Wilkommen!

Why, hello there! Welcome to Waterloo, likely the only place in regional Canada where a smattering of high school German is more handy than the standard rusty French. If you're lucky, you'll know just enough to eavesdrop on the best Mennonite gossip at the farmer's market, while also looking knowledgeable enough to score free beer at Oktoberfest. Wunderbah!

Why don't I show you around a little? You've likely noticed the place is called Kitchener-Waterloo, but don't take that for a sign that it's all same-same-but-different. While Kitchener is the indefatigable older sibling who toils at the factory to bring in extra cash for the family, Waterloo is the upstart younger sibling who got a fancy degree, made a heap of cash and is now putting an addition on the house for an indoor pool and/or full sized ice rink. (Cambridge, the third and unmentioned part of the tri-city region, is kind of like a weird cousin who lives in the shed -- no-one's quite sure what Cambridge is doing, but it seems content enough to be pottering around on its own.)

You'll likely first notice that the two main cities in the tri-city region share a main street. Don't let that confuse you. King Street, Waterloo, is all fancy shops, resto-lounges and the occasional remnant puke of university students unleashed from parents for the first time. King Street, Kitchener, is funky art/craft stores (is that too obvious a plug for Rarefunk, where I sell some of my craftier wares?), gritty bars that look like they've ingested a great many hours of humanity's smaller woes, and artfully tattooed folk. 

Times are a'changing, though, and fast. What used to be Kitchener's staple factories and warehouses are being transformed into lofts and exposed-brick urban office space. The locally-vaunted Communitech Hub has opened for business, with aims to become a tech-salon of sorts. There's a Balzacs Coffee Shop. 'Nuff said.

Needless to say, we've arrived at a most interesting time, and all the more so because while the 500,000-strong region offers everything one would need in life, the area is still small enough to become involved in stuff. To wit: In the month since we arrived, I've been accepted as an artist contributor to a charity auction later this month, have made it into the 'post-workout-bagel' club with my fellow Rec Centre WaterFit class members (I'll explain that one later), and have infiltrated the University of Waterloo's international spouse gatherings as a sort of special-guest-member. 

Having an accent helps, but really, it just seems like being friendly, open and welcoming is  how KW-ites roll. 

So welcome to town! Grab a Brick brew, pick out a pretzel, and make yourself at home. Something tells me we'll be here for a while.