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2011-10-11

A Train Ride To Experience Canada Line

At 8:00 p.m., Saturday October 8th of 2011, I went for a ride of Canada Line from Waterfront Station to Richmond Station. The purpose of this ride is to experience Canada Line and to initiate generating creative ideas and thoughts regarding the coming up Canada Line public art project. And below is a short video clip that I took in the sky train using my phone.

When I was waiting for the train, I started to look around the place. The truth is that was my third time actually for taking a ride of Canada Line. Of course the train of Canada line is much more advanced compare to the normal sky train, as the line is very recently built. One big difference that I firstly noticed between normal sky train and this ride is the location set. Canada Line is built up all underground. The ceiling of the platform is very low, which makes everything in this space have a condensed tone. The  wall and floor are made of rock. The color of the floor and the wall is a combination of light brown and yellowish color under the bright yellow lights. The wall on the other side of the train track is a darker brownish color. The weather was a little cold that day, and the air underground felt wet and cool. People were standing in front of the yellow waiting line. It was night time, and probably because of the cold weather, people were not exactly behaving very active. Most of them were just standing there quietly, and once a while moving their legs for a limited range of walk to warm themselves up. The color of people's clothes was more to a darker tone, and from their wearing jackets, thin coats, and shirts you could tell the step of early winter was already slowly approaching to this city. The other fact that I have noticed among the waiting group was that a large percent of them was Asians. It could be caused by the fact that this ride was going to Richmond, where large percent of Asians inhabited. I have only been in Richmond twice. According to my high school classmates, you can almost speak Mandarin in every shop at Richmond. I have a very complicated feeling towards Richmond and the idea of speaking mandarin to other Chinese-Canadians. Many people in Richmond seemed to be quite able to use cantonese, chinese, and english as languages, but I felt weird the last time when I visited. I saw them speaking Mandarin with all different accents, but it felt just not correct. And I saw them, very similar to Chinese people like my hometown, but there was something about their characteristics that made me feel immediately separated from them, like an invisible wall of subconscious feelings that stop me from feeling close or comfortable to talk to them. They were like Chinese, but they were really not Chinese. And that knowledge made me feel even more alone and alienated when I was there.

Anyway, the train arrived, and I stepped into the train. The inner space of the train was much wider compare to other sky train tracks. The light was fluorescent white light. I could see lots of reflections of light reflected from the glass windows, door windows, and light greenish floor. When the train was started, the speed was fast, and the ride was really smooth. I could merely sense a speed change or any loud train track noise. Even people's conversations were quite gentle. The train track carried on driving through a tunnel, which was not that dark due to the bright lights along the walls of the tunnel. The tunnel under the lights had a brown yellowish color. Yet between the lights there were dark shadows. The tunnel felt narrow and long. I started to think what if the train would be under the sea, and the tunnel became transparent to us, would we be able to see all weird deep sea creatures? Even if it was not under the sea, just have the tunnel transparent, would we be able to see the creatures live underground, like mouse, snake, and bugs? What if the creatures were really huge? What if we were actually in an unknown, mystical world underneath the ground? Then the tunnel became wider and brighter. Suddenly I saw more yellowish light and brightness coming through the glass window. The space became much wider, and I saw more colorful advertisement plates on each side of the walls. I then see another group of people waiting at the platform. Then the train stopped. Somehow, the train ride process reminded me of birth, like how a baby was struggling out of the narrow space to meet the outer world. Few minutes later, I heard the bell-like music on the train started; another journey was ready to start. 

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