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I live in Edmonton, Canada - it's a metropolis with upwards of a million people living in its greater urban area, but pretty small potatoes compared to cities to the south. That suits me just fine. I've lived here nearly all my life, my family is nearby and I get the satisfaction of being a somewhat larger fish swimming in a smaller pool.

However, living in northern climes has coloured my perspective in ways that I can't imagine.

An uncle with a home in Florida mentioned something that I have been mulling over for months. He told me that he was looking at a house at the end of the day in a newly developed area without streetlights. The realtor warned him that the sun would be going down soon and he might get stuck in the development. He scoffed a bit, as any northerner would. In the summer, the sun sets over the course of hours and twilight lingers until nine or ten o'clock. (A winter sunset sometimes happens before you get off work.)

Imagine his surprise when he finished inspecting the house and stepped out into the pitch black streets. He had spent maybe 45 minutes inside, but sunset meant that a line of impenetrable darkness had passed over the area. He stumbled back to the development office, a little shaken and much the wiser.

I have difficulty imagining a world where sunrise means light, sunset means dark, and you get twelve hours of each. I wonder what other simple facts of life exist that are completely beyond my ken. I understand (and mock) the fact that "winter fashions" designed in the States are laughably insufficient for waiting for the bus on a December morning in Edmonton. I guess I can appreciate that some places encourage citizens to purchase bottled water out of fear or dread of what comes out of their taps.

I value the standard of living that I enjoy, but sometimes I wonder at the things I simply don't know. The solution, of course, is travel - that is, if I can shake the comfort of my daily luxury in exchange for expensive trips abroad into unknown dangers, social norms and wondrous discovery.

Does that make me a little provincial? Yes. And that irks me just a bit.