As we were decending into Denver Airport I started to finally realize what was going on.
Denver is in the middle of nowhere. I know I joke about how Hamilton is for all intents and purposes in the middle of nowhere, but Denver is actually in the middle of nowhere. I went from the most densely populated state in the union to the 37th, and apparantly more than half of Colorado's entire population is in the Denver/Boulder metropolitan area. I've flown over this area of the US a number of times now, and have always been facinated by the vast tracks of quilted farmland stretching out on both ends of the horizon, with nothing but a few pitiful dots of forest and some jagged rivers for diversity. This time I ended up landing in it. At that point the 'what the hell have I gotten myself into' part of the trip hit me.
It was about 2PM by the time I was into the city and ready to explore. Some quick stats of day 1:
Beggars seen - 6
Ratio of people who asked me for change compared to those who were just hanging around with signs - 1:1
Libraries Found - 1
Bookstores Found -1
Libraries and bookstores that informed me that the chances of my getting a job there were worse than 0 - 2
Pictures taken - 5
Times I've gotten lost - 0 (A miracle and an anomoly all at once)
Overall opinion of the city so far, after 3 streets, and a few hours (from 1 to 10) - 3
Like Jersey and Hawaii, the state of Colorodo is in a hiring freeze. The chances that I will end up in a public library are very slim at this point, and besides, there would be an LIS to get first. I still have a number of bookstores to check out, and the college campus. There's apparantly going to be a festival on Saturday, so I'll go there too. I think at this point a lot is depending on the campus itself and the vibe I get there. This city is so tiny I don't know if I would be able to manage living here for any length of time, but life is nothing if not a series of interesting challenges!
The Photos from Today:
I wasn't very dilligant in playing the tourist snapping at everything. The area the hotel is in looks a little tougher than the metropolitan heart of the city, and so I took the inconspicuous route for the time being.
"Yaki Soba Tofu" I guess you could call this that. It wasn't bad. The tempura was surprisingly edible, considering how picky I am about tempura.
Some guy in the Japanese place playing with a twin lens reflex camera. After passing laundrymats, liquer stores, and similar institutions of the baser elements of city life, seeing someone with a TLR was my first whiff of something interesting in the city.
Interior of the Japanese restaurant. The menu was injet printer fare, did not look like any Japanese menu I had ever seen, and the man in front of me was asking if Kirin beer was some sort of Japanese lager. I had some misgivings.
A view of the Denver skyline. That's pretty much all of it. Behind that is the Rockies, which is a much more impressive view. The image of nothing but flat farmland on one side of you and a gigantic wall of snowy mountains on the other commands an apprecation for the amazing diversity of the country and geography in general.
