This is my city, these are my people

This week we had some friends, the Strides , staying with us for a couple of days. Technically they are relatives of friends of ours, but they have become our friends too and we've really enjoyed hanging out with them. Matt is my age and on Friday I took the day off of studying and we decided to go on a long intense excursion.
We decided to bike from our house (Burnaby) to downtown Vancouver, through Stanley park, over the Lion's gate bridge into North Vancouver, up the mountain to Capilano suspension bridge, and then back to Burnaby via Commercial drive. Matt and I have done some running and biking together before so we figured we were up for the challenge. We got ready in the morning and set off expectantly, after making sure our tires were pumped and we had enough sunscreen on. (Okay, I'll admit I didn't have any on.)
We biked up the hill in the morning sun and then along a few busy streets and eventually made our way into south Vancouver where we followed bike routes almost all the way downtown. The streets were lovely, with roundabouts overflowing with flowers and kids playing on their lawns in sprinklers and people walking dogs and little stores and a moving truck and some construction and a few little hills. I remembered being a kid and running through sprinklers like that and the sound of lawnmowers and I felt at home and part of it all. We stopped in at Surplus Sam's to get some pop and other things and when I introduced Matt to the cashier, she had a funny look and I hastened to explain.
“Matt is my.... sister-in-law's sister-in-law's mother's aunt's son”.
I'm not sure which was easier- explaining that we weren't a couple, or explaining how we were related. We continued downtown after discovering that I'd locked our bikes up but left the keys in the lock. Oh well.
I love camping and visiting my family and friends in the Okanagan, but I have to admit that I'm a city girl. When we got downtown with the traffic and all the people and the noise and the smell of food and the screech of construction machinery and water fountains and reflections in glass windows, I felt at home. We locked our bikes and stopped to do a bit of shopping. I remembered years ago when I was studying at VCC and I would take the skytrain to school every day and look at all the colorful people and feel part of it, feel alive.
We left downtown into Stanley park and huffed and puffed our way along the main route, being passed be lots of cars, and up onto the Lion's gate bridge. The view of the city was amazing and the sun was glittering on the surface of the ocean hundreds of feet below. I felt a little giddy being so close to the edge and we took pictures of Stanley park with people walking on the seawall looking just like little ants. In the distance were the mountains and we crossed in to North Vancouver. Up the hill.... there were a lot of nice cars parked in the driveways in North Van, Mercedes and BMW's and cute houses nestled into the evergreen trees. We crept up the windy road and eventually made it to Capilano park and outside the suspension bridge were all sorts of tourists lined up. We paid our money and joined the masses, clumsily staggering across the wobbly bridge and looking at the starkly beautiful canyon below. There were people from so many different countries around me, all tourists, and I heard snatches of French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, German, Mandarin, Turkish, and other languages I couldn't place. I listened to the words I could understand and spoke English with Matt and felt happy to be part of such a multicultural country. We wandered through the forest with Japanese tourists and took pictures of the huge trees and totem poles and in the gift shop I tried on raccoon fur caps and looked at the maple syrup.
When we'd seen enough we got back on our bikes and headed down the hill. Back over the lion's gate bridge. Down into Vancouver. We turned along Hastings and wove our way into China town. Now the streets were darker. There was garbage and broken glass and people sleeping under coats on the sidewalk, and a man standing there yelling at me as I rode by. Two guys were shooting up on the curb and I cringed when I thought of the pathogens they were contracting with the dirty needles. So many sad, broken people. One old lady had a huge bruise on her face that looked like a splotch of makeup. We rode silently and I didn't know what to say. This is my city. These are my people.
We turned down Commercial drive and we were starving hungry and we stopped at Tony's deli and the man behind the counter was from El Salvador and had a massive head of black dreadlocks. While he made us sandwiches he told us he had been part of the mafia back home. We sat outside and watched people cycle by while we ate. We looked around in some stores and on the grass of a park there were buddhist monks playing drums and moms watching their little kids on the swing sets and some crazy looking hippies tying hemp around handfuls of lavender.
We rode along the skytrain route into Burnaby and there were Asian kids walking home from summer school and teenagers loitering around Metrotown and a little boy that had been punched by his brother in a water park and was crying for his mom in a voice that meant he wasn't really hurt, just wanted sympathy.
When we got home I had a shower and opened a can of beer (gasp! In the middle of the day, too!) and sat and did nothing for a long time. We'd gone around 50 kilometers, up and down hills.
Did you know my Dad snores when he sleeps? And that my sister has a wart on her wrist that she can't get rid of? And that my mom gets furious when the rats get into the garbage cans and that she has about three different types of rat traps? Did you know that I am afraid to stay at home alone and that I tried smoking twice and threw up both times? Did you know that my brother Sam hates cold water and Will hates being bossed around? (Are you wondering where I'm going with this?)
We all have our flaws, and idiosyncrasies, and our hidden talents, and the beautiful things and the ugly things and the just every-day things, all the things that make us human. In a way, just like Vancouver. Of course I wanted Matt to experience all the beautiful parts of the city that I know and love. But it is not all the way I want it. Some of it I am proud of, some of it I am embarrassed of. But it is still my city.
And so it is with people. When you make a choice to love someone, anyone, you make a choice to accept them along with the parts you can be proud of and the parts you can be embarrassed of. I could leave if I wanted to, many people do. The next time I have an argument with my family I could pack up and pretend I belonged somewhere else. Instead I choose to be a part of where I am, with all my heart, and to love and accept those around me for all that they are. They are my family. And they are my friends. I'm not writing this because I had a fight with someone in my family and I'm trying to apologize in a roundabout way. I'm writing this because I've spent many hours watching airplanes take off from the airport and wished I was on them, wished I was flying somewhere else to have exciting adventures. But right now, for however long it will be, I belong here. I am part of what is going on with my family and friends. And I want to be here with all my heart.