Giselle General, your friendly, reliable, available guide to living a good life in this awesome city called Edmonton.
Welcome
Welcome! This is Giselle General and this is my personal blog, where I document thoughts and perspectives while living in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, as a Filipina-Canadian navigating various experiences!
After I finished the first round of drafting, I made the deliberate choice to not do revisions on my memoir manuscript since mid-January. Aside from reading the chapters for the reading event in March and organizing sample chapters for funding applications, I haven’t seen all of the other ones. I don’t know why I chose…
By: Giselle General “Writing is a solitary activity, and it is so important to build your community.” I understand that this is a reason why there are many activities, events and gatherings of various forms that are organized to give artists and writers a chance to get together. From workshops that help people learn specific…
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website.…
By:Giselle General The largest, most intimidating, and important activity of the six-month mentorship is showcasing a sample of the work produced during that time. Since I had a very specific goal, a first draft of the manuscript for the memoir, showing a sample of this is not going to be a problem. Speaking in front of a…
Word counts and number of pages heavily influence my approach in writing. From Grade 4 onwards, in multiple classes from Language (English) class and Filipino class, we were required to fill pages upon pages of lined paper with paragraphs on certain topics. Some of them were comically dull, such as “what I did last summer”…
by: Giselle General This year, on top of everything else my husband and I drastically changed, I added one more to the list. I finally started working of my first memoir, my first full-length written work. The initial plan was to publish something right around my 30th birthday last year. That got derailed by two…
By: Giselle General Earlier this month, a high school student volunteer and I were doing some community service work for my neighborhood. It’s a requirement for her Grade 12 Religion Class. She is a Filipino teenager who is relatively new to Canada and Edmonton, being here for just a few years with her experiences limited…
This time around I am going to publicly name two politicians for what they have done! What a timely post shortly after one year since the most recent municipal elections here in Edmonton. Cue scary noises! Actually, I’m just joking, really! I think it helps that they are both former former city councilors, but either…
As an attempt to convince his kids to take dental health seriously, I remembered my father, when I was a kid, basically telling us “don’t be like me!” He had metal dentures for the top of his teeth, and he during one of these conversations, he would take them out of his mouth and show…
By: Giselle General In some ways we are unconventional and I love it! My husband likes to tease me about the ways I have showed ‘public affection’, more specifically, broadcasting about our relationship and marriage. I’d usually respond, “Well, what do you expect when you are married to someone so amazing?” Public Art Around summer…
By: Giselle General It was May 1999, and my family is planning for another set of birthday celebrations. As my brother and I are born on the same month, and less than two weeks apart, the family is not very keen on having two large-scale parties so close to each other. In our small village…
By: Giselle General Content Warning: References to sexual assault, mental health treatment. This story is from my experiences between February and September 2017, a transformative and healing time for me as far as my mental health and outlook in life. February 2017 was when I had my first therapy appointment with the Sexual Assault Centre…
By: Giselle General It may sound silly but yes, I am writing a thank you letter to an object, which is the Little Free Library in a neighbourhood that was a 20 minute walk from my home. These are my thoughts after reading a book I got from it, “The First Phone Call From Heaven”…
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: Part 1: Do You Want a Ride? Part 2: I Don’t Want To Be Raped Again Part 3: I’ll Make It…
By: Giselle General This article was also submitted by the author as a contribution to the Alberta Filipino Journal (a cultural/ community newspaper in the province of Alberta, Canada) in June 2022. Managing one’s finances is an important responsibility in order for us to have a comfortable life. But sometimes, unexpected things happen, and we…
By: Giselle General This article was also submitted by the author as a contribution to the Alberta Filipino Journal (a cultural/ community newspaper in the province of Alberta, Canada) in April 2022 In hounour of National Volunteer Week which is on April 24, I would like to share some opportunities and resources when it comes…