people wearing stuff in Edmonton

One good thing I do like about being in Edmonton during the summer is that the parkas and winter coats are put away and people start to wear less and less. I find that it really isnt the guys that are wearing less but the women certainly do. I wont go and tell you about all the half dressed ladies that I have seen on my week and a half out so far but I do have three cases that I saw that are particularly amusing.



I was going to WEM on the bus and this young woman (probably mid thirties) got on and sat at the front of the bus. She had on a mid thigh length dress that was sort of puffed out (think the 1970's poodle skirts but black and no poodle on it) and a sort of corset type outfit that really pushed her....well....yeah, you know...up to her chin. She was dolled up to the nines and had the legs and body to pull off her outfit no doubt. I was sitting half way back on the bus right in front of the back doors. There was this guy that was standing in the entrance to the back doors and leaning on the plexiglass divider from the seats to the doors. He was singing and I thought it was sort of weird that he wasn't sitting down since there were a few seats available. I then looked ahead and back at his face and ahead again and then it dawned on me. From where he was standing he had a perfect angle to watch this lady all the way to WEM. After we got off the bus and I was walking towards the entrance to the mall I caught up to her and the guy walking towards the mall. He was a decent distance away walking slightly behind her so that I could tell they didnt know each other but he wasnt close enough to make her uncomfortable by a strangers precense but he wasnt far enough away that she could definitely ignore him. He kept trying to lean in and start up a conversation but she kept ignoring him. After the entire car park he finally gave up his tough boy swagger, put his sunglasses that he was twirling so dashingly and walked away with his hands in his pockets. I followed her for about a minute cause I found it fascinating how men and women alike gave her the complete once over from head to toe as she walked back. Even an older man (white hair and I would say in his 70's) slowed down his walk (which was pretty slow to begin with) to give her the complete up and down.



Then there was the time that I was on the bus and having a chat with this lady with a strong polish accent about hot dog vendors on Jasper ave and what is the best place to set up shop to make the highest profits. We came to a stop and in mid sentence she looked out the window at the people waiting to get on the bus. One lady was at best 'slightly' overweight but she had on an extremely tight top that was extremely low cut and her cups were definitely flowing overth. The lady I was talking to stopped her sentence while she looked at this lady in shock and then turned back towards me and with a wave of disgust in the other ladies direction said 'trash' in such a old world type gutteral growl that I almost burst out laughing. It was definitely amusing.



The final incident I remember I can't really decide if it is sort of different cultures merging and melding or two cultures colliding. I am sure if my life were a movie than this moment would be one of those moments where film students alike would sit back and look at the scene and bring up many different symbolic ideas about what the whole thing would mean. I was walking down the street and I could hear fast footsteps coming up behind me. Being the paranoid person I am while walking I had to look and see who it was. It was a middle aged woman that was out for a midday exercise power walk. She had her iPod music blasting in her headphones and the water bottle strapped to the small of her back so it was definitely exercise time. What she also had on was a lot of clothing. Full length work out pants down to her shoes, full body work out material top that was almost a turtle neck and a tudong scarf wrapped around her head and tucked into the top she was wearing. The only skin I could see on her was her full face and her hands below the wrists. The thing that also got me was that her entire outfit was black. I found it warm being out in jeans and a t-shirt with no jacket but to be in a full body work out outfit in the sun would have been blazing hot. I am guessing from the tudong that she was muslim.



We had to stop at a stop light and she stood beside me just doing the pace walking in place to keep her body going. When the walk sign came on we both started to cross and I noticed coming towards us was a tall caucasian woman doing her midday run. This lady was dressed in very short and tight spandex running shorts and a very short and tight tube top with shoes on. I definitely saw more flesh than clothing on this lady.



So that was the scene, caucasian woman wearing next to nothing passing by a muslim lady wearing pretty much a full body outfit, both jogging and passing each other in the middle of the street with me looking at them and marvelling at the different cultures/personalities in the world today. Now tell me that a film student would not have a field day picking symbolism out of that whole scene.