Approved of Quebec Residence

Ok, so after practicing almost every Wednesday, because I have to explain my research to all the awed people at my atelier, I can do this in French without too much trouble. But it turned out the immigration officer was one of those lay people who has extreme enthusiasm about physics.

Mon expérience est 7000ft sous terre à Sudbury.

Ah ouais? C'est ce grand réservoir d'eau qui se regarde les neutrinos?

whoa....

Non, en fait, c'est une expérience de la matière noire.

Ah d'accord. la constante cosmologique, nous sommes alors sûr qu'il est positif?

whoa... encore...

I did manage to plough myself through, though.

well your French is good, besides you seem like a nice
person, so I'll give you the QC approval
- Immigration Officer, QC

"wrong on both counts" I thought... but "yes, I'll take the approval, thank you!" I said...

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...

Napoli

no map, no guide book will ever beat the thrill of wandering aimlessly in any town...


more life around the corner... Napoli... Sri Lankan drivers pale in comparison to Neapolitan drivers... About 10% of the people at any given time, don't give a damn for red lights...

Napoli, Italy

État d'Urgence, Montréal

aka State of Emergency, a five day festival for the homeless in Montreal, organized by the Action terroriste socialement acceptable, French for Socially Acceptable Terrorist Action. Artists from around the province come together and entertain the homeless people in an urban village setting near my home. During the 5 days, le sans-abri, the homeless, are fed, clothed and entertained; but more importantly the non-homeless people are given an opportunity to mingle with them in a non-zoo, non-phobic setting.


Here's a seemingly well to do girl dancing with a sans-abri; if her expression is misleading, it is the photographer's fault - she really enjoyed every moment of it, just as much as this man did, this man with traces of a good looking youth bygone.

Some photographers, keep their distance, clean shaved, lining the wall next to the stage; but yet others mingle with the people, dance and have a good time while taking pictures. I try to learn from the latter. They are also the people who'll talk to you when they see you have a SLR, and offer tips and critique your pics...

The ambiance was exhilarating and thought provoking. Homelessness, whether in Sri Lanka, US or here is sad. But they are all very different. with the tight social/familial network in SL homelesness is of a lesser degree, but if you are homeless, you are only the recipient of benevolence in a patronizing manner. The number of homeless people here is quite large; that comes with the looser social ties of the western society - but the strong middle class supports them in the form of shelters, food shelves etc. And then Montreal goes a step further with events like this.

Still these countries can do much more. Every winter a few homeless people die in the cold, outside, in parks, under bridges. And every time, the shelters talk about how many beds are vacant in a given day. But in reality when these people go to the shelters several things are checked - are they taking their medicine, are the wasted, are they stoned. So people with sizeable egos, refuse to go there... I totally understand the need for such checks at these shelters. But I also have the question - why save a grown human's life, just to crush their soul and rid their ego?

I can't be like this, Frankie. Not after what I've done. I've seen the world. People chanted my name. I got it all. Don't let 'em keep taking it away from me. Don't let me lie here 'till I can't hear those people chanting no more
- Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby

Soulless

I just learnt that ... means speechless; so dot dot dot.

Just a few comments over the past few weeks -

You can not buy a mac, you used to come in here and harass him for having a mac and now you buy a mac - I lost all respect for you

But I thought about it; I wanted an all in one desktop, but was refusing to buy and Apple just cos it is an Apple - doesn't that make me as crazy as an Apple cult member who buys stuff just because they are an Apple thing? I don't want to be close minded - I want to be open minded...

No Apple yet - I am trying to decide between getting a 27" and not parting with 2000 of my hard earned Canadian dollars. In reality, the 21.5" should be more than enough for me, like one of my Canadian (ahem... sorry, I meant to say Quebecois) friends pointed out... Should I, as a Sri Lankan, be ashamed that I am taking anti-supersize advice from an occidental person? How does someone who watched all of South Park, Colbert Report and dvd's on a 12" li'l laptop, not be satisfied with a 21.5"??? You'd be surprised how... But I am going to be a good girl and live within my means - I think I am settled with the 21.5"

"I do not, and I mean do not, want to turn in to an Apple crazy who stocks their house with iThis and iThat - those iPhones might be cool with their linux capability that allows remote shifts and all sorts of fun stuff, but I ain't getting one"... "Errr... give her a year, she'll come around"

I am going to go with a friend (apparently I need a lot of emotional support when I shell out all that money!!!) and we have been postponing it forever now... it's almost like I shouldn't buy a mac... :)

In the end, I did buy the smaller 21.5" (because of people who said "the 27 is nice, but the 21.5 is nice too", after wavering between the 27" (because of people who said "heck you don't need a 27") and 21.5 (because of people who said "c'mon buy the 27") - I am stubborn like that yes, cutting my nose off to spite my face is not that infrequent with me.... But still thank you everyone for your counsel!

The $500 saved will go towards a new cool camera lens and a donation to the homeless shelter; the very people who are celebrating a 5-day fest today, the very people who, as we were walking home with our expensive toy begged us for a dollar and we said "sorry we don't have any"...

Canadian French

Yesterday the French guy in school became a citizen of Canada in a whole swearing-in ceremony. To commemorate, he put these two flags next to his bureau. I made a whole bunch of Quebec flag printouts (yes, we killed the Amazon rain forest... but it was for a good cause) and put it next to these two flags and had the other two guys, who are Quebecois, put the QC flags next to their bureaus too!! It was sort of in jest, I am very against any sort of nationalism and they all know this very well.






































So they returned the jest, by printing out a Sri Lankan flag and putting it in my bureau...

So I explained the symbolism of the SL flag to these inquisitive Quebecois/Canadians: the orange stripe for the Hindus, the green for the Muslims, the yellow for the Buddhists (and the Christians really don't matter), the Lion because the Sinhalese people come from a lion according to legend (because really, Tamil people don't matter), the sword for authority (because in ancient times everyone was up for a good fight), the 4 bo-leaves for love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity... It has been a while since I thought about my flag... and couldn't help but think of how it is yet another symbol of division; the only part that now appealed to me, the four bo-leaves.

Romantic Mist

As I was going to school today, rather early, at 9:45a (!!!!!! yes, I know... but that's pretty early for me) the whole place was covered with this beautiful mist and I thought it was pretty hauntingly romantic. And then I thought who fed that in to my head - that mist was romantic... So as I was walking with a friend, I said "look at that mist - it's so romantic" and he looked at me puzzled: "what kind of a woman are you?"... ok so at least that is not too generic, at least... kitsch, but not generic...