Fave Posts: Written Work

I know I haven't been posting much but there are two good reasons.

1) I haven't had much time. It's been quite busy here in Québec with activities every day and now that exams and final projects are all next week, lots of homework.

2) I haven't had anything to write about. I like to feel somewhat motivated to write a post and nothing has come to me lately. I was doing laundry the other day and spent an hour and a half in the residence's basement trying to come up with something and all I got was two half written poems and a lot of unfinished thoughts.

But I decided today that I would list some of my favourite blog posts from some of the people I follow. The blogging world is still reatively new to me, but there are lots of people who post interesting stuff. Today, I'm dealing with written pieces, be them poetry, short stories, articles or people's thoughts.

1) Insightful Youtube Comment - Egyptian Nerd Popcorn
This very truthful post talks about Youtube comments and the things people write. Captain K also wrote a post on facebook which tells a lot of truths as well.

2) Civil Disobedience - Little Orange Jeep Girl
In a humourous way, she talks about civil disobience, an essay by Henry David Thoreau written in 1849. I quite enjoyed this insightful post and if I remember to read more, I'll definitely look this essay up.

3) Childish Games - Little Orange Jeep Girl
She's back again with a great article that she wrote and was published on teenink.com. I actually love this article so much. A little bit of silly is what we all need.

4) A list within a list - some poems by Jaime from Space Cadet Escapades. She is a wonderful writer and always comes up with beautiful titles that fit her poems so well :)
A Place Father Time Skipped
Love and Logic
The Value of Instead
Old Fabric

5) Mortal Oak is a British blogger who writes great short stories and is an active member of Nerdfigteria :D Here's a link to his short stories on his blog Acorns of Epiphanies (awesome name btw).

6) Five Diseases I'm Glad I Don't Have - A Slave to Pen and Ink
Those are five diseases I'm glad I don't have as well. Check out Zimri's life lessons too; they make me smile because they're so true.

7) I Am Not A Skinny Girl - Words from a Nerdy Girl
The title says it all.

♥ Turtles

10 Truths About Québec City (According to Me)

I have been living here in Québec City for two and a half weeks now, and during my time here, I have learned/observed a few things which I would like to share with you:

1. The city hates pedestrians.

 

It's deceiving. You don't push it.

 Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. Québec is a beautiful city with lovely people, but when they get behind the wheel of a car, something seems to go off. First, people accelerate when they see you. No joke. I'm talking from experience and with the admission of a real Quebecois guy himself! Secondly, the traffic lights are horrible. The city is stuck between European rules and Canadian ones. In the rest of Canada you can make a right turn on a red light, but in Québec you can't. There are multiple advanced turn signals, randomly changing lights, and the pedestrian crossing signals never change fast enough and when they do change, you don't have enough time to cross. And if you are waiting on the sidewalk for the signal to come on, drivers will get mad at you for not crossing when there is a red light. It's a no-win situation. I have become a professional jaywalker out of pure necessity.

A sampling of the hills

2. Québec is built on hills.

Lots of hills - in Old Québec/Downtown and the Ste Foy region at least (where the university I'm staying at is located). Biking takes a lot of energy because you go up and down and up and down. Walking around Old Québec is a constant series of hills as well as admiring in awe at the talented bus drivers who navigate the roads with intense skill.

3. People are fit.

Probably because of the hills, and an intense love for bikes, rollerblading and running.

4. Malls close ridiculously early.

near the parliament buildings

The university is about a 15-20 min walking distance from 3 malls, all sort of connected. The unfortunate thing is that the malls all close at 6. And this is a common occurrence throughout the province. In Ontario, malls close at 9 or 10 on a weekday and 6 or 7 on the weekends. How are high school students suppose to spend their time? Doing homework? That's nonsense!

5. There is a good transportation system.

Although I am not here for very long (only two and a half more weeks left), I have a bus pass: and it has served me well! The main buses between the campus and downtown comes every 2-5 mins or so. Plus, my pass is cheaper than back home, it's re-loadable, has my picture and an electronic chip that beeps when you get on. Soooo cooool!!!

6. They can sniff out an English speaker from a kilometre away

This happens quite frequently: even though I speak to someone in French, they can tell I am an anglophone, so they immediately switch to English, even if my French is better than their English. It is annoying and a bit insulting because most of the time we understand each other perfectly fine in French.

Recognize it from Catch Me If You Can?

7. There is a lot of history

Compared to Toronto, even Ottawa, the history of the city is really obvious. Recollecting wars, founders, acts and treaties are common occurrences in the downtown area. It was one of the first, if not the first, Canadian city to be founded and with that title comes a long history. It is a nice thing to see though, because in other places, history is not so prominent and remembering the past takes a lot more effort. But then again, the motto of the province is «Je me souviens», which means "I remember".

8. They love maple.

I've fallen in love too.

It's EVERYWHERE. Maple syrup, maple butter, maple sugar, maple candy, maple ice cream, maple fudge, maple donuts, maple tea, maple cotton candy, maple meat rubs, and my guess, even maple poutine.Good thing I adore maple :D

9. Beer = Pride

I am not a beer drinker myself, but la biere quebecoise has been recommended to me numerous amounts of times by various people. Common phrases like, "it's not like other beers you've tasted", or "we have fantastic microbreweries" can be heard all around. A Quebecois guy told me jokingly that (roughly translated) "raising the elbow", referring to lifting a mug of beer, is a popular past time. I guess I'll just have to take their word for it.

10. I love it.

The parliament building of Québec - L'Assemblée Nationale

I would have to say, this is one of my favourite cities that I have ever been too. I admit, I haven't been to the suburbs, but suburbs everywhere usually follow the same cookie cutter template, hence the label of suburbia. But the downtown area is fantastic. It is stunningly beautiful in so many places, the people are really kind, the bus drivers are the nicest I have ever encountered in my life and there is a great vibe overall. I don't know what their winters are like, but most Canadian places are worst than Toronto. Still, it is a great place to be.

♥ Turtles

More info on Québec City and the province of Québec

The city
The province
Wikipedia: Quebec City / The province

Note: This is just my opinion and a bit of generalization. Best way to form your own opinion of a place is to go there yourself. I highly recommend it. Also, all pictures were taken by moi.

Going in blind...

So it's been a week since my last post but I have a good reason: I am in Quebec City!! I left last Saturday, my birthday, and traveled 10 hours, with 3 hours sleep, from Toronto to Montreal and then on to the capital of Quebec. I'm here for five weeks on a university/Government of Canada program, Explore, to improve my French by being placed in a French environment and taking French courses. I'm at the University of Laval, which is a pretty nice school. Big campus, lots of residences, okay food and great proximity to three malls and a Metro grocery store.

This was a very last minute choice. I had applied in January but was wait listed and since I hadn't heard from them, I figured I had not been accepted. They only called me last Tuesday, and since I wasn't doing anything for the summer, I said yes. Then I rush mailed a bunch of stuff and hopped on a train Saturday morning. It was kind of hectic, but a lot more relaxed now that I'm here. I hadn't received any information about residence or classes so I basically went blindly into a new city. Thanks to a nice taxi driver, a classmate I met in Montreal and the very nice Laval students, things worked out.

My major issue is that I still do not have internet. (I'm posting this from a friend's computer). They have not given me a university card, although everyone else got their's on Monday, and the wireless lady won't give me internet until her computer says I have an active card. Everything, including the library, is closed on the weekends and the past week has been really busy so I just haven't have time to go on. But hopefully, come Monday, everything will be sorted out.

I hope y'all had a great week :)

♥ Turtles

El capital

Long time no post. I've been kinda busy. And while I'm not one to blog about my life, cuz it's terribly unexciting, I will this time because things have happened.

Earlier this week I got my hair done, but due to frustrating circumstances, it took ages (literally days), but I was on reading week and didn't really have any plans so ultimately it was okay. Its black and blue and twisted, though from a distance, it looks like I have locks o_o.

The exciting fun stuff happened at the end of the week. Because my friends attend university and not college, we have our winter reading weeks at the same time (colleges are next week I believe).  So we decided, why not go to O-town (Ottawa)? Four of us live there and I had visited last October and it was fun. Three of my friends decided to go, with two more coming the day after us (nine in total in Ottawa).

It was fun. We didn't do any sighting seeing stuff, but just hung out. And when you haven't seen your friends for months, that's enough. We were really looking forward to going with the school's French immersion club to Montreal's Nuit Blanche. I've been to the one in Toronto for the last three years and they have all been excellent. I went with friends who were on this trip and we all had good things to say about Toronto's so we had high expectations as said those who heard our various stories.

It was kind of a let down. We were, admittedly, kind of tired and it was really cold, but it just wasn't as good. The main issue was that everything was spread so far apart, so it was really hard to find things. Another thing is none of us knew the city (unlike Toronto, where we are all relatively familiar with the terrain). But we did still have some good times :) Though Montreal will be receiving a strongly worded letter.

Some highlights:

• FRIENDS of course :) mes amis sont fantastiques  et vraiment drôles :P


• Poutine. LEGIT POUTINE.


• Hull/Addiction….Google it


• Fast and Loose (the show)


• Nail marbling/acetone overdose


• The Roar of the Shrimp


• Nuit Blanche


• Paper Towns (so excited to read!! - I got it from a friend)


• Random jokes that I forget but I'm sure someone will remind me of later :P

So pretty awesome weekend over all. My money's gone, I got 6 hours sleep, I'm hungry,  train's delayed, I won't get home for another  5 hours or so and I have a French presentation tomorrow morn at 9, but c'était le fun :)

- Turtles ♥

P.S. Some photos! They're from Nuit Blanche, like the only time I took pics

note: this was written around 6:25pm