Trip to TO

Hey everybody, I finally uploaded all my pictures! I just want you to know the reason this took so long is because blogger was apparently having server issues. Not my fault! Anyways, onto ye slides! (I only have pictures from pretty much TO onwards, I asked Ralph to take pictures in QC, and he hasn't sent them to me yet, so I haven't had the chance to either put them here or share them otherwise, alright? No hatin'.)

The couple of pictures I DID take, though, were of Ralph and I doing the most Canadian of all Canadian things, skiing. And what would Canada be, if not boring? Therefore, naturally, we took up our cross-country skis and headed into the great white. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour's worth of time with our skis, but this was alright. That's more than enough time to fall a lot if you've never done it.

Like this for example. Unfortunately, I didn't whip out my camera quick enough to see Ralph in full spread eagle form on the ground for the fourth or fifth time, but he did pretty great, all things considered. We had a lot of fun, even though it was quite icy. I had my fair shares of falls as well, but that's what I get for trying to treat cross country skis like alpine skis, and thereby causing my own faults. Thankfully, Ralph and I just arrived on time to return our skis, (well, I kinda skied ahead a bit, since we were running a bit late.) and then we headed to a subway, where I got to chat with some nice people with special needs who were playing in a big hockey tournament, and they had taken the train from the Maritimes, which I simply couldn't believe. (Hilariously, Ralph didn't realize these people had special needs until about fifteen minutes later when he asked, "So what's with those people, they're pretty uppity.") The next day, after some, uh, madness finding my friend David's house and having him drive us to the airport (not before his car stalled, though!) We managed to get on a plane to TO.

For all you who don't know, this is my wonderful friend Sarah. I also took a picture of her wonderful now fiancee Mike, but the picture was super blurry, and therefore, I can only give this picture here. Sarah and Mike are great, and they were really gracious and let Ralph and I crash on their futon, while they often worked from home. Eh heh. I love e-commute. What a life. Sarah suggested we go off to Kesington Market, where we got into loads of trouble with an older gal who ran two alternative clothes shops called "Exile." And who made Ralph try on wigs. I am so VERY glad I brough my camera.

Here's Ralph looking shockingly like Sarah Michelle Gellar.

This is Ralph as a member of K.I.S.S. I think he pulls off the look rather well.

To celebrate, we decided to get t-shirts sort of as a souvenir of our trip. Ralph got one with the count, and I got one with a pixelated apple. Because I'm like that.

The ever famous CN tower on a very cold day.

Ralph attempting to smile in -20 weather. We eventually decided to go visit a Second Cup because Ralph was interested in a latte they had there. I ended up getting a grean tea latte, which basically was shamrock green, and Ralph had something equally as disgusting. The lesson of this is--don't buy $7 drinks from Second Cup. You'll only feel sick.

After Ralph left on Thursday, I stay had two days to spend with Ginny, Mike and Sarah. The best was when Sarah had a dinner party and I made dessert, and Sarah made Ratouille.

As you can see, professional chef Sarah is doing a very nice job serving up. Her friend Erin and Erin's bf Jann are in the picture, and you can see the back of Ginny's head in this photo. It's really a shame I didn't take a picture of Ginny while I was there, but we were too busy doing too many fun things, and Ginny looks really great. So for all those who haven't met Ginny, Ginny's now a big city girl! She seemed really happy in TO, so that made me estatic, since one thing that was sad was how unhappy I knew she was in Belgium.

After all the fun and games, I had to return home, so I took the Via-rail for the first time ever. Boy, was pretty fun! I also went walking downtown in Montreal, and I have to say, it's pretty nice.

However, one thing that I found was that the red light district and the downtown area fit rather seamlessly together. How very French-Canadian.

I decided to take a picture here to demonstrate. Right by a restaurant is a peep show. The guy in the touque on the right is actually the bouncer. So, if you want a good burger or a peep show, just look for Mr. Steer's!

Because I found the concept, the picture, and the title all completely unbelievable, (and the fact that it was clearly for the red-light market people at 3a.m.) I decided to give you a close up. I was running short on time, or I would've eaten there.

...

Y'know, for the cultural experience. Eh heh.

Anyways, I should run....talk to you all later! =D

Coming back

Well, I will be returning tomorrow, with a ride share from toronto to montreal, and take the train in Montreal to Quebec City. Yay! We have a dinner party tonight, but other than that, just waiting to retransport myself back in QC, QC.

This trip has been pretty eventful...it wasn't easy to see Ralph leave, on Thursday, but it's been such a blessing being with Ginny and Sarah and Mike here, it's just made me all peaceful and full of happy. I couldn't ask for better. I'll load pictures later, when I have a minute in the QC.

Later. =)

Well....well....

So, to make a very long story short, I got my hair cut yesterday. And then I cut my finger nearly in half. But they can't put stitches in it because I basically carved out a good third of my right ring finger. And if it wasn't for Julian I probably wouldn't have even gone to emergency...so it's thanks to him that I seriously did not die in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. =/

Then I waited in the hospital for a very long time. Basically, I ate my supper at midnight.

My finger throbs a lot, and if I hit it in the wrong place, I nearly see stars, but other than that, I'm really happy. I mean, if it had been a good 'Brennan day' I would have sliced my arm in half instead. Besides, too many good things are happening for me to be sad, so I know I'm really happy here...because there are some things that are just going right. And that's that I have a friend who will help me when I'm in trouble. And that's all I needed.

=D

(A little bit bizzare of an ending, I guess, but it means so much to have friends...)

New Cartoon!

Well, here it is! I will try and post one every little while until the weekend, because of a variety of reasons I will explain later. I really need to hurry! Late for class! Augh!

Typical

I was looking around for good Quebecker restaurants and student haunts on the internet, and I found this in relation to the Quebec carnival:

Christopher DeWolf says:
By the way, I’m not sure if growing up in Quebec City desensitizes you to this, but Bonhomme Carnaval really freaks me out. He looks like some sort of monster who feasts on human flesh but tries to disguise himself as an innocent habitant by wearing a floppy tuque and a ceinture fléchée.
Judging by that photo of the Bonhomme bread, though, it looks like someone uncovered his ploy and murdered the poor guy. What was the murder weapon? The Naya water, the candy sex toys or the frosted turds?

I laughed so hard at this. You really do have to see Bonhomme in person...he's certainly uh, well, odd. A picture so you can see...

I completely agree with the above blog commenter. Why DON'T more people think Bonhomme is scary? I was never afraid of clowns, but snowmen without pupils and a greek mask style smile?

The Cloud and its Silver Line

You know, a lot of bad stuff has been happening to me lately, ie.:

-The french is driving me mad
-The french course is partially driving me mad (although not in the same way)
-My laptop doesn't recognize DVDs anymore, making all my DVDs I brought with me useless (Why did I have to buy that Pilates work-out DVD and bring it?? WHY??? AND I SO WANTED TO WATCH THE B-VERSION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT IN FRENCH)
-My pen for my wacom tablet (the thing I use to make cartoons, easily and happily) has kicked the bucket, and I have no idea how to fix it (this doesn't mean I didn't consult the user manual. I did. It told me I broke my pen.) so therefore cartoons may be nil in the near future. This was a MAJOR outlet for me. A major outlet, now dead. Like Heath Ledger style dead.
-The french is driving me mad
-I recently got swabbed of some of my money (really, really don't want to talk about it, but it could have been a lot worse, so it's alright) trying to buy something online that wasn't legit, which means I'm a dummy, and now I'm in the process of filing a complaint for fraud
-I am having serious problems sleeping. I know I am normally crazy with my sleep schedule and I usually love it, but I'm not kidding you when I say I am exhausted most days, and I get into bed, and I lay there, with my hands crossed over my chest, like a mummy, or maybe a vampire, and lay there with my eyes wide open. I just lay there. Not thinking. Eyes wide open. Highly unnerving.
-My connection to internet, through a router, is very bad, and I often disconnect from the internet daily, and I am starting to think that I may be living without internet on a regular basis if I'm not careful. I pray everyday that there are no mild vibrations, tremors, minor earthquakes, or nearby impacting missles which may upset the hanging-by-the-thread connection I have to the 'world unreal' which is my only means of entertainment, minus conjugating verbs (thanks to my dead DVD player). These prayers are usually unanswered, and it's not the kind of thing I want to bother my landlady about on a regular basis (ie. more than once every two days.) I do look on the bright side here, though, and she is going to get a router that allows me to connect wireless. While I wasn't looking for this in a place when I first moved here, I am now, especially that I cannot have easy access to the router to fix any problems I might have.
-My shoes are slowly dying. Thank you Quebec winter, where it can be minus thirty plus wind, and yet there still manages to be a sufficient amount of slush for me to nearly slip and kill myself everyday when I cross a major intersection with lots of buses that never seem to stop on time, and angry Quebeckers who drive like they speak french--fast and without a lot of concern for the details. (like me, for example.)
-the french is slowly driving me mad.



This week has just been a PEAK for frustrating things for me...and normally I'm not so upset, but I swear, I'm turning into a rage-a-holic. Everything seems to spur me a little. I don't know where I would be without all the correspondence I've been receiving from various people in my family, friends, etc. Probably utilizing a lot more french swears (since they're all meaningless to me, anyways, except when my friend David in my class says "tabarnak" in class as an answer to the question "What word starts with 't', everyone?" Even I can feel the social context seething on that one, and he just does it to be funny. Great guy, that Dave.)

One thing (although there are a few other private things, but that's for those people) that really made my day was seeing all the pictures of my friend Jim's new baby. Normally I destest baby pictures, (I think just because I love children, but not babies...not sure why. Huh.) but, if anybody would be good parents, the kind of people to really love their kid, and not just have kids because they are kids, then it would be this married couple. I really was able to have a happy moment for someone else this week, even amongst my own daily going-ons. It is something that gives me pause, which is really good for me.


So, it's been a lot of lows, not a lot of highs, but you know, it's all alright. I have been stressing about lots of things, but in the big picture, it's not a big deal. At least there is happiness somewhere in the world, maybe a little far away from me, but it's somewhere, and it's real. And that makes me happiest of all, seeing other people happy. It sometimes reminds me about the big things in life, and what the big picture is, since my life is currenly a mosiac of little things, which currently are stringed together, a messy blanket of many things, all which have little meaning, but I have to give them some meaning....since it's my little mess of a life maintenant.

Anyways, I hope everybody else is well. I've finally picked up some stamps so I can send things to people now.

That makes me happy.

My Life as a French Student

Well,


It's been three days since class started, and already things are a little strange. I am very frustrated right now because they put the people who are right on the edge of the intermediate group, maybe 10-45 class hours away (ie. people who can speak and use some forms of other tenses, albiet badly, and speak pretty much without a problem in present tense, people whom they call 'advanced beginner') in with the people who absolutely. cannot. speak. a single. not a single. word of french.

I would be lying to you if I said there weren't times in the last two days I wanted to put a gun to my head or even just scream. Ack. Thing is, there were many 'advanced speakers' in the class before, and they could speak a higher level, and make things easier (ie. harder). However, two of them just left this morning for the next level (one that I really liked) and only other two of them took a test to see if they can go up to the next level this afternoon. If they leave, I will literally have no one to talk to in french, at least for the first three to possibly five weeks. This will be like my grade nine nightmare of core french all over again. (Seriously, it was bad. VERY BAD. Tres-bad-avec-le-bleu-cheese-bad.)

So, to 'quell' the adolescent rage, and the feeling stupid, (As in, "I'm so stupid at french they put me with the people who can't speak any french, so I'm really bad at everything' feeling) I went to talk to my teacher because I thought, you know, maybe if I talked about it, I would feel better, and I did, a little. And, also, because I know that I was partially frustrated because I couldn't speak french at the level I wanted, I was probably just mad at myself, especially over the last few days of 'language shock.' The teacher and I talked, and I told her I was worried it was always going to be really slow in this course, and that I understood everything she said in class (which, in my opinion, is usually not great in a language course, and definitely a bad sign in beginner's class) and I think it was clear I was really sad I was over the whole thing.

Tres Bizzare, she then she asked me if 'I' could (not if I wanted to, but if I could just do it for herm if I had the time) to write the little mini test to see if I should be at a higher level. I was like, "what??" and I did it anyways, (I mean hey, if they're going to give me even more than what I want and make me work so hard I cry, I definitely won't complain since this is what I came here for.) and made up a bunch of endings for the past tense, and wrote a short compisition for her, but it was really bad, (seriously, I totally made up words, and I didn't know what to write most of the time) and I told her that it was too hard for me, and that made me feel better, so that's alright, and she said it wasn't a problem, and was really nice to me. I kinda feel like the bigger man because I swallowed my pride and admitted that.

I suppose I should be a little more forgiving and realistic, since everyone will catch up, I guess. But for me, it's not about waiting for people to catch up; my time is just as valuable as the people who paid for the course and are complete beginners. I just feel kinda sad because I feel like I did something wrong because I know too much french for where everyone else is starting and not enough french for where I want to be starting.

I think what my fear is, is that everyone else is of a slightly different mentality. There are people that want to learn french, and then there are people that want and need to learn french. And I really, really want to learn french. I want to learn so bad I could cry. But I don't want to have to do it all myself after sitting through days of "Bonjour, Comment tu t'appelle?" because there isn't anyone (minus the very nice Australian couple in the back of the class, maybe) who can even speak in a full phrase, by themselves. And it's been three days. I need french for myself, I really do, but I am not sure I am going to learn more in this course than I did in my two week course in Belgium, and if that happens, I'm going to be so sad. =( =( =(

I think I would be more ok if I could have some sort of realistic promise that we were going to cover more than the present tense in 15 weeks. I should suppose we are, but I'm worried how long it will take to get there, is all. Do you think my fear is in earnest, or maybe I'm just freaking out because it's the first couple days? Maybe there's something else I could do? I'll have to think about it.

Whew, well, it's been a long day, and one good thing about being here in Quebec are all the people I can speak french with, so maybe I should focus on that, and less on the classroom experience. I think I will rest a bit, kinda chill and have an early night. Tomorrow is a big day, student pictures.

First Impression of Quebec?

Please feel free to tell me about the mistakes I've made while writing french. I also tried to write this in a hurry. Be aware, it takes a long time to do 10-ish panels, so I think I did alright, all things considered.


First day of french was alright. I think I'll have a better impression tomorrow.

And yes, Willem, you are a super hero. As per usual. Especially in french-speakings places. =)

Learning French

Well, I met my land-lady today, and she is SUPER nice. I am very happy, and I met my other roommate, apparently only one other, which is a bit of a relief, to be honest, and he seems really nice, although Julian's accent is a little harder to understand than Steve's, although I think he de-Quebec'd it for me when he was talking in french to me for the 2nd time. (Because the first time I had to tell him I didn't understand a thing he said because of his accent...wow, tres poli, Brennan) so now that the 'logistical things' are taken care of, I can begin my foray into the super french, where I will cram before I go to the school, so that I can hopefully be placed in a higher class (although I highly doubt this will happen, I can still hope, eh?)

My land-lady speaks very easy french to me, making me VERY happy, and even if I don't understand a lot of what she says, I understand enough to give very small replies, which makes me feel less stupid. I will try doing a french-side blog, maybe, but first I have to figure out an easy way to write accents on my blog, since I have no idea as of yet, minus using a number pad with the ALT key, which is just too much memorization for me.

Mon Maison! =D

The sitting room. A total of four to five steps long, and three steps wide. Cute.





The long steps can be seen here. It's about four small steps for man to the wall, people.







My room, with packing to be done!




My room, with everything finished! Isn't it pretty? Don't you dig the bedspread?? I do, for 18.88 at Sears, I do. BABY.






My desk. It's nice, although the chair brings the phrase, 'spinal pain' to mind. Definitely not pleasant, no back support. I either will need to fix this, or buy a 'new' one at Village des Valuers. Probably going to be buying a chair. =)

OK, ok, 'mon chambre' instead of 'mon maison' might be a closer approximate, but it's small and somewhat nice, and the price was right (Yay for cheap). More importantly, my place is STACKED. To say 'tout inclus' about this place is definitely an understatment. You noticed that TV in the pictures? Yeah, well, somebody LEFT IT HERE. Along with their Playstation (?) Sega Genesis (???) and their DVD player (!). On top of that, in the closet, there are TONS of expensive things...dishware, a wok, what seems to be a fully functioning HP Printer, and other boxes unknown what they may contain. C'est bizzare!



Steve (my roommate, one of three) seems really nice, so hopefully the others are nice, when I meet them as well. I also haven't met my landlady yet, nor had to pay for this month's rent, so, I'd say, it's looking up! =D Steve tells me she is 'tres gentil' (he didn't know the word 'nice,' in English but because I'm a nice guy I told him.) so hopefully we get along well. ( I REALLY HOPE SO. Maybe I'll bake her some good Western Canadian baking??)

*Yawn* Well, I'm exhausted. Hope you all are well. Quebec is really nice so far, it feels really homey, despite the immense size of it.