The Royal BC Museum is one of the best museums in the world! I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of British Columbia, and seeing the objects that shaped its history.
I was surprised at how ignorant I was about America's beautiful neighbor, Canada.
It made me aware how ethnocentric my culture is, and even though I think I'm "above" that, my world has centered on American history, American culture, and responding to America's take on this and that in the world.
Canada.
Canada I learned is very rich in natural resources, and hundreds of years ago Captain Cook "discovered" the natural resources of what is now British Columbia, the ninth of ten provinces in Canada.
When Captain Cook arrived, he found much animal fur.
Next he went to Asia where he was shocked that his sea otter pelt sold for the equivalent of two years worth of work!
Realizing the new world was a "gold mine" of natural resources, the British colonized British Columbia, the far western province of Canada.
This past week, Prime Minister Harper publicly apologized to First Nation People for his English ancestors that made the Natives learn their language and customs.
An impressive display about climate change, shows how global warming is negatively impacting British Columbia's land, sea, animals, insects, and trees right now.
Creatures normally located, say, in Southern California are making their way to B.C., which is increasingly becoming a Mediterranean climate.
Rattlesnacks, to name one of many creatures, are migrating north and making B.C. a new home. (You could say I'm another creature migrating north).
Salmon in need of cold streams to spawn are dwindling in numbers here.
The Pine Beetle is one of B.C.'s greatest threats from climate change.
The tiny beetle eats away at Pine Trees, which are plentiful throughout Western Canada. When the freezing cold sets in, they are killed off and the trees are saved.
But now that the freezing cold isn't coming, forests are disappearing.
There's a National Geographic IMAX theatre at museum and I saw a wonderful movie called Wired to Win--Surviving the Tour de France. It's about the power of the brain.
The movie followed competitors in the Tour de France, and showed how practicing bicycling created stronger synapse connections in the brain.
If I summed up show: When you fall of your bike, you get up and try again, and again, and again. And each time, your brain weaves stronger pathways, making subsequent efforts easier.
If you're in Victoria, check out the Royal BC Museum and if you can ask for the docent Barbara Sawicki--she was wonderful, quite informative!
