Scared sacred

I watched a movie tonight called "Scared sacred". It's a documentary. A Canadian man travel around the world in the search where humans collided to form some kind of a sacred place of the fragility of the humanity. He presents, with a certain amateur look, the testimony of some people that they have living the catastrophes in Bhopal, Israel, Afghanistan, New York, Cambodia, Sarajevo, etc. I had high expectation when I read the description but at the end I was mostly disappointed. I must said that I was pretty tired and I do some snap on the movie. In my point of view, it was far too long. Also, it doesn't bring something new. All of these subjects have already being told in other movies, and often with more depth. I finally understand why I never heard about this movie before.

I should go in Vancouver on next weekend. It's one of my last chance.

Oh what a day

Thanks to my Spanish friends who transgress the law "speak English only" when I was sitting at their table. I sang a song in the front of the class. I sang an old Leonard Cohen's tune that length exactly one minute (but I was nervous so it length was much less than that). And those Mexicans folks doesn't even sang (they must do 2 songs tomorrow...).

Moreover, the teacher spotted me because I doesn't done one of my homework (I doesn't know that it was an exercise). Of course, she will remove me some points.

I've done my oral presentation in the next class. I choose to talk about William the Conqueror whom wasn't known by most of the students. I used some of the pictures I had taken in Normandy and Britain. I mostly improvised, so it wasn't so good (I've put a foot in my mouth more than once). But the teacher was impressed by my keynote. She correct me on my verb tense, on the 'th' and 'h' pronunciation (I'm not always careful about it).

In the afternoon, I've take (don't laugh please) an line dancing class. Oh boy!!! But like proverb say, in the West you do like the Westerners. So I used to dance on Shania Twain song like the cowboys. Well, I've tried because I'm not very good in this kind of dance. The only good point is that they was plenty of young pretty woman in the class. ;-)

On top of that, I've broke the heart of a young lady in the evening. Well, I've finished to broke it all like an idiot. I would have prefer that she doesn't care about me. It's always difficult this kind of situation. But life isn't a rose garden.

Kayak

The day start early, 5:00am, because I wanted to see the sunrise on the rockies. It does not work as expected. The sun rise behind trees and the Mounties were in clouds. But it was still quite nice to be near the ocean, rocked by the sound of the waves.

Yesterday I was starting to think : "What have you done ? It's stupid to go kayaking when you swim like a rock". So I was a little bit nervous and I don't really want to go kayaking in the afternoon. Above all, it was windy (so wavy too). We go to the Victoria harbor. No so a great place to do kayak, but it was protected of the ocean. We do about 2 hours around the lagoon in which the harbor come out. I was great. But I haven't the good technique so I finished mostly wet. My wallet is still drying ;-).

Butchart Gardens

I've heard a lot about these gardens, even since I was in Quebec. There suppose to be one of the finest attraction of the Victoria area. So I subscribed blindly to this activity. I was a little bit disappointed. I must said that it's not the best time of the year to visit theses gardens. Most of the flower are not at their full blossom. But my expectation was much higher than that. It's a private attraction and we feel it. There are four different gardens that we cross when we follow the path. The most famous is the Sunken garden, a garden that we discover from an higher point of view. But the garden that I prefer was the Japanese. I concede that the gardens are well organize. Even so, I saw better gardens. For example, the Jardin des Plantes in Caen was nicer and the Montreal's Botanical Garden is much bigger and interesting than the Butchart Gardens. Worst of all is that the entrance fees are very high, 21$.

I will have seen it.

I'm a Redneck

On the afternoon, we do a "Discover BC" activity. We take a bus to Thetis Park where there's a lake and a beach. It's pretty hot these days, so it's a good thing. But I'm not a beach-type guy, so I do some trekking in the wood around the lake. The trails aren't very well identified so I wander in the wood without knowing where I'm going. I was looking for some new plants and trees that doesn't exist in the east part of the country. This wood was in a transitional state. But due to human activity, it wasn't so interesting; we heard the highway that pass nearby. But there was some nice trees and moss. I get out of the wood in a flashy and luxurious brand new suburb. I follow the road until I find another entrance to the park. I'm was getting nervous because I doesn't how long it would take to go back. I should be there at 4:15pm. I known approximately the direction of the beach where the others are. I arrived just in time to catch the returning bus.

I've got a sunburn on the nape of my neck. So I'm a redneck... ;-)

Beach party

I do an oral presentation in the first class. It was a little bit short. And I still don't get in the English grammar. In the second class, we have done a listening exercise. The text was about the computer crimes and the hacker. So I explain some things to the teachers and my classmates. And I solved theirs problems at the computer labs. Even if the teacher said that we must don't go on the Internet, some folks disobey and I cause problems with the local network. I hate when people don't do what they have been told and after they say that computers never works well.

In the afternoon, we finish the photo rally. We must glue our photos and tell a story with them. I think it's a little bit lame, but we done quite a good job.

In the evening, we've gone to the beach, a brand new one. I was very disappointed when I saw it. We must walk about 30 minutes to get there. The beach was small and rocky. We can't really bath ourselves because the water was full of seaweeds and sea wildlife. But we have some fun. It was sunny and quite hot. But it's when we go to the other beach that I was really amazed. We saw the Rockies in a distance and the water was pink and orange because of the sunset. It was quite nice.

Amazing race

I don't slept very well. I've got some trouble to do all my homework in time. We don't have so much spare time. In the first class, we listen an excerpt of the movie Canadian bacon from Michael Moore. It's a spoof about American and Canadian cultures. That's what we discuss these days in class. When we watch this movie made in 1995, it's quite amazing to see how much it looks like the actual American foreign politics.

In the afternoon, we do an amazing race. I was a volunteer to organize it. They made teams that must meet some points. At each point, the teamates must do some kind of a challenge. At my point, a member of the team must eat 20 peanuts with chopsticks! It was quite funny.

Japanese village

We've done a photo rally for the workshop this afternoon. I'm not quite sure it would give good result. I will prefer to do it by myself. For this rally, we must took twelve pictures that meet some requirements, like a picture of someone working at UVic. We got a disposable camera with 24 pictures left. Maybe we done some good one. We will see.

After the class, I go to downtown. I was a little bit disappointed because I was hoping to go to the Andrew Weil conference at the Royal Theatre on this friday. But the only tickets left is a the last row on the second floor. Furthermore, I went to the Chapter bookstore and they don't have so much interesting books. I met some girls on my way. They invites me to go supper with her at a Japanese restaurant called Japanese Village. I hesitated sometime because I know that it will be expensive, well too expensive for my budget. But finally I accept.

The restaurant was in a basement. We sit around a heating plate. The lights are dimmed. Every employee was Japanese. The decoration too was Japanese. We ate with chopstick. I don't really know how to handle them. But I make my way and I eat everything with them. It was delicious. A cook prepare the meals in front of us. For 20$, I've got a soup, a salad, rice, vegetables, teryaki salmon, shrimps, musherooms, soy sproots and a dessert. And I was the only man with four young pretty lady. I'm a lucky man ;-).

The return of the weekender

The tranquility of the weekend end with the return of everyone. They're all excited to tell their stories. They do their laundry. I was a little bit jealous to heard about the things they have done. I had liked to saw the giant trees in Tofino. Instead I've made my homework. I don't know why but I never have the time to do the things that I want. I was thinking that I could do some work here and I was hoping to read some books, but it seems that I would never had the time to do all these things. The time is running out and there's always more things to do each day.

Biking on Saltspring Island

I had heard sometime ago about an island on the West Coast where the islanders made their own money. Well, I just find that this island is Saltspring, an middle island nearby Vancouver Island. We leave UVic early (7:03) this Sunday morning and we catch the 14. But I can't find the bus stop of the 70. So we miss the bus. We wait for the next one in a small café we're we drink a coffee (the cafeteria doesn't open before 7:15, so we doesn't had taken breakfast). It was 8:35 when we finally leave Victoria in the bus 70.

We sit in the second level of this two floor bus and we enjoy the ride. We saw the coast, we cross Sidney, a pretty small town, and we arrive about an hour after at Schwartz Bay, the end of the road, where the BC Ferries leaves to Saltspring Island and to Vancouver. But we also miss the ferry so we must wait an hour. The ferry wasn't so big, like the one that cross Saguenay River on the North Coast. It takes 35 minutes to get at Saltspring Island.

It was like arriving on some small harbor in Newfoundland : forest everywhere and some bright color little house sitting on rock. But when we approach this houses, we are quite sure that we aren't at Newfoundland : It's look like hippies land, with organic stuff, old cars, campers and a chill out ambiance. We eat some sandwich at the small restaurant that looks like it was getting out of The Flintstones' Bedrocks. The woman that serves us speak french and obviously was coming from Quebec. She serve only vegetarian organic food in wood plates.

After lunch, we rent bikes and do some riding around the island. There's big hill along the way and we don't go far as I was hoping. So we just saw a small part of the island before coming back at UVic. But it was a quite funny day.

Saltspring Island

I don't know if Saltspring Island means that there's salt in this spring or it's because is piquency in a litteral form. I discover a small island, geared for tourism, but still a lot wild. The island is almost unbeleavable. There's many folks that still loves the '60s way. And some brand new one that have a modern way to do their returns to natural roots. Like this café where have taken our lunch. The woman that serves us speak french the Quebec's way. She sells only vegetarian and organic meals. We do some bicyling. It was too short and the weather wasn't so good. But we saw a little more of the BC and have some good times.

I think my expectation for the BC was too much high. I was thiking that I would be very impressed. Maybe the Rockies would dazzled me. But I don't saw them. I only see some nice road crossing forest or nearby the coast. But it could like some other places in Canada. The city, even Victoria, aren't so great. Of course, near Empress hotel and the legislative building. But the rest just look like any small town of the US, with a little canadian touch.

In the evening, I had watched Star Wars II-Attack of the clone for the first -and the last- time. This movie is so lame, stoopid, and kiddie. Lucas can't do better than the first trilogy. He copied himself, and do worst. He destroy the spirit and the quality of the first trilogy. The only thing that could be excited by this movie is some computers that have done the rendering job.

Hillside centre

Today, I went to the Hillside centre. It's a little shopping mail. There's a good sale at Sears. I bought some clothes, because the weather here isn't as I was expecting. My English is just functional. I can't hide that it's not my mother tongue language. I am still aware of the narrowness of my vocabulary. I hope I would improve myself in a few weeks.

At a bookstore, I bought two newspapers, The Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist, a local newspaper, for my homework and to improve my English. I was a little bite disappointed when I realize that these newspapers was published by the same company, Canwest. There's many articles that are the same in both of them. The front page of the Colonist talks about the brand new fire truck that View Royal bought. Also, there's an article about Vancouver Island marmots that would have pups soon. It's an endangered species that are really fragile. Only 32 lives in the wild. Maybe that if many marmots give birth this spring, the species would be safer.

It's very quiet today. A lot of people leaves for this long weekend. There's plenty of food at the cafeteria. They made spaghetti for supper. But they're too cooked that they aren't so good. We suppose to go to Saltspring Island tomorrow. Wait and see...

Japanese food and party night

It was quite a good day. I hadn't done my homework, so I wake up at 6:00am to do them. But first of all I look at my marks of the last semester. They aren't quite good. But I already know it because with the strike I get bored of all this stuff and I lost all my motivation. I just hope that they will give me my diploma.

I don't really like the English class. It's like going to high school, but in a less formal manner. We are in little groups of 4. We discuss about some topics that the teacher suggest to us. But our English isn't enough good to have good sentences and we are a little short for real conversations.

After lunch, I go to grocery store with Log. I doesn't really know where is it. The first one was a Safeway. I doesn't know it but it's like a club where you must get a membership to have the best price. So I search another one. The Fairway Market impress me. It have a lot of Japanese and organic food. There's even organic Weetabix. I saw some cereal that I ate in my young time. I don't know why we don't have all these things in Quebec city. I would enjoy a lot to have all these products in my everyday's life. At this grocery store, the prices are quite the same than in Quebec city (It wasn't the case in the other grocery). I bought some food and we come back to UVic in a hurry because we must arrive before the cafeteria close. This grocery is about 15 minutes walking distance from UVic.

The meals at the cafeteria was good today. That's not always the case. At lunch, it was Souvlaki with Greek potatoes and at dinner it was fried tulupia fish with a mix of white and wild rice. I bust my points budget another. I met a German, Mathias, who study atomic physic. He will finish his doctorate. He came here because UVic do the same research that his Hambourg university. But the two doesn't have the same conclusion. We have an interesting conversation, even with our broken English (mine was worst than his).

The CAs prepare a dancing night. It was lame when I arrived around 9:00pm. Just few people and not so good music. Some guys arrived at 10:30. But some of the girls are drunk. It don't last long. The dance floor goes nearly empty after about an half an hour. But I stay and dance until the end. They weren't much people at 12:00 when it closed. There's a lot of pretty young woman in the group, but they are quite young.

Welcome to UVic

Today we met the CAs (Cultural Assistants). There's a guy and two girls. They are fine. But I think they're a little bit overwhelmed by us. I met most of the other people doing this program yesterday night. I met the other ones at a welcome reception where we do some crazy games like forming a group by matching parts of a cut post card. We do a small campus tour and we create a computer account. The computer labs are about 70% PC (some of them are in Chinese) and 30% Macs (eMac for the most of them). They're pictures of Normandy in the computer lab. I was a little bit amused to see some place where I have been last year. Still waiting for the beginning of the class...

The university

The University of Victoria, or UVic for short, is quite recent. It is bigger than I was thinking. A round road surround the main buildings. We are at about 20 minutes from downtown Victoria. There's two things that catch my attention first : the bunnies and the caterpillars. The bunnies are everywhere. They are of every colors and size. It's a little bit amazing. There's also a lot of caterpillars. But since they are smaller, we notice them less.

We have a card for the cafeteria. I still don't understand how it works. But the meals are OK. The breakfast are quite gorgeous, with french toasts, pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausages, beacons, fruits, cereals, toasts, muffins, etc. We met some others quebecers. By the end of the day, we are around twelve in Etienne's room. They already bought some beers and starts to be on party. My room's neighbor, a guy that came from Alberta, was quite amaze that we (Quebecers) are already met each other and getting drunk at... 3:00pm! But, I don't like it very much, so after some time, I leave to do my own business. Like using a fast internet connection and writing these lines...

The Flight

L'entrée dans l'avion marque la véritable prise de conscience du voyage : il est difficile de reculer à ce moment. Pourtant, chaque voyage est précédé d'une certaine préparation, d'une attente, and some great expectation. En fait, je n'y pensais pas vraiment. J'ai acheté mon billet d'avion et ce fut pas mal tout point de vue concret pour ce voyage. Les dernières semaines furent précipitées, avec la fin de la session et du travail que je tâchais, en vain, de rattraper. D'autant que l'annulation de la présentation que je devais faire pour mon employeur m'a quelque peu dépité. Enfin, ce n'est que lorsque coincé dans le siège d'un Airbus 320 que la tête, tout comme le derrière, peut réaliser que le voyage est imminent. C'est aussi le moment de souffler un peu. Le stress d'arriver à temps, de se retrouver dans un aéroport inconnu, de passer les contrôles de sécurité n'est jamais vraiment agréable. Mais le tout s'est effectué sans encombre, même si j'étais un peu à la dernière minute. Je déplore que l'accès aux aéroports québécois par les transports en commun soit aussi limité, voire inexistant.

Le décollage n'est pas nécessairement agréable. Enfin, les amateurs de vitesse doivent prendre un certain pied à cette opération. Moi, je réfléchissais aux actions que le pilote devraient faire, si elle n'était pas contrôlée par ordinateur. Je tâchais de calculer la vitesse atteinte au moment où les roues délaissaient le confort terrestre pour l'incertaine aventure céleste. Un seuil est atteint : impossible d'arrêter l'avion, c'est tout ou rien. À quelle moment on ne peut plus reculer ?

Un petit tour d'horizon au-dessus du nord de l'île de Montréal puis, les nuages avalent le paysage. Ce sera ainsi jusqu'au-dessus des prairies. La route du vol passe vers le nord. Quelle frustration de ne pas savoir où nous sommes. Le film projetté était «Les choristes» que j'ai écouté sans grande conviction. Je me suis plutôt tourné vers la chaîne classique dont la sélection accompagnait bien le paysage qui défilait sous moi : une mosaïque de rectangles aux teintes de terre, parsemé de lacs. Je ne croyais pas qu'il y avait tant de lac dans les plaines. Puisque nous étions un peu au nord, les plus grand étaient toujours gelés, pas encore câlés. Leur bordure laissait voir des marques de neige.

And so we land at Calgary. After so much meadows, it's a kind of a surprise to see Calgary suddenly appears. From the starts, it's just a few houses. But we doesn't had seen more than twelve or fourteen since hours. The city is spreaded, but there's nothing around it, except the river. The airport is at some distance from the main town, on the northeast of it. There's a farm near by. We can see the beef grazing when the plane approach the runaway.

There's nothing to say about the Calgary airport where I stay for about 5 hours. I sit in a lounge and I read the newspaper. Air Canada is everywhere at this airport. I was thinking that if the company do bankruptcy, there will be not so much left at this airport.

We catch a small plane, a Bombardier Regional Jet. The steward do his presentation in english and in french, but nobody listen to him. It's the firt time I was taking such a small plane. It takeoff in such time that I wasn't sure I will do it. Then the undercarriage goes up in a strange noise. I can feel it taking place under my seat. I wasn't quite comfortable with this plane. It makes a lot of noise and we feel much more the effects of the wind. I saw a small part of the Rockies. Then the clouds swallow them. We flight blindly. I rest myself during this time. Then we approach the Victoria airport. I don't saw it. There's some holes in the clouds where I can see the Pacific ocean and some islands. It was very alarming to feel the plane's going down on the ocean where theren't seems to have a place to land. We flight just above some sailing boats and small island full of tall confiers.

When I finally saw the airport, after we had landed, I was saying to myself : "Where I just arrive ?" It's seems to me to be some kind of lost place in the middle of nowhere. We must go down on the runaway with a small stair on wheel move by man. The main building of the airport is brand new. And we can feel some inspiration take came from natives people : a lot of wood, big bright windows, green all around. There's tall poster that advertise the BC Museum. Starts the anxious wait for my luggage. I was not quite sure that they are in the plane. When I get them, I start to relax. We wait a while for a girl that suppose to be on the next plane. But she wasn't there. So we catch a bus, tansfert to another one in downtowan and we arrive at the university.

I was quite happy to get the keys of my room and to see that it quite new and clean. I unpack my luggage, eat a little, take a shower and write some stuff. I pay a little more (34$) to get the Internet for the 5 weeks that I will be in Victoria.

And now the real thing starts.