Detroit and Windsor – A techie transplant on a transnational trek

As most of you may know, Detroit and Windsor are boarder towns. Detroit has a reputation of crime and blight. Windsor has the reputation of being a small Canadian city focused on the auto industry.

Detroit is pretty nice when you look at it from Windsor.

This shot is from Fiona's apartment. You can see Ceasar's casino in the far distance. That is Windsor. — This shot is from Fiona’s apartment. You can see Ceasar’s casino in the far distance. That is Windsor.

Literally 5 minutes from the boarder is the Eastern Market. I went there on a Saturday morning, and it is much livelier.

There is a TON of grafitti in downtown Detroit. I personally like it when it is done in good taste.

2014-10-11 14.46.40 — Quite a large farmers market. Veggies are only sold when the market is open on Saturdays. The meat market across the street is open everyday.

2014-10-11 14.50.34 — Veggies, baked goods, plants.

2014-10-11 14.51.34 — The market is comprised of 3 large buildings structures. At one point, I believe they all used to be full. Now it is about 2/3rds full.

Hopping over the border costs $5 each time. I’ve met quite a few people who live in Windsor, then commute to the US every day. $10/day can really add up. They tell me there is a card which reduces the toll to $4.

I hopped the border to visit Stephan, who has just started at UWindsor. He gave me a tour of the new engineering building. It is very nice. UWindsor was traditionally known for being an automotive-focused engineering school. They have been taking steps to increase their focus to other engineering disciplines, which should do wonders for the whole Windsor/Detroit region.

UWindsors' new engineering building. Nice. — UWindsors’ new engineering building. Nice.

Look at this concrete head! He’s gonna make an awesome engineer.

I brought an air matress and set it up in his dorm room. We literally had beds wall to wall. — I brought an air mattress and set it up in his dorm room. We literally had beds wall to wall.

Cindy also was nice enough to show me around her hometown. Growing up on a border town has given her an interesting perspective. When you live on the border, you have the option to go to a different country to eat lunch. I bet she knows some areas of Metro Detroit better than I know some areas of Toronto. She was even nice enough to introduce me to some of her local Windsorites.

2014-10-11 22.33.16 — Annie’s birthday cake. You ever see an LV cake?

2014-10-11 21.21.39 — Decoration in Ceasars. It’s pretty fancy in there.

I don’t gamble often, because I’m excellent at losing money. I always set a limit, then quit when I hit that. Not this time!

2014-10-12 12.58.43 — Won $250 (US). AWWW YUS.

2014-10-12 00.23.22 — Free entertainment by some band I’ve never heard of.

When you live alone you really appreciate the small gestures. I tend to eat out a lot right now because I don’t have any of my cooking tools, and I want to explore the city. Growing up, food magically appears on the table every day without effort. Now, when someone cooks you dinner its really something special.

2014-10-11 19.49.35 — Damn. This girl can cook some legit Chinese food. I could get used to this:)

I didn’t return home for thanksgiving because I needed the time to adjust to the area. Also, Canadian thanksgiving is on a different day than American thanksgiving. Instead, I celebrated with Cindy’s relatives. They immigrated from China, and this was the first time that they were celebrating thanksgiving. I grew up pretty much Canadian, so this was almost like looking into my grandparents life. I appreciate being both Canadian and Chinese because it gives me twice as many holidays to celebrate.

2014-10-12 20.31.13 — Carving up the thanksgiving turkey. Awesome job, Cindy 🙂

D etroit and Windsor are interesting places to live. Assuming you have a passport, you effectively have access to 2 large cities separated by a river. If you look at the border guard as a permanent traffic jam, you have one big city with twice as many opportunities.