I'll get into Calgary at like, 1pm and as soon as I get home I'll be hopping on a bus to the grocery as there is nothing (well, in a way yeah) to eat in the house. (assuming the guys at CT are going to not strike? I hear they're playing the people like mad over there and keeping people on pins and needles on the matter)
So, assuming CT doesn't go on strike, my first order of business is to get food. But yeah, if they go on strike I suppose I'll do like I did in Lyon and walk, walk, walk which will be painful. I'd love to drive buuuut: a) I only have a learners and b) What car?
:)
jeudi, mai 31, 2007
mercredi, mai 30, 2007
Going to be in Calgary sometime this week
After suffering through jetlag, witnessing an Algerian get beaten to the ground while his wife and 3-yr old son watched on crying while hundreds of travellers and their children watched on, by the Gendarmerie at the airport and getting kicked in the gut by life, I will be hopping on a plane sometime this week.
Haven't bought the ticket yet but I'll be in Calgary I'm thinking until the 12th at the latest as I have training from FIFA on the 13th.
Not too keen to spend (what I think will be) 900$ for a one and a half-week trip. Why can't we just have the TGV? Seriously. I'm pretty sure I'd only end up spending...300$ or something even at the last minute.
Please, when I get to Calgary, everyone book up all my free days with unnecessary go-to-café time. I don't want to deal with any of this at all right now. (You'll see me again in August) Seriously, what summer break?
I also have a strange desire for croissant with jam, yoghurt and juice for breakfast.
Haven't bought the ticket yet but I'll be in Calgary I'm thinking until the 12th at the latest as I have training from FIFA on the 13th.
Not too keen to spend (what I think will be) 900$ for a one and a half-week trip. Why can't we just have the TGV? Seriously. I'm pretty sure I'd only end up spending...300$ or something even at the last minute.
Please, when I get to Calgary, everyone book up all my free days with unnecessary go-to-café time. I don't want to deal with any of this at all right now. (You'll see me again in August) Seriously, what summer break?
I also have a strange desire for croissant with jam, yoghurt and juice for breakfast.
mardi, mai 29, 2007
Back in Canada
After having dealt with the evil and mean incarnate that is the Customs office after having forgotten to pick up my second bag. (I got to evil eye from this one woman; the AF lady who got my bag was so, so nice though) I am back.
I had the best last two days of my trip ever though, when I went to the Olympique Lyonnais café and watched their final game of the season there--alone, duh-- against Nantes which they won 3-1. Greatest experience ever, though the next bit beats it by a 1000 miles.
There were celebrations held in Place des Terraux, a square located in front of City Hall beside the Fine Arts museum. Realizing I couldn't stay for long, I walked to the other side of City Hall to catch the metro back (later learning that metro service was extended until 1:30am) and noticed the back side was barricaded and remembered that the players were coming with the Ligue 1 trophy they'd won for the 6th time in a row in a while. So we waited in the rain for 2hrs (I had a lovely chat with an elderly lady) and after listening to brazillian music, a brass quartet play a marching version of Samba (by Bond) and city officials walk into the building, we saw the players' bus slowly pull in.
Then, we could see the trophy (my lord is it big) and Gerard Houllier the coach, who announced his retirement the day before the match, with it. Then one by one, the players got off and it was something. Never seen professional athletes that close before from a sport I've played for 10 years. Ever. I saw Cris, Malouda (who got a loud cheer for his two goals--he like poked his head out curiously and then waved), Juninho (!), Govou, Diarra, Squillaci, Wiltord, Abidal (!!), Toulalan, Caçapa who was retiring had helped the club win the 6 titles, Fred (I think), a bunch of other players and finally Coupet whom everyone cheered for big time.
The match was partly delayed because some fans had lit flares (which are, btw, banned I might add) and the wind was going down towards the field so the whole field was engulfed in smoke for a bit. They resumed the match and at the end during the presentation of the trophy, fans ran onto the field and the stage where the players were, the fans were being held back by a human wall about 6-7ft away. It was such an experience to actually see the players get off the bus and such. I was so happy that I cried on my way back to the residence.
After all that I had to miss the players going ontop of the balcony on the front of the City Hall with the trophy and catch the metro home as I had to transfer lines.
So now I'm back, jetlagged and got a lovely swift hit in the gut by life reminding that now I am no longer on vacation and must deal with everything that I had put (on purpose, duh) on the backburner.
In other news, I may unwillingly be forced back to Calgary very soon as many people who want my monnies and want to burden me with complicated information to help dad request my presence and note that it is imperative I be there. However, due to volunteering commitments at the World Cup in the host city I chose (Ottawa) I can't be there long....actually, I might only be there for less than a week as I believe I have mandatory training from FIFA (silly FIFA...) on the 17th...oh well, if I'm going, I guess it'll have to be soon then.
I had the best last two days of my trip ever though, when I went to the Olympique Lyonnais café and watched their final game of the season there--alone, duh-- against Nantes which they won 3-1. Greatest experience ever, though the next bit beats it by a 1000 miles.
There were celebrations held in Place des Terraux, a square located in front of City Hall beside the Fine Arts museum. Realizing I couldn't stay for long, I walked to the other side of City Hall to catch the metro back (later learning that metro service was extended until 1:30am) and noticed the back side was barricaded and remembered that the players were coming with the Ligue 1 trophy they'd won for the 6th time in a row in a while. So we waited in the rain for 2hrs (I had a lovely chat with an elderly lady) and after listening to brazillian music, a brass quartet play a marching version of Samba (by Bond) and city officials walk into the building, we saw the players' bus slowly pull in.
Then, we could see the trophy (my lord is it big) and Gerard Houllier the coach, who announced his retirement the day before the match, with it. Then one by one, the players got off and it was something. Never seen professional athletes that close before from a sport I've played for 10 years. Ever. I saw Cris, Malouda (who got a loud cheer for his two goals--he like poked his head out curiously and then waved), Juninho (!), Govou, Diarra, Squillaci, Wiltord, Abidal (!!), Toulalan, Caçapa who was retiring had helped the club win the 6 titles, Fred (I think), a bunch of other players and finally Coupet whom everyone cheered for big time.
The match was partly delayed because some fans had lit flares (which are, btw, banned I might add) and the wind was going down towards the field so the whole field was engulfed in smoke for a bit. They resumed the match and at the end during the presentation of the trophy, fans ran onto the field and the stage where the players were, the fans were being held back by a human wall about 6-7ft away. It was such an experience to actually see the players get off the bus and such. I was so happy that I cried on my way back to the residence.
After all that I had to miss the players going ontop of the balcony on the front of the City Hall with the trophy and catch the metro home as I had to transfer lines.
So now I'm back, jetlagged and got a lovely swift hit in the gut by life reminding that now I am no longer on vacation and must deal with everything that I had put (on purpose, duh) on the backburner.
In other news, I may unwillingly be forced back to Calgary very soon as many people who want my monnies and want to burden me with complicated information to help dad request my presence and note that it is imperative I be there. However, due to volunteering commitments at the World Cup in the host city I chose (Ottawa) I can't be there long....actually, I might only be there for less than a week as I believe I have mandatory training from FIFA (silly FIFA...) on the 17th...oh well, if I'm going, I guess it'll have to be soon then.
lundi, mai 14, 2007
I'm here in Lyon, alive after one week (barring the crazy homeless and sketchy types on our side streets), homesick and mlehh.
Oh and hating my FLS homework. I could definitely do without a good deal of the assignments we have. (I'm working on the vocab which is taking a while since she, the prof from the UofO with us, wants a whole bunch of specifics and such and it's a bit too much what with all the other assignments she's given us and the big three projects we have for the Lyon II professors)
So far, my French has died more times than I'm comfortable with, I go out on my own (sometimes go out with others but not really), have been followed by homeless types, gotten into "Montreal isn't the dirtiest city on Earth and Ottawa isn't the cleanest and has more homeless people wandering about downtown than you can count" debates with one person (didn't really escalate but she's anti-Montreal and I ended it there and then--she refused to tell me what she found made Montreal dirty), have had deep conversations with women in their late-60s about childhood, walked more than I ever have in a single day, explored the métro and tramway system, procrastinated (though not really), been homesick, scared, somewhat overwhelmed with brief periods of emo and have been near more Olympique Lyonnais soccer merchandise than you can shake a stick at (might be getting a long-sleeved t-shirt)
Oh and have seen the word: (forgive me for using it but oh well) nègre twice. One as graffiti on some guy's car, and another time today at a mall as part of the name of a café.
And through all of this, I forgot it was Mother's Day yesterday. But that's okay, May is a month filled with terrible days I wish never happened the way they had. Second worst month after December with November and January in tow. Notably grad.
At risk of this degenerating into an angsty post, Lyon has been great so far. Some people are nice, and some aren't. I've found stores that I want to go to again, but have to pay in cash as my card doesn't work (or I haven't found stores that I would go to that accept Cirrus/Maestro cards). Professors at Lyon II are amazing so far, FLS prof from the UofO, not so much.
At the end of this week, I'm going to Paris for the weekend. Should be fun.
Back to 20-word vocabulary list with quoted sentences, specific contexts, definitions and conjugations if they're verbs that was due on Sunday for FLS
Oh and hating my FLS homework. I could definitely do without a good deal of the assignments we have. (I'm working on the vocab which is taking a while since she, the prof from the UofO with us, wants a whole bunch of specifics and such and it's a bit too much what with all the other assignments she's given us and the big three projects we have for the Lyon II professors)
So far, my French has died more times than I'm comfortable with, I go out on my own (sometimes go out with others but not really), have been followed by homeless types, gotten into "Montreal isn't the dirtiest city on Earth and Ottawa isn't the cleanest and has more homeless people wandering about downtown than you can count" debates with one person (didn't really escalate but she's anti-Montreal and I ended it there and then--she refused to tell me what she found made Montreal dirty), have had deep conversations with women in their late-60s about childhood, walked more than I ever have in a single day, explored the métro and tramway system, procrastinated (though not really), been homesick, scared, somewhat overwhelmed with brief periods of emo and have been near more Olympique Lyonnais soccer merchandise than you can shake a stick at (might be getting a long-sleeved t-shirt)
Oh and have seen the word: (forgive me for using it but oh well) nègre twice. One as graffiti on some guy's car, and another time today at a mall as part of the name of a café.
And through all of this, I forgot it was Mother's Day yesterday. But that's okay, May is a month filled with terrible days I wish never happened the way they had. Second worst month after December with November and January in tow. Notably grad.
At risk of this degenerating into an angsty post, Lyon has been great so far. Some people are nice, and some aren't. I've found stores that I want to go to again, but have to pay in cash as my card doesn't work (or I haven't found stores that I would go to that accept Cirrus/Maestro cards). Professors at Lyon II are amazing so far, FLS prof from the UofO, not so much.
At the end of this week, I'm going to Paris for the weekend. Should be fun.
Back to 20-word vocabulary list with quoted sentences, specific contexts, definitions and conjugations if they're verbs that was due on Sunday for FLS
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