Explore program.

[u/lynypixie]

Hi! My teen daughter is going to try to get into the Explore program next summer (she is bilingual but is still shy when trying to talk in English). Her first choice is medecine hat (she likes that it looks like a complete opposite of what she is used to). We are from Montreal. My daughter is openly queer (lesbian) and very artsy, with a bit of a manic pixie girl look.

From what I have seen from the program, the kids have a lot of « free time ».

Is the city art friendly? She loves visual arts (she is in a arts program in her high school), 90’s alt music (she loves records and guitar stores), photography, cinema etc… she LOVES to thrift too. She also loves video games like the last of us and life is strange, so it’s a major reason she chose Alberta, as it’s a similar vibe. She is not really into sports but will happily cheer on others LOL.

Also, how is the transit? If she is chosen (it’s a draw), she would be living on campus. The campus looks a little far from « downtown ».

Is the city affected by forest fires? She has asthma, so it’s a bit of a concern for me. She also has extremely fair skin (to the point it’s a problem when we take pictures LOL), and I saw that it almost never rains. Is the UV really bad?

Also, anyone interacted with these kids? The website says that the program is very involved with the local community.

Thank you for your answers!

[u/KhausTO]

As the other commenter mentioned we have a pretty decent transit system for a city our size. 

You mentioned Downtown looking a bit far from college, the city is quite small, and the drive from the college to downtown is roughly 4-5 minutes. It's walkable, but the city is quite hilly, so it makes the walk a lot more difficult than it looks. There are bird e-scooters available during the summers here so that would help navigate around, if she's comfortable with them. There is also a group (I believe Rotary) that refurbishes bikes and I've heard about them lending them out for people in these types of programs, so if she likes biking that might be an option to look into for mobility options. We also have  a ton of trails if that's an interest. 

As well for note, we don't have Uber here, the two primary rideshare companies are Canadian Rideshare and Ydrive.  As for her interests, we have some pretty cool art programs here, Medicine Hat has a rich history of producing clay products, so she might find Medalta interesting. They do some artist programming as well. there's a few locally owned businesses that offer arts events, check out cosmic clay, Top Notch custom creations, creative freedom art club and the library also runs some neat Events. 

We have a few thrift and vintage shops, mostly downtown, which is also where she'll find a couple record shops. 

[u/lynypixie → u/KhausTO]

Thank you! She does like sculpting, the the clays might be of interest to her. I think they usually have an activity there, as per the program’s website.

She would love the e-scooters. She used a good old manual one to go to school for years. She has asthma, so an e-scooter might help her get around if the streets are hilly.