When I first came up to Fort Mac, I didn't know what to expect. I left the town that I had lived in for 22 years, not knowing what was waiting for me. As I flew in, I saw nothing but trees from Edmonton north...this didn't look good. I got off my plane and stepped out of the airport to meet...no one. Classic. I got a taxi and headed for downtown, a 20 minute drive away. When you first get to town, you pick up your keys at the Nomad Inn (regardless of whether or not you are a Syncrude or Suncor student). This is the most posh hotel in town...The Empress of Fort McMurray if you will (just don't ask Toni Garrett what she thinks of the place :-) I then proceeded to the Towers...River Park Glen to be exact....
So these are the ""Towers""....I could see these things from the
highway...they were by far the largest building in the Fort McMurray
landscape. The
name
Towers doesn't quite do it justice though...sure, there are 2 huge, 14 floor
towers, but this place is more like a complex. There are 2 towers, which
are connected together on the third floor by a bunch of condos called the Upper
Mews which you can see in the picture to the left. Cushioned between these
are the Lower Mews (below), which are some additional apartments they built a
few years ago.
My first night was fairly uneventful. I didn't know anyone, so I unpacked and relaxed. I walked downtown and realized something...there wasn't one! Joking...BUT, there was really only one street, and it was called Franklin. Everything in downtown was on this one road. So I walked and I walked and I walked until I was tired...and made my way back to the Towers. I noticed something about the people up here....they didn't have the same mentality as people back in Victoria did. No one really cared to say hi or smile, they just looked straight ahead and minded their own business. I remember thinking, "This is going to be a long 12 months Ranj..." Less then 24 hours later, I realized how wrong I truly was...