Working in the Prairies
A while ago, I got the scintillating opportunity to visit... the Canadian prairies in the wintertime. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to fly to Saskatoon and Calgary in -35ºC weather two years in a row, but I did (and lived to tell the tale!).
Saskatoon
I worked in Saskatoon in February and March one year alongside my favourite manager, Andrew. Perhaps it was because he had such a positive outlook on the place, but Saskatoon pleasantly surprised me! Perhaps it helped that it was so sunny every day, although my eyelashes would still freeze over at 8 in the morning on the short walk to work.
Saskatoon reminds me of Kingston in the sense that it has a bunch of cute indie shops. And everyone there has cute, stereotypical "Canadian" accents — picture a hockey bro saying "Oh yeah, bud," or even hitting you with a classic "aboot." The place had small-town charm, compounded by the fact that we stayed at a literal castle (the Delta Bessborough, although it was a bit too "old school" for my tastes). I also felt inspired to hit the gym, which was nice since it was absolutely empty every time.
Despite being small, quaint, and fairly sleepy, Saskatoon has a lot of the amenities that matter to me too. There's a ton of ethnic food, including possibly the best galbitang I've had in my life at Seoul Restaurant (the secret seemed to lie in a dipping sauce for the meat). We also frequently got banh mi, pho, and even bingsoo. Moreover, the Midtown Plaza Mall is small but has all the shops you could possibly want—from Artizia to Sephora. I have fond memories of getting Booster Juice and Jimmy the Greek with Andrew, then stocking up on supplies at Shoppers Drug Mart since Saskatchewan doesn't have sales tax. Fun fact, Helen (my principal at the time) even lugged an INSTAPOT on the plane because it was cheaper to buy in Saskatoon than Toronto.
The last highlight from my time in Saskatoon was a team dinner at the Remai Modern museum. It had a surprisingly nice restaurant inside! One funny anecdote: Andrew wanted to take the "scenic route" by walking along a riverside path on the way back. However, it was -35ºC, and I was not here for such nonsense (particularly because his sense of direction along the river was shaky at best). I whipped out Google maps to walk back speedily.
Calgary
I flew from Toronto to Calgary every week from January to March the year after. The flight was just long enough to offer pod seats if I checked the aircraft model carefully, which infinitely improved the flight experience. Unlike Saskatoon, Calgary offers some reprieve through better infrastructure — namely, the "+15 system," which is like Toronto's underground PATH but with actual sunlight since it's a maze of above-ground all-glass tunnels. They even had accurate maps to guide the way. Toronto, take notes. By the end of my time there, I could walk through the place in my sleep.
Every few blocks, Calgary gives off a completely different vibe. I decided to spend my first month exploring (ahem, optimizing) all the different hotel options in the area. Near the Marriott and Fairmont hotels, there are cute cobblestoned streets with ice sculptures and twinkle lights (quite reminiscent of Old Montreal). By the overpass to get to the Residence Inn, it's super industrial and kind of stark and empty. If you were feeling gratuitous, you could call it "brutalist style." Meanwhile, the Delta is a block away from Chinatown. There's a classic 9-Dragon-style strip mall, bullet train sushi, and a bunch of bubble tea shops. Honestly, I was impressed by the showing — I even went for Dagu Hand Pulled Noodles out here once, and their Hong Kong bubble waffle cafe offered a good variety of snacks. This area was also near the movie theatre, where I'd occasionally indulge in popcorn (ok, the one time I did this, I actually slipped on black ice and scattered half the bag of popcorn all over the sidewalk. I had to walk by it in shame every day for a week). Beyond location, I also began to notice the differences between each property:
- • The Fairmont has unusually watery smoothie bowls for breakfast. Note, I didn't actually stay here since it's not a Marriott property!
- • Westin room service is always on real plates and cutlery, which isn't true across-the-board. They were a bit annoying about sending up food from Uber Eats though. The rooms and gym were smaller, the walk was longer, and the place was a bit older. This is the points play to rack up the most points though, if that's your thing.
- • The Residence Inn is buffet-only. It has excellent views of the city with the best sunrises. Otherwise, this place totally paled in comparison to the others in terms of distance and niceness.
- • Marriott was the prettiest property and had the best savoury food options like smoked salmon bagels with arugula and bakery bowls. However, it wasn't connected via +15, thus requiring a 7-8 min walk outside.
- • Delta: I loved the smoothie bowls and parfaits here. It was a short 5-min walk to work via +15 (all indoors), and had the nicest gym. I also liked that it had a long washroom counter and bluetooth speakers, although I had to bring my own slippers (which I had gotten from the Westin and Marriott). It ended up being the best of all worlds; the winner of my undying loyalty!
I think I learned to enjoy my own company more in Calgary. I'd spend time exploring the city and eating alone some nights. My teammate Sitti gave me a list of Calgary's best restaurants (admittedly, not the most impressive), so I'd work my way through the list at places like Pigeonhole, Model Milk, and Native Tongues. They were all in a cute area reminiscent of Toronto's Queen St, famed for string lights, stores like Arc'teryx and Lululemon, and aesthetic patio dining. This area ALSO had one of my favourite ice cream places around — Made by Marcus! I have fond memories of going to Shoppers and grabbing an ice cream cone in -20ºC weather, only to realize I made a tactical error since I couldn't call an uber back with ice cream. I decided to walk back for 20+ minutes in the below-freezing weather with my ice cream while on a conference call with Malik and John about a social impact hackathon we were organizing.
Speaking of food, our typical MO throughout the week involved walking through the Bow and eating a Brookfield Place (take the girl out of Brookfield in Toronto, and she'll still find her way back). My go-to spots included: Chachi's sandwiches, Jusu Bar acai bowls, Hula poke bowls (just don't get the kale if your body doesn't know how to process it, lol), and Dirtbelly salad bowls. Beyond this upscale food court, my other go-tos included a sushi place served by actual Japanese people (with bomb ramen!), a Korean street food rice bowl place called Hankki, and a Vietnamese counter (Vo Kitchen and Bar) which offered unusual soups like bun bo hue and another non-pho beef noodle soup.
A highlight from my time here involved reuniting with my UBC case comp friend, Grace! She was coincidentally staffed on the same client on the same floor as me (lol), despite being from a different consulting firm. We decided to grab omakase together at a place called Nupo. The experience was fun, but the sushi paled in comparison to even the stuff you can get in Toronto. I probably shouldn't have expected too much from the landlocked prairies though. The restaurant was situated in a suburban area that reminded me of Mississauga.
Overall, I look back on my months surviving winter in the Canadian prairies with surprising fondness. They are surprisingly accessible, have diverse food options, and provide their own unique charms, which is probably more than I can say about most tier-two US cities. It also helped that I worked with stellar teams here too.