Today I'm going to write a little about the experience of one year life in Winnipeg. I arrived to Winnipeg on Augest 31st at night when it was so windy and somehow cold for me. Before arriving I did not know too much about the city and I knew nobody there but my future supervisor. I just knew that Winnipeg is a very cold city and in fact, it is the coldest city in the world that has more than 600K population. I think I was very optimist because I did not arrange any place to temporarily live before arriving. Fortunately, I met a person coming to the city for the first time who had managed with a friend to stay at his home till renting a house. Thus, I was also invited by him to stay there. That was very good for me. Then, I found out that they (some Persian students of University of Manitoba) provide the temporary place for newcomers to stay to find a permanent home. This was the first good thing that I remember about Winnipeg. Let me provide you some information about Winnipeg mostly from Wikipedia.
- Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada.
- It lies at the bottom of the Red River Valley, a low-lying flood plain with an extremely flat topography.
- There are no substantial hills in the city or its vicinity.
- It is relatively close to many large Canadian Shield lakes and parks, as well as Lake Winnipeg (the Earth's 11th largest freshwater lake).
- Winnipeg has a humid continental climate with extremes of hot and cold. Winnipeg citizens sometimes call the city Winterpeg, Manisnowba because of its low winter temperatures.
- Summers in the Winnipeg area can sometimes be quite humid; nearby Carman, Manitoba reached 53 (127.4) with humidex, breaking Canada's old humidex record, in 2007.
- Winters in Winnipeg are usually dry, and can sometimes feel colder due to the strong wind from the northwest. The city has reached a record low of -57.1 (-70.8) with wind chill.
- According to Environment Canada, Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population of over 600,000.
- Winnipeg is ranked as Canada's sixth sunniest city year-round, second for clearest skies year-round, and second for sunniest city in Canada in spring and winter.
Now let's talk a little informally about Winnipeg.
I mostly remember the city by coldness and kindness of its people. First, As You can now feel Winnipeg is very cold in the long winter and sometimes you cannot stay outside more than 10 minutes even wearing very good and warm clothes. I experienced the temperature of -51 this winter. It gets so boring when you have to be always in a closed and sheltered place. Thus, we just were in the home or in the university or in the bus to go and come back. The bus transit system of Winnipeg is working very good. However, in the winter we sometimes missed the bus or it did not come on time and then it was so hard to stay in that cold weather and wait for the next one. That is a nightmare. I think you are now feeling cold. Let's forget the cold weather for sometime.
Second, the best thing about Winnipeg is that the Winnipeggers ( the people residing in Winnipeg) are so warm and kind. They often smile at you and try to help you out if you need any and sometimes even if you don't need. I can bring you some examples. For instance, if you have something to do in an organization like a bank or shopping center, the person you talk to often does her best to help you, though she/he might not be responsible for that. They use the word of "Sorry" many times a day. If you are passing them, if they are passing you, if you give them something or do something for them, if you are not satisfied with something or in many other situations, they tell you "sorry". Sometimes I got ashamed and said I should have told "Sorry" not you. In addition, there is a tradition here that they keep the door open for you if you are walking after them. Sometimes they wait some seconds for you to arrive and it is so nice of them. And so many other samples like these. About three weeks ago I was visiting Montreal for one week. The city was a very nice one and it was so alive. However, after two or three days I noticed that oh my god I am missing Winnipeg. In Montreal, almost nobody cared about others and everybody was taking care of herself or himself (some exaggeration ;-)) ).
By the way, I'll leave Winnipeg next week to Toronto. I most likely will miss the nice people of Winnipeg. I wish all of them health, success and prosperous.
- Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada.
- It lies at the bottom of the Red River Valley, a low-lying flood plain with an extremely flat topography.
- There are no substantial hills in the city or its vicinity.
- It is relatively close to many large Canadian Shield lakes and parks, as well as Lake Winnipeg (the Earth's 11th largest freshwater lake).
- Winnipeg has a humid continental climate with extremes of hot and cold. Winnipeg citizens sometimes call the city Winterpeg, Manisnowba because of its low winter temperatures.
- Summers in the Winnipeg area can sometimes be quite humid; nearby Carman, Manitoba reached 53 (127.4) with humidex, breaking Canada's old humidex record, in 2007.
- Winters in Winnipeg are usually dry, and can sometimes feel colder due to the strong wind from the northwest. The city has reached a record low of -57.1 (-70.8) with wind chill.
- According to Environment Canada, Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with a population of over 600,000.
- Winnipeg is ranked as Canada's sixth sunniest city year-round, second for clearest skies year-round, and second for sunniest city in Canada in spring and winter.
Now let's talk a little informally about Winnipeg.
I mostly remember the city by coldness and kindness of its people. First, As You can now feel Winnipeg is very cold in the long winter and sometimes you cannot stay outside more than 10 minutes even wearing very good and warm clothes. I experienced the temperature of -51 this winter. It gets so boring when you have to be always in a closed and sheltered place. Thus, we just were in the home or in the university or in the bus to go and come back. The bus transit system of Winnipeg is working very good. However, in the winter we sometimes missed the bus or it did not come on time and then it was so hard to stay in that cold weather and wait for the next one. That is a nightmare. I think you are now feeling cold. Let's forget the cold weather for sometime.
Second, the best thing about Winnipeg is that the Winnipeggers ( the people residing in Winnipeg) are so warm and kind. They often smile at you and try to help you out if you need any and sometimes even if you don't need. I can bring you some examples. For instance, if you have something to do in an organization like a bank or shopping center, the person you talk to often does her best to help you, though she/he might not be responsible for that. They use the word of "Sorry" many times a day. If you are passing them, if they are passing you, if you give them something or do something for them, if you are not satisfied with something or in many other situations, they tell you "sorry". Sometimes I got ashamed and said I should have told "Sorry" not you. In addition, there is a tradition here that they keep the door open for you if you are walking after them. Sometimes they wait some seconds for you to arrive and it is so nice of them. And so many other samples like these. About three weeks ago I was visiting Montreal for one week. The city was a very nice one and it was so alive. However, after two or three days I noticed that oh my god I am missing Winnipeg. In Montreal, almost nobody cared about others and everybody was taking care of herself or himself (some exaggeration ;-)) ).
By the way, I'll leave Winnipeg next week to Toronto. I most likely will miss the nice people of Winnipeg. I wish all of them health, success and prosperous.
