I was thinking back to the trip that my wife Cathy and I took to China last year, and there's one particular experience that I want to share.
In the second city we visited, we spent time with a few of Cathy's relatives that she hadn't met before. They were very overbearing. Some people say that in Chinese culture, it's important to be hospitable, so people will push more food on you than you want, etc. But in every culture there are variations, and this family took it to the extreme. It felt like a struggle to stop getting food even when I felt very full. They say body language says more than spoken language. I couldn't understand the language, but there were times when their body language seemed to say, "We're going to be generous to you whether you like it or not." While I appreciate their generosity, it made me weary. Cathy felt similar.
And then we went to Cathy's home city and stayed at her grandma's place. Finally, I felt like I could breathe. She was generous, and she did encourage us to eat more than we really wanted, but she didn't push us to the point of being uncomfortably full.
With the other relatives, their generosity made it feel like they had something to prove. With Cathy's grandma, her generosity felt grandmotherly. It had been a year-and-a-half or so since I lost both of my grandmas, and they hadn't been doing well enough to be all that hospitable for a while before that. So it felt good to experience that grandmotherly hospitality once again.
Once again, body language said more than spoken language.
Now if only we could have a conversation...
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Lost on Yamnuska
On the Canada Day weekend, I went camping in Kananaskis with a group of friends. On the Saturday, several people went for a long, tough hike, but a few of us decided to go for something slightly shorter and easier. Not necessarily easy, but we wanted to have supper at a decent time and one person (Sacha) wanted to get back to Edmonton that evening. So, on the advice of some of the people doing the longer hike, six of us went to climb Mount Yamnuska (also known as Mount John Laurie).
There are basically three different ways that a person can hike this mountain. They can hike part way up (maybe up past the treeline, maybe to the first part where they can see down both sides of the mountain). They can hike all the way up to the summit and back down the same route. Or they can hike to the summit and take an alternate route down, which is shorter but involves some scree slopes (which would be very difficult to climb up). We planned to go the third way, and that was our undoing.
We started off hiking uphill through a forest and eventually got above the treeline. It's a beautiful area, and the hike gets more interesting once it goes above the treeline. We passed some people rock climbing using ropes and continued up the non-cliff side of the mountain. It's a long, narrow mountain, so we got to a place where we could see down both sides of the mountain and had a 270° panoramic view well before we got to the actual summit.
Continuing from there, there's a lot of rock to climb, but nothing that a person would need ropes for, except at one place where there's a narrow ledge to walk along. There's a cable permanently fastened above the ledge to hang on to.
Finally, we got to the summit.
By then we were all pretty low on water, but we were expecting a quick descent down the scree slopes and back to the parking lot. After hanging around the summit for a little while, we continued along the trail that started down the back side of the mountain toward a scree slope.
As we made our way down the slope, my wife Cathy was the slowest one, so I slowed down so I wouldn't get too far ahead of her. Eventually we got down to where two more people, Erin and Beth, were waiting for us. They said Nick and Sacha had gone ahead so that Sacha could get home faster. So we continued down the slope looking for a clear path. We thought we should probably turn right sometime, since we'd have to climb back up to get to the front of the mountain if we turned left. No clear trails emerged, but we found some reasonably clear routes that sort of resembled trails. Around that time, we met another couple that was hiking the same route.
We continued through the woods for over an hour with the people we just met, and we could see that we hadn't got all that far along the mountain. We hadn't even found a real trail. If anything, there was less of a trail here. It was going to take a while to get around to the front. I was the only one of the four of us who had a cell phone there. I pulled it out of the bag and turned it on, but we were barely in range so I couldn't make a call. Cathy suggested moving to higher ground so we could get a better view of our surroundings. So we headed uphill. There were more short plants in that direction, so our walking got slower. We started to wonder how long this would take to get to our cars. Cell phone service improved, so I phoned a friend who was hiking the other trail. He was back in cell phone range by this time, so he answered the phone. He'd done this trail before, but when I described where we were, he had no idea where we should go. I told him that we couldn't find any trails, and just in case he didn't hear from us by 7 or 8 pm, he should call for help. We knew where we were; we just weren't sure how long it would take to get out. Fortunately the weather was good so we weren't cold. We were getting thirsty (we were out of water), but fortunately the weather wasn't sweltering hot either.
As we got to higher ground, we could see the ridge that juts out that side of the mountain. One of the people who was lost with us suggested that we climb the ridge. We should be able to see the highway and maybe even the trail from there. So we headed for the ridge, and there was less vegetation along the way, so the going got easier. Along the way up, Cathy and the other person we were lost with realized they went to high school together. Small world!
As we climbed, we wondered about Nick and Sacha. Maybe they had found the correct trail and got to the parking lot way before us. If Sacha went home already, Nick would be waiting for us with no car keys and no cell phone, wondering where we are. Or maybe they were lost too. Maybe they were having even more trouble finding their way out.
At the top of the ridge, we found the trail. I called our friend to say we found the trail. It still took us over an hour to get down to the parking lot. Nick was waiting there at the parking lot for us. He and Sacha got there about 15 minutes before us, and Sacha had already left. The two of them had been lost too, and they encountered one other person back there who was also lost.
So three different groups or individuals got lost independently, around the same time, that we know of. How many people get lost back there on a typical day? They really need to mark the trail better. But we got a good story out of the poorly marked trail.
We found out from our friends that we should've turned left off the scree slope at some point, rather than continuing all the way down. Keep this in mind if you're ever hiking there. Or just go back the way you came from once you get to the summit. Or don't even go all the way to the summit.
There are basically three different ways that a person can hike this mountain. They can hike part way up (maybe up past the treeline, maybe to the first part where they can see down both sides of the mountain). They can hike all the way up to the summit and back down the same route. Or they can hike to the summit and take an alternate route down, which is shorter but involves some scree slopes (which would be very difficult to climb up). We planned to go the third way, and that was our undoing.
We started off hiking uphill through a forest and eventually got above the treeline. It's a beautiful area, and the hike gets more interesting once it goes above the treeline. We passed some people rock climbing using ropes and continued up the non-cliff side of the mountain. It's a long, narrow mountain, so we got to a place where we could see down both sides of the mountain and had a 270° panoramic view well before we got to the actual summit.
Continuing from there, there's a lot of rock to climb, but nothing that a person would need ropes for, except at one place where there's a narrow ledge to walk along. There's a cable permanently fastened above the ledge to hang on to.
Finally, we got to the summit.
By then we were all pretty low on water, but we were expecting a quick descent down the scree slopes and back to the parking lot. After hanging around the summit for a little while, we continued along the trail that started down the back side of the mountain toward a scree slope.
As we made our way down the slope, my wife Cathy was the slowest one, so I slowed down so I wouldn't get too far ahead of her. Eventually we got down to where two more people, Erin and Beth, were waiting for us. They said Nick and Sacha had gone ahead so that Sacha could get home faster. So we continued down the slope looking for a clear path. We thought we should probably turn right sometime, since we'd have to climb back up to get to the front of the mountain if we turned left. No clear trails emerged, but we found some reasonably clear routes that sort of resembled trails. Around that time, we met another couple that was hiking the same route.
We continued through the woods for over an hour with the people we just met, and we could see that we hadn't got all that far along the mountain. We hadn't even found a real trail. If anything, there was less of a trail here. It was going to take a while to get around to the front. I was the only one of the four of us who had a cell phone there. I pulled it out of the bag and turned it on, but we were barely in range so I couldn't make a call. Cathy suggested moving to higher ground so we could get a better view of our surroundings. So we headed uphill. There were more short plants in that direction, so our walking got slower. We started to wonder how long this would take to get to our cars. Cell phone service improved, so I phoned a friend who was hiking the other trail. He was back in cell phone range by this time, so he answered the phone. He'd done this trail before, but when I described where we were, he had no idea where we should go. I told him that we couldn't find any trails, and just in case he didn't hear from us by 7 or 8 pm, he should call for help. We knew where we were; we just weren't sure how long it would take to get out. Fortunately the weather was good so we weren't cold. We were getting thirsty (we were out of water), but fortunately the weather wasn't sweltering hot either.
As we got to higher ground, we could see the ridge that juts out that side of the mountain. One of the people who was lost with us suggested that we climb the ridge. We should be able to see the highway and maybe even the trail from there. So we headed for the ridge, and there was less vegetation along the way, so the going got easier. Along the way up, Cathy and the other person we were lost with realized they went to high school together. Small world!
As we climbed, we wondered about Nick and Sacha. Maybe they had found the correct trail and got to the parking lot way before us. If Sacha went home already, Nick would be waiting for us with no car keys and no cell phone, wondering where we are. Or maybe they were lost too. Maybe they were having even more trouble finding their way out.
At the top of the ridge, we found the trail. I called our friend to say we found the trail. It still took us over an hour to get down to the parking lot. Nick was waiting there at the parking lot for us. He and Sacha got there about 15 minutes before us, and Sacha had already left. The two of them had been lost too, and they encountered one other person back there who was also lost.
So three different groups or individuals got lost independently, around the same time, that we know of. How many people get lost back there on a typical day? They really need to mark the trail better. But we got a good story out of the poorly marked trail.
We found out from our friends that we should've turned left off the scree slope at some point, rather than continuing all the way down. Keep this in mind if you're ever hiking there. Or just go back the way you came from once you get to the summit. Or don't even go all the way to the summit.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thinking back to Taiwan
It's been a few months since I visited Taiwan and China with my wife Cathy, and I'm finally going to write about it. Today I'm just writing about the Taiwan portion. (Technically Taiwan is internationally recognized as part of China. In fact, even the Taiwanese government considers Taiwan part of China, at least officially. They consider themselves the legitimate government of all of China, although they don't really pursue that claim anymore. And in reality, Taiwan essentially functions as an independent country.)
Cathy went to Taiwan before me to do a med school elective. When I got there, we met up at the airport and traveled to southern Taiwan to the Siang Yuan organic farm. We set up this visit through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). We spent about a week and a half there, which is kind of short for a WWOOF visit, but it was hard to fit anything longer into our schedule.
We did this because I've been interested in trying something completely different from my usual engineering work, and kind of getting back to basics--producing food being such an important part of meeting our basic needs. I've done some volunteering with churches and non-profit organizations in foreign countries before, but even that work wasn't as focused on basic needs. This was also a chance to connect with people in a foreign culture in a non-religious context. (Not that there's anything wrong with connecting in a religious context; I just don't want to do that exclusively.) Although I was more interested in this than Cathy was, she still joined me for this experience.
We weren't sure what to expect our hosts to be like, but it turned out that they were very friendly and welcoming. I had made sure we went to a farm where the hosts speak English, so I was able to communicate with them. They spoke Mandarin better than English, so Cathy had an easier time communicating with them than I did, but most of the time we all spoke English. They were a middle-class family. Both the man and the woman were semi-retired. They had taken over the farm and made it organic in recent years. One of them had been an engineer, and he said running the farm was much better for his health. They grow a variety of vegetables like cabbage, rice, some kind of squash, onions, tomatoes, and probably a few things that I forgot.
The work itself wasn't particularly fun and exciting, but I wasn't expecting it to be. We spent a few days planting cabbage, and most of the rest of the time weeding around onions and squash plants. Occasionally we'd help our hosts with certain other tasks too. Riveting, isn't it? But what stood out to me, especially the first couple of days, was the stress relief. Even though I got sore doing all that bending over, it was such a stress relief to sit there, doing simple work, listening to the birds (wild birds and other people's chickens), enjoying the fresh air, and having long conversations with Cathy.
We went into town (about a ten-minute walk away) regularly to get some exercise, or buy various things, or just for something to do. The nearby town had a traditional market with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and some homemade foods for sale at little booths. At night they had a night market, which mostly sold various interesting cooked foods. (Taiwan is known for its stinky tofu, so we tried some of that.) We had meals with our hosts, and one time we cooked a meal for them.
Although my experience there was short, and I'm sure not all of the farmers who are part of WWOOF are as awesome as our hosts, I'd have to say WWOOF is a great way to gain experience with growing food and living a simpler life, and it can be a great cultural exchange (unless you do it close to home). It's also very inexpensive, since you work in exchange for room and board. I like how unstructured it is too. A person can spend anywhere from about 10 days to several months on a farm--you basically set up whatever works for you and your host; the WWOOF organization just gives you information about potential hosts.
After our time on the farm, we also spent a couple of days in Kenting National Park on the southern tip of Taiwan. It's a beautiful area, but fairly touristy. In March when we were there it wasn't peak tourist season, and wasn't quite beach weather yet. (We spent a short time at the beach, but got a bit cold from the wind.) I think my favourite part of Kenting was the forest recreation area, which has a bunch of trails winding through forests, botanical gardens, and a few small lit-up caves. We even saw some wild monkeys there. (I think they were Formosan macaques.)
And then we went to China...
Cathy went to Taiwan before me to do a med school elective. When I got there, we met up at the airport and traveled to southern Taiwan to the Siang Yuan organic farm. We set up this visit through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). We spent about a week and a half there, which is kind of short for a WWOOF visit, but it was hard to fit anything longer into our schedule.
We did this because I've been interested in trying something completely different from my usual engineering work, and kind of getting back to basics--producing food being such an important part of meeting our basic needs. I've done some volunteering with churches and non-profit organizations in foreign countries before, but even that work wasn't as focused on basic needs. This was also a chance to connect with people in a foreign culture in a non-religious context. (Not that there's anything wrong with connecting in a religious context; I just don't want to do that exclusively.) Although I was more interested in this than Cathy was, she still joined me for this experience.
We weren't sure what to expect our hosts to be like, but it turned out that they were very friendly and welcoming. I had made sure we went to a farm where the hosts speak English, so I was able to communicate with them. They spoke Mandarin better than English, so Cathy had an easier time communicating with them than I did, but most of the time we all spoke English. They were a middle-class family. Both the man and the woman were semi-retired. They had taken over the farm and made it organic in recent years. One of them had been an engineer, and he said running the farm was much better for his health. They grow a variety of vegetables like cabbage, rice, some kind of squash, onions, tomatoes, and probably a few things that I forgot.
The work itself wasn't particularly fun and exciting, but I wasn't expecting it to be. We spent a few days planting cabbage, and most of the rest of the time weeding around onions and squash plants. Occasionally we'd help our hosts with certain other tasks too. Riveting, isn't it? But what stood out to me, especially the first couple of days, was the stress relief. Even though I got sore doing all that bending over, it was such a stress relief to sit there, doing simple work, listening to the birds (wild birds and other people's chickens), enjoying the fresh air, and having long conversations with Cathy.
We went into town (about a ten-minute walk away) regularly to get some exercise, or buy various things, or just for something to do. The nearby town had a traditional market with fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and some homemade foods for sale at little booths. At night they had a night market, which mostly sold various interesting cooked foods. (Taiwan is known for its stinky tofu, so we tried some of that.) We had meals with our hosts, and one time we cooked a meal for them.
Although my experience there was short, and I'm sure not all of the farmers who are part of WWOOF are as awesome as our hosts, I'd have to say WWOOF is a great way to gain experience with growing food and living a simpler life, and it can be a great cultural exchange (unless you do it close to home). It's also very inexpensive, since you work in exchange for room and board. I like how unstructured it is too. A person can spend anywhere from about 10 days to several months on a farm--you basically set up whatever works for you and your host; the WWOOF organization just gives you information about potential hosts.
After our time on the farm, we also spent a couple of days in Kenting National Park on the southern tip of Taiwan. It's a beautiful area, but fairly touristy. In March when we were there it wasn't peak tourist season, and wasn't quite beach weather yet. (We spent a short time at the beach, but got a bit cold from the wind.) I think my favourite part of Kenting was the forest recreation area, which has a bunch of trails winding through forests, botanical gardens, and a few small lit-up caves. We even saw some wild monkeys there. (I think they were Formosan macaques.)
And then we went to China...
Sunday, May 01, 2011
A couple of points about the election
Recently I've said some things that are critical of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, and a bit against Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party. I haven't really talked about the other parties either, but I have my issues with them too. But today I'm not going to be critical of any politician in particular; I just want to make a couple of points.
First of all, I don't believe politics can really solve the problems in our society. It can do a lot of good and a lot of bad, but it can't truly fix things. If violence, oppression, other crime, and inequality are going to go away, better laws and government programs can help, but ultimately it takes an attitude change on everyone's part. If we all just put our own interests first, no amount of rules or government programs can fix these problems. Do you really want police and politicians who only care about their own interests? That's a recipe for corruption.
Mentioning corruption brings me to my second point. When I was in China with my wife recently, I heard a few stories about corruption. High-up officials will routinely "negotiate" discounts in restaurants after eating and getting the bill, and if the restaurant staff refuse, government officials could find "health violations" in the restaurant and shut it down. A beautiful tree in a park, covered in flowers, disappeared one day. One of my wife's relatives commented that only a government official could get away with stealing like that. I'm sure there are far worse examples than these. These stories of corruption make me appreciate democracy more. Democracy doesn't make government corruption impossible, and as I said in my first point, it can't really solve our problems. But it gives everyday people like you and me the ability to do something about government corruption. You may debate whether it gives us enough of a way to eliminate corruption, but at least it's something. So if you're a Canadian citizen, please vote tomorrow.
First of all, I don't believe politics can really solve the problems in our society. It can do a lot of good and a lot of bad, but it can't truly fix things. If violence, oppression, other crime, and inequality are going to go away, better laws and government programs can help, but ultimately it takes an attitude change on everyone's part. If we all just put our own interests first, no amount of rules or government programs can fix these problems. Do you really want police and politicians who only care about their own interests? That's a recipe for corruption.
Mentioning corruption brings me to my second point. When I was in China with my wife recently, I heard a few stories about corruption. High-up officials will routinely "negotiate" discounts in restaurants after eating and getting the bill, and if the restaurant staff refuse, government officials could find "health violations" in the restaurant and shut it down. A beautiful tree in a park, covered in flowers, disappeared one day. One of my wife's relatives commented that only a government official could get away with stealing like that. I'm sure there are far worse examples than these. These stories of corruption make me appreciate democracy more. Democracy doesn't make government corruption impossible, and as I said in my first point, it can't really solve our problems. But it gives everyday people like you and me the ability to do something about government corruption. You may debate whether it gives us enough of a way to eliminate corruption, but at least it's something. So if you're a Canadian citizen, please vote tomorrow.
Friday, April 01, 2011
China and the Republic of China
We recently returned from a trip to Taiwan and China. Or as the governments of those countries might prefer us to say: we recently returned from a trip to China. (The Chinese government claims Taiwan is part of China. Officially, the Taiwan government--also known as the Republic of China--seems to claim this too, but claims that the Taiwan government is the legitimate government of all of China. But the Republic of China doesn't seem to pursue this claim anymore.)
We had a wide variety of experiences. We helped out on an organic farm in southern Taiwan. We visited the beaches of Hainan, an island in southern China. We visited my wife's relatives in a few different cities. We biked in Chinese traffic (a bit scary). We saw the mini terra cotta army in Xuzhou (not to be confused with the full-size terra cotta army in Xi'an, which we didn't see). And near the end, we saw a few of the Beijing area's big attractions like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
I'll try to write more about a couple of specific parts of the trip another time, but this is all for now.
We had a wide variety of experiences. We helped out on an organic farm in southern Taiwan. We visited the beaches of Hainan, an island in southern China. We visited my wife's relatives in a few different cities. We biked in Chinese traffic (a bit scary). We saw the mini terra cotta army in Xuzhou (not to be confused with the full-size terra cotta army in Xi'an, which we didn't see). And near the end, we saw a few of the Beijing area's big attractions like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
I'll try to write more about a couple of specific parts of the trip another time, but this is all for now.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Abolition
In 1865, the USA abolished slavery.
In 1971, Canada officially abolished nuclear weapons.
In 1973, Iceland abolished the letter z.
In 1971, Canada officially abolished nuclear weapons.
In 1973, Iceland abolished the letter z.
Friday, July 02, 2010
Videos of Iceland
No, I'm not in Iceland yet. I'm just going to share a couple of music videos I've seen that were filmed in Iceland.
The first: "Heaven" by Live. They aren't from Iceland but they filmed a video there.
The second: "Glósóli" by Sigur Ros. Saw it mentioned in a blog. This is an Icelandic song.
It just occurred to me as I was writing this that these videos have something else in common: ambiguous endings.
The first: "Heaven" by Live. They aren't from Iceland but they filmed a video there.
The second: "Glósóli" by Sigur Ros. Saw it mentioned in a blog. This is an Icelandic song.
It just occurred to me as I was writing this that these videos have something else in common: ambiguous endings.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Ironically named countries
I've been married for three weeks now, and it's going well. It's an adjustment, but it's a good adjustment. But today's topic isn't about marriage. So maybe I'll share more about marriage another time. But some information will remain private.
We haven't had a chance to go on a honeymoon yet, but we have one booked. After much mind-changing, we settled on Iceland. We're excited to go there. But today's topic isn't what we're going to do on our trip. No, that would be too normal.
I just have a comment about this satellite photo.
Who named these countries? They should really trade names?
We haven't had a chance to go on a honeymoon yet, but we have one booked. After much mind-changing, we settled on Iceland. We're excited to go there. But today's topic isn't what we're going to do on our trip. No, that would be too normal.
I just have a comment about this satellite photo.
Who named these countries? They should really trade names?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Crashing a ceilidh
After Montreal, the vacation continued through New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. While we were driving on Prince Edward Island, Cathy noticed a commercial on the radio for a ceilidh. (According to dictionary.com, a ceilidh is "an Irish or Scottish social gathering with traditional music, dancing, and storytelling." By the way, the "dh" is silent.) We thought this would be a good chance to experience some east coast culture, hear music, dance, and that sort of thing.
So we arrived at the Benevolent Irish Society hall that evening and found a room full of middle aged and elderly people sitting in chairs listening to a live Celtic band. The music was good and the hall was packed, but it really wasn't what we expected. Nobody was dancing (for one thing there wasn't room), and there was a lack of people our age.
We sat and listened for a while, and then we noticed that Nick was asleep. (He said he can't really just sit and listen to live music, no matter how good it is.) We figured we wouldn't stay until the end. Then Cathy suggested that we go and dance in the parking lot. I have to admit I dragged my feet a bit, but it was a good idea. We figured out that a polka step seemed to work with the song, so we danced. Then we got our other friends. Nick told the ticket guy what was going on and asked if they could teach us a dance. So a few people came outside to teach us a folk dance. After we sort of got the basics, they asked the band to play a song that would go with the dance.
By intermission we were pretty sure we'd stay for the whole event. After intermission, the same people taught us another folk dance and then asked the band to play a song to go with it. So by then, everyone in the hall knew we were there and knew what we were doing. After that dance, we sat back down and listened to some more music. I think Nick stayed awake this time. Afterward, we thanked the band and our teachers. I got the impression they enjoyed teaching us those dances.
So I want to thank my friends, especially Cathy and Nick, for taking a somewhat disappointing evening and turning it into one of the most memorable parts of the trip. You made a lot of people's day. And a big thank you to the warm, hospitable people at that hall in Charlottetown for accommodating us and passing on a bit of your culture.
So we arrived at the Benevolent Irish Society hall that evening and found a room full of middle aged and elderly people sitting in chairs listening to a live Celtic band. The music was good and the hall was packed, but it really wasn't what we expected. Nobody was dancing (for one thing there wasn't room), and there was a lack of people our age.
We sat and listened for a while, and then we noticed that Nick was asleep. (He said he can't really just sit and listen to live music, no matter how good it is.) We figured we wouldn't stay until the end. Then Cathy suggested that we go and dance in the parking lot. I have to admit I dragged my feet a bit, but it was a good idea. We figured out that a polka step seemed to work with the song, so we danced. Then we got our other friends. Nick told the ticket guy what was going on and asked if they could teach us a dance. So a few people came outside to teach us a folk dance. After we sort of got the basics, they asked the band to play a song that would go with the dance.
By intermission we were pretty sure we'd stay for the whole event. After intermission, the same people taught us another folk dance and then asked the band to play a song to go with it. So by then, everyone in the hall knew we were there and knew what we were doing. After that dance, we sat back down and listened to some more music. I think Nick stayed awake this time. Afterward, we thanked the band and our teachers. I got the impression they enjoyed teaching us those dances.
So I want to thank my friends, especially Cathy and Nick, for taking a somewhat disappointing evening and turning it into one of the most memorable parts of the trip. You made a lot of people's day. And a big thank you to the warm, hospitable people at that hall in Charlottetown for accommodating us and passing on a bit of your culture.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Almost finished in Montreal
I'm almost finished my time in Montreal, and then we're off to New Brunswick. When we arrived here, a friend and I got in a cab to go to the place we're staying and meet up with a couple more friends. I tried telling the cab driver how long we'd be there and asking what he recommended doing here, and he didn't really understand. So I told him how long we're staying in French. I couldn't figure out how to ask what he recommended doing. But we continued to talk in French for a few minutes.
It was surprisingly natural to be speaking French again. Of course, I'm far from fluent, and I haven't spoken a whole lot of French on this trip, but what I knew came back faster than I expected. And I think the cab driver spoke slowly so I could understand him. Maybe in Edmonton, it just doesn't feel natural to speak French, especially when most of the French-speakers I know speak English better.
(New readers can go back and read what I wrote in July and August of 2006 when I did my French immersion program. I haven't tagged these posts yet, but when I do, they should be tagged "French.")
It was surprisingly natural to be speaking French again. Of course, I'm far from fluent, and I haven't spoken a whole lot of French on this trip, but what I knew came back faster than I expected. And I think the cab driver spoke slowly so I could understand him. Maybe in Edmonton, it just doesn't feel natural to speak French, especially when most of the French-speakers I know speak English better.
(New readers can go back and read what I wrote in July and August of 2006 when I did my French immersion program. I haven't tagged these posts yet, but when I do, they should be tagged "French.")
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Montreal
This summer, I'm going on vacation to Montreal, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia with a few friends. Now that I have the trip planned, I keep noticing other people who are going to Montreal. I know at least two other people who will be visiting Montreal while I'm on the east coast. I work with someone who just got back from there. Offhand, I can't remember anyone else, but there may be more. And they say Canadians don't like to vacation in Canada.
[Update: I know another person who's going to Ottawa soon after I leave Montreal, and he might visit Montreal too.]
[Update: I know another person who's going to Ottawa soon after I leave Montreal, and he might visit Montreal too.]
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Another interview
Want to get interviewed? Here's the idea:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
I interviewed Kate a while back, and now she's interviewing me. By the way, I also answered an interview from Elim last year, which you can read here. Here are my answers to Kate's questions:
1. You get a plane ticket that goes around the world. Like all great offers, it has a catch- you have to keep going in the same direction (so if you fly towards China, you can't suddenly turn around and decide to go to Japan), and you have to use it in a month. Where will you go?
Hmm. Tough one. Let's say a couple days in LA, a day in Seattle, 3 days in Australia, three days in Japan, 3 days in China, 2 days in Thailand or somewhere around there, 3 days in India, 2 days in Ethiopia, 2 days in Russia, 2 days in Israel, 2 days in France, 2 days in Britain, 2 days in Florida, and then a day in Manitoba, since it's close to home and I haven't been there in a very long time.
That's just a really quick list of some places I'd want to go, just thrown together. In reality, I think I'd prefer to spend more time in less places, but then I wouldn't get as much of my money's worth out of the plane ticket. Is it possible that I'd care so much about getting my money's worth that I'd choose a less pleasant, same-priced vacation just so I could say I got more flights for the same amount of money?
2. What was your favorite toy as a kid? Why?
I think I'll say Transformers or Lego. With Transformers I enjoyed turning one thing into another, and with Lego I liked building stuff and taking it apart, even if I built the same thing multiple times (the thing in the instruction book).
3. What are the 5 worst songs ever (in your opinion). Why?
This is the toughest question of the five. I think I'll have to list artists or albums, not specific songs. In no particular order, here are my picks:
4. What's the most surprising thing you've learned in the last year?
It's easier to find a girlfriend at Hickfest than at Bible college. Actually, for me, maybe that's not so surprising. I didn't enter Bridal College seven years ago with much for relationship expectations.
5. If you lost any of your 5 senses, which would be the worst to lose and which would be the least problematic?
I think the sense of touch would be worst to lose. I probably don't think about that one as much as vision or hearing, but it's so essential. Without that I think I'd feel so detached from my environment, and it would be so easy to damage my body without realizing it. I've heard of somebody who was born without the ability to feel pain and she scratched out one of her own eyes before her parents figured out a way to fasten goggles to her face securely.
I think the least problematic one would be taste. As much as I'd hate to be without some of the pleasure of eating, my sense of smell would still give me a partial sense of taste. And outside of eating, the sense of taste really serves no purpose, unlike all the other senses.
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
I interviewed Kate a while back, and now she's interviewing me. By the way, I also answered an interview from Elim last year, which you can read here. Here are my answers to Kate's questions:
1. You get a plane ticket that goes around the world. Like all great offers, it has a catch- you have to keep going in the same direction (so if you fly towards China, you can't suddenly turn around and decide to go to Japan), and you have to use it in a month. Where will you go?
Hmm. Tough one. Let's say a couple days in LA, a day in Seattle, 3 days in Australia, three days in Japan, 3 days in China, 2 days in Thailand or somewhere around there, 3 days in India, 2 days in Ethiopia, 2 days in Russia, 2 days in Israel, 2 days in France, 2 days in Britain, 2 days in Florida, and then a day in Manitoba, since it's close to home and I haven't been there in a very long time.
That's just a really quick list of some places I'd want to go, just thrown together. In reality, I think I'd prefer to spend more time in less places, but then I wouldn't get as much of my money's worth out of the plane ticket. Is it possible that I'd care so much about getting my money's worth that I'd choose a less pleasant, same-priced vacation just so I could say I got more flights for the same amount of money?
2. What was your favorite toy as a kid? Why?
I think I'll say Transformers or Lego. With Transformers I enjoyed turning one thing into another, and with Lego I liked building stuff and taking it apart, even if I built the same thing multiple times (the thing in the instruction book).
3. What are the 5 worst songs ever (in your opinion). Why?
This is the toughest question of the five. I think I'll have to list artists or albums, not specific songs. In no particular order, here are my picks:
- My grandma has a record by a German boy named Heintje or something like that. Just about anything on that record could be on this list. (Hmm. I just looked him up on Wikipedia and he's still making albums. I think my grandma must have his debut album.)
- Usually I can tolerate Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, and maybe even like some of their music. But if I listen to an entire album of either of them, I'd put some of the songs on this list.
- Anything from P.O.D.'s early albums. It's basically yelling without rhythm.
- I Hope You Dance. The song has a good message, but it's cheesy, and at one summer job I was forced to listen to EZ Rock way too much, and I think that song was popular then. But I think that song is still popular on that station.
- The Song that Never Ends, written by Norman Martin. Using it in a painkiller commercial was genius though.
- Old MacDonald by Frank Sinatra
- Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express
- David Hasselhoff's cover of Hooked on a Feeling - the video wins the Worst Ever Use of a Green Screen award
4. What's the most surprising thing you've learned in the last year?
It's easier to find a girlfriend at Hickfest than at Bible college. Actually, for me, maybe that's not so surprising. I didn't enter Bridal College seven years ago with much for relationship expectations.
5. If you lost any of your 5 senses, which would be the worst to lose and which would be the least problematic?
I think the sense of touch would be worst to lose. I probably don't think about that one as much as vision or hearing, but it's so essential. Without that I think I'd feel so detached from my environment, and it would be so easy to damage my body without realizing it. I've heard of somebody who was born without the ability to feel pain and she scratched out one of her own eyes before her parents figured out a way to fasten goggles to her face securely.
I think the least problematic one would be taste. As much as I'd hate to be without some of the pleasure of eating, my sense of smell would still give me a partial sense of taste. And outside of eating, the sense of taste really serves no purpose, unlike all the other senses.
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