Tuesday, March 13, 2007

I found out today that certain people actually check my blog everyday for updates. Wow, sorry to disapppoint you guys man, I haven't really blogged much because of The Great Pain-in-the-Ass that has been my battle with stupid Canadian IT guys. Apparently 5 days in Canadian translates to more than a month in regular English.

Anyway limited access to a computer has led to 2 things. The first I mentioned above, blogging just about as regularly as a cow jumps over the moon. The second, a by-product of the rarity of my posts, is the false impression that my life here in Montreal is full of cows jumping over moons. That of course is not true. 70% of my life here is about school, but I don't blog about it, because who's really interested?

So here comes another one of those posts....


One of my favourite things about Montreal is its crazy, completely irrelevant festivals. 2 weekends ago, there was the Festival Montreal-en-Lumiere, basically an excuse for people to stay outdoors all night in -20 deg weather. Shops and museums and clubs open all night through (I know a lot do anyway in Singapore, but it's such a rarity here that it becomes a grand occasion. Ang moh country la, what to do?) There are 3 different festival areas, the Plateau, Downtown and Old Montreal, and shuttle buses connecting the 3. But we are lame and boring, so we just stayed at Old Montreal.


On our way to Old Montreal, for reasons unbeknownst to mankind, Marzia decided to climb up a pile of snow. This was after taking us on a 40 minute walk through the entire underground city when it would've taken about 15 above ground. WJ couldn't stop complaining of course.


They were playing some strange game involving a guy carrying a flaming torch of some sort, but it was closing when we tried to check it out.


The lightbulb mascots of the festival. I know I'm lame but I think they're cute ok?


This is where you go to heat up when you buay tahan the cold. It wasn't really that cold that night though, so I didn't really need it.


I didn't get a clear picture, but there was this guy dressed in a tux, with a giant bouncy ball attached to him by a long elastic string, and he throws the bouncy ball into the crowd, which then tosses it around, trying to keep it from falling while not getting smacked in the face. It sounds quite stupid in writing, but when you're there and everyone is doing it it's actually quite fun. I joined in for a while, but when I tried to take a photo I got smacked in the face.


They set up a huge tent with a club inside, with a DJ and all, only the music is played not through speakers but through wireless headphones, so it's completely quiet but everyone is dancing to the same beat. We didn't go in because the line was too long, but what a cool concept.


Now -this- is what we came here to do. Skate! I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to skate on the lake at Giz's chalet during the New Year's, but it was small after all, and it my first time skating for real, and so while enjoyable, it wasn't at all good for my buttocks. This time round the lake was much larger, and somehow I was a lot better. My theory is that the skates fit much better.


This is me with Emilye on the skating rink. I like her a lot, in a non-lesbian way.


This is my favourite picture. This slide must be a mile long at least. That's Hotel-de-Ville, the city hall, in the background. I just love how it looks at night.

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On a tangent, some people here think I have a British accent. Out of necessity, I refrain from using the words 'lah', 'leh', 'lor', 'mah' and 'meh'; all words of Hokkien origin; and the phrase "bu shi ben de man" when I speak to the ang mohs. However, I flatly refuse to pronounce "pretty" as "preedy" or "water" as "warder". I mean, enunciate your words, will you? Apparently the end result makes me sound British, but I always inform my accusators that this is the Singaporean accent (and try to launch into an elaborate lecture on the intricacies of Singlish and the tonal quality of Asian accents in general, boring the shit out of all who are too polite to tell me to shut my trap).

-- tee @ 4:49 am |