Canada

Greetings from Vancouver, Canada, a city of tall, glass towers mimicked by tall green trees. It is quite a beautiful, metropolitan city along the North rim of the Pacific Ocean with dense wilderness. My first impression, looking down from the tiny window on the airplane, was GREEN. Quite a contrast to the Santa Monica Mountains which this time of year are a deep shade of ocher. I've concluded that this area is made up primarily of water+earth elementals, where as the Santa Monica Mountains are more fire+earth.

My first visit to this area was during art school. My grandma Ani, Mom, brother Luis and I all flew up to San Francisco, rented a car and then drove up the Pacific Coast. The most vivid memory from that trip is the striking, turquoise color of the water at Lake Louise and the trees of Jasper Forest. The picture, just above, is of my grandma and mom at Lake Louise.

The sensorium (how we experience or perceive the world through our senses) of Vancouver is very much like other mega-cities I have visited. Freshest in the archive of my mind it reminds me of Buenos Aires and New York. There is a definite modern European flavor and, although I've never been, it makes me think of Asian port cities such as Hong Kong. During this trip I have become keenly aware that the memory impressions of places are strongly made up of smell, influenced by both sight (the incredible view from our hotel) and sound (the constant drone of the city). The aroma of the underground parking garage mingled with the scent of frying immediately places me at my grandparents apartment on Libertador in Buenos Aires. Almost as if a parallel universe has opened up and transported me to family lunches, with homemade pastas, fresh farm cheese and dulce de leche from the ranch.