fascinating to read about the "never-ending gold rush", too, and those buried pianos on the beach.

But do you think you could re-size that very big picture of the Western Austalia map? The size of it makes the entire thread too wide, so that you have to scroll back and forth to read the text. If you can't re-size it, maybe you can just put in a link to it (frustrating, I know, but....)

Looking forward to the information about Sri Lanka!

Ann

Where do you live? City/State/country?
I live in Peru as you know . Peru is divided in 25 regions called departments and subdivided into 180 provinces.
So: Country-Peru Deparment-Lima Province-Lima


Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects?

Main language: Spanish.
Quechua is another language spoken by a great part of our population, next comes the Aymara.

Is this rural or urban? Rough size?
We have urban and rural places. Lima is urban and the capitals of most of the departments located on the coast. The deparments in the middle and south-east are rural while the deparments north-east are forest.
web page http://www.infoperu.com/pics/cities/miraflores.jpg


web page

What do you like most/least about where you live?
Most: Peru: It’s food. We have all kinds of tipical food, each department has it’s own diversity of plates, our food in general is just delicious. Main plates, desserts …mmmm!

I’ll mention some just from Lima:
Ceviche

Aji de gallina - Chicken in strips withn a sauce fo bread, milk and green pepper.
Causa rellena - Smashed potato with meat inside.

Anticuchos


Desserts:
Mazamorra


Picarones

Suspiro a la limeña


Turron de Doña Pepa: It’s tipical in October, related to a religious festivity in Lima: El Señor de los Milagros (it means Lord of the Miracles). It’s said that a woman called Josefa Marmanillo (she was called Doña Pepa) was sick so she asked to the Señor de los Milagros to be healed, after that the miracle was granted and the next Ocotber she stand at the street with her turron and offered it to Señor the los Milagros and from that time on you can’t enjoy this festivity without having turron, in fact it’s not October if you don’t have turron .



The Señor de los Milagro, is Jesus Christ with black skin, a lot of people in Lima believes on its miracles, it’s said that in the time where the Indians and black people were slaves around 1650 a black man painted it on a wall so they could venerate the god the Spanish imposed on them but they could also relate to, there was an earthquake in 1655, the houses and all the constructions fell or got broken but the wall were the Christ was painted remained unharmed, that’s why he’s called Lord of the Miracles.
In October he’s carried through the streets from it’s church to the Catedral of Lima and back in a 3 days travel and thousand of people followed him all the way the three days either thanking him or asking him for a miracle. Whether you believe or not the image it’s beautifully adorned, when you are there with all the people feels great.


The image of the "Señor de los Milagros"

You must not leave Lima without trying ceviche, anticuchos and suspiro a la limeña!

EDIT: Sorry for the big pics I'll try to make them smaller later.

The sights, I’ve always lived in the city, but there are so many beautiful natural places in our country, nature has been so generous with us, just traveling from one place to another it’s worth it for the sights you’ll see in your way.



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It’s history, Lima and every part of our country it’s so rich in history and you can still see buildings that are proved older cultures had lived here. We still have towns who keeps traditions that have thousands of years, specially in the forrest, you go visit them and the way they live now it’s how their ancestors lived. The knowledge they have of the nature, the respect they have for it and how they could live with it without harming it, it’s truly inspiring.

Least:Poverty, there's still people who are very poor.

Most historically significant points about your town/country?
It’s history, Lima and every part of our country it’s so rich in history and you can still see buildings that are proved older cultures had lived here. We still have towns who keeps traditions that have thousands of years, specially in the forrest, you go visit them and the way they live now it’s how their ancestors lived. The knowledge they have of the nature, the respect they have for it and how they could live with it without harming it, it’s truly inspiring.

You can still see the trend of architecture and art of the Virreynal time (Virrey was the as a governor who had to answer to the king, in this case the king of Spain – we were a Spanish colony until 1821- so this Virrey was the major authority in the absence of the king).
At the time they build big houses with very carefully made balconies, the churches are greatly adorned.


http://www.gruponuevomundo.com.pe/resources/graphics/images/Balcon.jpg



http://www.thetrip.net/peru_travel_center/lima/lima_colonial.jpg

http://www.lima-tourist-informationen.xt2.de/Hotel_Adressen_Peru/Lima_Plaza-de-Armas.jpg

The historic center of Lima is also called ‘Cercado’ ‘Surrounded’, because at one time a wall was build around the city keep it safe from attacks from the corsairs and pirates, there’s still part of that wall behind the San Francisco’s Church.

The wall at the bottom is it.

Climate?
It’s not completely tropical because of the Andes ( a mountain system, most of it crosses our country) that give us all kinds of climates.
For more explanation see : http://www.incalink.com/landscape.htm

Type of government? Name of current leader?
Democratic Republic. The president is Alan Garcia Perez.

What are the major industries?
Mining, Tourism and Agriculture.

Major religion?
Most of the country is catholic

Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College?
Most people finish high school, for people to go to college they either have to come to Lima where there are the better Universities or to the other cities on the coast side which also have universities, and because some young men/women can’t come here or have money to afford the travel and the living alone, they just can’t go to the university.

Most popular sport?
Soccer, definitely. Next comes volleyball. We are such a soccer driven country that for example this past sunday our team was playing versus Brazil’s team and they were playing at our stadium, at the time of the game the streets were silenced , people were either at the stadium or their houses watching the game. If you go to the supermarket the morning of some day’s soccer game (especially when it’s Peru vs some other country and they’re playing to get into the world cup)you can see people buying snacks, food and drinks because family and friends would gather in the afternoon to watch the game.


Most popular food?
In Lima, ‘cebiche’ and ‘pollo a la brasa’

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live?
In my opinion , it’s history again, it’s customs.

Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country?
All that comes to my mind and my family’s (I’ve tried to think about others but just don’t know). There’s ‘La casa Matusita’ ‘Matusita’s House’

There’s all kind of stories about it. One says there lived a Japanese man you killed himself after killing his wife and kids because he saw his wife with another man. The other says the servants of the master’s house killed him and some friends that were invited some day because they were abused by him, after that they killed themselves.

It’s said also that those stories were invented because a very long time ago across the street was located the embassy of the US and they help spread the stories so no one would spy on them :S.

Whether any of those stories it’s true or not, no one lives there and no one wants to spend a night in there.


That’s it, look normal huh? Well it’s not!

Carolyn
(Who hopes you have enjoyed reading it as much as she has enjoyed writing it)

Sorry it took me a while. RL has been crazy.

I can't remember the numbers, but someting like 90% of the Canadian population live 500 km from the US/CDN boarder...like Winnipeg.
Check out this pic: http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/travel/dg/maps/aa/750x750_manitoba_m.gif

Good photo site:
http://www.manitobaphotos.com/

It was sooo difficult to stick with my city and not babble about the province.

Where do you live? City/State/country?

We have provinces instead.
Winnipeg/Manitoba/Canada

Winnipeg is the capital city of Manitoba.

If you are from here you pronounce it Winna peg. If you are new here, or like my Mum who grew up in England, pronounces it Winn i peg as in Winnie the Pooh. And yes, Winnie the Pooh is named after Winnipeg. If French is your mother tongue, it seems to be pronounced with an ‘I’.
Well, that is generally how it goes.

Picture looking to the Winnipeg Centre:


Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects?

The main language here is English. We have two official languages though - French and English.

At one point we were able to boast that we had at least one person from every country on Earth. Even from some warn torn countries where people were not allowed to leave. (These people had fled to Winnipeg and where doing a talk tour at the time.)

With these people came various languages. Every year we celebrate Folklorama where various venues across the city are opened where a groups particular culture is featured. E.g. Metis, Jamaican, there are two for the Philippines and Ireland, Spain…

We have many cultures in Winnipeg thus different languages.
The ones I hear the most are Ukrainian and Tagalog b/c of the region of the city I grew up in. Busing it to school everyday I encountered Cree and Ojibway and other Native languages that I might not have been able to identify, and Ukrainian. As the years go by the Ukrainian element is decreasing and you encounter more languages from Asia and in the past few years, Africa.

Winnipeg has the highest number of First Nations people (either per capita or just as a general amount) than any other major city in North America. Again, we are categorizing Winnipeg as a major city here (capitals). Even though it isn’t a large percentage of the total languages spoken, it is a characteristic of Winnipeg.

Statistically after English, German is the most popular at roughly 4%, then Tagalog and Ukrainian and so on. The major languages, of course, have alerted drastically over the past 100 years. At one point in our provinces history, we had more French speaking people than English.


Is this rural or urban? Rough size?

The city is urban, but it is like a urban dot on the rural prairie landscape.

There are many small communities/hamlets/towns located around Winnipeg and over the past twenty years some of them, along the Red River, have connected in a way that you can't go a mile without seeing a house, but NOTHING like what you see in the US or Toronto. That's just too much. I’d cry if it ever became like that.

Winnipeg has roughly 650,000 people. We are a sprawling city unfortunately. We are faced with deteriorating infrastructure. E.G. bad roads.

The closest urban centres to Winnipeg is Brandon (city that just celebrated 125 years. Pop under 6000). Now if you want to talk major cities, to the south Minneapolis to the east Toronto and surrounding cities, to the west (if you skip the province of Saskatchewan….ahhh too many jokes there) then there would be Calgary and Edmonton. All those cities are larger than Winnipeg. Calgary and Edmonton used to be smaller, but during the past 40 years they have grown into large metropolises and left Winnipeg it their dust.

Even though we are a ‘small’ city, we cover more land area than Calgary that has roughly double our population size. This clearly illustrates our horrible sprawling. Hmmm…I should check on the currently validity of that statement.

Our city is too big and has too many attractions and can’t be supported by our small and cheap population. I guess I should say too many places need funding to revitalize themselves. Here are some major ones that are in the news a lot.

Typically ‘old’ Winnipeg or Downtown
The Forks - Actually a good tourist spot.
Downtown/Portage Avenue - needs more help
Exchange District - the ‘hot spot’ at the moment.
Main Street - Has needed help for the longest time
Osborne Village - This place doesn’t need help b/c it supports itself well. It is a great example of a popular, artistic area.

I say we have too many attractions, but they are not exciting enough to hold onto our younger demographic. I agree Winnipeg can be boring. Ahhh, I’d love to experience a city like Hollywood, Vancouver or Seattle. Then I’d come running home.

My husband described our city’s situation perfectly…unfortunately I cannot remember it.

What do you like most/least about where you live?

HATE:
I used to love living here b/c it was a quite city with little violence or trouble. Many people said this was a great city to raise a family, but boring if you are a young adult ready for sophistication and socializing.
However, my patience is being tested b/c within the past year because gun violence has increased. Growing up we never heard about guns unless someone had a sawed off hunting shot gun. Now there seems to be an issue every weekend, but at least the majority of it doesn‘t affect innocent bystanders.

People are horrible drivers here!

I love the open spaces and being able to get away from everyone. However, in the past six years there are more cars crawling around within the city so you have to go to one of the city park or provincial or national parks outside of the city.

I greatly dislike our city because it can be ugly. The roads are full of potholes and the curbs are always chipped. The weather is rough on infrastructure.

HATE:
- Panhandlers and welfare bums. Gangs.
- Loss of Canadian identity to the increased American influence.
- This city is afraid of change and need to do more to retain it’s heritage.
For example, It took forever to knock down the old Eaton’s building and build the MTS centre. I was sooo sad to see that building go. My granddad used to work there and I spent a lot of time there, but once Eaton’s closed up shop NO one wanted that building for a reasonable purpose. It was too old and too expensive.
Our former mayor (first gay mayor in Canada!) flew through Winnipeg long enough to see what we have not done since he left. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/columnists/top3/story/4072273p-4673810c.html
- The fact that we lost our NHL team, The Jets. Though we don’t deserve one. People are to cheap to support one (ticket sales) if one came back.
-crime
- lack of available safe bike paths. I wish I could ride my bike to work.
- horrible drivers. We are notorious for being amongst some of the worst drivers in Canada. Extremely impolite despite the quote on our license plates.

http://www.canplates.com/manitoba.html
- Winnipeg can be boring, but it’s a bit embarrassing when people say it. People from bigger cities often do.
“Winnipeg is boring unless you are a boring person. Not much to do at all. I live here and would not recommend that you waste your money here.”

LOVE: Well, I’ll try to be more positive and list some ‘loves’ only.

Our parks:
- Assiniboine Forest: It is unusual to find a forest within a city, but Winnipeg has one, complete with a heard of white -tailed deer. http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/naturalist/ns/AF/index.asp
Last I heard, it is the largest urban forest in North America.

- Assiniboine Park: A chunk of land just north (actually across the street) of the Assiniboine Forest. Here we have the Pavilion, Conservatory (features plants and an indoor tropical house and a shop)
Fireworks twice a year, various parties like the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and different runs for charity.

- Assiniboine Zoo: It is not the prettiest zoo and I feel, like many people, it needs a huge update. However, it is the cheapest zoo around to get into. It used to be free when I was a kid.
The Zoo is on the west hand side of the Assiniboine Park and we have the oldest polar bear in captivity in the world. Her name is Debbie! She turned 40 on Dec 6 2007.
We also have a white black bear and a white bison. They are not albinos, they just happen to have white fur. In some cultures for Native peoples/First Nations, the white bison is revered and has special meaning. Many people came to visit the bison for this reason. His name is Blizzard. The bear was rescued when it’s mum was hit by a car. They became a bit of an attraction outside of the city and she unfortunately was a casualty of the increased human presence. The zoo adopted him.


- Last I heard we have more trees in the city than any other city in N.A (per some measurement...I can't remember what). We have MANY elm trees, but we are loosing many to Dutch Elm disease. I'm sooo sad about that. We need to get more people involved with banding of the trees to help avoid spread of the disease by a certain type of insect.

- We don't number our street here. They all have names. That frustrates many visitors.

- Little Mountain Park: It a short drive just north of the city. I could ride my bike there when I was a kid b/c I lived on the edge of the city. The picture of the tree is very memorable for me. Everyone looks out for this tree when they look for the road to the park. There is no mountain in this park. I can’t remember why it is called that.


- I love all the old buildings in Winnipeg, but unfortunately many of them are obsolete and abandoned. They were built because of the train boom at the beginning of the 1900s. Unfortunately some of them have to go:

- Legislative building: If you watch Christmas Rush, the Chicago police station is actually our Leg.
[img]http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=8735&rendTypeId=4[/img]

- The view: I loved to be able to look out of my old apt on the 18th floor in Osborne Village. To the right was the Leg and to the left was the sunset. Sorry the pic is dark:
[img]http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p212/superroo_is_here/106_0644.jpg?t=1194729424[/img]
I love big open spaces. We have clear skies and can see the stars also we are lucky enough to be north enough to watch the northern lights. I know this is nothing special to our city, but it’s something I love.

- Manitoba Museum: I love this place b/c it features a detailed history of the land and peoples of Manitoba.
This has always been a favourite of mine:


- I don’t have to spend hours in my car to get to work! It takes me about 15 minutes to drive on average.

- I love many residential areas of Winnipeg like Wosely (character homes) and the North End neighbourhood because of its cultural significance. It has traditionally been home to new immigrants. At one time in the 1920s, nearly 14,000 Jews resided there. It is Canada's largest urban concentration of Aboriginals as well as Filipinos currently and the largest Ukrainian center outside of Ukraine itself!

- Close to beaches and cottage country!

Here is somebody’s thoughts - http://themanitoban.com/2003-2004/1008/cu_01.html


Most historically significant points about your town/country?

- The main point of the below story is this that at the end of it all the predecessor of the NDP was created and is one of the three major political parties in Canada.

Here is a direct quote and not created by me...
"Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
As a result of appalling labour conditions following World War I, 35,000 Winnipeggers walked off the job in May 1919, in what came to be known as the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The government broke the strike through arrests, deportation and violence. The strike ended June 21, 1919, when the Riot Act was read and a group of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers charged a group of strikers; two strikers were killed and at least thirty others were injured, resulting in the day being known as Bloody Saturday. The lasting effect was a polarized population. One of the leaders of the strike, J.S. Woodsworth, went on to found Canada's first major socialist party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which would later become the New Democratic Party [NDP]."

Here is another link Bloody Saturday....not as catchy as Bloody Sunday.

URL=http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/bloodysaturday/gallery.html?dataPath=/photogallery/documentaries/gallery_518/xml/gallery_518.xml]Photo gallery[/URL] of famous pictures (at least here) from this riot. Some of them are beautiful and capture Winnipeg during the height of it's growth and fight with the separation of the rich and poor.

I guess many of these pictures can be considered boring BUT!!!! Number 14 is the most famous one. That is on Main Street. In the back right is a picture of our old gingerbread city hall. It was torn down in the 1960s b/c it was falling apart (poor Red River valley clay foundation) and was a fire hazard.

- We had one of the largest train yards in the world.

- North Main Street was once known as one of the most dangerous streets in Canada. Not fun. I went through on the bus almost daily. I didn’t know what a big deal it was at one time.

- Famous people from Winnipeg that I have a story about or check out famous Winnipegers and Manitobans: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/1479/famous.html
The Guess Who - My mum and a guy I used to work with went to school with them. I later went to the same school. The ‘guy’ was very bitter about their success.
Neil Young - My mum grew up in the same neighbourhood with him.
I live in the same neighbourhood as where a few great speed skaters practiced and went on to do great at the Olympics: Susan Auch. It a lot of fun to watch the kids learning.
Sir William Stephenson, WWII spy; the real Intrepid, portrayed by actor David Niven in "A Man Called Intrepid", was born in Winnipeg. Influenced the character 007.

- Winnipeg is located in a flood plain thus we like to flood! We are situation in a area called the Red River Valley. We are to the north and Grand Forks, North Dakota is in it as well. Of course it isn’t crazy big like the Mississippi, but the Red River flood plain is large for us.
In 1950 70,000 people had to be evacuated b/c of the flooding. Many parts of the city were destroyed along with four bridges. The previous huge flood was in 1861was even bigger but Winnipeg was not the city it was then.
This house is near the Red River:

Due to the devastation of the 1950 flood, The Floodway AKA Duff\'s Ditch was built. It saved us in the 1997 flood. Many thought the idea of this floodway was crazy, but in the end it was the greatest thing ever. 1997 was bigger than 1950 and was called the Flood of the Century . The majority of the city would have been under water. Many still experience basement flooding and many houses outside of the city were lost. It was devastating and a stressful time for many in the Red River Valley that spring.

- Valour Road is in the West End . It was formerly called Pine Street, but was renamed in 1925 to Valour Road in recognition of the courage of three young men who all lived on the 700 block of the street and served in the First World War. Corporal Leo Clarke, Sergeant-Major Frederick William Hall, Lieutenant Robert Shankland all received the Victoria Cross for acts of bravery during the war.


Climate?
Yes, Antarctica has experienced the coldest temperature on record, -91C, but us Winnipeggers can get it cold here. LOL

Like many people we seem to have lengthily conversations about weather and laugh at other major cities (*cough* Toronto) with their inability to handle a few inches of snow...gee I'm not pointing fingers at Toronto. "With our cold winters, hot summers and everything in-between it is not surprising that the weather is a national preoccupation of Canadians."

In Canada, Winnipeg has the sunniest winters with the most hours of sunshine during December, January and February.
I guess I should be happy that the honour of being the city with the coldest winters in Canada goes to Yellowknife and not us!
We do experience cold winters because we are more or less situated in the centre of the North American continent.

As mentioned above, we are far from any mountains and any large body of water than can have a substantial long term affect on our climate and daily weather. We have large temperature differences from the winter to summer and that can wreak havoc on our streets. During the spring, when we experience this stress, the daily temperatures have been known to go into the late teens and then dip to a good -10 at night. We are a pot hole city!! City council is always trying to find money to fix the streets.

WINTER:
From a personal point of view, we can almost guarantee we get snow on Halloween. It might not stay, but the snow fairy will pay a visit. Children must learn to have a costume that can be adjusted to fit a snow suit if needed!
We can have blizzards which normally come from a weather system that will identified as a Colorado Low. When those come in the winter, we can cheer b/c we hope we shall have a snow day! Yippee!
As a child we had a few big memorable blizzards. I was a child in 1986 when we had a big one and we could walk onto our roofs (roo-ves not rufs) due to the amount of snow. There was a big one in the 1950s when my Mum came to Canada. I have never experienced one that big before. We had one in 1997 (around there) where it shut down the city for a few days. Unfortunately everything started moving along the day of my exam. I was hoping for a few more studying days. My husband (who I didn’t know at the time) was waiting at the airport for his family to return from Florida. The car got stuck and he had to push and run to catch up to it and jump in so he could drive the car. He picked everyone up about 10 minutes before the airport was closed. Due to the large snow fall and a wet fall, this led to the devastating flood in the spring of 1997.
Growing up the kids used to walk to school and class would only be kept in a recess if the wind chill became to hazardous. Now it seems like every drives their child to school. The kids seem to be more fat, lazy, afraid and wimpy now. I’m only 30. Shouldn’t I be bitter at a later age?

In February we have the Festival Du Voyageur. Unfortunately a festival that relies on ice and snow always seem to co-insides with a warm snap. Hehe. Here are some nice snap shots of the festival. Two winters ago it wasn’t warm like it usually is for that week! The temp was trapped in the -30s (not including the wind chill). The year I actually went as an adult I couldn’t bring my camera b/c it was too cold. http://www.manitobaphotos.com/festival.htm



We always get snow on Xmas. We have only one on record where there was no snow. I recall a few years ago where we didn’t get snow until a few days before Xmas…that was weird. It didn’t feel like Xmas until it snowed.

Here’s a quote!
From December through January the maximum daily temperature exceeds 0 °C (32 °F), on average, for only 10 days and the minimum daily temperature falls below -20 °C (-4 °F) on 49 days. Cold weather and snow will occasionally extend into April, although in general the winter weather begins to moderate in late February or early March. The coldest temperature ever recorded at Winnipeg was -47.8 °C (-54.0 °F), on December 24, 1879. The coldest temperature during the last 25 years was -41.7 °C (-43.1 °F) on February 5, 2007 [2] The coldest wind chill reading ever recorded was -57.1 °C (-70.8 °F) on February 1, 1996. According to Environment Canada, Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population of over 600,000.[3]

SUMMER:
Our summers are warm/hot and humid and we have many thunderstorms. We had the stronger Canadian tornado on record last summer. They are not frequent like they are in the southern US, but are not immune to them. The average maximum temperature for June, July, and August is 24.7 °C (76.5 °F).
I used to be able to handle the heat and sun w/o any problem. But after spending my 20s indoors and gaining a little weight it can be uncomfortable. Luckily for us we have some beaches along Lake Manitoba north of the city to enjoy. It’s only about a 40 minute drive!

Here’s a quote:
On average, the maximum daily temperature exceeds 30 °C (86 °F) on 11 days out of 92 for these three months and the minimum daily temperature falls to or below 2 °C (36 °F) on only one out of the 92 days. Depending on the year, warm weather can continue beyond Thanksgiving in October, or come to an abrupt end soon after Labour Day. The city often receives an Indian Summer, when summer weather returns briefly after the first frosts, in mid to late October, or even early November. The highest temperature ever recorded in Winnipeg (since commencement of record-keeping in 1873) was 42.2 °C (108 °F) on July 11, 1936. The hottest temperature recorded in the past 25 years was 38.8 °C (101.8 °F) on September 2, 1983. The highest humidex reading was 48 on July 25, 2007.

THE SHORT SEASONS - FALL & SPRING:
I hate the spring, but I love fall. Unfortunately our fall is short lived. This year it seemed like it rained more in the fall, and it was LOVELY. I love that type of weather. Fall weather lasted from the beginning of September to about November 20th.

Here’s another quote in case you prefer details!
Spring and fall tend to be rather contracted seasons, each averaging little over six weeks. In general the weather during these seasons is highly variable, and rapidly changing. For example, temperatures in Winnipeg in May have ranged from -11.7 °C (10.9 °F) to 37.8 °C (100 °F), and in October from -20.6 °C (-5.1 °F) to 30.5 °C (86.9 °F).

Like I mentioned earlier we have a lot of sunshine here. More than Toronto or Vancouver. July is our hottest month. We are the ‘sunshine capital of Canada’ . We are also known as the ‘windy city’ and often our winds can average 16km/hr and we have had strong winds up to 129km/hr. I remember that period. Windows smashed and trees came down. It was very weird. A storm you expect downed trees. We get about two really bad wind storms a year, but this particular event was just characterized by a few windy days with one dozy of a day. Just a cloudy sky with winds that decided to go a bit crazy!

Type of government? Name of current leader?

Federal Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy. Canada is a federation, which means powers are shared between federal and provincial governments. The head of our government is the Prime Minister. The Queen of England is represented in Canada by the Governor General, currently Adrienne Clarkson. Currently the Conservative movement is in power and their leader is Stephen Harper.

We uphold the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” where the USA has “Bill of Rights”…I think that’s what they told us in school. I can’t remember the main comparisons they would bring up.
Link http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/


What are the major industries?
- Winnipeg boomed during 1890 to 1920 because of trains for the transportation of goods for sale and international trade.
Winnipeg was referred to as the "Chicago of the north" and has the largest train yard in North America.
Also, it was called the "gate way to the west". However, when the Panama Canal opened in 1914 Winnipeg's importance diminished.
Winnipeg had many banks and storage facilities in Downtown or more specifically what is now known as the Exchange District . It's name implies its history. I love that part of town it is beautiful . Many of these banks have been lost to time or have been converted to salons, condos and schools.
- Winnipeg used to have a large textile industry, but due to competition from China in the last 10 years, the industry is disappearing. Western Glove Works, who do not make gloves, used to make jeans for The Gap and posh high end jeans for major designers. Posh Spice and some major singer have done deals with them in the past few years. My husband used to work there and despite it being stressful, he got awesome jeans out of it!! Nygard fashions HQ is here. I don’t like the clothing, but the owner of this company is so rich he owns a island in the Caribbean.
- Winnipeg is home to head office of one of the largest insurance companies in the world - Great-West Life. Winnipeg unfortunately lost many head offices to Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. Toronto has a negative mentality (traditionally anyways) towards those in the west. Winnipeg often has to fight against that. Something many of us are proud of. Some would argue this, but this is the general consensus I find with older and younger people (and the media) over the past 15 years I have been curious about the subject.
- Alberta has their oil, Toronto has their commerce, Manitoba is one of those province that isn't poor, but not rich either and it would be great if we could 'afford' more. We do have many renewable resources. Despite the concerns over environmental degradation, we are major producers of hydro from hydro electric dams. We export this electricity to other area of Canada and to the US. We also have a lot of fresh water and this may become like gold in the future as we see our environment degrade around us.
- Movie industry - When the Canadian dollar was lower than the US dollar, it made sense to do filming in Canada. Winnipeg was chosen often because of our large areas of historical building, like the Exchange District.
Here is a list of TV and films done in Winnipeg (or parts of): The list....sorry Wikipedia again.
Some more famous movies that have had portions/all shot in and around Winnipeg:
- Capote
- Christmas Rush (well famous for us!!!)
- Shall We Dance (I saw filming!)
- The Constant Gardener
- Category 7: The End of the World (2005)
- Category 6: Day of Destruction (2004)
(I never did get to watch those! )

- “Winnipeg is also home to the National Microbiology Laboratory, Canada's front line in its response to SARS and one of only 15 Biosafety level 4 microbiology laboratories in the world.” We seem to have a lot of buildings related to health in Winnipeg and that seems to be increasing. I actually live close to the lab. EEK! JJ…about the EEK part.

Major religion?
I had to look this one up b/c I honestly don’t’ know. I just know the major one is some sort of Christianity.


Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College?
I’m not sure, but I think they do.

We are luck that we have many post secondary opportunities:
educational facilities and the following are The major ones:
- University of Manitoba
- University of Winnipeg (used to be the original U of M...but they moved and U of W soon became a University on their own).
- Red River College

To me, Winnipeg used to more of a working person's city. Doesn't like change and just goes along quietly and not that exciting and young people move away. That seems to have been the attitude since WW2 and is still trying to go away. We are fighting the brain drain. Many people are educated here and then leave either to Toronto (city), Alberta (Prov) or BC (Prov) oh and of course USA.


Most popular sport?
Man that’s a hard one. We love our hockey, but we greatly support our CFL team (football).
Curling is very popular here. We can sell out our MTS centre just full of people wanting to watch curling.

Most popular trend at the moment?
I’m not sure. I’m not trendy.

Most popular food?
We have more McDonald’s per capita than anywhere else. At least that is what we were told in an introduction meeting when I started in the 1990s. Who knows what it is now…I hope it isn’t true.
We love cheap so I guess whatever’s cheap.
Hot dogs…from the carts on Broadway in the summer.
We seem to have an over abundance of Chinese food restaurants. I don’t go.
My favourite places are Montana’s (chain restaurant), Elephant & Castle (fake English pub), The Onion (local), The Nook (local), Wendy’s (of course a chain), McDonald’s (enuf said) and just north of the city The Half Moon (local).

What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live?
Ugh….ummmm…………..I love the old history of Upper and Lower Fort Garry.
Osborne Village’s energy.

One on the right was burnt down. One summer we made international news where we had so many arson fires. I loved that old building L


Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? (My son's enquiring mind wants to know!)

This isn’t an urban legend, but was told to us kids to spook us silly http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/manitoba1.html

Growing up we were told many of the older houses in Winnipeg were haunted.
http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_november02_09.htm

There is a house, one of the few left, in amongst the old commerce buildings in the Exchange District. It is said to be haunted and if you go in there you will be …..

There are many stories about ghosts in the old Fort Garry Hotel.
The one I heard the most is of a lady that haunts certain sections of the hotel. She’s in a ball gown. Also there’s something about a fake or “phantom’ diner and a “mysterious ghost light” that can be experienced in the hallways. Room 202 is also supposed to be haunted.
Even a Canadian Member of Parliament, Brenda Chamberlain, was so convinced of a presence in her room that she fled from her room in the middle of the night.
Cleaning ladies have claimed their items have been thrown around the room by an unknown entity.
I found this quote that is better than what I an describe:
Manitoba - Winnipeg - Fort Garry Hotel - Brenda Chamberlain (Liberal MP for Guelph-Wellington) traveled to Winnipeg for a Liberal caucus retreat and requested (for a little Halloween fun) to stay into a room that the hotel staff believes is haunted by either a young woman or man. Perhaps both? Sometime during the night, Chamberlain- who is a non-spiritual believer- was awoken by a disturbance consistent with someone getting into bed beside her. Keep in mind that her husband was not with her in Winnipeg. Chamberlain ignored it thinking she was half asleep and dreaming when this disturbance occurred and went back to sleep. About half an hour later, she felt her "invisible bedmate" start to move around again as if trying to get comfortable. Also, Maids have reported seeing blood trickle down the walls of room 202, where a woman hung herself in the closet after learning her husband just died in a car accident. She has been seen crying in the corner after she'd ask a worker to give her a cup of water in the bar/lounge.

I am most familiar with this story. It was told to me while I was in University:
Manitoba - Winnipeg - The Walker Theatre - Eerie experiences have taken place here. Mysterious applauding in tiers of seats, which are unoccupied at the end of a performance sometimes, is heard. Steel doors close on their own they weigh at least a couple hundred pounds, and when a reporter did research in the theatre with a well known psychic in the night they set up a tape recorder for a few hours only to find they couldn't hear anything...until they played the tape back to hear loud banging sounds and hammering, footsteps across the floor to and from the tape recorder then more towards the tape recorder sounding like somebody was whispering "please" into it....this tape would play sometimes but other times appear blank...dressing room doors that were supposed to be closed would be opened the next time the guard would make his rounds. The wedge of wood he had used to prop open the doors would appear to be kicked out...the guards dogs would mysteriously bark at the air and be by his side all night, Which was unusual because they were very outgoing dogs. The suspected presence is said to be maybe acting team Laurence Irving and Mabel Hackney who died in 1914 less than a week after performing at The Walker.

There’s a building that used to be a restaurant in the Exchange District area and the third floor is said to be haunted. Loud bangs and ghostly blobs of light have been seen through the window if you walk by.

One of the oldest structures in Winnipeg that is still standing is a house - 99 Ecluid and is just known as the Euclid House. One of the last surviving links to Winnipeg colonial past. It was occupied by the Barber family who where one of the families that helped shaped a portion of Winnipeg. The house is a rare example of Red River frame construction employed by the early settlers. Unfortunately it is boarded up at the moment as no one wants to claim financial responsibility to ensure it isn’t lost to time. It is surrounded by a high chain link fence to hopefully avoid acts of vandalism in the rough neighbourhood. So just looking at it seems freaky in itself on a dark moonless night. It is said that a family once lived in it and one of them murdered all of them and killed themselves, no one knows how the story went..

At the old jail downtown there is supposed to be a lady begging for help.

One year I want to do this: http://www.heartlandtravel.ca/Ghosttours.htm


You can always sum Wpg as the below - A song - http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858489206
Late afternoon, another day is nearly done. A darker gray is breaking through a lighter one. A thousand sharpened elbows in the underground. That hollow hurried sound of feet on polished floor, and in the Dollar Store the clerk is closing up, and counting Loonies, trying not to say, "I hate Winnipeg." The driver checks the mirror, seven minutes late. The crowded riders' restlessness enunciates that the Guess Who suck, the Jets were lousy anyway. The same route every day. And in the turning lane, someone's stalled again. He's talking to himself, and hears the price of gas repeat his phrase: "I hate Winnipeg." And up above us all, leaning into sky, our Golden Business Boy will watch the North End die, and sing "I love this town," then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim, "I hate Winnipeg."

Sorry I haven't been around to post a huge THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Thanks again. And keep 'em coming. We're having a ball with it all.

SQD (who is still praising her fellow FoLCs!)

I had to come back and post a quick note.

My oldest son (13) and his sister are forever picking at one another. (She's 17 and both have a birthday in a few days!) Anyway, in his Christmas letter (part of school work this week), he asked for his sister to move to Peru. When I say the picture above that Carolyn posted of Peru, I almost laughed out loud. It was just too cute!

SQD

I thought I'd add a few photos from my collection oneis of the Queen Mary II when she visited here, but it's such a pretty picture (in my humble opinion considering I took it ).

The other two one is part of main wharf of Sydney in Circular Quay and the other is of possibly our most famous landmarks the Opera House and our harbour bridge.

The Queen Mary II



Circular Quay Wharf (and n the background the train station)



and The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge (or Coat Hanger as we affectionately call it)



I'll add more as I take them though.