Answers

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote here, but school is simply hectic and having to write reading journals in a class is pretty much time consuming (the amount of reading is insane, at least I’m not used to it being a science student). Anyways, still have few essays to write, some are going to be fun and others are going to be painful. However, I do have good news that I wanted to share with you guys. And I will be back later in the month.

This week, I learned that I have been accepted to do a Master in Civil Engineering and the week before I got an offer to do one in Geography (I also applied for a certificate as I was very scared of not getting in)… I sat down with myself on Wednesday night and decided that opting for engineering would be the best for me… I did not get an entrance scholarship for the eng. degree but I don’t really mind since I know I will probably like it much better. It was a hard decision to make knowing that I could have gotten over 14,000$/year from some department… but still, I thought about the long run and engineering wins. I’ve been taking a bunch of courses related to issues with water and water in different location on Earth (general courses, hydrogeology, water in rivers, in lakes, in wetlands… a lot). And engineering seems to be a logical route, plus the option I chose is centered towards the environment, which will be fun.

I don’t fully realize it know, I don’t realize that I’ve been accepted where I most wanted to go… I guess that it will hit me at one point… I learned it right after my final oral presentation in a “cartography” class (geographic information systems/science), the teacher just told me that we did a great job and then I went to check my file and here it was: accepted.

Plus, it means that I won’t be doing some preparatory work for a Master and that I can accept a research assistant position with one of my profs… so I have a summer job and it was soooo easy to get; the teacher knows me quite well (he taught me 4 courses). It should be a very fun summer… will be working in a marsh and maybe on a reservoir (+ the less fun stuff: lab work). He was so happy for me when I told him I got in (he wrote a reference letter for me, so he knew about the application) and he was happy that I accepted the job... so was I.

Anyways, it was just generally a great week… now I have to tell my roommate that I still move (she found someone, finally!!!) but that I’ll stay in Montreal… it’s gonna be much better for me, more expensive but it will worth it.

How was your week?

Hectic time of the year

This is how I feel due to the fact that I have a gazillion things to do this week... can't wait for this semester to be over... Mostly because I'm taking an advanced class in Environment and it's more like philosophy and environment... which means a lot of readings, a reading journal to write twice a week and did I mention the readings? We are currently reading a book by Polanyi (The Great Transformation), and I'm not thrilled by the idea of having to discuss this in class tomorrow and basically having to finish the book within the next 16 days.
Yes, the picture is the snowstorm that hit Montreal last week.


Can't wait for the calm after the storm, which is going to be this weekend more or less, or the real calm will come at the end of February during reading week... taken this Sunday while going to the grocery store.

Challenges

I never thought that it would be that hard to write letters to apply for grad school and research proposal. But after one weekend of doing that and a bunch of other things, I think that I’m done, well, I’ll still have to apply to one place before March 1st but it will be a piece of cake this time. And I also realized that it was the first time in the last three year that I had to write something really important in French, it was hard. It seems that my brain is now a weird mix of French and English!

What seemed to have made writings these letters even harder is that I had the feeling that January blues were coming this year again, plus the bunch of questions that I’m currently asking myself and the scary unknown. All of these together have made me feel a bit, I don’t know how to say it but sad and scared at the same time. But I’m lucky since I have good friends and that they know me quite well. Saturday night one of my best friends (if not my best friend) and I went for diner at a new Asian restaurant. It was really good and then she thought that some chocolate might be a good idea for me. So we went to the best place in Montreal for chocolate lovers, a restaurant where there is chocolate in basically everything I would say. After a good coffee (espresso and chocolate) and a brownie I started to think that those January blues were not going to get me this year. And this morning one of my good friends, called me and said that he would be at my place in few minutes. I guessed that he sensed that things were not that right when we talked earlier this week and that having a good chat might help. It did help, just talking about our fears and what is bothering us can make a huge difference. And sometimes, a long hug also makes things better. He is one of my friends with whom I have that feeling that I can talk about everything and I like knowing that we can count on each other when things get a little bit rougher.

The last challenge of the day was to tell my roommate that I might leave in July but chances are pretty high that I will. I’m applying for grad school in Montreal and Quebec City… and don’t know where I’ll go. I felt that it wasn’t right to tell her that we should resign our lease together, not knowing what I’ll do next year. She wasn’t really thrilled, but I know that being honest with her (and now) can pay off. She still has plenty of time to find a new roommate for our awesome apartment. And I’m starting to think that leaving in my own place, not shared with a roommate would also be really great; L and I don’t fight and have tremendous respect for each other but still, I’d like to have my own place.

And I'll try to post a bit more often, but this Environmental Philosophy class is keeping me way too busy! Too many readings to do!

Can’t things stay like this forever?

I’m not really looking forward for next year; for various reasons, but one in particular that might seem a bit silly but in reality isn’t. In the last year and a half, I’ve made friends, good friends actually, and comes the end of this semester we’ll all be doing something new. Some are staying in Montreal, others are planning to go to grad school outside the province and others are going to get a job. It’s kinda sad that it might come to an end sooner than we thought. Those are people that know me and that I know that I can count on. They’re the friends that make it really fun to just go out to a pub, drink beer and just talk and laugh. Or with whom we go play hockey, just like we did over the weekend. We went to Parc Lafontaine (a huge park in Montreal) and joined people that were already playing; it seems to me that it’s a very Canadian thing to do. I must admit that I have bruises on my knees cuz I felt a bit but it was so much fun. So was drinking hot chocolate at L’s place after it.

At the same time, I’m looking forward for next year since, things might change a lot since I might go to another school, meet new people and experience new things. But this feeling of being at home when I’m at school is definitely going to change. Such as walking in the lounge around lunch time, sitting on one of those red couches, eating lunch and enjoying it because people in the program know each other quite well and some times it feels like it’s one big family. Sadly, a bunch of them are going to graduate in May, and so will I.

By the way, I’m so lost with what is going to happen for me next year; I ran into my subway buddy from my old job the other day and he started to ask questions about what I want to do next year and what are my goals… he asked few questions; I talked with profs about grad school and they made me think about things I didn’t thought of, but I’m now asking myself a gazillion questions.

Back?

I don’t think that I could even say that I was a blogger for the last few (have to admit it) months. School took over I guess, and all those never ending assignments (and those that required good writing skills were more of a struggle for me). But now, this semester is almost over… one final to go and a final paper to write; and I’m so not motivated… Even if it was a hectic semester, filled with field trips in the first month (3 weekends, back to back), I think that I enjoyed it (and even with the crappy schedule that I had).

I can barely believe that at the end of the next semester, I’ll be graduating… it’s hard to imagine. But at the same time, it is extremely scary. I’ve been looking at grad schools, and if there’s one thing that I hate in science is that in order to be accepted for your master, quite often you have to bring your own money… and those scholarships can be pretty hard to get. I’ve talked to few teachers in my fields of interest, will do more of it when this semester will be over… but I’m starting to seriously think about doing a master in engineering, even if it means doing one more year since I did not take advanced calculus in university… or do a non-thesis master…

I can’t promise that I’ll write a lot here in the upcoming months, but I’ll try, because I realized that I missed it. I went to see Stars for my birthday (and loved it) and at the end of the concert, I thought about how I’d like to share that with you guys. (It was so good, I just loved it and would like to see them live again) I hope that I’ll have time to write… I’ll try to take the time to do so.

Rain and NYC but not together

Rain would be the word that I would be if one asked me how the summer has been so far. Rain, rain and even more rain oh and coldish, I mean, not really hot. However, I have to admit that I managed to get away from the intense rain: I drive a lot for work and most of the time, I ended up going to places where it was not raining while it was pouring rain in Montreal. It's great when I'm working and that I am not doing inspections (driving in the rain is not my favourite thing): it doesn't feel really bad to be in an office when the weaher is not nice outside. But I have to say that this summer at the office has been amazingly different and I don't know if it's in a good or in a bad way. It might not help that the people working at the office have changed: a lot left and there are a few new ones.

I also spent few days in the States during the weekend: we went to see my grandma's sister and her family. We spent Saturday in Long Island, it was raining for a good part of the day but at least it was sunny in late afternoon: the house was sort of crowded. My cousin was sort of surprised to see that my sister and I could actually speak English. Then on Sunday, we went to Manhattan and we walked around Central Park and in Upper West Side. It's a part of Manhattan where I never went to and it was quite fun. We also went to Times Square after diner and that was the coolest part of the day, I wished that we could have spent a bit more time there, but going there was great. I managed to take few good shots, a lot more have been posted on my Facebook page.



And for this rainy weekend, I'm going to spend few days at home, as summer comes to an end really soon and it might become a bit hard to go home. Plus most, if not almost all my friends, are outside the city this weekend, so it can be sort of boring (they've been outside Montreal during lots of weekends)... despite the long bus ride, it should be good to spend a bit of time at home.

Driving a Prius

Have you ever tried one? Saw the "keys"? Tried to start it?

On Thursday, I spent the day away from the office, going to a bunch of places for work. When I came back, in the visitor parking lot, I notied one Prius with the Quebec's stickers on it, and the only nearby office that I know that has one is the one in Southern Laurentians. I walked into the office and ran into my subway buddy from last year, who moved to the Southern Laurentians office in mid-July. He was leaving and asked me if I saw "his" car, and if I wanted to try it as he had a little challenge for me: Try to start it and drive it... I put my files on my desk and the keys of my "so nice Ford Focus", told my partner that I was done for the day and left.

Next to the car, S put the "key" in my hand and said, "bring us to the next subway station, I don't have enough time to bring you to your place, but want to see how you'll do with this car". The keys that he gave me are not real keys: a little black box. I unlocked the doors and sat in the car... is there a key in the little box, how does this thing work?... he sat next time with this huge smile on his face and said "Figure it out by yourself" I saw a little hole in which the box fits, he did and I saw two little green lights next to it... but still, can't turn it like "normal" keys. I looked at around, and after what seemed like an eternity, saw a power button (just like on your tv or laptop!) and pressed it. The screen went on and all the lights in the car... but still, when I tried to put it on park: could not work... Subway buddy was happy to see me struggling, as it meant that he was not the only one having trouble with it. I pushed the button again, and bingo! And to put it on Park, you guessed it, you just press on the P button... it's a sweet car much better than the Honda civc hybrid that my parents own.

I never thought that I would start a car by pressing a car and using a car being mostly powered by electricity if not only. But, I felt so dumb for not being able to start to car at first, at least it was a friend, not my boss!

Sir Paul

Right, I went to Quebec City for the weekend with my mom and sister and we went to see Paul McCartney on Les Plaines d'Abraham... 250,000 people, it was simply insane. The wait was not too bad as we did not get there super early. We thought that we would have to be at the back since we were not in the first ones to get there. We managed to get a "place" "close" to the stage, in the area that they called A: we could see the stage and the people on it and the giant screen that was installed on the left. Sure, they were really small on that huge stage, but even if I'm kinda small, I managed to see them.


The Stills opened the show, they were really great despite some sound problem. I really enjoyed their part; much better thant Pascale Picard, the girls who played right before McCartney. It might not help that I don't really love what she does.

I've never been a huge Beattles fan but, it seemed to be the once in a lifetime type of thing and my mom offered to go. I do not regret going! I was so glad to see him play songs such as Hey Jude, Let it be, Sgt. Peppers, Give Peace a Chance, Live and Let Die, Yesterday as those are the ones that I know quite well. People around us kept singing the whole time, those guys (in their fifties) seemed to enjoy the shoe quite a lot. It was funny to see people from different generations.

I'm sure that you've heard quite a lot abou the show in the news. For videos, YouTube it, you'll find a lot!


Oh and Saturday, we went to see the Image Mill, which is a forty minutes visual and audio production projected against the grain silos in the Port of Québec. The concrete structure becomes a narrator that tells the tale of Québec City's 400 years of history.

It consists in a sort of animated mosaic that, moving from engravings to paintings and from photos to videos, creates an impressionistic portrait of the city over time. The work consists of four movements corresponding to the city’s four centuries of history: waterways, the age of exploration and discovery; road building, clearing and developing the land; the railroad and industrial expansion; and finally, the age of air travel and the development of communications.

"from: monquebec2008.sympatico.msn.ca"

This was also pretty cool, different kind than the Pauln McCartney concert! But it was really great to see Québec's history being unfold on this giant screen; no words were needed to understand how things changed in 400 years, pictures and music was enough and it was quite powerful.

Anyways, this weekend is going to be less busy; might go to see the Fireworks on Saturday at LaRonde (nearby) and then we're going to New York City the first weekend of August... busy summer!

The White Screen

I've been trying to write something coherant for the last hour or so, and after few lines I realize that it's not really good or that things don't make sense... it's been a long time since the last post (very few posts this year I should say). I'm moving tomorrow and will only get internet back on Friday, until then I'll only have access at work, but it means no Facebook, nor Blogger.

In the next posts I'll post a summer reading list (a bit late, but it's never too late for that I guess) and a list of places where I want to go this summer. I won't have a lot of days off, so I'll try to do things on weekends and discover Montreal and its surroundings. I'm living here and now know the city but there are so many thigs to do in the summer that i should not be bored.