Tiffy - Live in Montreal.+*

Closure. Last Post from Montreal.

2005-06-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

June 4 (Samedi)

Time is just flying past me so quickly. Today is my last day in Montreal & I have no plans other than PACKING. It doesn't take me a whole day to pack but there are things other than physical objects to pack too. I like Montreal. But I don't know whether I would feel the same about Montreal as I do about Vancouver if I had chosen to come here 2 years ago. Perhaps people get tired of their own city some point in their life. Everyone is looking for a way out, a different city that provides a "fresh" new experience.

Someone in my class asked our prof whether he likes Montreal after being here for 5 years. My prof didn't say that he likes Montreal b/c he had lived in Paris for 7 years and he said it was really difficult to leave it. You know.. when you have seen so much more.. you become disatisfied with things that just don't live up with it. But at the same time, every city is unique. You can't judge it with the same scale but you can choose what you like most about each city.

I thought I couldn't go back to Vancouver and stay there for another yr after this.. & esp so after UK. But now I'm seeing things in a different light. It's like an airplane passing through the thick clouds to the highest point where the sky is clear. I think every city has its character. In Montreal, you get all the city life, culture, history, art, french/english bilingualism mixed with true multiple ethnicities. In Vancouver, the city is not "alive" in the sense that Montreal is. It prides on its natural beauty and naturalness. When you're sick of bustling city life, it gives you a way out to get in touch with the basics.

It's all really subjective. 'tho I think Vancouver is great, I still cannot imagine myself living there for a long time anymore. 8 -9 years is enough. I was in Taipei for 12 years. If I minus the yrs that I was probably not "mentally-conscious" (or the concrete/formal operation stage according to developmental psychologists), I've really been there about the same time. Maybe it's just me.. I'm not a goldfish that can convert all the oxygen in the water around me while staying at one place; I'm a shark that needs to keep moving to keep oxygen-rich water flowing through me. C'est my lame excuse for going all over the place.

Oh well.. the end of one journey is the start of another one.. and I look forward to that.

Cirque du Soleil - Corteo

2005-06-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

June 3rd (Vendredi)

I have inherited an electric kettle from a Japanese floormate. She was leaving this morning and gave me the kettle b/c she didn't want to carry so much stuff w/ her and I was talking about needing one last night (just kinda out of the blue). Many people from my floor left this morning.. so it feels kinda empty now.

Going to watch Corte0 (Cirque du Soleli) in the afternoon.

Cirque du Soleli is a cool+interesting group (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com). The tickets for their shows are slightly pricey . I spent $75 CAD on a C section seat when I could have gone with a tour to Ottawa for about $60 CAD for the whole day. but IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!! I loved the show.. the costumes were cool, the swinging & doing acrobatic things on the chandeliers were amazing, the super big balloons were cute, the actions were just full of surprises! If I had to pay $90, I think I would still go. Cirque du Soleil occasionally tours to Vancouver so CHECK IT OUT~!

The big tent of Cirque du Soleil.

Looking at the Vieux Montreal from the port.

Habitat '67 (modern apartment) on an island opposite from where I was.

Got over 1hr to spare after I got my ticket around 2:30 (show started at 4pm). So I decided to walk around. & It was really HOT so I didn't want to walk too far (& with my crappy sandals- I actually brought 2 pairs but both sucked in terms of walking long distance).

Found a nice shady place to sit for the rest of the hrs b4 the show starts.The summer breezes were so nice.

Taking random pics of the grass.
Met up with May after the show and went to an Italian restaurant. The interior deco was pretty unique (looks like an old/classic country place) & the food was good & there were even LIVE musicians (violin, guitar & one more I can't remember) & their musical style was pretty exotic (has a Latin-America feel to it). The whole atmosphere was awesome~

The Italian restaurant was near Marche Bonsecours. The place has a totally different feel to it at night! Looks pretty romantic!

May & I taking pics on our way back to the metro station.

Quebec City & Montmorency Falls

2005-06-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

June 2nd (Jeudi)

Went to Quebec City with a tour today. Met up at 7:15. Took me 15mins to walk to the meeting place b/c I don't have the metro pass anymore & 'tho it's just 1 metro stop away from the McGill station, it still took me that long to walk. The tour company is owned by Chinese but their customers are from all over the world. For our tour of 20ppl, there were people from Mexico, England, France, Canada, HK, China, Korea, etc. It's pretty cool.

The road to Quebec City was SUPER BUMBPY! For most of the time, I felt I was sitting on a massage sofa. It took 3 hrs to get to our first stop in Quebec (not exactly in the city) - Montmorency Falls.

Viewing the MontMorency from the cable car. Montmorency Falls is 83m tall, 30 m higher than Niagra Falls.

Looking at the opposite view from the cable car. You don't need to go by the cable car to the top. There is the panoramic stairs (in later pic)... but that's SERIOUSLY a lot of steps.

The Manoir at the top of the Falls. Our guide said it was built by the father of Queen Victoria and it was used as a Governor's residence for some time.

Me at the starting point after I got off the cable car.

A trail that leads closer to the Falls.

Looking at the start of the Falls from the suspension bridge.

You seriously don't want to drop anything. It's pretty scary.

Viewing the panoramic stairs in the distance (the snake-like construction on the cliff). Told you! There's A LOT of steps & I still can't believe I actually went down all those steps! It took me 20-30mins I think.. but I was also taking pics & stuff.

Got to the other end of the suspension bridge and looked back at where I came from.

Aren't the wild flowers pretty? Looks a bit like Alpine Hills.

Viewing the bridge that I saw earlier from the Alpine-like field. Actually, I was in Wolfe's (famous British battlefield figure in Canadian history) camp.

This camp (or what remains of the camp)was used by General Wolfe during the war of 1759 (between French & British).

The Falls from the panoramic stairs.

Me and the Falls.

I knew I wouldn't be using my return cable car ticket when I was at the panoramic stairs. It was just TOOO far to walk back to the cable car station. So I walked down the panoramic stairs. I think it was more than 500steps at least. Then I took a pic of the Falls (for one last time) at a footbridge leading to the cable car station (where the tour bus was). Our whole stay there was about 1hr & I think that was enough.

Next Stop: Parliament Hall (Hotel du Parlement) in the Upper Town of Quebec City.

Hodel du Parlement! Look there's no Canadian flag anywhere. The only flag they have here is the Quebec flag. & this has to do with the whole separatist movement. In 1995, barely 50% of Quebec residents voted to remain a part of Canada.

These statues are people who contributed greatly to the development of New France. I think there was 22 of them (not too sure).

To the left (if you're facing the parliament building), you have a small monument thing and behind the tour bus, it's the entrance to the Battlefield Park.

The gate to the Vieux Quebec (old town). Quebec City is the ONLY walled city in North America. The wall is the fortification built by Samuel de Champlain in the 1600's.

Then we went to the Observatoire de la capitale (on the 31th floor of a building behind the Parliament complex) to get an overview of the city.

Quebec got its name from the Algonquin people. It was initially called "Kebec" because the place was situated at where the river narrows. See the narow part of the river in the pic?

A view of the Citadelle, a military ground. An aerial view of the place would reveal its star-shaped layout. I guess you can kinda see it here. The construction of Citadelle began in 1820.

A view of Vieux Quebec. See the famous Chateau-Frontenac (the castle like building in the distance)?

& the parliament building right before us.

Zoom in on one of the streets. The houses look a bit like toys.

The replica of a chair from the l'Assemblee Nationale.

On the chair and on every car licence plate in Quebec you would see this phrase: "Je me souviens", which means "I remember". Remember what? - you ask. Well.. there was that 7 years of war between the British and the French when they were fighting over the colony. The French won 6/7 but British won the last one and totally changed the history of America. Canada was more of a French colony before then.

Some display involving Chinese.. I just thought this looked kinda freaky... like flying Chinese Vampires..

A display about the Quebec Bridge. Some parts of it fell apart during two celebrations of the bridge. 70something people died when in the first incident. In 1916, the second incident, 11 ppl died. The bridge is still being used now but only "light" vehicles are allowed to pass through it. Other kinds of vehicles have to use the newer bridget adjacent to it.

The place where we ate our lunch - in Vieux Quebec, by the Vieux Port.

Me trying to take pics of while eating & not trying to catch others' attention. It was so nice to eat outdoors.. esp. when it was so HOT!

The interior of the restaurant. It looked pretty cool too~ But it was too dark for sunny days.

After lunch, first went around to major places with the guide but later had 2hrs to explore the place myself, which was pretty good I thought.

A small red historic building under the monsterous Chateau-Frontenac up on the hill.

Place Royale - the main public place of the time where public announcements, gatherings, and executions took place.

An interesting perfume shop near Place-Royale.

A famous landmark of the city. This wall painting summarizes the history of Quebec with the most important historical figures in there(eg. Jacque-Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, etc). You can also see the 4 seasons depicted on there (see autumn leaves, snow, etc.?). The road in the wall art also "extends" to the actual road outside of the painting so basically if you stand at the right distance, you become a part of the painting.

Quartier Petit-Champlain. It looks a bit like Europe with its narrow streets and stone buildings.

Auberge du Tresor. It was built in 1676. "It is said to have been the scene of the first French kiss on this continent." -> whatver that means; I took that straight out from the ad. I didn't write that. Below the building, there were a lot of artists doing portraits.

Chateau Frontenac - close up. The Chateau was named after a governor of the French colony between 1672 and 1698 (Comte de Frontenac). Samuel de Champlain built the frist structure to appear on the site of the Frontenac in 1608 b/c of the beautiful view of the St. Lawrence River from the location. The strucutre was used as a residence for colonial governors for some time. Then other things happened in between.. The current hotel was designed by Bruce Price (NY architect). Many famous ppl stayed here (eg. Queen Elizabeth, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, etc.)

Place d'Arms.

Musee du Fort and the Canadapost building.

UNESCO (United Nations..) proclaimed Vieux-Quebec as a World Heritage site in 1985 (HO! My birth yr!) b/c it was the Cradle of French Civilization in North America and the only walled city north of Mexico. The flags you see in the pic are the UNESCO flags. & There's a UNESCO monument (in the middle of the circle of flags).

Cathedral Holy Trinity.

The benches are made of oak imported from the Royal WIndsor Forest. Some of its objects were donated by King George III. The sovereign's seat is in the royal box in the balcony.

The crazy organ.

Place de l'hotel-de-ville.

I brought a map with me but more than half of the time I was pretty much LOST b/c the streets of Vieux-Quebec is not lay out in grids; it's a mix of some roads going this way, some going the other way, some on a curve, some on a different curve. It was pretty difficult to track which direction I was going & there were too many small streets and I just stared at the map of words everywhere & GAVE UP. So during the 2 hr free time, I was just walking aimlessly, hoping to come across any attractions. It would be better if I had stayed there for 2 days or so.I also didn't have enough time to visit any musueums so it's better to stay longer than 2hrs. Quebec City may be small (20mins to walk from 1 end to another) but it's succinct.

Notre-Dame de Quebec Basilica-Cathedral. The oldest parish in North Amercica. It was built in 1647 and destoryed 2 times throughout the centuries. 4 governors of New France and the bishops of Quebec are buried in the crypt.

Inside the Cathedral.

A ceiling of painted clouds decorated with gold leaf.

The super elegant altar.

The elaborate pulpit and the elegant organ.

A side-altar.

Musee de l'Amerique francais.

Cannons along Port-Dauphin. There were TONS!

View of the river from Port-Dauphin.

Walking out from the entrance area of Chateau Frontenac.

Quartier Petit-Champlain looks a bit like European streets with its unique stores and narrow stone-cobble street.

A nice delicate floral deco outside of a shop in Auatier Petit-Champlain.

The store that has the floral deco outside. The shelves are pretty cool eh?

Another one.

Another one.

And another one.

This is where people could pay $1.50 to take an "elevator" to the top of the hill where Chateau Frontenac is.

A street performer - HARP. But that was a folk harp. He was playing some arrangement of "Don't Cry for me Argentina". I thought it sounded kinda Mexican.

An interesting glass-art shop. I was so fascinated by the designs. They were simple but.. kinda like French sensitivities in music too - clarity and concision. But I think some of its design reminds of some of Chagall's paintings. So I went by the store 3 times and decided to buy something from there that says "quebec" on it (->my justification for spending $20 CAD on a plate).

walking back to Place Royale and saw the wall again. see the path in the painting connected to the actual street?

The Eglise Notre-Dame-des-Vitories Church. The earlier foundations were laid by Samuel de Champlain in 1608.

The interior. It's less elegant than other ones I've seen. "The ship model was ordered by captain Maurice Simonin to commenmorate his ship's salvage by the intercession fo the Virgin Mary, 1747."

Passing by some cute shops on my way back to the meeting place.

More pics of the Quebec City streets.

& with moi in it.

Some other interesting building.

A lookout post where you get to see some more canons. It would be ideal to take a pic of these canons with Chateau Frontenac in the background but the leaves on the trees were too "bushy".

The streets with the funiculaire (the 'elevator I talked about earlier) in the background.

Tour met at 4:45 & we got back to Montreal around 7:30pm. The tour was relatively cheap compare to other ones available in town. It was $38 for the 1-day tour (including transportation, guide). You can choose to pay $15 for admission fees to certain areas (eg. Montmorency Fall & Observatoire) & You need to pay $4 tips for the guide/driver. So the total is about $59 . Return bus tickets to Quebec City from Montreal alone costsabout $60 bucks so yah.The travel agency also has other tours to other east-coast attractiions from Montreal (eg. Toronto, Ottawa, etc). If you're in Montreal & you want to go to other places w/ this tour, I'll send you their contact.

Today is THE DAY! // & Musee d'Art Contemporain

2005-06-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

June 1 (Mercredi)

Today is THE DAY! The sun is bright, the weather is great! TOO BAD I have a final to do in the afternoon.. But after that, NO MORE SCHOOL! So many people in my class are graduating after this class. & I have 2 more years.. well. I could if I want to finish it next yr but then I wouldn't get to go on exchange & all that jazz. But, what am I going to do after graduationg? Not a clue. haha..

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There's a saying that if something happens to you once, it probably won't happen again. But if it happens a 2nd time, it's certainly going to happen a third time.

So that's what happened. Remember the guy in 2 of my previous posts about exotic encounters? I thought it would be the strangest thing if I see him again. & GUESS WHAT? I saw him AGAIN today (3rd time ever since I was in Montreal = 1 time/week) when I was coming out from the music building after my final/harp practice. It's like.. what's wrong with this guy?? Good that he was talking w/ some Chinese guy (in PERFECT Mandarin; he is white if I have not told u that before) otherwise I would be like WTH? YOU AGAIN?

ANYWAY... Museum of Contemporary Art tonight (b/c it's free after 6pm)..
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SUMMER FEEL! It's so hot in Montreal now (25C) that I have to wear really summer-like clothing.

The Sculpture Garden of Musee d'Art Contemporain. The museum is located at Place-des-Arts - A big underground+above-ground complex of theatres for opera, drama, music, etc.

Complexe Desjardins - a big shopping mall connected to Place-des-Arts.

The food court of the mall. It looks quite poetic.

The stain-glass-like thing you would see when you get off at the metro station of Place-des-Arts.

A hallway exhibition of a Quebecois artist.

MUSIC & Books

Petit guide book to Paris

Do you feel this way, sometimes?

Or this way?

The exhibitions at the museum of contemporary art was pretty cool too. just to mention a few ('cuz I couldn't take pics in there):

- the portable plasic home that the person wears around her
- the park-portable-washroom-size room with elegant walls, chandelier, & Classical symphony -> suppose to make you feel a moment of overwhemling joy in a super confined space; ppl's facial reaction was so interesting when they came out! Everyone in the line would look at the face of the person who just came out and ponder what exactly was in there...& I pondered too.. when I got out.. I had the EXACT facial expression as those who went in b4 me..
- the "self-suficient" sofa. It was really elegant but it had a super bulging part in the middle so there was basically no place for anyone to sit.
- the bystander-effect replay of an artist pretending to be a street person outside of a public building in Birmingham, UK (where I would be going in 2006!). The artist did the same repetitive movements so there was 5 TV playing a recoridng of different moments of her sitting there doing the movements with different ppl were just passing by her, pretending that she weren't there.

Montreal Museum Day!

2005-05-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Mai 29th (Dimanche)

Today is Montreal's Museum Day, which means everyone can go to almost ALL of the museums in town for FREE! & There's free shuttle bus that takes people from one museum to another. Goodies! I finished my paper yesterday b/c I was preparing to go out today. Our prof was kinda disappointed b/c it seemed that everyone in the class decided to leave the paper to the last min. so he was saying "good that it's going to be rainy/cloudy on the weekend 'cause who knows what ppl would do when it's all the sudden sunny & 25C".

I guess he must have been laughing at us for the whole weekend. It's "supposed" to be rainy/cloudy.. but IT'S NOT! It's ALL THE SUDDEN super HOT + SUNNY. Everyone must be cursing the exam and papers at home. But I finished my papers yesterday. MUAHAHA.. But I was cursing the weather yesterday 'cause it was really sunny too.

Anyway!~ Today is the day to go to Museums for FREE~~ Gotta go to museums that I would probably not go if I have to pay. So first one: McCord Museum (to see a pic of its exterior, see my previous post).

Current Exhibitions include: Growing Up in Montreal - "experience Montreal through the eyes of a child", Simply Montreal - Glimpses of a Unique City, & Cross Currents - 500 generations of Aboriginal Fishing in Atlantic Canada.

Growing Up in Montreal - FOOD!

Rocking Horses~ (sorry about the blurry pic; there's too many ppl around so I had to be quick & etc etc)

Little sailor suits

Glimpses of Early Montreal, esp in WINTER. Look at all these diff snow shoes.

A cute jazz pianist thing in the jazz club display section. It moves its head up and down. I just thought it looked kinda cute.

Lady & Gents, Fashion at the Ball for Ladies.

I dare you wear that. hahah

The wire-walrus in the Aboriginal Fishing Exhibition. There were many replicas of stone tools and explanations about how natives gone about fishing.

The whole mechanistic philosophy replay in this piece of work.

Someone's fancy wedding gawn. I wish I could try it on.. haha.. It's so preetty~

Then I took metro to Guy Concordia station & walked to Centre Canadien d'Architecture. As you can tell from the name, it's all about architecture in Montreal. It has models, designs, floor plans, pictures of a lot of important buildings in Montreal & a lot of them were sky-scrapers.

The south end of the building - the mix of new and old. I think the one on the left is the Shaugnessy Mansion, built for the Canadian Pacific Railway chairperson in 1877.

A model of some skyscrapers in Montreal.

You can kinda see that there were quite a lot of people in there.

An example of one of the exhibits - pro. architecture plans.

Another display room with a huge projection of a documentary film on a platform. The black-and-white pics on the walls show various stages of Montreal's architecture development.

A quiet corner in the Centre, right outside of the library.

A column in one of the display room. I like the elegant design.

Right opposite from the Architecture Centre is the Esplanade Ernest-Cornier. It's a small green space designed by Melvin Charney.

The sculpture garden right behind those walls shown in the previous pic.

Then I walked ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way to the planetarium (about 9 blocks east, 3 blocks south) b/c I had to wait 20 mins for the bus that runs along the main road. So I just decided to walk. & I almost got ran over by an eyeless loser who thought he looked cool in his crappy out-dated car with his g/f. A lot of Montrealers have NO RESPECT for pedestrians. SERIOUSLY! They HONK at pedestrians, speed up when they're turning left even when there's pedestrians crossing. It's unbelievable. & you hear slame-the-brake tire squeaks almost every 5mins if you're walking on a major traffic zone.

Anyway.. I got to the planetarium and I just couldn't believe how many people were lining up outside! It was crazy! I guess if it were not sunny/hot today, the scene should be quite different.

Just take a look at the statue outside of the entrance of the planetarium. People are really into this free-museum thing.

Pretend that you were taking my previous picture and look to the left, this is what you would see.

So I didn't want to wait under the burning sun. I went to take the metro to the Vieux Port again to see an exhibition at the Pointe-a-Calliere that I missed last time. It's called Montreal- Love Stories. The title sounds attractive eh?! It's supposed to be about why people come to Montreal.. & why do people fall in love in Montreal.. etc.etc. at least I thought it was about that. But it turned out to be more of an exhibition celebrating the ethnic and cultural diversity of the city.

One of the displays - Summarizing places in Montreal.

Some cute Chinese paper lamps hanging from the ceiling.

The big dinner table that has projections of a video of Montreal on it. I just thought that was pretty cool~

Here's one love letter.

I was so glad that I went in from the Place Royale side of the building b/c the lineup outside of Pointe-a-Calliere was LONG! It was about the length of the one in front of the planetarium. I think I wasn't suppose to walk in from the exit but I did it anyway. It's not like I was going to the main Pointe-a-Calliere museum building. I just wanted to see the small exhibition right above the boutique store. I think that was why a few guards were looking at me weirdly. haha..

Right outside of the exit were these little restaurants that don't seem to have a glass window. I was thinking: "WOAH.. What do they do when it's rainy, snowy, etc. " But it was one of those HUGE windows so yah.. There is supposed to be some kind of cover. An alternative of an "outdoor" cafe.

So I walked all the way from the east end of Vieux Montreal to the west end of Vieux Montreal. That was about 10 blocks. But one of the things that you just have to get used to when traveling is "WALKING". It's totally unavoidable.

Passing by the Montreal Science Centre. It's free to enter today too but just seeing the # of kids walking toward that place makes me don't wanna go. I just don't like going to places where a lot of kids are.. It's really complicated.

All along the Vieux Port and Place Jacques-Cartier, you can see PPL! & A LOT of ppl! It's UNBELIEVABLE. I've never seen so many people on one street in Montreal 'til now. It's crazy! & all the double decker tour buses and horse-drawn wagons lining up by the port. This place is amazing.

A nice terrace in Place Jacques-Cartier. It really has a summer-feel to it.

So I went to the far east end of the Vieux Montreal to see the Sir George-Etienne Cartier Museum. Sir George-Etienne Cartier was one of the founding fathers of Canadian confederation and he was one of the guys who persuaded the French Canada to join the confederation.

The outside looks like this. The interior is REALLY elegant. It's mostly Victorian.

A cool display in the first room. It pretty summarizes everything in the Canadian history.

some interesting dolls modeled after a few giants of the Canadian history. See John A MacDonald in the middle. haha.. some guy came in, saw the name & said.. "John A MacDonald.. OHHHHHHH! lOOK! iT'S JOHN A MACDONALD!!!" he sounded like he knew MacDonald as some kind of celebrity of some sort.

The tea room. It's soo Victorian + elegant.

The piano in the tea room.. keke..

Can you tell who is real & who is not?

Zoom in on the small models in the middle of the table.

"The" guy with the books about confederation, politics, etc. I thought those figures looked pretty authentic.

After the Sir George-Etienne Cartier Museum (a National Historic Site of Canada), I took the metro to the Sainte-Helene Island AGAIN! 'cause last time I didn't go to the Steward Museum b/c it was all stormy & rainy. This is the weather to go to the Island~

Passing by the Biosphere again~ But this time it's SUNNY~

One of those spur-of-the-moment detours that I do. I saw the direction sign for Tour de Levis & I just know it's some kind of tower so I climbed the hills to see what it was. & there's the tower.

There's really nothing there. The tower is locked.. I thought I could go up there to see the city or something.. but apparently not. But the tower was still interesting to look at. There was a look-out place just beneath the tower but I couldn't really see anything b/c the bushes were so tall.

Finally back to track but saw this Monet-bridge-looking thing in the midst of the woods and decided to take a closer look at it. But there was no water.. it was just wet mud.

Finally at the Steward Museum.

In summer they have costumed interpreters and soldiers of La Compagnie franche de la Marine and the Olde 78th Fraser Highlanders who perform 18th-century military drills. I think these are the French soldiers.. not too sure.

And these are the Scottish Highlanders..

After rifles, CANONS! Let's stuff the gun powder in this old thing!

Why not train the kids too?

Some lady dressed in 18th-cent. colonial style. It kinda reminds me of Cold Mountain for some strange reason.

Then there was a pretty long lineup into the museum too but too bad. I just had to lineup after all that long-distance traveling across the St. Lawrence River. I couldn't take pics in the museum so no pics here~ But the museum has a pretty cool collection of old maps,documents, weapons (a lot of SWORDS & GUNS), scientific instruments & navigation aids (the Enlightenment inventions), & 18th-cent kitchen stuff. Pretty interesting~

A collection of weapons in a display room outside of the museum. Humans are pretty brutal eh?!

A lot of GUNS!

The gate that leads you to the main parade ground where the costumed soldiers in the previous pics did their drills & where the museum entrance was.

Two Scottish-looking soldiers practicing w/ the guns?!

Another drill on the other side of the fort. Are these the British soldiers?! I think the French army costumes make the soldiers more handsome.. haha.. ANYWAY.

The flutist in the group. The sound of it really evokes a colonial mental image.

Then I took the free shuttle bus, not exactly knowing where it was going to take me to. I just didn't want to walk all the way across the Jean-Drappeau Parc to the metro station again. So the shuttle bus took me to the Biosphere (YAY~)

A pic of the busy Museum Day shuttle. Most of the buses I saw were all packed.

& I decided to go in to the Biosphere again. & I must say I have to annul my previous comments on the Biosphere. It has more than 1 cool place in it! I guess one of the rooms wasn't open when we were there the other day & we didn't see the multimedia presentation on the 2nd floor - It was pretty cool. There were 6 screens placed on a circular track. & As those screens slides around to create diff 360-degree images.

The 4th-floor look-out to the St. Lawrence River and the Casino on the Notre-Dame Island.
There were a few raindrops when I was walking back to the metro station but nothing really big happened. Went to China Town via metro (I was maximizing my use of my $61 transit pass) to eat dinner & went back (via metro) to my rez. The end. Now I have to seriously start focusing on my final.

I'm still alive and I'm still in Montreal.

2005-05-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

My papers are due next Wed, the day of my exam, so I'm currently frantically trying to finish it before then so I can revise it. It's not like my grade would transfer back to UBC anyway but I like the teacher so I don't want him to feel like his students don't really care about the course, etc. & besides, I'm kinda a "rep." of UBC. Better show the McGill people that UBC people ROCK too! (-> the kind of university pride that would have never came across my mind if I've never left UBC). Whatever. Gotta get back to work. & days without a printer just right beside moi is horrible. I have to walk all the way to the other side of the campus just to print stuff. UGH!

(this is a summary of mai 25-28, & 30-31)

& The weather here has major mood swings! It's so freaking cold one day (like 4C) & it's super sunny & hot the other day! It's 21C right now!

Finishing up Vieux Montreal; World Trade Center & Berlin Wall

2005-05-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Mai 24 (Mardi)
Realizing that I only have about a little bit more than a week left in Montreal, I'm trying to go to as many places as I possibly could from now on considering I still have a paper to do and a final to study for. After all, I'm "supposed" to be studying here.. not rampanting all over the place.

So today's route: Travel Agency in China Town (get Quebec City info) ->Vieux Montreal: Bank of Montreal Museum -> Saint-Sulpice Sminary -> Centre d'historie de Montreal -> Place D'Youville -> Royal Bank Building -along rue Saint-Jacques->World Trade Centre Montreal -> Square Victoria -> back to McGill at 12:30

My floormate said that there was a Chinese travel agency that offers 1-day tour to Quebec City for $38. I thought that was a pretty good deal considering that I probably have to pay $60 just for the return tickets. But I have to see whether there are cheaper bus tickets b/c I want to stay at Quebec City for a night but I have to pay 2x if I go with the Chinese tour. I'll think about that later.

So then I went to the Museum inside the Bank of Montreal. The bank was founded in 1817 - the oldest banking institution in the country. The architecture was designed by a New York architecutral firm in 1905.

The exterior of the Bank viewed from Place d'Arms. It was designed in the style of ancient Roman and Greek santuary with all the coloumns and the dome, etc.

The lobby of the BMO (Bank of Montreal) building.It's huge! Sorry the pic looks quite dark b/c the building was still being used as a 'bank' with all the tellers & etc. so I didn't exactly want to be flashing all over the place with my camera, attracting unnecessary attention from the security guards.

An antique staff magazine published in the old days.

The statue of an ancient goddess at the main entrance. She represents Patria (home land)and is a memorial to those who died in WWI.

There was a one-room museum inside the bank and it was about the early history of banking in Canada.

In the museum! It's really small but it's ok~

What you would see when you see ads of the museum - a wax figure behind the counter of a old bank.

A painting of what the BMO building and the surrounding would have looked like in the old days.

The reason why I included this painting here is b/c I think I have been to the place where this took place - BMO's VP drove the spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway Transcontinental Line. Craigellachie, BC. 1885.

MONEY MONEY MONEY~

Walking out of the museum you would see this wall sculpture. This piece was originally commissioned for the exterior of the first head office. It remained out there for 60 years.

Across from the BMO main entrance & the Place d'Arms & right beside the Notre-Dame Basilica was the Saint-Sulpice Seminary. Constructed in 1685, this is the oldest building in Montreal. It was first used as a headquarter forthe Sulpician priests who owned the island of Montreal 'til 1854. Now it's still used as a residence for the priests. Its clock (dates to 1701) is the oldest of its kind in North America.

Walking south to where the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum that I went the other day (b/c Centre d'Historie de Montreal was just right beside it). & there were a lot of houses that looked old and similar in style like this one:

Then I came across the Place de la Gande Paix where Centre d'Historie de Montreal was.

Looking at the colomun in the Place. The Pointe-a-Calliere Museum is the building to the right of the pic.

Opposite from the colomun was the back of the Centre d'Historie de Montreal.

The front entrance of the Centre d'Historie de Montreal.

One of the first things you see when you're in the museum - the names of some of the major streets in Montreal!

The REAL Lord Nelson statue. Remember in one of my Vieux Montreal posts in which I talked about the Lord Nelson statue in Place Jacques-Cartier? This is the REAL statue removed from the monuments b/c its material (the revolutionary Coade artificial stone at the time) could not stand the 'elements' (ie wind, rain, etc).

A powder horn (inscripted with a map of Quebec) that was used on the Plains of Abraham. Every soldier carried a powder horn.

Time moves on~ Some fashion and tech development.

The temporary exhibit was: "Jazz, Swinging Nights in Montreal!" - CHECK IT OUT!

ALL THAT JAZZ~

Entering! The place looks so like a night club with all the nice lighting, eh?!

JAZZ IN MONTREAL! COOL~ I wish I could stay for the largest International Jazz Festival happening here at the end of June! But too bad.. maybe NEXT TIME~~~!!

Montreal, City of a Thousand and One Clubs! - starting from the 1920's. You get all these match boxes from Jazz clubs that would advertise their own showbiz.

Jazz Night Clubs in Town.

In the background -> this is what the big jazz clubs look like.

Shall we dance? Try to follow the steps and do it really fast! haha.. the crazy swings.

BEBOP! YAY! For friends who took MUSC 221 -> THIS IS IT! Remember Charlie Parker, the famous sax player? He made several trips to Montreal and greatly influenced the jazz styles here.

A board that explains different kinds of Jazz and the development of those different kinds.

There was a recording room where you could hear old jazz recordings on 'records' (yes..those big discs).

A "jazz cafe" at the top floor of the museum where you get to see the video tape of a live jazz performance and more songs to listen to

Then I went out of the museum to the Place d'Youville right outside of it. It was built over the former Saint-Pierre riverbed (canalized in 1832). The remains of the old Grey Nuns Hospital (one of the oldest hospital in Montreal)was nearby.

A building right opposite from the Centre d'historie de Montreal.

The Canadian Music Centre (it stores a lot of Canadian music; over 600 Canadian composers, etc.) I didn't go in 'cause there seemed to be no one in it.

Walking along the Sainte-Helene - a beautiful Victorian business district.

Walking along rue Saint-Jacques - Canada's "Wall Street" in its heydays (1920's). I think this particular building is a hotel attached to the World Trade Centre of Montreal.

The Royal Bank's head office erected in 1928. It was designed by New York architects York & Sawyer.

The Molson Bank a street away from the Royal Bank. It was built in 1866.

Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montreal (aka MOntreal World Trade Center).

Inside the center is another city. It kinda feels like the Vancouver Public Library in downtown Vancouver. But this one has a more business feel to it b/c, after all, it's a WTC in the second largest city in the country.

The BERLIN WALL - a piece of it, really.

I'm not joking. That piece of concrete was a part of the infamous Berlin Wall that separated the city.

A lobby-kind of place right oustide of the Nordheimer (a part of the WTC complex where the Inter-Continental Montreal hotel is). THe building once had a small concert hall where famous musicians such as Maurice RAVEL(!!!) and Sarah Bernhardt once were.

Going back down to the first floor and walking toward the wester entrance where the fountain was.

"The semireclining statue of Amphitrite (Poseidon's wife) overlooking the fountain. It's an 18th-century piece from the municipal fountain of St-Mihiel-de-la-Meuse in France. Photographers would often use this space to do fashion shoots or wedding pictures.

The "outdoor" cafe in the building, right beside the fountain. Tres elegante! Went back to school, ate lunch at the cafeteria in the music building & went to class.. etc. etc. HARP concert tonight at 8pm. The person would be playing the Sonatine by Tournier that my friend -Joy Yeh - The UBC concerto competition winner of the year - played b4. We'll see~

The STRANGEST THING! & the Islands.

2005-05-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Pointe-a-Calliere, Notre-Dame Basilica, & me as a tour guide!

2005-05-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Mai 22 (Dimanche)
Today was the day that Tamami, a friend whom I met through the UBC Community Learning Exchange Project, came to Montreal. Tamami is actually an exchange student from Japan & she is currently studying French at Trois-Rivieres. I told her that I would take around Montreal~ & that's what I did today~

First, we went to the Notre-Dame Basilica, where there was some kind of parade going on in Place d'Arms (the plaza right outside of Notre-Dame Basilica).

Walking toward one of the most famous tourist attractions in Montreal - the Notre-Dame Basilica de Montreal. The place where the trees are is Place d'Arms (built at the end of the 17th-century).

The parade that I was talking about. There were people who dressed up like army people & then there were these people who dressed up in these interesting colonial costumes..

I have no idea what I was going on but it was interesting. So many people were watching them too.

The statue in Place d'Arms. It's a statue of Paul de Chomeday - the founder of Montreal (aka "Sieur de Maisonneuve").

We went to the Notre-Dame Basilica but the church wasn't open to visitors (Sunday Mass?!) 'til 1pm so we decided to go to other nearby sites first. So then we came across the Place Royale.

The Old Customs House located in Place Royale. The Custom House was built to assert British's influence over trades in Montreal. Place Royale was the marketplace of the 17-18th-century. There's an archaeological site right under it and it's connected to the archaeological site under the Pointe-a-Calliere (a museum nearby). Now the place is a part of the Pointe-a-Calliere museum.

The Pointe-a-Calliere, Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. The museum, located at the so-called "city's birth place", introduces the city's history to its visitors.The museum is built on the ruins of older buildings. There were 4 parts: The Eperon building (the modern building that hosts temporary exhibitions), the archaeological crypt in the basement, the Old Customs House (now called the Ancienne-Douane building), & the Youville Pumping Station.

We went to the temporary exhibit first. It was titled The Journey to Roman Gaul. There was quite a few interesting artifacts (eg. clay pots, jewelry, bronze tools, tombstones, large pieces of mosaics used as a "carpet", etc). One of the things that I remembered was that people in Gaul started building their homes with tombstones at the time that they thought the Roman Empire was coming to an end (ie. time of political instability). I just thought that was awkwardly intelligent.

Then I went to the archaeological crypt in the basement. This is what it looks like with all the ruined walls and foundations of the previous structures.

Within the crypt, there was Montreal's first Catholic cemetary (dating from 1643). One of the skeleton found here was of a man of about 30 y/o with an injury to the skull - which suggests that he might have been hit by an Iroquois club. I had a pic of it but now I'm feeling a bit creepy about it so I decided to delete it.

There was an explanation board that talks about how the orientation and the contents of the graves tell us about French and native practices. (eg. funeral offerings of natives => potsheard, bear's tooth, pipe,etc)

The display case that shows the differences in the kinds of things used by people of different eras - you get all the old, ancient stuff at the bottom, & coca-cola bottles at the top.

The collector sewer that was once the bed of the Saint-Pierre River. The river longer exists with the expanding city of the early days.

The display area just outside of the Place Royal Archaeological site.

On the floor, there were these models that illustrate what the place looked like in various stages of its development throughout history.

A nice animated display just outside of the entrance leading to the Old Custom House display building. There was a old French tune playing behind this. It sounded like a music box.

The Boutique shop w/in the Old Custom House.

Then we decided to walk back to the Notre-Dame Basilica. Then we passed by some interesting streets and buildings. It was really cloudy, cold and windy today, especially by the Vieux Port. It wasn't one of the best days to go out but too bad..

One interesting X'mas shop we passed by on our way to the Notre-Dame Basilica. It's really Christmasy but it's only May!

The famous Notre-Dame Basilica. You need to pay $4 CAD to get in! Tamami & I was saying how we usually don't need to pay to go in a church & then this kid just bursted out "WHAT? WE HAVE TO PAY TO GO INTO THE CHURCH?" I just thought that was funny... especially when it came from a kid about 5-8 years old. Yup. We totally agree with him & 4 bucks was a bit too expensive even though the church was elegant and etc.

Tamami & I in front of the altar in the Notre-Dame Basilica. You can't believe how many people there were! The place was super crowded. It was more like a "tourist site" rather than a real church.

The art work in here was just impeccable. It was really amazing, detailed, and dark. Thousands of tiny 24 carat gold stars dotted the blue-ness. The chapel is still one of the most popular place for weddings. Celion Dion was married here in 1994.

Me attempting to take a pic of myself & Tamami but my camera was just screwed. It had problem processing images in such dark setting w/out flash. But if I used flash, I couldn't capture the background. Sux.. so a lot of my pics of the chapel turned out to be really blurry.

The organ at the back of the church - an elaborate work too.

A side-altar -> one of the pics that was already "clear".

One more blurry view of the super-detailed altar and the pulpit. The current neo-Gothic architecture was built between 1824-1829. The previous church was too small for the population & thus a lot of people decided to not go to church and the church decided to build a bigger church to get people back to church; hence the new building was constructed.

The other chapel behind the Notre-Dame Basilica. It's called the Chapelle du Sacre-Coeur.

The elaborate work done to the ceiling.

The back of the chapel with the organ on the balcony. It was so much brighter in this room!

Then we went to China Town to eat lunch - the same Taiwanese place that May took me when I first got to Montreal. I miss the BBT & food in Vancouver. It's so much better.. but this place is pretty good too.

I realized that I didn't take any pics of the China Town before so I took some today. Here's the gate universal to all China Towns in the world - It just has to say "Tang Ren Jie" (which literally means Tang-Dynasty-People-Street, which really just means it's just a Chinese place).

A street in the China Town of Montreal.

Then we went to the eastern Vieux Montreal where I went a few days ago & we basically swept through most of the attractions that I went. I was pretty surprised that I remember quite a bit about every site! All that typing on this website really helped me consolidate my memory of places that I've visited. So I was acting as a "tour guide", telling Tamami about what were the most interesting things to know of the places I went. Tiffy as a Montreal tour guide! muahaha.. ANYWAY. We swept through almost all sites in Vieux Montreal and went up to the Clock Tower AGAIn. But this time it wasn't that scary->for me. I guess it was b/c the surprise element wasn't there anymore. It was REALLY windy near the river tho'. Here are some pics that I did not take when I visited the places earlier.

One of the old court houses near the City Hall.

A street performer joggling torches in Place Jacques-Cartier.

Habitat '67 - a cool architecture that was quite unconventional on an island.

Then we took the metro back to downtown and swept through most of the major sites in downtown - YOU NAME IT. It was A LOT of walking. I didn't know where else to go so we went up to the other end of the McGill campus - the part near Parc Mont-Royal & went down the Peel Street to all the sites in southern downtown.

Looking down at the main entrance of the McGill Campus at the bottom of the hill + downtown.

C'est possible to take a walking city tour of half of the major attractions in Montreal in one day.. but probably just photo-stop tours.
Then I was really hungry and needed to find a place to eat, went to all underground malls but they were all closed.

A pic of an underground mall that appears in a lot of travel guides.

So sux to that.. we went back to the Tim Hortons right opposite from my rez and ate there. Then I had to get back 'cause I was tired & I had a paper that I must complete this weekend, no matter what! Tomorrow - The Islands!

Biodome, Olympic Parc, Insectarium, & Botanical Garden

2005-05-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Mai 21 (Samedi)
The weather didn't look that friendly today but I had to go out b/c I don't have much time left in Montreal and I have 2 papers to write and a final to study for. The weather was not going to stop me. So I took the metro from the McGill station to the Viau station, which was about 10 stops away. It took about 15mins. Then I went straight for the Biodome. You just can't believe how many people there were at 9:30am in the morning! It's insane.I thought I was early ('cause the place opens at 9am). & soo many school kids! Ugh! I got the "Get-an-Eye-Full Package" that allows me entrance to all the sites around the area (which are the ones I listed in my title). It costs $21.50. I guess that's a bit expensive but it's not like that I would ever go again so I guess it's ok in that sense.

Walking toward the entrance of Biodome. The architecture ahead is the Olympic Stadium.

Biodome - First exhibition area: Tropical Forest. The waterbabies (cabybara)are so cute! Here's one of them.

The Tropical section looks like this.

"What cha looking at!" - The Scarlet Macaw!

That's a porcupine on the tree I think..

Fishy Fishy!! This is in the St. Lawrence Marine Ecosystem zone. Oh! There were ducks that dived to the bottom of the pool to feed on something. It was so funny! The ducks were like balloons pushed to the bottom of the pool! Too bad I couldn't take a pic b/c they were just too fast!

The surface of the pool from the previous pic.

Arctic Zone - Penguins lining up and walking in their own funny way.

"Hmm..There are more humans here today than yesterday.."

Penguins with funky hairstyle.

Overall, I think the Biodome was ok, a bit like the Vancouver Aquarium. But I really liked how they incoporate msgs about preserving/saving the environment or endangered species on the boards that introduce what the species/animals are.

Next stop: The Olympic Stadium/Tower! The stadium was built to host the summer Olympics in 1976. The whole construction cost $1.2 US (billion), way over the original budget. Quebec smokers are still paying off the debt with the special tax on cigarettes.

The world's tallest inclined tower! Lean = 23-45 degrees.

A wall in the Olymbpic stadium that shows the Olympic related stuff.

The swimming pool in the stadium.

A model of what the whole Olympic Stadium/Tower looks like.The stadium was not a success as a sport venue. It is more often used as a place for large concerts or trade shows.

Then I went to the external cable car that takes me to the top of la Tour de Montreal (The Olymbpic Tower).
Going up!! It's kinda scary.. but not as scary as the ones I've encountered in Switzerland. The cable car has 2 levels!I was at the bottom level for both ways.

Look at the Biodome from the sky. It looks like a UFO!

At the top of the tower - The observation platform. The place wasn't really big.

Looking out to the St. Lawrence River!

Looking at the Botanical Garden and the Insectarium -> My next stop! The insectarium is built in the shape of a bug. You probably can't really sit it cearly here but it's on their website.

The Insectarium is actually inside the Botanical Garden. I walked from the Olympic Tower to the entrance.. It was windy and cold and there were drizzles of rain. It wasn't exactly fun. As I type this, I'm still suffering the headache from the morning. Life is tough when the weather sucks & when I didn't bring a hat.

Papillons Libre! The pillar that has all these butterflies on it. I thought it was pretty cool.

One of the exhibition areas - It has live/dead samples of all kinds of insects from butterflies to ants to strange insects.

Ant Stings & Initiation Rites "Young men must suffer in silence while they are stung by ants trapped in wooden tubes strapped against their skin."- It's pretty tough to be a MAN in some places.

You wouldn't want to see something like this at your own house - This branch is FULL of ants running around.

How insects inspired human's architectures.

One of the butterfly display cases. I used to go to parks to catch butterflies when I was small (in Tw). Now I just can't imagine how I could just take a net and trap butterflies.. I can't even imagine myself having silkworms as pets anymore. My childhood is full of weird things.

The other display cases.

Interesting species. What do you think they're doing?
They're just taking a break from the busy everyday life w/ entertaining human guests.

A nice necklace for you to wear - all those green things .. you don't have to know what they are. You just have to know you're in an insectarium.

Sorry man..I can't help it. I study music.

Then I went walking around in the Botanical Garden. Went to the Japanese Garden, thought it was o-k even tho' it was pretty big. But I found it a bit too "westernized". I think the UBC Nitobe garden resembles a true Japanese Garden more.Then I ran all the way to the "Tree House" -> expecting to see a REAL tree house.. but it turned out to be an ordinary house w/ info about trees in it. & why did I run? b/c it was SOOOOO FAR. There was a cluster of attraction points around the Japanese garden & I have to walk about 2x the distance to the other end of the park to see that tree house & there was nothing worth looking along the way & it was freezing cold w/ the wind & me w/out a hat & the fact that I had to get bk to downtown Montreal b4 5pm to see my prof's concert. It was disappointing. Whatever. I ran back the cluster of attractions & saw the First Nations Garden, Chinese Garden, Alpine Garden, Green House Exhibition, & etc. & I was trying to find this Rose Garden but I could not pinpoint where exactly I was for 30 mins. I seemed to be stuck at the Alpine for a long time. It was weird. When I finally got to the Rose Garden, guess what happens? THERE WERE NO ROSES!!! 'cause it wasn't the right weather/month yet! CRAp. Talking about big time disappointment here. But I guess it wasn't the right season to go yet for a lot of flowers -> except the cherry blossoms which were CRAZY- there was a sea of them! It was pretty cool. So enough of me talking -> pictures are worth a thousand words:

A part of the Japanese Tea Garden.

The wall of Japanese characters in the Japanese Pavilion.

The lake in Japanese garden.

Viewing the lake from a small resting place. In the Japanese Garden, there was the Japanese Pavilion (had all sorts of things of Japanese culture), Zen Stone Garden, Tea Garden, Bonsai Courtyard, Peace Bell (commenmorate those who died in the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack) & the large lake.

This is the so-called "Tree House". It has displays of different kinds of wood & stuff like that. But I just wasn't feeling very scientifically curious today so I thought it was disappointing (& that whole "tree house" thing too).

One of the things in the First Nations Garden.

The waterfall in the Alpine Garden.

The Chinese Garden The Friendship Hall- inspired by Ming Dynasty Style. It's considered the largest of its kind outside of China.

"It was put together in China & then dismantled and shipped to Montreal in 120 containers.. Sixty Chinese workers, assisted by Botanical Garden staff, rebuilt the garden on its current site."

The Spring Time Court Yard.
I don't know.. there just seems to be something very un-China about this place. I've been to the famous SuZhou gardens(famous + classic Chinese gardens)& it was quite a different feel. Maybe it's just the fact that it was not in China & most of the ppl visiting weren't Chinese that made it feel a bit awkward.

Then there's this famous "Lover's bench" in the Perennial Garden. I can SOOO identify with the woman on the right side.

In the Exhibition Green Houses - Tropical Rainforest! I like how they grow all these different species on this thing that resembles a log.

The orchids in teh Orchid & Aroid Greenhouse. There are 1,900 different orchid species & hybrids in this single greenhouse!

Entering the Fern Greenhouse.

I forgot where this was - Maybe the Tropical Economic Plant Greenhouse ?!

Then I went to the a kid's media room in the Molson Hospitality Greenhouse (also where the entrance is).

The Begonia and Gesneriad Greenhouse. These flowers just look so perfect! They reminded me of Indonesia.

Cactus Club?! This is the Arid Regions - where you get all the cool stuff like this from Americas and Africa.

Some Chinese garden stuff again.

A mediterrean-like greenhouse - you can tell I so wasn't focusing on the plants but the deocration.. haha..

Went out of the greenhouses (a total of 10) & went to the Reception Garden.

where a couple is taking wedding photos... ohhh.. how sweet~ The sea of tulips once again~

Embarking on my journey to the Rose Garden - This is it!
But no roses..

A cherry blossom tree that caught the eyes of many b/c of its bright color.

A statue in the Rose Garden. I don't know why but I so wanted to say "YOU'RE SO VAIN!" Anyway.. maybe it was just my headache driving me to the edge of insanity.

After all that, I went out of the garden, took the free shuttle to the metro - got off at Place-des-Arts, where I met Janice (RYO) & her mom the night before. went to get grocery & walked back to rez -> I was all ready to just go to sleep.. but I still had a concert ot go to - my prof's concert. Well.. I didn't have to go.. but I wanted to.. so my id was totally taking over the control of my life while my superego was taking a long weekend off. The concert was at the Christ Church Cathedral (see my previous posts).. Pretty cool. Robert Schumann songs for piano & voices. By the end of the concert, I was slightly rejuvenated but still despeartely needed to go bk to rest & my headache wasn't gone after the concert -> I was hoping that it would. Oh well..

Memory of a Place..

2005-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Mai 20 (Vendredi)
I guess you learn to associate something with every place that you visit. There's a certain smell, a certain scene, a certain person or a certain something in the air that triggers your memory of a place that you once visited. For Vancouver, I think of the rain drops. Whenever it's raining like there's no tomorrow, I think of Vancouver. For Switzerland, somehow, I've learned to associate it with a Gucci perfume that I bought at a Switz airport; there seems to be something with the perfume that reminds me of Switzerland. Then, here in Montreal, it's different. Everyday I listen to piano music from the Romantic era: the songful, expressive, elegant "romantic" music. It almost seems to be a luxurious and extravagant thing to do.

I'm doing my paper on conjesturing what Brahms could have been thinking when he wrote his Intermezzo Op 118. It's a really "Romantic" & "romantic" piece. I think my memory trigger for Montreal is Brahms' Intermezzi. I've not encountered these beautiful pieces 'til now, in a foreign city.

Chateau Ramezay et Vieux Port Clock Tower

2005-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Mai 19 (Jeundi)

Went to the east side of Vieux Montreal again this morning. & I headed straight for the Chateau Ramezay Museum, the one that I missed on Tuesday. The chateau was built in 1702 by the 11th governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay. French governors, British Conquerors, and American occupiers have stayed at this "small stone castle", as several guide books call it. It was used by The French West Indies Company in 1745 for storing furs. It was used by the British as their headquarter after the consequest in 1760. & It was used by American commanders and Benjamin Franklin during the American Revolution. Then in 1895, the house was turned into a museum.

The first display room - Natives and the New World. The portrait on the wall is Jacques Cartier.

An armchair in Louis XIII style. I must say.. it doesn't look that fancy.

The Iroquois (->spelling?!) miniatures.

A prayer book from the 18th-century. I was fascinated by the writing and the color of the paper. It looks OLD.

I think this is the ballroom where the hosts entertained guests. I like the style but I can't imagine myself living in it. It looks a bit too dark. & also, if I live in houses like that, I would want to dress in the style of its architecture. Things are going to get complicated as you see.

What "gentlemen" would wear during that time.

Models of the ship at the time & some bank notes ($$).

Wouldn't you just want one of these? An automobile produced at the end of the 19th-century by De Dion-Bouton company (the city's first motorist).

Some interesting off-work entertainment kind of thing that you can do. J/K.

The one on the left is the Astrolabe and the one on the right is a Sextant. Both were produced during the 17-18th century period. They were used to measure latitudes on ships.

Some feather-pen-writing "workshop". There were A LOT of kids there when I went.. & all of them spoke French. Apparently there was a school field trip. The guide who was telling the kids about the feather pen & etc. came up to me & explained to me that most of the people at the time didn't know how to write so they would go to this guy (points to the wax figure at the corner of the room, which is not on my pic) to write what they want to write. The guide's English wasn't really good & when he was trying to explain to me, he couldn't say some words in English & he was asking one of the kids how to say it in English & the kid gave him a look like "How would I know?" (I caught the French words for saying it. 1 point for me.. haha). But he was really helpful nevertheless b/c he didn't really have to tell me what all of that was about. Maybe he felt sorry for kicking me out of the room when the kids where there haha..

Voila. Here's my feather-pen writing. The guide said that people would put sand on what they wrote so that it wouldn't get dirty & etc. & b/c paper was scarce, people would write in between lines, on the sides, at the corners - basically use up all the spaces on the paper.

Then I went to the garden at the back of the chateau. It was ok. just a modest little garden. Overall, I think the museum was o-k. It wasn't THAT interesting. Maybe it b/c I wasn't really into all that Canadian history stuff. The admission was $5 for students.

The colonial garden behind Chateau Ramezay.

Nice tulips! Their color just looks so sweet and fragrant..like perfume bottles.. haha.. anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I like it.

After the museum, I went to the Notre-Dame-de Bon-Secours Chapel area again b/c I missed the Pierre du Calvet House just right outside of it the other day.

The house belonged to Pierre du Calvet, an envoy sent by George Washington in 1775. He was a supporter of the American revolution and had meetings with Benjamin Franklin when he was in Montreal.

The place is now a 4-Stars Inn.

After that, I walked to Maison George-Etienne Cartier. The museum was about the life of George-Etieene Cartier, a stateman who persuaded French-speaking Quebecois to join the Canadian federation. I wasn't really interested in the life of politicians & it was going to cost another $4 so I didn't go in.

The exterior of the Maison George-Etienne Cartier. It looked slightly more elegant than the Chateau Ramezay.

Then I went down to the Clock Tower in the Vieux Port. The Clock Tower was built in 1922 to commemorate men of the Merchant Fllet who lost their lives in WWI.

Walking towar the Clock Tower. A view of the bridge. The Clock Tower is at the right end of the picture.

The Clock Tower straight ahead! & St. Lawrence River right beside me!

Look at the place opposite from the Clock Tower. The river current was STRONG. Even dinner cruise ships sailing on the river was pushed by the current. It was kinda crazy. & the water was flowing north! Remember the whole confusing Upper Canada & Lower Canada distinction? The naming was determined by the direction that the river flows, not by its geographical location.

Finally at the Clock Tower - The fun part of today's trip!

The initial steps had medal tags that say how many more steps to go. There was a total of 192 steps.

The more scary part of the stairs. It was really narrow! There was seriously only enough space for one person to walk on at one time. It was freaky!

So many steps to go!

But it's all worth it! Finally at the top!

Look back at the city. "Oh, I have left so much behind."(->spoken w/ the Shakespearan dramatic gestures).

Look at the other side of the St. Lawrence River. The weather was so nice.

Look at the same bridge that I saw earlier.

Looking down at where I climbed up from. It's pretty scary.

Ok. Let's not look down anymore. Let's look at the nice view around.

Then I had to get down to catch the metro & go to my class. Here comes the phobia-challenge once again.
GOING DOWN!

Then there was the momument that says:

"Tribute to the heroism and devotion of our sailors in the war of 1914-1918.... Also the War of 1939-1945."

As I walked back to the Champ-de-Mars metro station, I passed by the Champ-de-Mars (Field of Mars) once again. & here's the pic of the remains of the stone walls of the fortified Montreal in the distant past.

The double backbone of the stone walls that once existed.

Post Exam Blues

2005-05-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Mai 18 (Mercredi)
I think exams make me unhappy. Got my midterm back today & I got 53.5/60 (=89%), which is kinda good. But I just don't know why I'm so PO after I see the mark. I got almost perfect on all sections but I didn't correctly identify the composer & genre for the unknown listenings. I guess that was one of the big blows b/c it means that I had no idea about the style of the composers we studied & that I couldn't apply what I memorized. But but but.. Schubert & Chopin's character pieces sound alike & Beethoven & the beginning of this weird Liszt etude sound alike. No more excuses. The fact is that I don't know enough and I have not heard enough piano pieces.

But then there's the whole crap about exams. If I get lower than what I expected (& I just can't expect low when I think I REALLY studied), even a fraction lower, I would feel like sh8t and have low self-esteem for the whole class, if not the whole day, esp. when I know I could have spitted more things I know on the paper. If I get a good mark, I would feel great until I hear more than 2 ppl got even higher than me. To make things more screwed - If I get really good (even if I expected that), I would just get all arrogant about the subject & think I know everything & don't study hard for it from there on. This suck. I wasn't like this when I was in elementary school AT ALL. I was one of those who would be in the lower end of the middle range if not the lower range. What happened??

The class was going all cool and fun & the evaluation just ruins it. It's just like someone chopping your favorite spagetti into the smallest pieces possible and telling you to eat it. It's bloody disgusting. & I feel all awkward and dumb in front of the prof & etc. considering I was even talking with him about life in Vancouver, Montreal & Paris the night before! -> I went to a piano concert that I thought no one in the class would go to & then I saw my prof.
I shall recover from this pathological self-consciousness by tomorrow. The class was soo quiet today by the way.. Not many giving opinions & etc. (including moi.. ha). Maybe everyone was experiencing the similar post-exam-blues?!

So my plans for the day is ruined. I was going to go to the Violin-Making museum & the Contemporary Art Gallery. I guess I just have to leave those for other days. But Vieux Montreal tomorrow morning AGAIN!

Vieux Montreal - Archaeology!

2005-05-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Mai 17 (Mardi)
This morning was sunny. Last night was unbelievable - Some freaking people were talking and laughing aloud right under my window at 2AM! & I couldn't sleep afterwards so I flipped through the Quebec City guide 'til 3am & forced myself to sleep 'cause I actually PLANNED to go to the Vieux Montreal (aka Old Montreal) the next morning. It was sunny so I guess I was fortunate, considering the weather has been quite unstable these days.

I took the Metro to Champ-de-Mars. Passed by the Cour municipale, Montreal City Hall (Hotel de Ville) to the Chateau Ramezay Museum.

The Cour Municipale.

The City Hall. The building was built between 1872 and 1878 and survived a fire in 1922.

It's on this balcony that the French President Genereal Charles de Gaulle shouted "Vive le Quebec libre" ("Long live free Quebec") in 1967 during Canada's centennial celebrations.

I went to the Ramezay Museum but apparently I was 10 mins early so I decided to walk around the area (& I never got back to the museum). I walked to Place de la Dauversiere (a small park), which was just right beside the museum. The tulips were beautiful~ There were a lot of kids and school buses around. Apparently, everyone "knew" today was the day to go out.

The Chateau Ramezay Museum - I'll visit it next time~

The Jean Drapeau statue in Place de la Dauversiere.

Right beside Place de la Dauversiere was Place Jacques-Cartier. It was lined with outdoor cafes, restaurants, and interesting boutique shops. There were also street musicians and street artists who draw portraits.

Walking toward Place Jacques-Cartier. The Lord Nelson monument & the old court house.

Walking along the Place Jacques-Cartier. It was used as a public market for many years.

Looking back at the Lord Nelson monument on the other end of Place Jacques-Cartier (the place where I walked from). The monument was erected in 1809 to honor Lord Nelson's victory over Napoelon's French navy at Trafalgar.

Walked down to the Vieux Port area. There's a small green area along the railway tracks and the port called Place des Vestiges.

A view of the buildings opposite from the Vieux Port from Place des Vestiges.

The neat rows of trees in Place des Vestiges. The leaves are so green! It looks as it were from a painting!

Walking along the railway tracks in Place des Vestiges and saw the Marche Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market) - my next destination.

More Vieux Port street scenes before I get to Marche Bonsecours.

The side-entrance to Marche Bonsecour. Doesn't it look a bit Greek to you?

Barche Bonsecours was inaugurated in 1847. It has a concert hall and served as a city hall in the early days of Montreal's municipal gov't. It was built from gray stone in the 1840's. The first floor has some restaurants. The second floor has some boutique stores.

Some nice spring display near the stairs at the lobby of the 2nd floor.

Stores on the 2nd level.

One of the stores - art. There are not many stores in the building and most of them are related to art.

Another store - glass art. I like the shape and colors of these pieces.

A sign of a restaurant at the ground floor of the building. The background people on the right are filming something which I have no idea about.

A close view of what they're doing. Tiffy's spying on people haha..but are they trying to pretend they're outside of the Buckingham Palace or something?!

Another look at the silvery dome of the Marche Bonsecours before I go to my next stop - Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (which was just right beside the Marche).

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel) may look ordinary from the outside, but you would just fall in love with it once you're in it. This is one of my favourite place in Montreal.

The colors of the interior looks so soft. Everything looks so delicately elegant. The person who pushed the construction of this church was St. Marguerite Bourgeoys. The chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary in 1657.

The chapel was often referred to as the Eglise des Matelots (the Sailors' Church). At the times when traveling across Atlantic was dangerous, mariners who survived the perils of crossing the ocean in the 18th/19th-century would came to the church and thank the Virgin for her help. They would also leave lamps in small model ships as a token of appreciation. There are still many wooden ship models hanging from the ceiling in the chapel.

I think there's just something about this chapel that makes you feel warm and protected.

A side altar.

The beautiful organ at the back of the church - a Casavant organ 1910.

There's a museum in the chapel. This is where the archaeology part comes in. The archaeological site is called La Crypt in the Museum. It's right under the chapel. A guide from the museum took me (& only me!) through the secret passages to a door leading to the site. It truly looked like the arch sites I saw in my textbooks! I could even imagine the line grids on those hearth 'tho they're already taken down. Visitors were not allowed to take photos in the museum and the archaeological site so too bad I don't have cool pics to show here. To compensate, I took pics of the brochures of the museum and it has some pics of the places that I'm talking about.
The Discovery Room at the basement of the museum where there are display cases of artifcats found in the archaeological site. They had Renaissance music playing in the background so it makes you think you're back to the 17th-century.

Another pic from the brochure. The bottom section shows you what the archaeological site looks like. The middle one shows you another pic of the Dicovery Room. There's a door in the Discovery Room that leads to the arch site.

The main thing in the arch site was the stone foundation of the first chapel that was first erected in 1657. The first chapel was about the size of a large master bedroom. It was SMALL. The altar part was excavated but not where the mass probably stood because, according to some documents, 9 sisters who contracted smallpox while attending to the sick in the 17th-c. were buried here & archaeologists didn't want to "disturb" them. The place was kinda "chilly" in that sense.

The first chapel was burned down, possibly by a village fire. The guide showed me the burned nails from the wooden roof and the melted glass of the windows. There was no stained-glass windows back then so the glass wasn't really transparent, especially after being mixed with ashes due to the fire.

The river was closer to the chapel at the time so archaeologists also found stone tools, flints, and pottery made by Ameridians by the site. Ameridians were nomadic groups.

The arch site was right below the current chapel (dates to 1771). The site was previously used as a storage place for the sisters and there was a "furnace"-kind of heating system built there to heat up the chapel above. The arch site was discovered when the sisters wanted to remove some earth/mud/sand from the mound to make more room for storage.

The arch dig of the first chapel has stopped but a new one (just a small one by the foundation of the chapel)would begin in Aug 2005. In sum, it's a pretty cool place to visit if you happen to visit Montreal.

And that was only the arch site. There's also the museum about the founder of the church, Marguerite Bourgeoys - a woman of action who came from France to set up schools in the new French colony. There were various display rooms that talk about her life, her contributions, the place at the time, & etc. It's really neat.

Another pic from the brochure that shows one of the display rooms where some artifacts were put in glass display cases on the floor.

The whole admission fee for the museum + the archaeological site costs $8 CAD. I think it's worth it. There's also the tower (the "Aerial")in the museum/chapel where visitors could get a good view of the Vieux Port and the Vieux Montreal.

Viewing of the Cirque du Soleli tents at the Vieux Port as I walk toward to the chaepl tower.

Many steep stairs going up! There was actually a sign that says - these are "antic" stairs so be gentle with it.

The tiny chapel - the "Aerial" or the "Tower". The "Aerial" is actually a tiny chapel were mariners came to pray for safe passage. I just love the color of this whole chapel. It's so comforting. No wonder sailors come here to pray for safe voyages.

Here's my paranomic pic (360 degrees.. well.. almost) of the view from the tower.

Starting from the door of the tower.

The Clock Tower in the Vieux Port is on the left of the pic. The distant circular-structure thing in the middle of the pic is the Biosphere on an Island.

The bridges and the Port.

One of the statues on the chapel.

To the other side , you can see another statue on the chapel with the Marche Bonsecours.

Back on to the streets of Vieux Montreal. Don't you just love the freshly colored leaves and the terraces? It's so poetic.. haha..

Walking along the stone-cobbled streets. It's close to noon time. I better make my way back to the metro station to catch my class at 1:30pm.

Passing by the old court by Place Vauquelin. It's the leaves that caught me again. They look so yummy.. Uhh..Tiffy..

The statue in Place Vauquelin - It represents a naval hero of the French regime - Jacques Vauquelin.

Walking back to the Champ-de-Mars metro station, I passed by Champ-de-Mars (Field of Mars) - a green space that was used as a parade square for local regiments 'til 1924. Archaeologists excavated the foundations of what was once the city's stone walls (Montreal was a fortified city but the walls were taken down b/c it was inconvenient for commerce).I stepped over the stone walls, suspecting they were the stone walls that I read about but didn't have time to double check so I didn't take a pic. I'll show you next time - since I still have to visit a few places around there anyway.

Ordinary Day + Midterm

2005-05-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Mai 16 (Dimanche)
Today is the DAY for MIDTERM. It went ok I guess, considering I was spilling my lungs and hearts, and brains (wait I only have 1 brain) all over the pages. ANYWAY.. whatever that meant. Went to the Info Touriste again today but I felt too young to be in there (since there were so many much older people in it) so I grabbed a few pamphlets & got out. Went to HMV to get the CD for my written assignemnt - Brahms Klavierstucke Op 118 - a beautiful piece by the way (along w/ Op 117). I was going to go to the piano concert at 5 for my written report but since I heard a lot of other ppl were going, I decided to go to another concert (@ 7pm tomorrow) instead. Finally get to think about planning for trips again. No more exams 'til the end of the month!

A Pact with the Weather

2005-05-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Mai 14 (Samedi)

I made a pact with the weather last night. If it's sunny and if I wake up between 7-8am, I would go to the Biodome, Botanical Garden, Olympic Park & all that jazz. If it's not sunny or if I wake up later than 8am, then I'm just going to study hard core for the whole weekend.

Guess what? The weather gave me a reply & rained hard core today. It was freezing cold last night too. I experienced the same unavoidable- freezing-cold-wind during my first night stay at Montreal. No more!

My prof reminds me of a friend whom I hardly see nowadays.. the way he acts, talks, looks at people, plays his instrument, etc. It's freaky. It's strange now I think about it. The world is so small. You see shadows of people you know even in strangers.

I can't believe I've been here for 2 weeks already! It just felt that I've been here only for a week or so. Looking out my window, I think the warmest scene I see is when a father holds the little hand of his kid, walking back home. I miss my family but I don't want to go back.. back where? My sister is on the other end of the continent. My parents are on the other end of the Pacific Ocean. Where is home? Home is where my family is. But we're like stretched elastic bands; 'tho far in physical distance, we're always close in our hearts.

A "sepia" view of the buildings opposite from my window. Isn't it a bit nostalgic?

Harp - Choose one!

2005-05-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Mai 13 (Vendredi)

Finally got the harp room- after struggling to get it for half of the month. 'Tho I ended up have to pay $30 to rent it 'til the beginning of June, it's worth it. So happy to see harp again.. I have been practicing piano for the past few weeks - I played more piano last week than I ever played in the past 6 months. I like the piano practice rooms too 'cause I get to choose which ever piano I want to play, as long as there's no one in there. & of course I always choose the grand piano.

Harps @ McGill!

I went to harp room at a corner on the top floor of the building. There were 3 huge hard cases for grand concert harp outside of the room, making the hallway narrower than it is. Went in the room & saw not the 1 harp that the room manager told me but THREE! They're all Lyon&Healy (a good brand of harp) too -> the one my friends and my teacher have! Basically I could just choose whichever one I like. It was like WOW! The practice room also has a large window that looks out to the busy streets of downtown Montreal. What more could I ask for? Grand piano & 3 harps.. 'tho they're not mine but it doesn't make a huge difference. It's already better than what I had anywhere else. But..but.. but... I forgot to bring a TUNER!

3 harps!! I was going to choose the fancy one (which looked like my friend's harp) but it was smaller than the other 2.. so I chose the one in the middle 'cause I don't like the black one on the right.
A view of the streets from the window of the harp room.
Went to a piano concert w/ Romantic works (eg. Beethoven, Brahms, etc) for my class concert report. It was ok.. actually the Beethoven piece was kinda screwed b/c it was played on a fortepiano (not the modern piano) & the performer probably had more trouble w/ the instrument. But I love Brahms' Intermezzi, Op 117. He did a great job. Now I want to play it.

An illusion of summer.

2005-05-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

Mai 12 (Jeudi)
The weather here is really strange. Yesterday I was wearing T-shirt + skirt. Today I had to wear sweaters, paints + coat! Yesterday was 24C & Today was 3C to begin with. It's still sunny but the temperature just went like a roller coaster. I just don't know how to dress for this weather. Je ne comprend pas.

Sorry I don't have a lot of pics to show you these days b/c I hardly went out of my quarter (my rez & the music building => which are architecturally connected). The furtherest I went would probably be the Underground mall.. that's it. Midterm next Monday! Just thinking about that makes me want to stay inside all day & night.

My prof's concert yesterday was interesting. It was a Czech piece written in the 192o's for tenor & piano (My prof played the piano) & there was a mezzo soprano & 3 off-stage singers. The piece was called "The Diary of One who Vanished" by Leos Janacek. It was a really DARK piece (musically speaking). & It's one of those sophisticated pieces that you felt you don't really know what happened throughout the whole thing.. Why can someone compose a song cycle based on a plowman's feelings about a gypsy woman whom he eloped with b/c she has his child. Anyway, the piece was kinda cool.

The cherry tree in the courtyard of my residence (RVC) is just blooming!
Behind the tree is the music building.

The cherry blossoms and the little court yard have a Japanese feel to it.

A View of the street (rue University) from my window.

Heard a person whistling by my window this morning & heard another person whistling as he walks by in the afternoon ( I live on the 2nd floor) . Then, as I type this now, someone is playing a flute outside with someone singing along - just some fragmented melodies. It's 8:30pm. The sky is a canva of pure "bleu"... but it's getting dark now. There are still cars passing by and the streets are still busy. This place just seems so much alive! & alive in a way that doesn't horrify you but energizes you.

Some kind of exotic encounter?

2005-05-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Mai 11 (Mercredi)

Didn't do much for the past 2 days b/c I was too lazy & it was too sunny (my so-called Sunny-day-Syndrome). It has been really HOT (not warm) for the past few days 'tho it rained last night. I have to take out my T-shirts & skirt (I'm so glad I brought one w/ me!).

My midterm is next Monday. It's INSANE... I have to really get down to it. D*mn the Liszt thematic transformation in Mazzepa. I knew I heard the theme throughout the whole piece but I wasn't too sure about whether it was some kind of theme & variation so I didn't mention it in the class discussion & the prof eventually said it and said he was surprised that no one in the class caught the recurring theme. D*MN. I heard it! I just didn't say it. Don't you just hate it when you knew you were right but was too afraid that you would be wrong & thus you just did nothing & feel like crap afterwards b/c you know you could have said something. ANYWAY.

Finally decided to go to the Lafontaine Park today. The class was cancelled b/c the prof is performing at a concert. I didn't feel like venturing far away from where I am so I just went to the Park (which was about 20 blocks away from my rez). Went on the bus, not long after, a guy set in front of me, wearing all formal & stuff (but looked about my age) started talking to me. He was slightly on the good-looking side but it was strange. I forgot what he talked about in the beginning. Maybe something about he was from CA.. doing missionary kind of thing here. No offence to anyone who's affiliated w/ a Church, but whenever I hear anything related to religion, my brain just automatically goes on BLOCK mode. & everything else that comes after that just goes like water flowing through a fishing net.

The guy & the other guy spoke Mandarin, which was not that surprising but interesting b/c the guy who talked to me could speak it REALly well & not w/ the China accent. But I pretended that I didn't really know Mandarin that well. Cutting off the "similarity" connection is impt when you know someone has other purpose in mind - application of psych class material here!

& He asked where I originally from. I said something about from Vancouver but originally Japanese.. half Chinese & half Japanese.. born in Japan, but family = Chinese, moved to Vancovuer soon after. I'm live in Montreal but I move around & I don't have a cell # . & my name was Sana. I AM SUCH A LIAR.. haha. but there are some truth to my lies, which makes me less evil.

Anyway, that was fun (Actually no. shoot, that was scary..). Next time, if something similar happens (which I hope NOT) I should say I'm Hawaiian, but born in HK, raised in Indonesia.

Here's some pics of the Parc Lafontaine - Montreal's third largest park. It's pretty.. but seems artificial, unlike the Parks we have in Vancouver.

Walking toward the lake.

Walking along the lake.

It's said that the eastern half is pure Frech (geometric designs) and the western side is English (irregular shaped ponds, etc). I don't know. There weren't really distinctive differences.

The statue of the person whom the park was named after - Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. He was a pioneer of responsible gov't in Canada.

Went to the Undergroun afterwards & bought a microwavable plate that could be a bowl. It's impt to get things that has multi-functions when you're traveling! Then I'm going to my prof's concert at 3:30. What's for dinner?? I have no idea.

War of Piano & TV

2005-05-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Mai 9 (Lundi)
I was planning to go to the La fountain Park right after class but I was too lazy & too overwhelmed by class assignments that I decided not to go. I went down to the lobby to play the wrecked grand piano. It was really dusty and out of tune. & Then a girl came & turned on the TV at the other end of the hall - freakingly loud. But I managed to continue playing Beethoven's Sonata. Then the front desk person came & told me people are not supposed to play piano when someone is watching the TV. What the? First of all, I came first. Second of all, there was no sign that says I can't play when someone is watching TV. Third of all, if I can play piano while the person is watching TV, why can't the TV person watch the d*mn TV while I'm playing the piano? It's all a matter of concentration and attention when it comes to doing things. Watching TV just doesn't engage enough of brain cells to keep the person distracted from other things.

This is the out-of-tune piano in the lobby. Photo taken at another day - as you can imagine.
So I went to the private piano room, which if I knew EXISTED (as I was told it was not earlier), I would not even have tried to play that out-of-tune crap in the lobby. I have to get back to researching my topic for the paper. I don't want to do any of the things listed b/c I'm just that kind of person - always making life more complicated than it could be. The paper is due in 3 weeks.. but I'm trying to get it done before then - just to get it over with so I can go to Quebec City or Ottawa without worrying about it~~ kekeke..

Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal

2005-05-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

Mai 8 (Dimanche)
It's another sunny & warm day in Montreal. But the clouds are getting thicker now. It's going to rain next week! NO~~

Went to the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal (The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) today. It was founded in 1860 & it was one of Canada's oldest art museums. There are two buildings - the older neoclassical one called Michal & Renata Hornstein Pavilion and the new modern one called the Jean-Noel Desmarais Pavailion. The two buildings are connected by an underground passage that has exhibitions of art works from Africa, Asia, Islam, & etc.

The bus dropped me off right outside of the Hornstein Pavilion. The admission to the permanent exhibitions is free but there's an admission fee to the temporary exhibition. & GUESS what the temporary exhibition that's currently on now? -> ETERNAL EGYPT!!!! I saw it already when it was in Victoria, B.C. !! My family took the ferry all the way to Victoria just to see that! & now it's right beside me in Montreal! The Egyptian mummies from the British Museum followed me from Victoria to Montreal~ haha.. or maybe it's the other way around? I'm not sure if the ETERNAL EGYPT was in Taipei last yr... b/c I remember seeing some sign that looks like it when I was in Tw.. HO! This is freaky~

The collections of the museum in the Hornstein Pavilion include: Canadian Art, Inuit Art, Amerindian Art, Canadian Decorative Arts, Decorative Arts from the Renaissance to Today, & Mediterranean Archaeology. The first 4 were all on the second floor. The last 2 were on the first floor.

The Hornstein Pavilion of the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal. Don't you just love the 2 red hearts at the corner of the museum?

The elegant lobby of the Hornstein Pavilion.

The Contemporary Art Section. My sis would love this. The sofa is actually called the "Sunset in New York sofa".

One of my favorites - there's 3 men - one a hunter, one a singer, & one a fisher. It's in the Canadian Art section.

Titled: Fireworks. I just love how this piece stands out from the rest.

Sometimes art can be just as simple as symbols & numbers. "Signs in Space" by Leon Bellefleur (from Quebec).

Another one of my favorites. He looks as if he were preparing to dive.. It looked so real! & Look at the shadow, it already tells you he is going to win (ie. The shadow seems to show that he has won).

An Inuit Art - The raw material is the whale spine.

"The Dummer" - Another Inuit Art. It's quite cute~

I forgot what this was called. But this Inuit work is soo cute too~ keke..

The stage for Modern Art. The melting-glass-looking structure is called "Glass Dance" > or something that like.. I can't remember.

This is not a display case in a mall. This is ART~

This seems to be a pretty rough sofa to sit on.

More contemporary chairs.

A Spinet from England around the 1700s. Doesn't it look like a mini-piano/harpsichord?

A piano from the Victorian era in England.

Egyptian Zone!

A bunch of incence burning things that look kinda cute.

The Roman heads in the Mediterranean Archaeology section.

More Roman statues.

I got out of the Hornstein Pavilion and decided to go to the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul just right beside it. The church was closing at the time I went in. I got in before the guy in there had a chance to lock the door. So I asked the guy whether this place was open to the public ('tho I knew it was.. but seeing that he was locking the doors so I decided to be polite). & The guy said that they just had the Sunday service (which I knew already too from the tourist guide) & he said that everyone was just pouring out of the church after the service... maybe b/c it's Mother's Day today. Isn't that just interesting? God may be important but not as important as Mom, ye know.

The guy from the church was really nice. He let me stayed there & told me how to exit now that the front doors were locked. This Presbyterian church was built in 1932 by the Scottish community in Montreal. What's strikingly different about this church from the other ones is that its interior is entirely constructed by stone. There weren't fancy decorations and carvings. It was just straight-forward -> stone! It makes me think of pictures of those lonely castles in Scotland. The church has Montreal's largest organ. it's a four-manual Casavant with 6,911 pipes. It's amazing.

Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. I got in just on time! keke..

The interior of the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul. It's stony!

The stained-glass windows.

While the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul was on the west side of the Hornstein Pavilion, the not-much-advertised Erskine & American United Church was on the east side of the Pavilion.
This is the Erksine & American United Church. Although you don't find people talking about this church much but you gotta know that this neo-Romanesque church built in 1894 has 24 Tiffany windows! (Tiffany -> not the jewelry.. but the famous brand in glass on lamps - is that how u say it?!). The Musee des Beaux-Arts actually wants to buy the church and use it as an exhibition space for religious art.

Then I went to the Desmarais Pavilion, the more modern-looking building of Musee des Beaux-Arts. Other than the temporary exhibition - the Eternal Egypt, the permanent collection includes: Contemporary Art, Galleries of Ancient Cultures (African, Oceanian, Asian, Islamic, & Pre-Coloumbian Art), 19th & 20th-c. Art, Old Masters (Picasson, Miro, etc), 19th-c European Art, Prints & Drawings, & Drawings, Prints and Photographs from 1900 to Today.

The Damarais Pavillion with the Eternal Egypt ad.

Looking at the lobby/ticket area from the 2nd floor.

Here we meet again -The Eternal Egypt Exhibition!
No, I did not go in. Once is enough~ unless I become a Egyptologist & know how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (Impressionist) - "Young Girl with a Hat" (about 1890).

Pablo Picasso! I think the one on the left is called the "White Hen". 95% sure.

Is this your idea of what Picasso is like? A cubistic work done by Picasso.

A cool architecture model of the Romanesque Sacre-Couer Basilica (1st half of 12th-c) in Paris done by Antonie Polisois (plaster).

I think this is a model of the famous church in Florence, Italy.

Jame's Tissot's "October".

A gallery that makes you feel like you're walking through time.

Some of the 18/19th-c paintings on the wall.

A famous painting done by Rembrandt - "Portrait of a Young Woman". It's a bit on the dark side, don't you think?

I think I've seen this painting in my music history textbook.
"Duet" (1623-4) by Gerrit von Honthorst.

Godfried Schalcken's "Salome with the Head of John the Bapist"(about 1700). The torch/light really caught my attention. It looked so real.

Are you hungry? This still-life painting (mid-17th-c) by Christiaen Luyckx looks so authentic.

Some modernist movement here - Jim Campell's "5th-Avenue Cutaway" (2002) LED display. It's like a TV screen & all you see is people walking by.

2 big heads -> that's all I know.

More contemporary stuff.

Is this your understanding of contemporary art? - It's a MESS! No no no.. you gotta look beneath the colors.. look at all the brush strokes (if there were any) & the colors.. & the spirits w/in it.. etc.etc. (remember Mona Lisa Smile?)

"Got MILK?"
NO! This is not the title of the work! but I forgot what it was called.. & the circular thing at the back is one of those "hyptonising" diagrams.

African art!

Chinese Art!

Pre-Colombian Art!

"Flying Sausage?"
NOOOO~~~!! But I forgot what it was.. I just thought it was kinda cute with the small elephant on one end.

I had to check my backpack b/c it was big. So I took out the laptop & impt documents w/ me. The laptop strap was totally poorly designed. My shoulder hurted so much after walking out of the Desmarais Pavilion. & There was seriously a LOT of walking. My feet are sooo dead by the end of going to the museum, going for some grocery shopping, & walking back to my room from the grocery shop. I was going to go to the La Fountain Park today too! But I'm so tired now that I just want to sleep.. or go play piano or something 'tho harp would be a better incentive.

Southern Downtown Tour - Beau Interior Designs.

2005-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Mai 7 (samedi)

I was going to go to the McCord Museum right opposite from the McGill campus (& I thought it was free to go on Sat 10-12) but decided not to go since I'm never really interested in Canadian history anyway. Mapped out my trip for today in the morning & just up & went. Today's destination: St. Patrick's Basilica, Quartier International, Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, Place du Canada, St. George's Anglican Church, Dorchester Square, & Place Ville Marie.

As I was walking toward the St. Pat's Basilica, I passed by the Christ Church Cathedral and went in to find the Conventry Cross that I read in the guide book (it was mentioned in my earlier post) but I had no idea where it was. So I gave up & moved on. The tulips in the Wollenberg Square were still blossoming!

The exterior of the St. Patrick's Basilica wasn't really catchy but the interior was one of the most beautiful design I had ever seen. The basilicawas known as "The Irish Church". The Gothic-revival church was constructed between 1843 and 1847 and it was classified a historic monument in 1985 and a national historic site in 1996.

The beautiful main altar. I love the color of the interior.

The ceiling of the altar is a mosaic of green and gold.

The pulpit is one of the highlights of this church (0ther than the altar). It's decorated with panels of 12 apostles.

A side altar. Look at all that elaborative art work!

The light floods through the stained-glass figures and lights up the interior.

Thomas Darcy McGee, a father of confederation who was assassinated in 1868, attended this church. A small Canadian flag marks the pew used by him.

The altar and the pulpit & pine coloumns that looked like marbles.

The exterior of the church.

Then I followed rue de Bleury to Quatier International, a place that lies at a transitional point between the modern downtown and the old town. I was expecting something like cafe .. or hot dog stands at least .. but there was NONE. It was a small barren park with a piece of strange art work.

The strange contemporary art work called "La Joute" (The Joust) by Jean-Paul Riopelle. It's actually a fountain.

Beside the small park was the Montreal Convention Center (Palais des congres de Montreal).

The Palais hosts thousands of conferences and expositions.

The colors of glass used here is quite bold.

Then I took the metro to the Bonaventure Station where many tourist attractions are. I got off the metro, without knowing which way should I go, I randomly picked an exit and found myself at the skating rink of Atrium le Mille de la Gauchetiere. It was one of those unplanned discoveries I guess. I think I would never have gone there even if I knew it existed. There always seem to be a reason why you ended up going the wrong way.

The year-round indoor patinoire (skating rink)in the skyscraper atrium.

I needed to get back to the streets to know which direction to go. My official first stop: Mary Queen of the World Cathedral (Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde).

The Cathedral is situated in the heart of the city's Protestant neighborhood. Ignace Bourget (1799-1885), a Roman Catholic bishop, was determined to build his new cathedral here to assert the Church's authority and its loyalty to Rome.

The Cathedral was modeled after the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (a 1/4 replica). The gilded neo-baroque baldachin overlooks the altar. This actually reminds me of what I saw in the Vantican church!

The grandiose and elegant work done to the ceiling.

The figure of Bishop Bourget in the east side of the nave. All Montreal's bishops are buried here.

A side-altar.

Exterior of the Mary Queen of the World Cathedral. Don't you just like the name of it? It has so much weight!

Out of the Cathedral was the Place du Canada. There were many people there today. There seemed to be some kind of organized event. The park was constructed to celebrate the founding of the Canadian federation in 1867.

Canon & John A. McDonald. YAY! Canadian federation! No sarcasm here.

Close look at the statue of the guy whose face is on all Canadian $10 bills.

Looking back at the Cathedral from Place du Canada.

The Fairmount Queen Elizabeth Hotel and the statues on top of the Cathedral. I don't think I told you that I was stuck outside of the QE Hotel for 1/2 hr on my first day at Montreal, waiting for a shuttle bus that never came. Fortunately, the porter/chauffer outside of the Hotel was so kind as to help me. =)

Next destination: St. George's Anglican Church!

The church was built in 1872. Its neo-Gothic architecture combines characteristics of both English and French Gothic styles.

Me standing about 2 steps away from the entrance of the Church. My sister is going to kill me b/c I'm wearing her jacket.. haha

My first impression of the church was that it was really DARK. I don't know if it was because they didn't turn the light on or the color furniture used was just dark..

Looking back at the entrance. At the time it was built, the upper balcony (the gallery) was for people who could not afford to "rent" a pew. Those people would just stand around on it. Now, it's not used because it only had 1 exit (fire safety issue). Occassionally, choir may sing up there. The organ up there is quite interesting. Only the right case has pipes. The left case is empty.

The organ of the church - to the left of the main altar.

The place where you get baptised - to the right of the main altar. (I'm not a Christian by the way so I don't exactly know where/how these things work.)

The redwood ceiling - maybe this is why the place seems so dark. This church is also different from the previous ones I saw because there is no decoration on the ceiling! There were only some wooden fans!

Guess what this is. You would not believe this. "The blue tapestry hanging on both sides of the altar of the Coronation Chapel was used during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at the Westerminster Abbey (in UK) in 1953." I just can't help but wonder how did that thing get all the way from UK to here.

I just thought this stained-glass window was interesting because its religious reference wasn't as strong as the other ones. "The stained-glass window represents the three branches of the Armed Forces." From right to left: the Navy, the Army, and the Air Forces.

What I like about this church is that it has these small signs at each important spot of the church & it serves as a convenient tour guide.

The front entrance of the Church. NO PARKING~

Directly opposite from the main entrance of St. George's Anglican Church was the Windsor Station.

This train station was completed in 1889 and was once a major passenger terimus for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR remember from your high school social studies classes?)

There was no one inside.. NO ONE! This place was empty! There was only a cafe, a barber shop/hair salon, some restaurant, & some offices.

The Train Travel Bulletin- It documents the station's glorious past. The station is now a "trainless shell".

The bronze monument that was meant to commenmorate those lost their lives in constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The plate under the monument reads: "To commenmorate those in the service of the Canadian Pacific railway, who, at the call of king and country, left all that way dear to them, endured hardship, faced danger and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it that their names be not forgotten."

Under such heavy tone, I still managed to do something retarded like taking pic of myself while trying to capture the monument behind me (since no one was around ANYWAY~ kekeke).

Attempt #1 - Shoot. Missed the monument!

Attempt #4 - YAY. GOT the monument! But.. where's the head of the monument?

Attempt #6 - Finally got it! Who said that traveling solo is easy?

Out of the dead silent station & walked to the Dorchester Square that was actually just north of Place du Canada.

Viewing the skyscrapers of downtown Montreal from the entrance of the station.

Square Dorchester. I guess this is the statue of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada's first French-speaking prime minister)?! There are only 2 statues in this Square but this one was "occupied" by a few people so I didn't go up to read the inscriptions under it.

I was going to eat my lunch here - a picnic. But when I took my guides and read that this park was a Catholic burial ground until 1870 and that the bodies are still buried here, I just felt super aversive and wanted to leave. Who would want to have lunch in a cemetary? Not even Vampires! -> well.. for a different reason (ie. light => kills Vamps, so they say). Ok. Stop digressing Tiffy!

Some kid scaring the wits out of the pigeons in the park.

What's the Scottish poet Robert Burns doing here? I have no idea. He's definitely not a Canadian, that I can assure you. To get a sense of what his poetry is like, read this:
Now haud ye there, ye're out o' sight,

Below the fatt'rels, snug an' tight;
Na faith ye yet! ye'll no be right
Till ye've got on it,
The vera tapmost, towering height
O' Miss's bonnet.

This poem is called "To a Louse". I read it in my English Lit12 class. It's just Scottish, ye know?! Anyway, no idea why he's here.

The Sun Life building on the left - It had been the largest building in the British Empire for a long time. "At one time, it represented teh power of the AngloSaxon establishment in Montreal." The British Crown and a few European countries used this building as a safe for their gold reserves and jewels.

The Tourist Info. Centre right close to the Square. It's like a bookstore but full of brochures of accomodations, places to eat, etc.

After getting some info on traveling to Quebec City, I went to Place Ville Marie. It was Montreal's first modern skyscraper. The mall underneath was the start of the underground city.

Place Ville Marie is cross-shaped and it was originally dedicadicated to the Blessed Virgin.

A table in the cafeteria reflects the skyscraper nearby.

A nice mall~

Moving to Downtown Montreal

2005-05-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Mai 6th

Left my African-American friend from TN stuck w/ the woman who slept with her eyes open at the hostel & moved to the McGill Residence- Royal Victoria College. It was just not a pretty sight to see me carrying 1 20kg luggage + 5kg luggage down from the 2nd floor of my dorm to the lobby level & to the street level. The sky was beautiful. I waited for bus 24 to take me to the front door of the McGill Rez. It was a lot of dragging and a lot of "Pardon".. "Je suis desole." but I managed to drop my 2 heavy burdens at the Rez (just 2 steps away from the music building). Now, a new day has begun.

I went to the practice rooms to play piano. McGill music practice rooms occupy 2 floors of one of the wings of the building. & I had to activate my McGill student ID so that my ID card could get me to those floors ( you need the ID to get on the elevator to those floors & you need to open the doorsif you walk from stairs). It's more high-tech than UBC in that sense. But the rest are not much different.

Almost fell asleep in class today. I felt so sorry for the prof. He's great. I was just tired. I couldn't wait to move in to my room in the RVC rez. It was great that I got a room all to myself. But it sucked how there was no kitchen, no pots, no plates, no utensils, no water, no breakfast, no food. This place SUCKS. I like the hostel better. Although it was a bit far from the campus, & although I had to share a room with 5 other people and a bit inconvenient, at least there were people to talk to, there was breakfast, there were stoves, pots, tea, water, salt, pepper, OMG. I don't know how I'm going to be able to survive for the next 30 nights with a microwave and a fridge. I don't want to eat out every night!

Looking at the Royal Victoria College courtyard from a window a few steps away from the elevator.

My "beau" room. It's comfy but it just looks a bit too plain.. & the green pad reminds me of hospital bed.

My window beside my desk/shelves + a small fridge. I don't like living too close to the ground level 'cause I can never really fully open the curtain. There are always people walking outside..even late at night!

I went to get some dinner + groceries. I can't believe I walked 5 blocks just to get some groceries. & went out at 10pm to Janice appartment to get some microwavable plates & bowls. I can't believe I was holding a bunch of plates walking on the street of Downtown on a late Friday night! I would NEVER do any of that in Vancouver. This is crazy. & all the sirens.. and screeching brakes.. Montrealers seem to drive more aggresively..

A strange day; packing again.

2005-05-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

Mai 5th

Went to walk around rue Saint Laurent (a main street in Montreal) before I go to my class. Then I found the street was not that interesting & decided to head up from another road. As I was walking along, a guy carrying stuff as he was a construction worker came up & said something in French to me. & I was like.. "Pardon?". He said, "Are you coming to help me this morning? You're supposed to be here to help me." I was like.. "What the freak?" & I quickly walked away & I heard him laughing with some people after I walked away. SERIOUSLY. NEVER NEVER walk on deserted streets even under bright day light. There are always weird people around.

After class, went to copy the required listening material for my course to my laptop at my classmate Janice's appartment. I was smart enough not to bring the CD-drive or CD or any audio player -> I thought I would be just beside the music building. If I want music, I'll just go pounding on the piano or something. But I did consider the possibility of needing a CD player for my CLASS. Smart. OH well~ The cost of traveling "light" I guess.. haha..

It has been sunny for quite a few days. This is great! This means I get to go check out places. Went back to the hostel around 5pm & did some packing because I had to leave the next day. & I was going to go to Underground with a friend from the hostel but after I finished packing, she said she didn't feel like going because she wanted to finish her New York Times.. a newspaper that she had been reading for the whole week! Not making fun of her here..

So I went to the Underground to eat by myself - such a loner~ You would never see me going to the food court of some mall to eat dinner all by myself in Vancouver. NEVER! Strange (ie. unfamiliar) places make you do strange things.

Anyway, I came back in about 45mins & my hostel friend was surprised by how fast I just went & came bk. She was still reading her NY Times when I got back. It was unbelievable! & somehow I ended up teaching her how to write Chinese.

My TN friend from the hostel practicing the Chinese characters that I taught her to write.. on her NY Times.
I was organizing and packing my stuff 'til 10pm. Packed everything back into my 2 luggages.. except the jar of half-finished mashroom-spaghetti sauce that I intentionally left in the fridge (It was too heavy to carry so I abandoned it~).

The old black woman who was in the same room as me seemed to have stayed for a long time. I heard that she was from a French colony in Latin America and that she lived in Paris for 2 years and decided to come to Montreal again this year for another year. I wonder how it's like to be living from places to places and seeing people come and go, with everything you own in the world in 3 luggages. After all, the hostel, 'tho it may be nice and cheap to stay in, is not the place to stay for a long time. Even just staying here for a week, I always felt there was a feeling of emptiness when someone you talked ot the night before was gone the next morning; someone that you might never see again. Something like a star-crossed lover kind of R&J thing. It's a strange feeling of hollowness. I don't even know those people well. I guess it's just a sad feeling to know that Life moves on.. people move on.. This is just a temporary stop for them, and for me.. then everyone just go on their separate ways to discover what lies before them.

Christ Church Cathedral & UNDERGROUND

2005-05-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

May 4th
Another sunny/cloudy day! Last night was a nightmare. One of the women in my room was snoring so freaking loud the night before that my ear plugs didn’t even work. & There were people fixing the road in the day so they left some high-decibel-producing stuff on the road that totally made the night a nightmare whenever a car passed by.

Last night, I spent the whole dinner time planning out where to go because otherwise I just don’t know where I should go. I went down rue St. Denis again (with ANOTHER map) to check out where exactly I visited. But I just couldn’t go on after I went half-way. There were no people lining up outside of the Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec.today. Don’t know why but it’s all good.

Went to take the metro to McGill right after and went to see the Christ Church Cathedral. It was an interesting place. It is in the middle of downtown, with tall office buildings surrounding it & large shopping malls beneath it. It’s incredible. The Church is an Anglican cathedral built between 1857and 1859. The neo-Gothic architecture is reminiscent of a 14th-century English church and it was modeled after an Anglican cathedral in Fredericton, N.B. The steeple was too heavy for the soft, unstable ground and had to be taken down in 1927 and replaced with one made of lighter aluminum plates.

Christ Church Cathedral in the middle of downtown.

Enter!

Stained-glass windows of the church.

The stained-glass windows behind the main alter – memorial to the dead of WWI.
Left to the altar is the Conventry Cross. It was made from nails taken from the bombed Conventry Cathedral in England in the 1940s.
The organ inside the church. There are regular organ/choral/piano concerts in here.

The costs of maintaining the cathedral was too high so the Anglican authorities decided to lease the land around and beneath the cathedral to developers. This resulted in the construction of La Maison des Cooperants (an officer tower) behind the cathedral and the Les Promenades de la Cathedrale (a huge mall) UNDER the cathedral.

Me diagonally across the street from the Christ Church Cathedral. -> where the Philips Square is.

Went out of the quiet church, it was an entirely different world. Busy traffic everywhere and big retail stores dotted here and there. This is place is really alive! Across from the cathedral was the Philips Square. It was a nice little green space in the midst of modern chaos.

Philips Square - a small green space in the middle of huge retail complexes.

The monument to Edward VII in the Philips Square.

The famous Birks jewellery store west to the Square.

The ancient building of The Baie(Bay)north to the Square.

Then there was another square right between the Cathedral and the office tower. It was dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg, a Hero of HUmanity who saved thousands of Jews from Hilter's concentration camp.

The Wallenberg Square.

The tulips are beautiful!

I walked back to the Redpath Museum after that – to take pics of the beautiful exhibits of the museum. Just to show you a few more pics of the McGill downtown campus before I show you the exhibits in the museum. See the following showcase!

A statue of the person to which the university was named after - James McGill.

The Arts building. For a university ranking the top 4 in Canada, there's certain pride even in its architecture.

The Redpath museum from rue University. It's so beautiful at sunset when the setting sun shines on the glass of the museum. It was as if it was made of gold!

The shell fossils on the first floor of the museum

Flying dinosaurs - This is what you see when you first set your foot into the museum.

More bones. The one on wall (not the flat one) is a sea lion skeleton. The huge bone at the bottom of the pic is the jaw of a whale.

The display cases full of beautiful shells on the 2nd floor.

Spiral shells! Close look at one of the shelves.

Another shelf of beautiful shells.

Another shelf of elegant shells. There are the gems of ocean!

"This shell holds a world record for size!" - A beautiful Spiny Oyster. It was found on a sunken German submarine (U-boat) off the coast of Aruba. It might had been growing on the submarine for 30 years. Crazy, eh?!

This is the first exhibition area that u'll see when you walk up the stairs to the 2nd floor. There are currently displays of 500+ shells and minerals of the world. There were some truly amazing minerals showcased there!

Entering the 2nd exhibition area of the 2nd floor of the museum. Another dinosaur welcomes us.

The fossil of traces of ancient organisms walking around.

My friend from the ancient times. No.. It's NOT a giant cockroach!
The origins of species. Amphibian?!

Another ancient friend of mine - The what? wait.. I just remember it was the fossil fish that I studied in my marine bio class.. Scientists have thought it extincted a long time ago but people still found some of these fossil fish around NOWADAYS! The living fossil fish - Coelacanths! They're not the prettist creatures but they definitely deserve respect 'cause they're ancient!

A closer look at the huge dinosaur skeleton here! There are many skeletons of dinosaurs, earliest mammals, etc etc. It's really COOL! -> well if u like this kind of stuff.

The hominid skulls! I was sooo excited to see them 'cause I actually knew what they were!!! I only saw pics of them in my archaeology texts now I could see them 3D!

Does this head seem familiar to you? It's a Limestone Portrait Head dates from the reign of Rameses II. This represents an unknown private person (because he doesn't wear royal symobls/hairdress, etc. The exact purpose of this head at the time of its construction was unknown.

Mummy sarcophagus!

Mummy displays on the 3rd floor of the museum.

Let's look at some REAL stuff here. A REAL mummy that was examined by a CT scan. This mummy is a man who died around 30-35 y/o and he's about 156cm tall. He probably died from some dental infection for his jawbone was severely eroded. This man lived about 3,000 years ago.

A replica of the famous Rosetta stone! (The real one is in the British Museum in UK)

Looking down at the 2nd floor from the 3rd floor.

SAMURAI!

ohhhh.. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! This is the head of a REAL person MINUS the skull! The Jivaro believed that individuals possess different souls. The avenging soul was created when a person with an arutam(induced by visions & hallucinogenic drugs; believed to give people uncontrollable feelings of power and drove people to war) was killed in war. To shrink the head of the person killed is believed to capture the arutam of the person killed and to prevent the dead person from retailiating.

Went to class and befriended with a classmate, Janice, who was so kind as to take me around! We went to the Underground (The big network of shopping malls underground built for Montrealers to escape the harsh sub-Arctic weather in the winter. It's truly HUGE! WAYYYYYY bigger than the MetroTown in Vancouver!) I went to buy some dinner at the food court of the Eaton Centre with Janice. It was amazing! There were SOOOOOOOOOOO many options! It was amazing! & that was just 1 food court!

This city has so much depth. The bilingual aspect is one. The multi-cultural aspect is another. You say that Vancouver is multicultural. But I'm sorry to say but that you would not understand what TRUE multiculturalism means unless you come here. You would not see an overwhelming crowd of Asians or White or Indians here, NOT EVEN in China Town! Different ethnic groups just seem to mix and mingle here. I've seen more black (African-American) people here in one day than I've ever seen in Vancouver. It's really quite eye-opening.

Latin Quartier; Redpath Museum; Square St. Louis

2005-05-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

May 3 (Mardi)

Woke up early & decide to not waste anymore time not planning anything. It's finally sunny too! There are so many places to go and I'm just overwhelmed with options, which leads to my inaction (what?). You just can't believe how much you would walk in a foreign city. I've spent more time walking around Montreal than I ever did in Vancouver. I decided to explore the Latin Quartier. I only brought a small map with #s that indicate what those places are “w/out” the paper that tells me what those #s are so it was such a hassle trying to figure out WHERE I actually went. NEVER do that again!

So I decided to take a walk around the St. Denis/Quartier Latin area before my class at 1:30. Following rue St. Denis, I passed by the bibliotheque nationale du Quebec. It was apparently closed when I went. The place collects and conserves documents about Quebec published in Quebec and else where.

The Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec.

Zoom in on the front door/gate.

There are numerous cinema and theatre on rue St. Denis. In the afternoon, there should be more people around.. sipping coffee and chatting and smoking in the outdoor cafes (bistros?!).

Walking down the St. Denis Street.

I made a turn around the Berri-UQAM Metro station and saw a long line of people waiting to enter a building. It wasn't 'til later that I realized that the building was the Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec.

People lining up outside of the Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec.

The Grande Bibliotheque was just opened recently (April 30). It houses the largest collection of books, meia docs, and etc.

Then I walked aimlessly with my useless map to Ave. Viger. Where I saw some nice-looking buildings.

Place J. Ernest-Laforce - Something to do with justice or police or something like that.

A nice-looking church on the same side of the street.

Another nice-looking church on the opposite side of the same street.

Then I kept walking down rue Berri, not exactly knowing where I am. It was then I saw a chateau-like building, which I'm not too sure what it was.

It looks like the chateau in Quebec City. I have no idea what it is.

View from the back.

I walked all the way to rue du Champ-de-Mars, which was 3 blocks from the St. Lawrence River... and decided to turn back because, after all, I had a class to catch. I passed by Square Viger and realized that I missed another nice-looking building (which I think was the Archives nationales du Quebec.. not exactly sure..).

Looking at the Archives nationales du Quebec from Square Viger. The Archives nationales preserves documents dating back to the 17th century.

I'm not too good with street names but I just know which direction to go. So before I knew it, I was back to the St. Denis Street again, heading toward the Berri-UQAM Metro station (p.s. UQAM stands for Universite du Quebec a Montreal - University of Quebec at MOntreal).

Looking at a nice-looking church from the Viger Square (a small park).

Close-up look at the church.

Walking by the UQAM building. See the Cathedral-like architecture ahead? I thought it was another church. But it was not! It was a part of the UQAM building! I went in the UQAM building and there was just one wall inside the building that matched the cathedral-looking exterior. The rest was just.. some ordinary building. Actually, it was a cafeteria.

Passing by another nice-looking building.

The UQAM exit in the metro station.

I took the metro to the McGill station. If you walk along Av. McGill College, you would pass by the blue Laurentian Bank Tower where you would see the "Illuminated Crowd". The crowd really stood out in the midst of all the blue-ness.

The Illuminated Crowd, constructed in 1985. The plate under it says:

"The crowd has gathered, facing the light, an illumination brought about by a fire, an event, an ideology - or an ideal.The strong light casts shadows, and as the light moves toward the back and diminishes, the mood degenerates; rowdiness, disorder and violence occur, showing the fragile nature of man. Illumination, hope, involvement, hilarity, irritation, fear, violence, murder and death - the flow of man's emotion through space."

Heading toward the music building:

McGill's famous Roddick Gates

The famous McCord Musuem on the right. It's just directly across from the McGill campus

The music building head-on.

The new music building under construction on the side. It's going to have a really high-tech studio & concert hall. I heard many Hollywood people have booked this place already. My prof said that the place was supposed to be constructed in a way that no sound would escape.. something about floating in the air.. vacuum.. a bubble. NO idea~

After class, I went to see the Redpath museum on the mcgill campus. It was soo cool + elegant! It had dinosaur bones, fossils, 500+ shells on display, minerals, mummies (REAL!), replica of hominid skulls, small heads, whale bones, etc etc. I wasn’t sure whether I could take pics in there so I didn’t take any. But I would go tomorrow again to see whether I could take some pics.

A pic of the Redpath museum taken on another day.

It was really windy when I got out of the museum (it closes at 5pm). The wind was unbelievably strong! & I was standing by the bus stop w/ a few ppl at the heart of downtown Montreal & heard 5-6 fire trucks sirening (?!) by us. A guy said “Grande Fou?. & I was like “Pardon?” It took me 5mins to realize what he said “Big Fire?. My Francais is really screwed. Life in a big city. Interesting.

I got back to the hostel around late afternoon & thought maybe I should go get some croissant from the market area around the St. Louis Square. Croissant - I did not find but I found the little streets near the Square was quite pretty at dusk. It almost looked European~

The small plaza with restaurants, small stores.. etc. near the St. Louis Square.

First day of Class - Romanticism in Piano Music.

2005-05-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

May 2 (Lundi)

Today is the day for school! My class starts at 1:30.I decided to go to the McGill campus earlier to look around & perhaps visit the Redpath museum or the McCord museum. But I forgot that a lot of the museums aren't open on Mondays. So I wandered to the admin. building where I got my McGill Student ID made & to the library where I attempted to use the internet. But there was no wireless internet network in the library (I had to use a cable wire -> which I did not have). I gave up & wandered back to the music building since it was raining.

Went to my class at 1:25. The class was less than 10 people! & everyone seemed really friendly and nice. Classroom discussion was encouraged. A lot of people were not music majors (probably because the class doesn't require people to have musical bkgrounds). The prof played the Mozart sonata that I played when I did my grade10 exam to illustrate what distinguishes the Classical from the Romantic. It seems slightly easier than the music history courses that I take at UBC. But this counts toward my 3rd year requirement so muahaha.. it's all good~

The music building is just by rue Sherbrooke, a major street of the city. So you hear sirens and honkings, and all the jazz. We even heard a CAR CRASH in the first 10mins of our class! OMMGG.. haha.. The prof was saying: "The most important thing is.." and then we hear a squeaky brake and a "BOOM"! Nice way to start a class~
After class, I met up with May & Hersha (highschool friends) at the lobby of the music building and went to a cafe nearby. The city seems sooo much alive!

Me, Hersha, & May!

Went to a grocery to buy food afterwards 'cause I could not stand another day w/out proper meal. Bought the food and went back to the hostel and COOK! Chatted with an American roommate (from TN) and another Australian roomate about global citizenship, compulsory voting and American politics (Can't imagine me doing it, eh?). - to be continued.

First Post from Montreal!

2005-05-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

I just found out there's wireless connection in the cafeteria of the music building. so I'll be posting soon!!! -> 'cause I would be meeting my highschool friends upstairs in 5mins. I just got off of my first day of class at McGill today. It was a small class & it was awesome! The students are really really friendly here -> compare to UBC! Maybe because it's a small class. =D
It has been rainy here for the past few days so it really sucks. But I'll post where I went for the past few days on SOON. Gotta go now! xD

St. Joseph Oratorie & Parc du Mont-Royal

2005-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

May 1st, 2005 (Dimache)

Finally had a great sleep last night because I was smart enough to bring EAR PLUGS!!! I just can’t stand people who snore or people walking in & out of the room at 12 or 2am. & my bed is quite far from the window so YES! No more freezing nights! Woke up late in the morning and befriended with a Japanese traveler, Keiko, who was staying in the same room. She said she was going to Parc du Mont-Royal today so I asked whether I could go with her. YUP. So up we went! -> after I finish my breakfast around 10am..

We walked along rue St. Denis to rue Mont-Royal. It was a LONG walk! But we got see the interesting buildings along the road on a Sunday morning. There are a lot of balconvilles (staircases to upper levels that link the balconies of various levels built outside of the building to save interior space). There were also quite a few stores that sell medieval-related things (see pic). Eg. costume, swords, shields, dragons, etc.

Some Gothic store that sells all kinds of fake medieval stuff.

We finally got to bus 11 stop and took the bus to Parc du Mont-Royal. The bus passed by the Obsérvatory de l;Est that overlooks the greater Montreal from a mountain. Keiko & I got off of the bus at Lac aux Castors, not knowing IT was Lac aux Castors (eng: Beaver Lake) when we got off. We just thought it would better to get off earlier than to miss the stop. The lake was small. A guide book I brought said that children love to float boats in this lake in summer and to skate on it in the winter.

Lac aux Castors (Beaver Lake).
Opposite from the Lac aux Castors was a massive cemetery. Actually, it was two cemeteries combined – one for Protestants and one for Catholics. It seems like they're still divided even after death. Je ne comprend pas. There was the Cimetiére Mont-Royal (Anglican, Presbyterian, Unitarian, & Baptist). I only took a picture of the gate of the Catholic Cimetiėre de Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (b/c we just happened to get dropped outside of it by the bus). You can barely see some monuments behind the gate. Many of those monuments were made by leading artists (kind of like those ancient European graves that we see in movies). But, being Chinese, I didn't take pics of people's graves. This cemetary is also where Calixa Lavallée, the composer of “O Canada", is buried. I read that there's a computer system in the Catholic cemetery that helps people to find graves. Neet!
Cimetiére Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Interesting monuments in there! Too bad we didn't have thne guts to go in.
Then we hopped on the bus again, with our useful bus-pass, to the Oratorie St.-Joseph (St. Joseph’s Oratory). It took some time to walk to the parking lot of the oratory from the bus 11 stop. But, when in doubt, always follow the crowds of tourists! ( I'm speaking as if I'm not a tourist. Oh.. Bloody tourists haha).The St, Joseph's is the largest shrine in the world dedicated to Jesus. It was the dream of Brother André Besette to build a shrine dedicated to St. Joseph – Canada’s patron saint (don't ask me-“What? Canada has a patron saint?”I had no idea either 'til I read the guide book).

Such a cloudy day. Not good for taking pics..This is the Oratorie St. Joseph viewed from a road beneth the hill.
The same church taken from the parking lot area where a lot of tourists were.
Some nice-looking building opposite from the Oratorie.
Keiko & I in front of the Oratorie!

The oratory started out as a small chapel (1904) then it became the size now (the main church with the dome) in 1937. The octagonal copper dome was said to be the one of the biggest in the world!. We climbed from the parking lot to the entrance of the church. It was a LONG climb (using the world “long” a lot today). It was 300 steps. But we didn't realize that 'til later when we were reading the guide book back at our hostel. Oh man! We didn't get the chance to verify it! Anyway, they seem to be a major construction under way that would link the church to the street-level parking lot with escalators and elevators. Ou lala~

The museum in the Oratorie. It's about the life of Andre.

We went in from the lower entrance which led to a smaller church with a white marble statue of St. Joseph.

Here's an example of a poorly taken picture by Tiffy - the marble statue seems like it's glowing but it really isn't.

Then we went up the stairs to the main chapel. It was said that the seating capacity is 3, 200. It was huge. (see pic – altar, organ, carvings on the side, neat doors).

Me standing on the steps leading to the doors of the main chapel.

When we went in, apparently there was a mass going on (in Francais!) and a choir singing. Interesting stuff, but not for today.There was a museum about André’s life (see pic), some displays of his life (see pic of wax figures, coins), & there was a glass case that contained his HEART! SERIOUSLY! A HEART!! It was said that that heart occasionally quiver miraculously.
A human heart preserved in a jar!

The stamp collection related to Saint Joseph in a small room.

A box of "medals of St. Joseph". The plate under it says: "Brother Andre would stand listening to each visitor. Then he would offer a few words of consolation, and either rub the sick person with a bit of St. Joseph's oil or touch him with a medal of St. Joseph. Cures were often frequent and spontaneous."Being a skeptic and a pre-psychologist, I think it has more to do with self-fulfilling prophecy and placebo effect than really anything. You can so tell I'm not a church-goer.

The main chapel where a mass was going on.

Some nice wall sculpture in the main chapel.

Then we went out to a garden on the mountain beside the main church where there’s a sign that says we should talk in a “subdued tone” because it’s a path for prayers (see pic). Inside the garden, there are statues that illustrate the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross (about the Passion of Christ). I bet the place must be really beautiful at night, with all the lighting around the statues and the lights from the busy city below.

The plate that tells visitors to keep this place quiet because it's a path for prayers.
The statues in the garden.

The golden lamb - Symbolism 101 - guess what it means.

It was cloudy and FREEZING cold on the mountain. The wind was blowing us off balance! We went down the 300-stairs and numerous streets back to the bus stop. My feet were seriously hurting. But TIFFY DOESN”T GIVE UP! Muahaha. Well.. at least not in the middle of the road.
We took the same bus back rue Mont-Royal. We decided to take the Metro to the “Petit Italy” to find places to eat lunch. It was not ‘til that we got there that I realized I HAD BEEN HERE LAST NIGHT! It was where May and I went to see the Jazz concert! It was Beaubien! I knew instantly that there wasn’t a lot of Italian restaurants that we were hoping to see because I walked by a lot of streets there last night and most were just stores that sold stuff (there was a lot of stores that sell/rent bridal/formal dresses). With my screwed feet, we eventually found a place to eat. It was a small local restaurant that has Quebecois food with only 8 things on the menu for lunch. Easy to decide since when I see spaghetti, I don’t see anything else. I got to practice some French too but got myself and Keiko into a smoking room. So, we decided to speak English, ‘though the Quebecois did not exactly like that.

The shopping area around Beaubien. Just a small part of the Petit Italy. Another street of the Beaubien area with a Gothic cathedral in the background.

It started to rain just before we got to the Metro. We took the Metro to the China Town where Keiko bought some food for her trip to Halifax later today. It was sunny when we were in China Town, dramatically different from the China Town I saw the day before when it was pouring rain.

Took the Metro back to the Sherbrooke station where we walked back to our hostel. Keiko left for the plane to Halifax tonight and I decided to stay in the hostel and type my travel journals. 5:58pm.Keiko traveled to many places by herself. I think she has become an inspiration for me. Before this trip, I was also afraid of going to places by myself because I would look like a total LONER! But no no no. I realized that if you’re always looking or waiting for someone to go with you to places that you want to go, it would either take forever or just simply won’t even happen. I’m sick of being afraid and it’s time to do something and go to places that I’ve always wanted to go.

First day in Montreal - St. Denis Square

2005-04-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

April 30, 2005 (Samedi)

I got 3 hrs of good sleep last night because it was FREEEEEZZZING cold. My bed was close to the window and the wind was blowing right at my face for the whole night. I had to cover my face entirely (not to suffocate myself) with my coat. Then the girl who slept on the bed on top of mine packed up and left around 4am, after getting a call on the cell that had a huge ring-tone sound. Almost drove me to the edge of insanity. I was thinking: “oh well.. just 7 more days and 6 more nights before I move into the McGill Rez.. but CRAP! SIX more nights????” I was staring at the bed above mine thinking “what the heck am I doing here? What is this? Where the hell am I?”

I was given a pillow case, a linen, and something that resemble a sheet last night & was told to put that on the bed. I was staring at it like “what am I suppose to do with this?” I’ve never stayed at a hostel all my life so I was quite shocked to see a dorm room with 6 bunk beds, 4 of which were occupied and messy and the room smelt funny. But it’s just a matter of time of getting used to things like that.

My corner of the world for the 1st night.
Met a Taiwan guy who was traveling with his mother over the breakfast. Apparently, he went on an exchange to UBC and played in the Chinese Music Ensemble at UBC. COOL! A person from my double home towns (ie Taipei & Vancouver). He said that Vancouver was nice but he thought the city was actually not that fun, compare to Taipei. I TOTALLY AGREE. I thought my sister and I were the only ones getting sick of Vancouver. YAY~ We’re not alone, not like that matters.

The hostel that I'm staying at.

The Cegep du Vieux-Montreal building diagonally across from our hostel. We could see it from the window of our dinning place in the hostel.
Then I talked to the girls who were in the same room as me. Two were from Australia, and two were from Korea (on an exchange to a university in London, ON). Interesting. The good thing about staying in hostel is that you get to meet people from all over the place, traveling like you.
I had to change my room today because of some booking mistake the night before and besides, I didn’t want to sleep on the bed beside the window AGAIN. I CANNOT stand another night of that cocooned life. Before 11 (the check out time for those who were in the room that I was going to move into), I decided to go take a walk around the Square St. Louis, which is only a few blocks away from my hostel. The park built in 1879 was originally a reservoir. It first attracted upper-middle-class families and artists to this elegant yet Bohemian place. Now the neighborhood is largely the home to writers, musicians, filmmakers, and painters.

The streets near Square St. Denis are fall of houses that look like this.
Maybe because it was a Saturday morning, the place seemed really quiet. There were only 2-3 people in the park. It was actually quite scary to be in a park when there’s no one except a few strange men. I took a few quick pics, as not to advertise myself as a tourist by trying to “capture” the best angle (b/c that would take me some time and inadvertently reveal my “identity”). I found the houses that were on a photograph in my guidebook!

Tiffy in Square St. Denis! haha.. This is a bit pathetic.

The buildings on the Fordor guide book!

An interesting monument in the park. I got back to the hostel, moved everything to my new room, which was really only 2 rooms away, and chose a bed that was as far away from the window as possible.
My corner of the world for the next 6 nights.

It was noon time. I was hungry because I had no proper food (ie non-junk food). I took the bus to McGill to look around and find somewhere to eat. The sky looked really cloudy and the weather was not very friendly. When I got off the first stop at McGill, I was totally shocked by the humongous building before me. It was large stony architecture built in the style of the Greek Pantheon with all the big statues in front of the building. Aside from the big banner that says something like “McGill Celebrating 100 Years of Music", the stony engraving reads: Strathcona Music Building. OMG! This is the building where I would be taking my course!!! The outside was elegant but the inside was not so.

The Music Building!

I went around the campus: the administration building, the Redpath museum, the library (huge! Well.. but probably about the same size as UBC’s Korner + Main), the bookstore, etc etc. There were so many buildings that were very alike in style. I like it! Shoot! I made the mistake of my life two years ago! But, never judge from its appearance. Even if I chose to study here, I would probably feel the same way as I feel about UBC now. Maybe it’s just moi?!

Went to buy the monthly bus/metro pass and back to the hostel after that. I was sooo BORED. It was raining hard. I phoned up May and Hersha. May was so sympa to take me to a great Taiwanese restaurant in China Town and a FANTASTIC jazz vocal concert at a place in the northern part of the city (had to take Metro). It was pouring rain as we went around the place. It was certainly not the best day to walk around but there’s a good show in town, it’s worth it!

May is doing jazz vocal performance at McGill so she knows some singers who were performing. The performance took place in a small room on the second floor of a pub/bar. It was a really warm and cozy setting. There were 5 singers: 3 female and 2 male; 1 keyboard player, 1 bass player, and 1 drummer. The performance was awesome!

I got back to the hostel around 10pm and my coat smelled like tobacco and beer b/c people were drinking and smoking during the performance. I just couldn’t stand the smell..Uhhhh

My Montreal Contact Info

2005-04-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

I would be bringing my cell phone (778-838-2828)but I'm probably not going to turn it on unless I can't make calls with my pre-paid SIM card when I get there. In that case, I'll post my Montreal cell # once I get everything settled. You can always email or mail me. x) Voila. Plz see the details below:

April 29 - May 5 @ Le Gite du plateau Mont-Royal

A hostel on rue Sherbrooke. It's fairly close to McGill.

May 6 - June 5, @ Royal Victoria College (McGill Residence)

Leave phone messages: (514) 398-6378
Send regular mail:

Tiffany Lee
Royal Victoria College
3425, University Street
Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A8

Not Out of the Bleu.

2005-03-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

Why going to Montreal? This trip is not as out of the blue as the one on a weekend in the middle of the second term (-> my family just decided to take a weekend off to nothern Alberta to catch the Northern Lights) I think this trip has more to do with not wanting to know that you've missed something. During my last year of high school, I was accepted into McGill before UBC. But I guess I wasn't prepared to just pack up & take off at the time. So I stayed.

Some friends went to McGill; some went to UBC like I did. Ever since, I have always wondered what would it have been if I had chosen to go to McGill instead of UBC. When I feel that I'm just fed up with my crappy profs here and the same monotonous scenes everywhere, I just can't help regretting that I should have gone somewhere else. So I've decided to take a part of my summer off to McGill (in downtown Montreal, Quebec). Maybe I've idealized the life at an exotic city too much b/c I've stayed in Vancouver too long that I just don't see the beauties of Vancouver anymore. We'll see~

The preparation process was tedious! I woke up at 5am to register for the course but I couldn't log in so I went bk to sleep & woke up before I had to go to UBC to phone McGill & they said that I wasn't a 1st-time user ('cause I was accepted into McGill in 2003) so the whole process was all different..gosh! After battling with the UBC summer registration server 6:58am the day before, I was all ready to explode.

The McGill Residence that I tried to reserve wouldn't be open 'til the 5th of May but my class starts on the 2nd of May. So I had to find an alternative accomodation for the first week. After comparing ALL of the hostles on the travelcuts website & going to the LonelyPlanet discussion board, I've finally found a place to settle before I move into the Residence. Got cheap tickets to Montreal too.

Sometimes things just go in circles. My initial conception was to stay there from April 29-June5 b/c that would give me plenty of time to explore the place before and after my school starts/ends. Later, I thought about all the accomodation & food costs so I decided to cut it down to April30-June3. But when I tried to order the tickets for the plane, I found that the plane ticket on the 29th was $100 cheaper than the one on the 30th). & when I tried to book for the McGill Rez, I found that if in order to get the monthly rate, I have to stay for 30nights - meaning I can only leave on the 5th. So things always work out the way I wanted to anyway, which is awesome! Sometimes you just gotta let things take care of themselves.