August marks the halfway point of my internship at the Airdrie City View. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Briana The Intern. The summer/fall student. The rookie. Whichever handle you prefer, I’m the newbie around these parts.
I’m currently studying journalism at the University of Regina. I grew up two hours outside of Regina in the little city/big town of Yorkton, which more Albertans have heard of than Saskatchewanians, oddly enough.
I ended up in Airdrie thanks to a happy accident. I was originally supposed to complete my internship at a paper just two hours down the highway from my house. It ended up falling through and after a mad, two-week dash to find another placement, voila! Airdrie became my new home.
Airdrie’s proximity to Calgary was one of the main draws for me. Actually, the proximity of everything in Airdrie is what makes it a great place. For instance, East Lake is a mere two blocks from my house, there’s a grocery store, bank and gas station in walking distance and it’s only a five minute drive to work, but the real convenience is the three liquor stores that are within a one-mile radius of my apartment.
There’s also much to do, living in Airdrie, and I’ve probably checked at least five things off my bucket list in the past three months. I’ve got my first taste of rodeo season over the course of June and July.
Yes, we have rodeos in Saskatchewan, but we don’t care about them as much as Albertans do. I took a friend to the Stampede, hung out at an international gymnastics competition and made more than my fair share of trips to CrossIron Mills mall. And thanks to Airdrie’s stellar library, I’ve gotten around to my summer reading list, which I’ve been neglecting for years.
All of that may not sound very interesting, but trust me, it’s a lot more fun than what I would have been doing back home.
That was just the summer, and I have four months left, which means I’m here for the start of the NHL season. Anyone close to me can attest how important this fact is. While I have a great respect for the Flames, I have been a fan of a divisional rival that shall not be named, but isn’t Canadian, for 10 years. My dad took me to the Saddledome for my first NHL game exactly 10 years ago. The Flames won, but that’s not important. Sadly, that was the last NHL game I attended, so you can understand how excited I am that I’m so close to the city.
The fall season also brings the Saskatchewan Roughriders to Alberta. I’ve already marked on my calendar when the ‘Riders play the Stamps. Here’s hoping they win a game before then.
The past three months have flown by, and I can’t imagine the last four months of my internship will go any slower. All I know is that my friends and family might just have to drag me back to the land of living skies kicking and screaming.
