gypsy + pirate: Greenwood

when i came back to canada and saw samuel again, i had never been more happy to see anyone in my entire life. i know we were only apart for a week. but so much happened in that week!! i had new lessons in my head and that freshly hydrated plot of earth deep down inside of me, and basically a new heart. he just held me for a long long time and i breathed in his smell and ran my fingers through his hair. this was home, i decided. right here in these arms. it's where i had always wanted to be, and i was overjoyed to be back.

samuel was still in greenwood when i returned, and i am so happy he was. that place is awesome. it is an old mining town that has shrunk significantly since its big mining boom in the 1890s. they call it "canada's smallest city" because when it was incorporated as a city the population was more than double what it is now, and they were able to keep the title of "city" even though the population declined so much. places with populations similar to greenwood’s are usually called "districts" or "villages" in canada. the history was all very interesting. you can read about it here, if you like.

what intrigued me most about their history was the fact that 1,200 japanese canadians were sent to greenwood in 1942 during world war II. it was mostly interesting because for a town of about 625 people there are actually quite a few japanese families that still live there. i think it is so fascinating that even though these people were forced to greenwood they chose to stay there for the remainder of their lives instead of leave.

another interesting fact about greenwood is that it has “the best tasting water in the world.” no really, this is a thing. they actually won some sort of contest or experiment where one lucky soul got to travel around and taste the water of every little tiny town and city and determine that this place took the cake. er, water.

or did they just sit at home while all of these cities sent in samples of their tap water? (whoever they is, i don’t know). so all they had to do was sip water samples all day and cross their fingers that they didn’t get some sort of harmful bacteria in one. and what kind of criteria would a person judge this water on anyway? is it solely a matter of opinion or is there some sort of scientific equation or algorithm that determines the winner? these are the sort of questions that keep me up at night people. i know, like i said, i think too much.

so anyway. there are a lot of rad buildings in greenwood. sam and i drove around town and took pictures of some of them. then we enjoyed a delicious burger at deadwood junction, which is probably one of the coolest burger joints i’ve been to. and they have all kinds of homemade spices and dog bones and antiques and awesomeness. it’s a pretty nifty place so if you ever make it to greenwood, bc you should probably check it out.