René Lévesque

Enough mush mush.. time to vent...

So we were walking in the parliamentary grounds... and there were all these statues of former Québec premiers, among them, my favorite and most respected, René Lévesque. I know he was a vocal advocate of QC separation, but not in this racist exclusive way this Marois woman does. I have always claimed that it is hard to be a separatist without being a racist, with the one exception of René Lévesque. Besides he fits my ideal human - he gave his life for the cause that he thought was right (and actually under him I would have voted for separation, if I hadn’t known what crazy successors he would have, and Marois is not alone, Parizeau also comes into mind...), lived a common man’s life smoking and having café in your neighborhood coffee shops (in those good old days when you could smoke inside coffee shops and politicians could exist without body guards) and also apparently dressed shabbily and smoked his life away (as evidence by the missing button on his statue). To clarify, I don’t care too much for smoking and being the health freak I am prefer non-smoking, but I advocate the right of an adult human being to do what they want... and smoking does impart some romantic idealism.... :) So anyway, this group of people walk up to his statue, clearly at least some of them were Quebecois francophone, just said a couple jokes and posed for photos, hugging the statue or cradling their head in his larger than-life palms... and they did not say a word, about the struggles of the man who fought so they could walk freely and speak French without embarrassment, here in Québec. I wonder what René Lévesque would have said about that episode... probably taken a deep breath of nicotine and said “c’est la vie”... I on the other hand am disgusted...

Bye bye Québec

In a fitting tribute to the place I called home for more than two years, the place I felt most in sync with its people, I spent the last weekend as I did my first weekend here. That warm summer first weekend in June of 2008, I went to Québec City, by train, for a conference (like I wrote here). This cold snowy last weekend in February, I went there again, by train. It wasn’t planned to be all nostalgic... I just realized this while I was on the train... That first weekend I took the train with a whole bunch of people who were in awe of me (and me of them) and we seemed really to like one another. Today two of them are all but estranged, two of them remain close friends... Today I took the train with my best friend, (so best that I will list him as my emergency contact in all the bureaucratic documents in Vancouver and Japan) and my closest confidante. What will our future bring?

Hôtel de Glace

we froze here.... cos Montreal isn't freezing enough, right?

I wasn't too impressed by this... maybe because it was too cold (but drinking cocktails off these ice glasses and then just throwing them away in the corner... well that was cool...). But stopping by in the romantic St Saveur on our way back for dinner... that was cool...

So we were talking in English. Not because we hate French; in fact my friend was the very francophone separatist, and I really want to speak French. But, of course my French is not very good, so we tend very much to talk in English. Upon hearing us converse in English, these two anglophone women, from Ontarion I believe (anyway, not from Quebec) run upto us and say "oh good you speak English... No one here speaks English... we were wondering how to have someone take our picture. Can you take a picture of both of us". My francophone boy friend obliged readily as I stewed in the corner muttering "shut up you stupid ugly racist bitches! You don't need to speak any language to have somebody take your picture. We had many pictures of ours taken when we were in China by the very non-English speaking Chinese people and oh we don't speak any of the Chinese languages... Did you forget your basic human body language skills? I bet you did... You are so encompassed by your stuck up bitchy skills. I know, those francophones do look like a whole bunch of teeth-baring savages, but they won't bite I promise my princess!". They were both pretty ugly... and fat...

Romantic Quebec

Land of fairy tales... and the first time I was able to totally get away speaking only French in Quebec...




















Chateau Frontenac and a rare instance here in Quebec, where both the Quebec and Canadian flags fly high. (The Federal government pays for the maintenance of this national heritage site)

















joie de vivre - one of the many street performers in Quebec. He insisted I take this picture, I took it just to please him, but it turned out pretty good.... And it never dawned on me that 'American Pie' had such wonderful lyrics...

P Bears

I don't normally like to visit zoos, as the pathetic looking animals make me sad... I am split in my opinion about zoos themselves however, as I understand it is the best way to educate kids on what animals we have on this planet and raise global/environmental awareness in them...

So I was dragged in to the Quebec City zoo, kicking and screaming... well not quite, it was raining, so we were limited in what we could do....

I was watching these polar bears, knowing that anytime now I am gonna cry... but as I was waiting to be poked in my eye, it dawned on me that these guys, specially the girl, are actually having a really good time... Look at her play with her makeshift toy... But then apparently she injured herself, so when we came back she was taken away to a different cage and the boy was by himself... now he looked super sad... awww...

But anyway, it made me think... if you had never experienced the limitless spaces in the wild, what would you really miss by being in a zoo? They were both born in captivity....