The STRANGEST THING! & the Islands.

Mai 23 (Lundi)
I just gotta tell you this. As I came back from the Islands of Montreal (Sainte-Helen Island) with my friend Tamami, I saw the guy who was in my "some kind of exotic encounter?!" post -> at the metro bk to McGill! His friend (another one) came up to Tamami and said "Hi" in Mandarin & then I told him we were not Chinese, which was only true for Tamami. So then he said "Hi" in Japanese & I was like.. 'crap! does he know how to speak jap too?!' but he apparently did not, which was good. Then that guy I met came along. & His friend was asking us how long we were here for & stuff like that & I didn't bother to answer & just said bluntly to the guy I met at another time -"I recognize you!"

I guess it was a signal of "game over" for them 'cause they looked shocked & then they were trying to say something like ohh.. you guys are good friends.. blah blah.. & I was just like.. "whatever". Too bad people. I just didn't care. haha.. with my attitude like this to strange men who looked pretty handsome, no wonder I don't have b/f.. hahahaha..ANYWAY.

That was the end to that. I quickly got Tamami to go into another cart, separate from the one the guys entered and just waved bye. This is a pretty un-juicy incident that I'm telling you here. Sorry people. I think exotic encounters are not possible for me unless something really unusal happens b/c I would always be suspicious of strange men who come up to me. But it's just funny how I thought I might meet this guy again & *boom* there he was a week later. Nay... chance guarantees things like this are bound to happen, esp. when I live in the middle of downtown with convenient metro. There's really not much to it.

Move on! > to where we went today. We went to the Sainte-Helen Island but the weather was HELL. It was rainy and windy but it wasn't TOO cold. Sometimes you just can't wait for the weather to be the way you want it to be so SO BE IT. We went in the bloody weather to some artificial islands built from the rubbles dug out for the construction of the metro in the middle of the St. Lawrence River.

It was raining really hard so after we got off the metro station, we went straight to the most visible indoor attraction nearby. That was the Biosphere - the only museum of water in North America. The place was the American pavilion in Expo '67. Later it was known as the world's largest bird cage. A fire in 1976 destroyed the acrylic on the dome, leaving the metal skeleton behind.

Walking towards La Biosphere. A science-world like place dedicated to the conservation of the St. Lawrence RIver and the Great Lakes.

We went into the first room - It was very much like the Vancouver Science World and it was actually FUN.

Some displays about pumping water from underground.

A picture in the room showing the difficulties involved in navagating in the winter, esp. in St. Lawrence River.

Tamami trying to walk on the floating pads that were used to demo. how water striders could walk on water.

A pic in the display room that shows what happens when there's no consideration for buoyancy and stability.

And.. That was IT! The rest of the place really had nothing really fun - there was only that one room that was fun & there were all kids or adults w/ kids.

We went up to the upper floors where we could get to view the scenery around the place.

Viewing some architecture down there and the St. Lawrence River.

Another view of the river from the window with huge raindrops on it.

Then we went up to the highest floor where there was an exhibit called the Planete Bucky. The big room has a few smal and cute displays of Bucky's (some imaginary character) inventions or visions of the better (ie environmentally friendly) world.

This is Plante Bucky!

Wouldn't you like to have a house with a roof made out of hay/grass/straw where your cows could graze?

A look at the cows on the roof - they're so cute! This Bucky reminds me of Le Petit Prince with his innocent imaginations.

Wouldn't you like some energy-saving houses that look like these?

Or why don't we build a city under some kind of sphere so we can control the temperature, weather, vegetation, and etc.? This was getting really sci-fi I thought.

& Remember! This place was built for Expo '67. It had its glorious past very unlike the empty, deserted scene we saw today.

The admission to the Biosphere was originally $6.50 for students but the place was undergoing renovation so it was half price. You know.. if it were six bucks, it would have been so NOT worth it b/c there was almost nothing there to see.. They had these planned activities but they were really for kids. We went to one about the varying sea levels of places around the world. The knowledge was so basic that we, or at least I felt kinda "dumb" being in there. It was a kid's paradise, not university students'.

Then we went out in the bloody weather again so that we could get to the Notre-Dame Island where the Casino de Montreal was. It was a LONG walk to get from the Biosphere to the Casino. To do it in such a beautiful weather like this, it was almost too much. But we went anyway... some things just needed to be dealt with.

An architecture that we suspected to be some kind of museum but we weren't entirely sure.

Crossing a bridge while looking at the Pont Jacques-Cartier (Bridge).The river was crazy! You seriously wouldn't want any part of yourself to be in it. The wind + rain was so strong that I was so scared that my only umbrella would just take off to lala land~

Passing another smaller bridge. Isn't it almost poetic?

Some Easter Island copy-cat right in the park (Jardins des Floralies).

The Jardins des Floralies. It had many parts to it - The Belgium Garden, The English Rose Garden, & etc. but as you can see there were NO FLOWERS!! Bad weather + Bad season, what more could you ask for?

FINALLY! Viewing the Casino from a distance. It looks so much better at night with all the lights, and w/out the rain and cloudy sky.

Casino de Montreal is owned by the Quebec provincial government. It was meant to be built like a Monte-Carlo like European gambling palace, combining the two buildings (the French and Quebec Pavilion) of the Expo '67.

We thought about going in but usually you need to wear quite formal to enter those "high-class" ('tho they do pretty low-class things like gambling) places. So without proper "gear", we decided not to go in & embarked on our long journey back to the metro station.

Tamami was going back to Trois-Rivieres today. Too bad the weather wasn't being friendly. But hopefully she enjoyed her stay in Montreal. Now I have to get back to my papers!