Why all the excitement? It's only Edmonton.

Exclamations of affect punctuate this class, have you noticed? Almost every day there is some topic that will set us galloping merrily down one tangent or another, eagerly shouting out our experience, our feelings. It began with hockey -- fierce declarations of love or hatred -- and lately our meanderings have included traffic here and elsewhere and the worthiness of Edmonton as a place to live.

Most of us are in at least our third year of university and, one would imagine, sufficiently educated by this point to feel a sense of ownership over the stuff packed in our heads. But I don't think that's the case. I think we sound out so much in this class because we are finally in a class in which we do know what we're talking about, and the novelty of it is overwhelming. Despite having learned so much, and perhaps because we're constantly in subordinate positions in our classes where we couldn't possibly be the expert on anything, we don't own our knowledge.

I know I know Edmonton. I know 167 Ave turns into Castle Downs Road and then into 113 A Street before running into the dead end of the rail yards; I know that the 9 bus to Southgate carries old grandmas going shopping at Kingsway or downtown, teens on their way to Vic Comp, middle agers heading to their office towers and desk jobs, the odd drunk, lots of moms and dads with strollers and me going to work or home or who knows. I know the petty rivalries of West Side and North Side with their silly, contorted hand signs signaling membership. I know I miss out on a parts of the city familiar and beloved by some because of my particular background, and I know those others miss out on things I love too. I know these things because this is my city, the place I grew up, the place I choose to call my own.

I'm not an Edmonton booster. A lot of the time I think this city is so mediocre, so average, I wonder why people choose to live here. But I know it and it's mine, and the opportunity to speak on a subject I know, with a knowledge I own, is exciting.

I know not everybody feels Edmonton this way, but we all feel this way about some place, the place(s) we call home. Edmonton is enough of a wallflower city that it can stand in for those other places too.

This class is about getting to know this city through the the literary lens. We're learning new things, yes, but for once we're all experts.