I may be headed for an involuntary hiatus from posting because my hard drive is beginning to act like it has Alzheimer’s and files are beginning to disappear. Each time I start my computer is worse than the last. Pretty soon I won’t even be able to boot the thing up. I should have started to migrate my photos and songs as soon as I saw it happening, but alas it looks like I might lose everything. C’est la vie—in the meantime I’m at least I’m enjoying the week visiting my sister and her family. Here are some photos of my cute nephews.
Whoop-Up Daze
I’m not exactly a professional photographer even though I have a very nice digital SLR camera. However, very often people assume that seeing a person carrying a professional looking camera is seeing a person that takes professional looking photos. This can be good and bad, because while I have been known to get some pretty good captures, I feel a little intimidated that people expect all my photos to be great. (I do my best.)
This last week has been Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge, which is to say the Rodeo has been on at the Stampede and Exhibition Park and though I’ve lived here for almost 4 years, this was the first time I’ve been to the Lethbridge Rodeo. I took a bunch of photos that even though I know will probably never win any awards, they do give a pleasant taste of what the rodeo is all about.
The rodeo I remember as a kid was not nearly as entertaining as my experience on Friday and Saturday night. I remember sitting through extremely long breaks where it seemed that nothing was happening followed by short bursts of entertainment which if you were not careful, you might miss completely because hey what’s going on UNDERNEATH the stands? Needless to say I was always looking for entertainment. The other thing I remember about the rodeo as a kid was that there were a lot of cowboys smoking cigarettes and drinking beer—which coming from a non-smoking, non-drinking, somewhat religious family—made me extremely uncomfortable. The other thing I didn’t like about the rodeo as a kid was that we always sat so far away from the action. It was hard to see what was really happening.
That all changed this weekend. Well the drinking and smoking didn’t, but I came to realize that the breaks are actually not that long and this time I didn’t waste my time with all the suckers up in the stands, I got down right beside the field because my plan was to get some really nice photos. I was a little nervous just heading down there, because I didn’t know if you needed special permission or what? Well, I guess people just saw my camera and assumed I was a seasoned photographer and obviously was supposed to be there taking photos. It turns out that’s all it takes.
I had such a good time at the Rodeo on Friday night, that when my brother arrived in Lethbridge on Saturday, I talked him in to going with me for another night of photography fun. He’s got a lens that lets in more light and therefore is able to take photos later into the evening after the sun has gone down and he actually is a seasoned photographer. He gave me lots of good tips.
Anyway, Gary and I, each had our cameras out, shooting next to the Global TV camera man when we met a friendly guy from the Canadian reserves. He asked if we would mind taking a few shots of their mascot for him, since we had fancier cameras, and then just emailing him. We agreed and he gave us his card.
Well a little while later someone official looking came up to us and asked us if we had press passes. The old “carry a fancy camera and get into restricted areas” trick had used up all its juice.
But as we were getting told that if we didn’t have press passes then we would have to leave, I whipped out the business card I had just been given and explained that this guy asked us to shoot photos for him. What a stroke of luck because the guy knew who we were talking about and all of a sudden it was fine for us to be there. We were rodeo photographers again!
But the fanciest camera and all the permission in the world won’t necessarily help one to remember to set his white balance properly. I can’t believe I shot the whole night with my white balance set for fluorescent lights. Luckily Photoshop is helpful at fixing such issues. We had a lot of fun at the rodeo and Gary, as expected, got some really great rodeo photos (which he hasn’t uploaded yet).
You can check out the rest of my rodeo photos in my flickr set: Whoop-Up Days 2006.
Movie Review: “La Grande seduction”
Last night I enjoyed watching “La Grande seduction” with my friend—Amber L., (whom is coincidentally from Lethbridge and even works as a lifeguard at my old pool, but whom I only met recently on my trip to Quebec).
The movie was great. It’s about a tiny fishing village on a small island in Quebec where almost all of the residents are on welfare. When a much-needed boost, in the form of a new factory, is promised, providing they can secure a full-time Dr. into taking residence there, the mayor starts a massive recruiting project. The main problem being, the microscopic island doesn’t really have much to offer—so the villagers scheme together to make their little village a tiny piece of heaven for their potential MD, Dr. Lewis by creating an elaborate facade of how wonderful the place is. They even go so far as to tap his phone to “understand him better”; hilarity ensues.
Though it’s actually a French movie, we wimped out and watched it with English subtitles, because the two of us weren’t that confidant in our French skills, but I’d totally watch it again only in French this time. But despite the fact that it’s not in English, I highly recommend it. You might need to look for it under its English name, “Seducing Dr. Lewis”. (Personally I like the French title better). So go out and get it, I promise you won’t regret it.
As Pretty as an Airport
I’m down to my last two exams before I’m officially done here at Laval and that’s probably a good thing because I need to get home where I can get some rest.
I’ve been keeping busy this last week. On Monday a few hundred students here in the French immersion program took a ride down the St. Lawrence on the Louis-Jolliet. The folks here sure know how to fill up a boat. (photos)
Tuesday night was spent chilling out with my host family and eating, quite possibly, one of the best meals of my life. Definately top 10 anyway.
Yesterday I had lunch at a Pub in Vieux Quebec with my classmates and afterwards I took a bunch of photos of a couple of the girls.
Last night was the Spectaculaire, a talent show with vaudeville style acts. After the show, and the souvenir video, we had some of the best cake I’ve ever eaten followed by an evening of dancing and partying at the campus pub. Not everything was exactly perfect, as was previously alluded to, but on the whole I did have a good time. Oh, and as a splendid little cherry on top I ended up walking home alone in the rain for an hour and got home 3:30 in the morning—nice.
I don’t remember even talking to my roommates this morning at our 7:00 breakfast. I barely remember grabbing a couple slices of bread and washing it down with OJ—oh breakfast of champions. I think they realized I was not in my finest form. Luckily the written test this morning was not too tricky.
Saturday is rapidly approaching and in addition to the fact that I really like it here, I am not overly excited for my trip with Air Canada’s infamous service. If the voyage here will be of any indication then I wouldn’t make any bets on when I’m going to arrive. If you’re reading this in Lethbridge, don’t wait up—I’ll be home when I get there.
In honor of my air travel here is a quote about airports:
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.
-Douglas Adams
I think the same can be said about Air Canada’s service—a kind of carefully refined treatment that can only be achieved with a lot of practice and determination.
All Good Things
This bittersweet ride is almost over. I’ve had the time of my life here—filled with both good and bad experiences. I guess some lessons take a lifetime to learn; I’m definitely still learning.
That’s Me in the Trees
This morning I was fretting a little because I really wanted to go to the “Parqours Aventure Le Relais” (I think that translate to something like Relay Adventure Park), but I didn’t buy a ticket in advance and I was worried that they would be sold out.
Well as the universe has decided to be on my side lately, I showed up at the University and got the very last spot! Ca va tres bien!
The Parquors Aventure is a series of suspended cables that stretch between the trees (we were told that each one was a separate “game”) and each game is a different level of difficulty. One of the most interesting ones was a kind of snowboard zip line where you jumped onto the board and then zoomed down the line. It’s difficult to explain properly without a photo and since we were doing a lot of climbing, I opted out of bringing my camera with me.
However, some of my friends brought their smaller (more manageable) cameras with them and so I have a few photos of the event (like this one):
Here I look a little wobbly, but it was because I was trying hard to use only my sense of balance and not to grab the “life line” above my head in order to get across. I ended up being able to get across this one without cheating but for most of the others, I would have fallen if it weren’t for grabbing the line (oh and of course the fact that I was strapped in).
At one point I was getting pretty confident about racing across the lines and one of the wood panels under my feet actually broke. Of course, I had the harness to hold me up, but I still got quite the adrenaline rush.
I’m having such a great time here but I’m heading out in only 7 more days! It’s time to really buckle down and get the most of it with regard to learning French!
10,000 Days Old
Today I’m 10,000 days old. I figured it out using this date calculation tool.
10,000 days can also be converted to one of these units:
- 864 000 000 seconds
- 14 400 000 minutes
- 240 000 hours
- 1428 weeks (rounded down)
Happy 10,000th day to me! Here’s to another 10,000.
Counting
When I first arrived in Quebec I decided to count all my laps in the pool in French. I’ve gotten pretty good at counting by 25’s but I still make the occasional mistake.
While counting them today, after mixing up how far I had gone, this thought occured to me and made me smile.
There are three kinds of people in this world: Those that can count, and those that can’t.
Bon journey!
Week 4 is Almost Over
There’s only a week and a day left in my short journey to Quebec. I knew the days were going to go quickly here, but seriously I can’t believe it’s so close to being over.
For the most part everything has been fantastic. The written exam didn’t go nearly as well as the oral, or phonetics but there will be more tests which will give me ample opportunity to improve. I think my major problem was that since I speak a little more fluently than the others in my class, I felt like I could get by with less studying (well I got by, but it was ugly).
Last night I tried to hook up with some friends, but somehow I forgot where I put the number and I was expecting them to call me anyway. I found out this morning that there WAS a message for me last night – but “we must not have heard the phone ring because we were talking to loudly at dinner”. Ok? That doesn’t seem just a little odd? Anyway it was no big deal, but I did check out the Salsa dancing place, Chez Morrice, just in case. Lot’s of dancing, little (or rather “no”) people that I knew.
Tonight I will be hooking up with the friends though. We are going for a picnic at the Plains of Abraham followed by a FREE jazz concert. Certainly Quebec is more fun than any place I have ever lived before. The festivals just keep coming one after the other!
Learning French
Each day I’m notice myself becoming better and better at French. At school we are supposed to only speak French and while I’m no where near 100% fluent, I am becoming quite good at basic conversations.
Last night they held a “Casino Soirée” at the University. On my way over there a little old lady on the Street asked me for directions. I explained that I only spoke a little French but nonetheless she asked again, more slowly this time, if I could give her some directions. Amazingly enough, I not only knew the area well enough to explain it to her, I even did it completely in French. I must have gotten some good karma from it, because just moments later the bus arrived and I didn’t have to walk to the other bus stop as per my plan.
The Casino was such a blast! Even though we weren’t playing for money, I had a fantastic time. They had lots of Black Jack tables a roulette wheel and some other games of chance. I found it a little hard going at first, but then I discovered one of the dealers was giving out 20,000$ chips for only 10,000$ (She thought the blue ones were only worth $10,000). One sneaky exchange with her got me back into the game enough that I could feel comfortable that I wouldn’t end up losing all my chips early in the night, but she figured it out almost immediately after I made the change. One lucky guy had been cashing into blue chips all night before he or she knew of the error.
However, the real luck came when I discovered one of the tables where the dealer had NO CLUE WHATSOEVER how to play Black Jack. There was one time that she had 20 points and took another card. I guess she was hoping for an ace. It was pretty much the case that so long as never busted I won every hand. After awhile someone explained to her that as the dealer she only draws more cards until she has 16 or more—still it was fun while it lasted.
We ended the night with a little dancing and partying even though I should have been home a few hours earlier working on my homework. Learning French can be fun but doing activities in French is way more fun!
I can’t say enough how awesome the My Explore bursary program has been. If you are a Canadian student (within the last year) with even the remotest interest in learning French, I highly recommend the program.