l'salon des métiers d’art du Québec

The French Butter dish from l'alon des métiers d’art du Québec (the fair of the Quebec artisans) and healthy, whole wheat home made from scratch bread... :)

The artisan fair made me think complex thoughts... - to see all these people who make all these cool things that are buyable at Ikea for less than $5. How do they make a living doing these things? Should I support these artisans and thereby artificially sustain their bussiness and hope there would be many more people who'd do the same? But then what will happen if/when the masses flock to Ikea and ignore these artisans? But then I want these bussinesses to sustain - I easily tire off Ikea's generic patterns...

Then there was this guy from rural Quebec who makes these wood board games and he told me all about his games, some games which he himself had designed. But he was selling them for $100 which was full worth the price, but how many times in a person's life time can they shell out $100 for a board game...? I felt soooo soo bad for him...

Anyway, so one of my friends and I were chatting and she goes like 'so how was the artisan fair?' and I expressed my thoughts, to which she said "oh no... don't be sad... you can not save them... you know what I do? I pray to God to take care of them."

Another reason why I think religion should be abolished from the face of the earth - it fosters irresponsibility. People fail to take responsibility for their actions (or inactions as was the case here) and hide behind 'prayers'. I think it is really sweet that some people still believe in God and all, but for all of human history we know that God did not give those artisans' kids food or education...

The few socially concious people (I am not one, I have but a long long way to go before I am socially concious enough to make a difference...), make the existence of such hypocrites even more possible, because by taking action, they allow the hypocrites to be even more hands-off and even proclaim "see, my prayers were answered!!"

This obviously totally blew my lid off, but I did keep it cool, because I work with her and have to do so for at least 1.5 more years. And thus I became one of those many people who timidly keep silent for selfish reasons...

As she in her very sweet way tried to console me, I did say to her though just in one simple sentence, how I wanted to never stop feeling this way.

And that said off we went for beer - having said our prayers, our job here was done... we could rest and enjoy our beers...

The ballet of the snow plows

soooo... since I am constrained to stay at home with a sprained elbow from a fall, not while I was skating in the Old Port's Bonsecours Island skating rink, but while I was returning home; Such is how much de-icing is done in Montreal...

Did I mention that Montreal does not believe in salt - something about the environment or something... eh... They picked the environment over their people!!

I am still holding the mayor and the Ville Marie borough responsible (last year the city paid 0.5 million in compensation to people who slipped on ice... hmmm I can surely use some money...). But I do appreciate the snow plowers task really, for what the city is giving them, I think they do a splendid job.

And I can spend a whole day watching their carefully choreographed ballet.

First come these guys, pushing away the snow.

Then come these guys (there are two of them moving in exact synch), actually removing the snow.

Then these guys clearing more snow, including from the sidewalks.

More pushing snow...

And these tiny guys, who for some reason that I didn't quite get, always move around in pairs, come along and clean the sidewalk. These guys are very cute infact; they sit at the end of the sidewalk waiting for the big guys to go around and then immediately buzz in to action. Sort of like one of those "while the cat's away..." situations.

Several times this guy and another smaller sedan will follow the plows checking to see if the roads a drivable.


And this cycle repeats several times, drowning the whole night in that soothing hum only snow plows can make, lulling us all to sleep, while themselves staying up all night and making sure our tomorrows look fantastic like this :

Snow Removal/Clearing is often a thankless job... But really it is the bureaucracy that gets blamed, not these tireless snow plowers themselves. In any case I do find the whole process quite fascinating, but thought I'll keep my nerdy enthusiasm to myself, when one day one of my friends declared, it was her dream job to drive one of those tiny cute side walk snow plows... and her boyfriend loves watching them snow plows too... Is it any wonder that they are my best friends in Montreal?

Adopt a cat day...

Today I went with a couple of my friends to get a cat for them from a shelter. They had already picked this one by looking online, and as you can see she's not the prettiest kitty in the world... I know it was mostly the girl's choice, and by picking this not so cute kitty, she totally re-wrote herself in my mind.... Wow wow wow.... Talk about not being shallow....

The kitty was sooo curious once we got home, checking out every corner in the apartment... I know in a couple months she'll grow to be the cutest cat ever...

Ironically today's front page article was about yet another puppy mill being bust here in Montreal!

I am still stumped for words by my friend's pick...

Girls need not offer to help...

So after my ordeal with my own car, I shower and take a nice hot water bath to ease off my now soar back, and I am sitting in my apartment with a nice hot tea, and I see this - someone else going through the same ordeal for his car.

I really don't want to shovel, but I'm thinking, since some stranger offered me help, I need to return the gesture... So I put on my coat and mitts and go outside - 'please please say no' I am thinking... I go up to him and am like "Avez-vous besoin d'aide"... he took one look at me from head to toe and said "vous?" as in "what do you think you can do?"

I was truly glad he said no... but my services were more like run the car while he was pushing or something...

Later this week I will learn from people at school, that girls don't have to offer to help boys plow snow... It has not sunk into me yet, but I will surely keep that in mind... I guess it is years of hanging out with boys (including these ones at school) who complained about how easy a girl's life is because every body is ready to help girls, but it's not so for boys, that has made me think otherwise...

it was snow AND ice!!!

What I did not realize was that it was not only a snow storm but a snow+ice storm... Nice... The doors of my car were iced shut when I tried to unlock them and take out my shovel and scraper.... Awww Man....

There still weren't any sign of snow removal in the city as of Wednesday (which meant I didn't have to move my car just yet)...

Went and got a new secondary scraper and one of those de-icers for locks, even though it isn't my lock that is frozen. Read online among many tips, throwing hot water on your car should solve the problem... mmmmm... me thinks not....

Thursday morning: able to nicely open the car and clear the car within half hour with no use of chemicals (or hot water!!!). The signs were up to move your car by 7pm for snow removal (which I learned just yesterday, is different from snow clearing). Started shovelling around - ooopsyy... the ice plus the packed snow from the snow 'clearing' made it a very pleasant task indeed! Not! Between my hands with poor blood circulation and the bitter cold, it was taking me forever... Then a nice man came up to me and said "Avez-vous besoin d'aide?"... and I was like "are you kidding me? I need lots of help..." Anyway with his help I managed to shovel off and move my car out (he had to go bring his metal garden spade to break the ice and then he actually pushed my car).

I felt soooo greatful afterwards that I thought I should put a thank you card in his mail box, so after introducing ourselves, I asked "so where do you live?". He just vaguely pointed in some direction... He must have thought "geez you help her shovel off the snow and she's already stalking you"...

But really I only wanted to put a thank you card, I swear!! :)

Her first night in the snow...

This is my car's first snow storm, being parked out on the street... Tomorrow's going to be a busy day clearing out all that snow... May be I can avoid going to the CEPSUM (that's our gym) during winter...

Santa Claus does not exist, but elves do

considering that we had only alcohol and no pot, I think that was a bold statement...

All those people

I have never seen this many people wait for the metro at the Universite de Montreal station... but then I never leave school at 5pm like I did this day...

Workaholism? Is that a bad thing? If you are doing what you enjoy, then it should be ok, right? But then how come people always look down upon it? There is however, something disturbing about someone, oh say a run co-ordinator, who checks the experiment's online run information, during his honeymoon!!! But I don't know what exactly it is that is disturbing about it - I just feel disturbed... People say he's got no life; but shouldn't life be what you like????

Did you know that workaholic is a word, but workohol is not!? This from some upcoming comedian at comedy central...

Freedom of expression

I think every country has its fair share of nice people and not so nice people. I hate to think that some geographic region in the world has a higher concentration of either. But, most days I am amazed at what a high concentration of really nice people Montreal has, like this time this guy that I had asked for directions, got off the bus and came looking for me because I got off the wrong stop or this other time when this woman I had asked for directions saw me cringe my gloveless fingers in the cold and took off her own gloves and asked me to wear them till we got to the metro.

But somedays Montreal saddens me like this (this from the #30 bus that I take every day)-



I have known people, from a particular region of the world (that shall remain nameless here), express their angry views about the suppression of free speech in the United States, the suppression as in 'you can not say anything against black people. you know what that does? it makes people stew inside and one day it is going to burst open and it ain't gonna be pretty' they said. In their opinion the solution, to allow hate speech.... hmmm hmmm hmmmm.... If someone has some hateful thought, shouldn't we consider *that* a problem and see how we can erradicate such thoughts? Me thinks, the solution to that problem ain't letting them express themselves... Thank goodness most people in the world think like I do...

cold and dull and boring...

Yep, it is winter in this part of the world.... Montreal, like Minneapolis, is quite sunny despite. But somedays are pretty gloomy... I could not stand it anymore - got some cheery little plants for myself. I have always thought flowering plants are so uncool, till I started living in these northern winters...

These are gonna be my babies, since I think I am not getting Max after all :(

la defile du Pere Noel

the procession of Father Christmas

Christmas... probably the only time of the year that I don't go like, "why couldn't my parents be like Jason' parents and not baptize me and allow me to chose when I understood?"... the one time, that I am secretly happy that I was brought up with a Christian concept... oh wait, Christmas, or most of Christmas that I get all nostalgic about, is actually pagan tradition.... That's good to remember, as this Christmas, my first ever with a place of my own, I contemplate if I should get a Christmas tree or not... Is it ok, to cut a tree for just a month? But they're farmed trees... hmmm... Life's persisting questions... And no, I will not get an artificial tree, no way, no how... real tree or no tree...

These cheesy Christmas parades always make me very nostalgic. I try to analyse what it is that makes it so... Is it remembering a fun childhood? Is it natural human tendancy to romanticize the past? Is it watching happy people, people, who just for today, put aside their worries to be happy? Either way. you can bet there will be at least one weird person with tears rolling down her cheeks, as Santa rolls along... ho ho ho....

hey they even had a float with many flags, and it didn't have a Quebec flag!!!?? Ah yes, Quebec is not a country, yet...

Another enthusiastic parent, and the kid could barely keep his eyes open...

singing those Christmas carols that I love...

And a float from the Montreal firefighters. Where do they find these cute cute cute kids' fireman suits?

Home... I used to call it that...

It was so fun and nostalgic going back to see the place that was my home for almost 7 years... But as I have often concluded, "the past was great, but I am glad for where I am right now". And may be it is the gypsy in me, but I feel that no place was great enough that I did not want to leave... I do get a little tired though of re-investing all that time and energy in building new and meaningful friendships, thus I cling to the few close friends from the past.

So put me on a highway
Show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time
- Eagles, in Take It to the Limit One More Time

May be some day, someone or someplace will show me magic and I will stay...

I got started and wrote some of my thesis in this non-profit coffeshop, bodertown cafe, near school. And once I played chess here with a friend...

It was fun going back and recounting lots of very happy memories and even a few not so happy ones and know that I survived; but it's good to be back.

There is, after all, no place like home! :)

They said this day would never come...

they said.. they said ... they said this day would never come... they said our sights were set too high...
- Barack Obama, Jan 03, 2008 (after winning the Iowa caucus)

and tonight the people who were not afraid to dream, just because of the possibility that their dream will be shattered, had their dreams come true.... Regardless of the fact that the US is not a country run by just one individual (and thank goodness for that!), history was made today!! Not just for Americans, but for the whole world - for countries like mine, who can now look into themselves and try to see more than is visible to the naked eye.

Montreal went more gaga over Obama tonight, than it did over their own elections a couple weeks ago... who can blame them...

Ok, now this is cheesy - but I got to put a part of Obama's victory speech here. It would be incomplete a blog entry, if I don't, in a night that saw two beautiful speeches; in McCain's, the old man of principles (even though not necessarily principles that I agreed with), before the fierce campaign turned him into a election puppet, came through...

But no one beats the oratory skills of Obama, specially when he uses the "creed of the American people" - "yes we can" :

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

- Barack Obama, Nov 04th, 2008, in his victory speech of the presidential elections

a bus for myself

Most days I am the only one taking bus #30 for the last 8-10 blocks. There have been times that the driver did not see me, thought no one was in the bus and turned the other way; a couple times the driver has yelled at me "ou allez-vous ? Est-ce que je aller a gauche ou a droite?" to have me emerge from my own little dream bubble and say in my broken French "I get off at the last stop". They must just love me... the very last stop...!!!

But a couple times this has led to some chit chatting with the driver, hey one driver even asked me "are you from Sri Lanka?"!!!! whoa whoa whoa.... I come from a place where some people asked "are you from India?" and when I said I was from Sri Lanka didn't even know where that was... well, this, is truly a cosmopolitan city...

Pride of Quebec

Hôtel du Parlement (House of Parliment), Quebec City, the oldest "European" settlement in North America standing at a mere 400 years, with the Quebec flag flying high and mighty at the top there!

The word "European" goes inside quotes, because it is often an omitted word and in an attempt to differ from the recent comments of McGill University chancellor (who btw has a great name!!)-

"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European origin, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization." — Dick Pound, McGill Chancellor and former vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

and a half-assed apology that followed - "but, sauvage in French has different meaning than savage in English"... hmmm the last time I checked McGill is a very English language university... and my m-w French-English dictionary says "Sauvage = savage, wild, unsocial, shy"... I will stop now on that...

But, that was a tangent... what I really was thinking when I took this picture was this:

So this Quebecois guy in school (that I don't have to work much... phew!!) was on a roll with this rant against the Federal government (no, I know, that's not news). And among the many things he says to me there's also,

the Federal government just opens the door to all sorts of immigrants. What happens when non-French speaking immigrants come here? The slowly turn this also into a non-French speaking place. We don't mind if they come in a and assimilate; see if they want they can do their cultural thing inside their homes, but otherwise they should learn the French language and promote the French culture. See if we separate from Canada we can have our own rules about who we allow in here and what we do with the people that come

Huh??????? Now I ain't no immigrant, but as an expatriate I am closest to the immigrants I think. What bothers me is not so much that he thinks so, but that he tells *me* this and expects me to agree. It's like the Caucasian Minnesotan woman who once told me about 'some professor getting married to a *little brown thing*'!!! What goes on through these people's heads when they say these? Are they just not seeing me as a 'little brown thing'/immigrant/outsider or are they just plain KKK-like?

The Quebecois finishes off with "you know Quebecois are really nice people" to which I smile wearily. By this time he is totally eating his foot, so like people who try to dig themselves out so often dig them themslves deeper, he says, "I challenge you to find nicer people in the rest of Canada"... and I am like "errr... yeah, now that you have told me how unwelcome I am and how I should learn French and cook French and if I want to do Sri Lankan stuff I could do it withing the confinement in my own home, yeah it's gonna be pretty hard to beat that level of niceness".

In general just this Gaussian tail Quebecois does not define Quebec for me. Just like the American who said after 9/11 "I know these kinds of things (bombing) happens in the rest of the world, but this is America" did not define the US for me. In many ways I met some really nice and open minded, sometimes more so than some people back in Sri Lanka, Minnesotans. Just like that, out of all the Quebecois I met just this one, and may I add just this time, expressed such racist remarks to me. In Montreal, actually I felt way more welcome that I initially did in Minnesota. It would be a just a bit unfair for me forget all those extremely nice and warm people in favour of this guy.

And then last Wednesday there was this -

Future immigrants to Quebec will be required to sign a declaration promising to learn French and respect Quebec's "shared values," the government announced on Wednesday.
- National Post, Oct 29, 2008

Hmmmm... who will suffer if Quebec curtails immigrants like this? In the recent past most Physics Nobel prizes have gone to the US, but it is often so that these physicists were not born or even educated in the US. The US is the country it is today because of its attitude towards immigrants, these days; an attitude which is different from the days of Ellis Island immigrants. I am not saying the US does not have racism, and yes, it does have a long way to go. But I can't help but think that it is far far ahead of pretty much all the other countries, certainly ahead of Sri Lanka. People say Europe is open minded, but where is the Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, Powell etc of Europe? Not that they were all great people, but still...

This is a joker document that the Quebec government is going to get people to sign. So they are gonna give the immigrants free French language/culture classes. But what are they seriously gonna do if they don't adhere to this French culture after they immigrate? Ah yes... lynch them... I forgot...

To clarify, I am actually one of those people who likes to absorb new cultures and ways. I cook a variety of cuisine - seldom is it that I make Sri Lankan. I am dead serious about learning French and so on... But it is an individual choice I make... I don't want these forced down my throat - it will only make me rebel. Yes, so this means that I should ramp up my French learning... pretty soon I am going to resist learning it...

If a culture is dying, why should we hang on to it and artificially keep it going? Imagine if we had dinosaurs walking among us in 2008!!!

This picture, a beautiful building shrouded in darkness, even though the sun is right behind it, very nicely captured my thoughts of the past week. You can see a rainbow though - the famous 22 degree halo...

First snowflakes to stay...

and this morning some snowflakes had formed these pretty ice fractals and stayed... there were none near my home, but closer to school (the university is built on to Mount Royal) it had been cold enough for them to stay... And here's what Mount Royal looked like from the bus... covered by a thin white blanket...

I ain't taking my winter coat out till Novemeber... I just ain't...

First Snow fall

Tonight the first snow flakes hit the Montreal atmosphere like this... By this time I was nicely tucked away in my apartment with a mug of hot chocolate... It is very interesting to watch the motion of light snow flakes tracing wind movement and turbulence created by cars swishing below...

The snow won't stay, it's too warm. Still most days Montreal beats Minneapolis to colder... Come on, I mean *come on* Minneapolis...

Halloween

This would then be the first pumpkin I carved.... I was impressed really, for someone with no artistic talent I thought I did well...

Now the apartment smells burned pumpkin soup...

Brrrrrrrrrr....

All summer long, I told these Montreallers that Montreal will have to wow me with something else, Minnesota blew me away with its coldness and then there's this... C'mon Minnesota... live up to your standards....

BTW, why does everyone fight to be colder than everyone else?? I guess it's to say that cold is character building so the colder your place is, the stronger you are or so... I say to those people who think enduring physical hardship is character building, go to grad school, take an oral exam, defend a thesis....

some Irish...

You don't ever wanna go to Hurley's on Crescent on the day of a hockey game - it is close to the Centre Bell, home of the Canadiens and after the game you have a whole lot of hockey fans storming just about any bar, but what better fun than a good ol' Irish bar that is named after a stick that looks like a hockey stick... :)

This night was not a game night (oh but the Canadiens won yesterday their home opener against the Boston Bruins - gooooo Canadiens!!). The music was good; Dave, Bill, Liam and Ashley - three middle aged men and this really cute 20something girl.

However, it was the ambiance that warrants a blog entry. It was 10pm and there were all these men dressed in executive office garb. What makes a person work till 10pm? Someone suggested there must have been a conference and the locals brought them to this bar. I thought of all the conferences I've been to and remembered the times people got totally wasted and acted out. There's something about being an outsider in whatever town, that allows so much freedom, to act out pretty much however you want to. It is fun though, as long as it is somewhat under control...

Tonight I was told "well this is still better than a whole bunch of anglophone teenagers in here - they are so loud and rude". In my mind kids are kids - they are loud and rude, and actually I am not that bothered by their attitude... But because I have never distinguished kids of a specific nation as being louder and ruder than the rest, I immediately asked "so you think Francophone kids are not like that?" and they proceeded to discuss in earnest and finally decided 'no Francophone kids are not like that; they are more calm and sweet' yeah riiiight... how adorable... Oh the person who actually said this in the first place is Greek; other than when she says things like this I think she's a nice girl actually - in general she totally re-writes my notion of them Greeks!

I must say, I have not experienced an across the board difference between Francophone and Anglophones...

In case news about the Canadian election beat the US election coverage to you and you heard that Quebec was taken (2/3rds!!) by the separatist party, Bloc Quebecois - yes all of my Quebecois friends voted for them. It was very interesting to see all the immigrants, the German person, the Ukrainian person and the Chinese person in the building either voted NDP or Liberal. All my Quebecois friends, who still swear that they are not for separation, voted for this separatist party. But it is not that simple - the Liberals, the major opposition party was very weak this time, in fact this is why the Conservative prime minister called an election. And the Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, even though a very nice and grounded person, had no personality at all. Then I heard the Liberals had some issues with taking bribes or so a few years back. Most people that I know, didn't like the current Prime minister, Stephen Harper, who is btw a wacko like Bush, sooo... and then the NDP was too small a party... so anyone who wanted to make a statement and keep a healthy opposition to Harper, voted for the Bloc. Well anyone who wanted that and the separatists!!! Just last week, when I was in Sudbury, I was told by an Onatrian, that just about every Francophone Quebecois is pro separatist, even though they might not want to admit it... Now I think, even though not entirely true, it might have a grain of truth to it...

Eh... how people try so hard to differentiate themselves from the rest...

Home sweet home

Looking towards home from Mount Royal... Where is home anyway!? Home is where I wan t to come back to when I go on vacation or for work... and that is now my apartment in Montreal...

That green bridge is pont Jacques-Cartier (Jacques-Cartier bridge) and my home is behind that tall brown building this side of the bridge. It is only a four story building, so you can't see it here...

Cafe Pi

where I go when I don't have enough 'nerd' in my life... like the weekends, when I experience nerd withdrawal... and then I get to practice my French too...

It is a hippy (as in lot of vegetarian selections) and eclectic (like Montreal is...) cafe on the busy and lively Blvd. St Laurent that is famous for chess. A lot of people there are people who played in tournaments at some point in their lives, if not now.

So when I go and ask to play, they are always skeptical. But nobody has refused me upto now, I guess they don't want to hurt my feelings, or they feel 'ah what the heck, it's some girl...' :) But you know they are always totally undermining me. Now I know those of you who've played chess with me are thinking, rightly so... I ain't no grand master, it's true... But I always surprise them. It is very fun to see them go from taking it really easy to 100% concentration... Most of the time I don't win there, but I do at least have a strong defense and sometime a pretty good offense too.

They say I play a different game. This I think is because I have never sat down with a chess book and learned some traditional chess strategies. My brother did this one time, he got a book and learned this, but this never interested me. I know how the pieces move, and the rest is spontaneous. At the end they are always surprised that I held the game for about 1hr. So they go around telling everyone how good I am... So now when I go to Cafe Pi, I go there also for the much needed ego-boost...

Ok, now people tend to think of girls as eye-candy (this from my very politically incorrect former office mate) and I think I am no exception. Now I should be offended right? I know, but somehow I am not... May be because I feel like I am truly a nerd, so I can use some eye-candy attitude... So when I sit to play chess, I imagine these people see me this way. And I just totally love this... I never volunteer to tell people what my profession is. I hold it back as long as I can. But often, like at the end of a well played chess game, the curiosity gets the better of them, and they itch to know what I am doing... After some tinkering of their thoughts I tell them what I am and there jaws drop... I just love this... :)

6800ft underground...

This is what it looks like 6800ft underground; I was trying to capture something that differentiated 6800ft from 2100 ft underground (other than the sign that said 6800!!), but to no avail. But 6800ft is cooler than 2100ft, not just because it is deeper, but also because it has normal toilets!!! Whoever said life is no walk in the park, was a grad student working in the Soudan mine...

View from my balcony

looking at the east edge of downtown...

Above the brown building there you can see the teeniest bit of Mount Royal there...

Marathon Oasis de Montreal

The Montreal Marathon is underway - these pics right from my balcony... (on a side note, even though I initially missed the St Catherine/Crescent neighborhood, I am beginning to like this prime spot of my current apartment more and more...)

While it is not the Chicago marathon, the Montreal Marathon attracts quite a few people from all over the world -

We have runners from 28 countries, 30 of the United States and every province in Canada. Montreal is back on the international map for running.
- Montreal Gazette, September 13th, 2008

They had a full marathon, that went right by my home, a half marathon (one of the people at work ran this), cycling, walking, petit marathon (1km for kids, adorable!!) and a bunch of others... It was cool... See this dad and kid - there were several of those, people with their kids on the cycling one.

I will have to do this next year, I should decide if it is going to be the marathon or the cycling thingy...

bread

... for the hungry!! :)

Made bread from scratch (the shapes are all weirded out because I was doing my shift and shaping the bread at the same time...

Nothing says childhood home like the smell of of fresh baked yeast bread... mmmm.... My mom used to make them every week...

OMG they mentioned MN...

They had this poster in the Montreal Port Open House exhibit that mentioned MN... I was sooooo excited.... even though it talked about MN mine filelds. Hey but I was part of one of those mines, so....

Oh I should say, the other day I had some Montreallers over at my place, and I have all these Minneapolis pictures on my walls. They were quite surprised that Minneapolis was such an urban place... yes, that's right Montreallers, Minneapolis does have roads and bridges.... and tall buildings...

People blame Americans for being ignorant, which most of them are. But the rest of the world is not much different. My brother brought up a fine point the other day. You can not expect people who don't have enough to eat to know about Kazakhstan, he said, so you can not use that against poor countries. So yes, they are excused, but the last time I checked, Canada was a developed country, so.... Ignorant Americans, ignorant Canadians, ignorant Brits,... all the same to me....