Pêle-Mêle
I received a number of comments (public and private) about my last blog entry (Tragedy in Montreal). Thank you to everybody who took the time out to read it and respond to it. I am very appreciative of your feedback and contributions.
Since my entry, the impact of the Dawson College shooting continues to reverberate through the community. They have arrested a 15-year-old Québecer for threatening to do a similar shoot-out on his internet blog, published on the same site that the Dawson murderer used. Also, a journalist for the Globe and Mail published a hypothesis that killers executing shoot-outs in Montreal colleges and universities (3 since 1989) were "marginalized" by a community dominated by Québec francophone seperatists. This caused an uproar and stimulated responses from the whole nation, including from our conservatist prime minister, who basically accused the journalist (an anglophone Chinese Montrealer) of being prejudice against Québec culture.
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These past few weeks have passed by very quickly. I've been deliberately keeping myself busy with work, hobbies, and friends so that I don't spend too much time sitting at home alone driving myself crazy. This is also part of my process of rebuilding my Canadian life.
I met up with Sania a few times. I wanted to post her pic so that you all know who I'm referring to in my future stories. We've been sticking together for years now, since I first came to Montreal. We first got to know eachother when we worked on class projects together ("les polymères naturels", I still remember!). Last year, though, she abandoned Polytechnique to pursue her PhD at McGill, the top-notch University in Canada. Now we work in the same field! Sania is doing really great - her fiancé is coming back to Canada after a year of being abroad. She is as gorgeous as ever! Thanks, Sania, for saving me from the brink of insanity this past while!
Cam and I have been trying to have some fun together in the evenings. We don't actually see eachother very much since his work schedule at the Italian restaurant is exactly opposite to my own. We did manage to eat delicious sushi one evening and go bowling another evening. I missed bowling - haven't done that in a long while! Apparently they disourage throwing the balls around in the hall.
I made a resolution a while ago to start up my hobbies again when I returned to Canada. I realised when I was away that I've been neglecting my passions and hobbies for two years now. I like to say that the reason for this was to concentrate really hard on my research, but I'm not sure to what extent this is true. Maaike (in Holland) had a particular impact on me, by encouraging me to start singing again and being a role model for me as I witness her taking piano lessons and take cycling adventures across Vietnam.
So, last weekend, I enthusiastically auditioned for three different a cappella vocal groups associated with McGill University (the cream of the crop for music!). I thought that I did really well, and got a lot of positive feedback from the "judging panels" (I had to improvise Happy Birthday and Itsy Bitsy Spider, which brought me back to my singing telegram days!). But, in the end, I learned that I didn't even make it to callbacks - apparently almost 200 people auditioned for each group, and only about a dozen made it to callbacks. I was super disappointed to learn that I wasn't as good as I hoped I was, and I literally felt my bubble of confidence burst.
On the other hand, I am in two other groups this semester, both of which I'm paying to be members of so they can't really reject me. One is the Choeur en Jazz Montréal, an amateur vocal jazz group whose core is comprised of ex-members of SacaJazz, a group that I was in a few years ago but no longer exists. I am by far the youngest member and one of the only two anglophones, so I get to teach the francophones how to pronounce lyrics in English. The conductor that we hired this year, Philippe Bourque, is fantastic and I really enjoy working with him. The other group is an improvisation course, where we will be put into combos of 4 to 6, instruments and voice together. Our director, Jacques Carrier, is willing to work with me, not only with my singing skills, but also my piano! I've always wanted to learn jazz piano properly, and this is much more economical than taking private lessons! A real bonus there!
Other hobbies lined up for me are more career-related, though I consider them tp be fun since I actually like what I'm doing for a living. Throughout the school year, I'll be volunteering in a program called Éclair de Sciences. I'll be working as a consultant for elementary school teachers to help them with research and project themes in Science and Technology. During my training session, I learned that, since 2001, Québec has been completely reforming the school system. Instead of teaching the kids subjects like math, grammar, etc, the class works on a 2-year project that integrates all subjects in a practical, hands-on manner. They threw away traditional grading systems and replaced them with evaluations of their general competency (vs skills). When I intially learned this, I was frankly surprised. Then I realised how daring and exciting this approach is (a typical avant-garde yet positive step forward for Québec). I think it can really work in a world of kids saturated with facts from the internet. After all, I sailed through elementary and high school without learning any long-lasting skills, yet I always got top grades, if only because I learned to beat the school system with a sort of ape-like attitude (memorizing stuff, conforming to traditional writing patterns, etc).
I'll also be running for vice-president of the Biomedical Engineering Student Committee at school (I'll let you know if I get elected) and I'm considering getting involved in Engineering Without Borders, doing fundraising or something in order to reduce world poverty. How noble...
Work is keeping me busy during the weekdays (and evenings and weekends...). I'm simultaneously creating a powerpoint presentation, a poster presentation, writing an article, and pulling together a progress report. It's all supposed to be finished before I leave for Europe at the beginning of October, and I'm working like a dog to make sure I reach this goal.
Most recently, I went to a goodbye party for Caroline, a post-doc from France who's been in our lab for almost 2 years. It was fun to go out with the lab people for a social event, as this is a rare occurence in our group. Caroline was very sad, and I understand why. I warned her about reverse culture shock, speaking from experience. The morning after the party, I was the only one (among those who went out) that made it to work. I felt very hardcore! I guess my 24-hour energy training in Groningen came in handy after all!
Since my entry, the impact of the Dawson College shooting continues to reverberate through the community. They have arrested a 15-year-old Québecer for threatening to do a similar shoot-out on his internet blog, published on the same site that the Dawson murderer used. Also, a journalist for the Globe and Mail published a hypothesis that killers executing shoot-outs in Montreal colleges and universities (3 since 1989) were "marginalized" by a community dominated by Québec francophone seperatists. This caused an uproar and stimulated responses from the whole nation, including from our conservatist prime minister, who basically accused the journalist (an anglophone Chinese Montrealer) of being prejudice against Québec culture.
************************************************
These past few weeks have passed by very quickly. I've been deliberately keeping myself busy with work, hobbies, and friends so that I don't spend too much time sitting at home alone driving myself crazy. This is also part of my process of rebuilding my Canadian life.
I met up with Sania a few times. I wanted to post her pic so that you all know who I'm referring to in my future stories. We've been sticking together for years now, since I first came to Montreal. We first got to know eachother when we worked on class projects together ("les polymères naturels", I still remember!). Last year, though, she abandoned Polytechnique to pursue her PhD at McGill, the top-notch University in Canada. Now we work in the same field! Sania is doing really great - her fiancé is coming back to Canada after a year of being abroad. She is as gorgeous as ever! Thanks, Sania, for saving me from the brink of insanity this past while!
Cam and I have been trying to have some fun together in the evenings. We don't actually see eachother very much since his work schedule at the Italian restaurant is exactly opposite to my own. We did manage to eat delicious sushi one evening and go bowling another evening. I missed bowling - haven't done that in a long while! Apparently they disourage throwing the balls around in the hall.I made a resolution a while ago to start up my hobbies again when I returned to Canada. I realised when I was away that I've been neglecting my passions and hobbies for two years now. I like to say that the reason for this was to concentrate really hard on my research, but I'm not sure to what extent this is true. Maaike (in Holland) had a particular impact on me, by encouraging me to start singing again and being a role model for me as I witness her taking piano lessons and take cycling adventures across Vietnam.
So, last weekend, I enthusiastically auditioned for three different a cappella vocal groups associated with McGill University (the cream of the crop for music!). I thought that I did really well, and got a lot of positive feedback from the "judging panels" (I had to improvise Happy Birthday and Itsy Bitsy Spider, which brought me back to my singing telegram days!). But, in the end, I learned that I didn't even make it to callbacks - apparently almost 200 people auditioned for each group, and only about a dozen made it to callbacks. I was super disappointed to learn that I wasn't as good as I hoped I was, and I literally felt my bubble of confidence burst.
On the other hand, I am in two other groups this semester, both of which I'm paying to be members of so they can't really reject me. One is the Choeur en Jazz Montréal, an amateur vocal jazz group whose core is comprised of ex-members of SacaJazz, a group that I was in a few years ago but no longer exists. I am by far the youngest member and one of the only two anglophones, so I get to teach the francophones how to pronounce lyrics in English. The conductor that we hired this year, Philippe Bourque, is fantastic and I really enjoy working with him. The other group is an improvisation course, where we will be put into combos of 4 to 6, instruments and voice together. Our director, Jacques Carrier, is willing to work with me, not only with my singing skills, but also my piano! I've always wanted to learn jazz piano properly, and this is much more economical than taking private lessons! A real bonus there!
Other hobbies lined up for me are more career-related, though I consider them tp be fun since I actually like what I'm doing for a living. Throughout the school year, I'll be volunteering in a program called Éclair de Sciences. I'll be working as a consultant for elementary school teachers to help them with research and project themes in Science and Technology. During my training session, I learned that, since 2001, Québec has been completely reforming the school system. Instead of teaching the kids subjects like math, grammar, etc, the class works on a 2-year project that integrates all subjects in a practical, hands-on manner. They threw away traditional grading systems and replaced them with evaluations of their general competency (vs skills). When I intially learned this, I was frankly surprised. Then I realised how daring and exciting this approach is (a typical avant-garde yet positive step forward for Québec). I think it can really work in a world of kids saturated with facts from the internet. After all, I sailed through elementary and high school without learning any long-lasting skills, yet I always got top grades, if only because I learned to beat the school system with a sort of ape-like attitude (memorizing stuff, conforming to traditional writing patterns, etc).
I'll also be running for vice-president of the Biomedical Engineering Student Committee at school (I'll let you know if I get elected) and I'm considering getting involved in Engineering Without Borders, doing fundraising or something in order to reduce world poverty. How noble...
Work is keeping me busy during the weekdays (and evenings and weekends...). I'm simultaneously creating a powerpoint presentation, a poster presentation, writing an article, and pulling together a progress report. It's all supposed to be finished before I leave for Europe at the beginning of October, and I'm working like a dog to make sure I reach this goal.
Most recently, I went to a goodbye party for Caroline, a post-doc from France who's been in our lab for almost 2 years. It was fun to go out with the lab people for a social event, as this is a rare occurence in our group. Caroline was very sad, and I understand why. I warned her about reverse culture shock, speaking from experience. The morning after the party, I was the only one (among those who went out) that made it to work. I felt very hardcore! I guess my 24-hour energy training in Groningen came in handy after all!
posted by Susan Tam at 9/23/2006
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