Chinatown... QC?

My family has not been as long-established in Canada as those who came and made this almost fabled Chinatown QC that the Globe and Mail talks about, but we still exist nonetheless. My parents both came over during the fifties and sixties, and as some of you might know, got married in Sept-Isles in the 70s (of all places...), and started their long and winding road to this city. We don't have many blood relatives, and we certainly don't have any of them in Quebec.

Nonetheless, it's absolutely fascinating how some of these people have firmly tried to root themselves in this city; thus, the Wok-and-Roll is probably the last bastion of the Chinatown described in this article. The old matriarch died not too long ago, at something like 100 years old... my mum would probably know more about that.

Why is it that people are not actively reinvesting in the Chinatown QC? Because all the young people are leaving or have already left. [I am aware that chinese students come to study but they don't really stay as much as any other international student.] The only old chinese still in this town are the parents and grandparents of the young people that they worked so hard to get better lives for. The Chinese laundries, restaurants, and other shops were not meant for their kids to take over and work long hours at dead-end jobs. They were meant to earn money for their children to gain the education and skills in the region's schools and programs to leave this town and become professionals.

Frankly speaking, QC has been quite disappointing for a lot of bananas like myself. We have advantages in so many ways that were never available to our parents. On the other hand, we no longer have the "new immigrant" status that they had, though we have a visible minority status. I won't go into how often we'd have to sit the fence between the white French (and English, I guess) and the Chinese point of views here, but it is very frustrating. On one hand, the white people are not racist and they are quite accommodating to the romantic ideas of the chinese and other people of asian origins settling in the region. On the other hand, once these immigrants are no longer immigrants but second generation, there's no letting go of the "Oh that's a pity you've lost all your culture" facade.

It's hypocritical and kind of insulting to expect that the second generation and onward of any immigrant family will be able to hold on to a culture that doesn't exist in the place where it grew up. Other than ghettoizing or isolating our immigrants and creating "home away from home" neighbourhoods like Chinatowns, we don't always have the means to stay in touch with our roots. Sure, we are exposed to many of our parents' and grandparents' ways of life but there's only so much that can be done at home. How much more can be done without more immersion? What extent of "culture" would one expect this person to be able to display to people who ask for it?

Also, a professional who is of a visible minority still doesn't strike me as an image that seems to be comfortable to the white French and English. If it were the case, I would really like to see local ads and billboards to show that. And if it were really the case, I'd also like to see more of these professionals practicing their trades in QC.

Less Posting, More News

I'm on my two week long wedding attending blitz. I'm currently posting from Chicoutimi, for those of you in the know, my birthplace and origin of all those tasty blueberries I take home. I just attended one on the 24th in La Baie with Jorghnassen, the non-religious notary kind. Then I must schlep myself to Toronto tomorrow with my mum to attend another wedding that I have yet to figure out who is getting married to whom.

Meanwhile, the principal from the learning center has a possible job opening for September that I have a pretty good feeling he wants me to fill, but I'll have to wait for further response. I haven't mentioned it before because I don't want to cause bad karma. Kaaarrrrmaaaaa...

Lil V is in China right now and the Chinese government has been censoring her BLOGGER viewing so I'll try to post less for her to have less to catch up to. :p

I'm still trying to train for the 5 km Run for the Cure, although it's hard to do so when I've left my running shoes behind and I haven't been moving around a lot. I spent yesterday jogging in the pool (aquajog?), and I'll probably stairclimb in Toronto, although I don't think I want to do it if it gets really muggy down there.

Karma?

It never fails that I get called to go supply for elementary school when I get the least amount of sleep. The first and only other time (two years ago now) that I went for elementary, I had two hours of sleep, at most. That turned out to be a very frustrating day. I think I was only able to function due to adrenaline from breaking up fights and sticking kids out in the corridor.

Today, I had another insomniatic 3-hour-sleep night(although I did take a 3 hour nap the previous evening) and I was called at 7 am. Fortunately, not for the same school as mentioned above. I proceeded to head up to Valcartier again, armed this time with the violin and one bag of tea. Both turned out to be the most useful items during the day.

The elementary French teacher was out today, and had left the (apparently usual) arsenal of wordsearch, connect-the-dots, and coloring pages. I am a bit more experienced now with the much younger kids (after seeing my colleagues up there zipping around with buttloads of activities for one day), so I knew that what was left for these kids was not enough. I spent the busride up and the ten minutes I had before class associating (French?) musical activities with these worksheets.

The first one I had was with the grade 3 class, which turned out really well in my opinion. I assigned the wordsearch and then had them fill in some of the lyrics to a song that Jorgh and I are familiar with... but I had forgotten the real words (especially considering I hadn't planned to dig up such an old memory this morning) so I had to make up for some of the original lyrics:

Rose, rose, comme la fleur
Brun, brun, comme la terre
Bleu, bleu, comme le ciel
Vert, vert, comme la mer

Mauve, mauve, comme la nuit
Rouge, rouge, comme le feu
Jaune, jaune, comme le soleil
Chante, chante les couleurs!

Once again, I forgot all the original lyrics. But it doesn't matter because the kids actually sang the song along with me playing it, whose tune I do recall because that's the only thing I ever remember.

The second class was with grade 6, and that went just as well. I winged the music activity because the students were first given back their French tests that I gave the solutions to, then given the "Les oiseaux" word search... then I played a few songs that were bird themed; "The Thornbirds" (which somehow someone correctly translated because I couldn't remember the French name), "Turkey in the Straw" (which Scott came in and started step dancing to), and the Chicken song.

Then came the grade 1s... I don't think it went as badly that class as the entire day at that other elementary school, but I was still pretty upset. The boys were completely edgy and slipping in curse words at every turn, and they would tell on each other afterwards. It was a nutball class but I could probably attribute it to the absence of the regular teacher and the fact that they were going to go swimming in the afternoon.

I had only about fifteen minutes with the other grade 1 class, so the teacher gave me two English books to read to the class. They were both pretty cute; the first was "When Jeremiah Found Mrs. Ming" and the second one was My Dog is an Elephant." The kids were very appreciative of the reading and I enjoyed it as well. Then the kids were herded off to the swimming pool across the street.

About a half hour later, while I was idling in the teacher's lounge, there was a huge flash of light, and suddenly a great big BOOM. The thick pattering sounds echoed through the room, even penetrating through the closed windows. Five minutes later, as I watched, a river of screaming grade 1, 2 and 3s charged onto the school grounds.

There was one poor kid who had been ridiculously sunburnt on his back during the weekend and thus he couldn't go swimming. But while I was looking after him, the grade 2/3 teacher had asked that he help his friends out at the pool, and so he came back in soaking wet.

I asked him with a concerned tone if he was alright because of the rain, and he said he was okay. He replied with this huge grin, "I went swimming without getting in the pool!" I told him that he would probably feel it later. Not five minutes after I spoke, he became a weeping ball of a kid in the corner, being comforted by the adult volunteers, and the teacher was trying her best to figure out what they could do to comfort his stinging back. (I hope I don't sound smug, because I was feeling rather bad for having let the kid out in the first place when the teacher asked for him.)

Anyway, she told me to pacify the remainder of her class by playing the violin for the rest of the day for them, which I was going to anyway since I was supposed to be in that class.

My favourite moments of the day were the kids singing and dancing along with my playing and listening intently while I was reading; my least favourite moment was when the kid was bawling out the door with a cooled hankie on his back.

The moral of the story? Elementary is fine, I suppose, if one takes each class by dose rather than stay with a class all day.

Couch-to-5K

I don't know why I didn't find this webpage last year. This program recommends jogging interspersed with walking, spacing out the workout days. This way, the body can tolerate the stresses and adapt to the workout.

I didn't do this. I needed a sped up schedule, because the run was barely a month after I had registered in September, and I was definitely not in any sort of shape. Well, maybe if blob counts as a shape.

Today, the temperatures did not let up. It must be in the 30s with humidity here, and everyone is praying for rain. (And now as I am typing this, the rain is starting to fall.) The humidity was thick enough to cut with a knife when I went jogging this morning (quite a bad idea today for me - I was ready to keel over from the heat).

---

We visited an old couple from church in Ste-Foy this afternoon because my mum heard that the woman had broken her ankle from a fall and was going around in a wheelchair. In the meantime, the man is fighting cancer while having recovered from a stroke last year. It is most frustrating because the woman is 75 and fiercely independent. They still live in a rather large house with a large yard teeming with flowers and growing things.

I had one very embarrassing moment (or should I say many continuously embarrassing moments) while in conversation with them due to my mum. She is very vocal about how she feels about aging, and she considers herself, that 58 year old knucklehead, WAAAAAAAAAAY OLD BEYOND BELIEF. Now, talking to two people in their mid 70s, she proceeds to completely dismiss how anyone their age can "do anything." It doesn't help that the people the couple know are all in their 70s or older, who apparently can't "do anything!!!"

They were pretty lighthearted about it though, laughing at me while I hid my completely flabbergasted face, as my mum kept going on and on about how these old people were simply incapacitated from disease and illness or just ready to croak. I was most grateful for them not to have kicked us out of the house after having fed us a light lunch.

I swear, she'll last another hundred years, be able to totter around and do a billion things, and still hammer out the same schpiel.

The Maple Leaf Rag

Ragtime can't be defined without the works of Scott Joplin. This is one of his most famous pieces. I'm actually playing it at about 50% the speed but there's only so much one can do in an afternoon, pluck pluck plucking.


If you listen carefully, you might even catch the random motor noises, or chickadees chirping their heads off in the background. Maybe.

And if it's not your cup of tea, then let Orihime drive you nuts.

Note to Someone

To whom it concerns (and he knows it):
GO GET YOUR SUIT.

Maple Story

Jorghnassen finally joins me in the game! :)

We passed out after a long, laggy (for Jorgh) run where we raised him 2 levels and raised me about 30% of a level. Stupid people tend to send a shout-out to the entire channel about stupid things so ignore that comment. 

Run For the Cure: Progress?

So far, I'm into two weeks of jogging and I'm concentrating on increasing my endurance. Funny enough, I've increased the length of the jog but I have yet to increase the time jogging... maybe I'm getting faster? And paradoxically, lazier?

No donations yet as of today. I haven't really been campaigning much, nor advertised the running thing yet to people, except my mum and some more perceptive readers of this blog. Stephen, yes.

Now, I am probably the last person in the world to ask anyone of anything. If I were a plant, I'd be that 4000 year old tree holding onto nothing but rocks on a cliff side, waiting for the day someone comes by and says, "OMG DOODZ THIS GUYZ 4000 YEARZ OLD!" thus validating my existence. Anyway, how this relates to jogging I don't know.

But I'm just saying I don't like having to ask anyone for money especially when I am quite certain they don't have any to part with in the first place. So I won't. I'll send an email out later in the summer but I won't beg for donations.

All that I ask of you is that you might think of me when I'm huffing and puffing on October 1st, chugging away at the last few hundred meters of the run, and send me a thought, a slight hope, that I don't collapse before the finish line. :)

Otakuthon 2006

Held at Concordia last Saturday and Sunday, this is the first that time the Concordia anime club has attempted to host this convention. Unfortunately, they were very short-handed and stretched to wacky limits, as I don't think they ever expected so many people attending. From what I gathered of forum information, there was about 600 people pre-registered, and most likely a good 1.5 to 2 thousand people attending.

Jorgh and I attended Saturday early afternoon only, as I had to get back to Quebec Sunday. We also got to meet up with Julie and meet her boyfriend Sean. We spent most of the time standing in line, since the chaotic mess of registration prevented anyone from understanding what the crap was going on. Considering my experience from Anime North 2003 volunteering at registration, I forgave the poor organizers for their short tempers, especially that Tsunade cosplayer who was screaming at the attendees from behind the pre-registration table.

Jorgh and I sampled a bit of the sights from the (scant) merchants and artist alley, while suffocating from the lack of air and smells of the unwashed kids dressed in greasy handmade costumes. I appreciated the lack of completely inappropriate costumes among the attendees (except for one particular case that will haunt Jorghnassen for the rest of eternity).

We watched part of an anime called Ginban Kaleidoscope, which featured an olympic athlete girl who is haunted by the ghost of a Canadian boy named Peet Pumps (no, that's not a typo). I have no clue.

We then attended two panels; the first one was given by the editor of Anime News Network, Chris, who gave a combined talk about the website and the state of the anime industry, since no one from the anime industry went to the convention. The second panel was given by Chris and Claude, the editor of the anime magazine, Protoculture Addicts. In both panels, they gave us incentives to ask well-formulated questions to keep the talk moving. The incentives happened to be anime DVDs. (Unfortunately we only found out after viewing them that they weren't particularly good DVDs.)

Jorgh and I, along with the 5 other people in the room, asked sufficient questions to forward the panel interestingly enough for the entire two hours. In fact, we enjoyed asking questions to Chris, especially regarding the anime industry in North America, seeing that someone who was knowledgeable enough to answer the nagging thoughts in our mind. For example, what of fansubs? How does it affect the sales of anime? Which companies in NA makes reasonably good decisions regarding distribution and production? What happened between 2000 and 2006 that screwed up distribution of anime across this continent? (I'm not going to answer these questions here.)

What both Jorghnassen and I found completely inconsiderate and immature was that waiting outside of the panels were kids who were impatiently waiting for the next panel. They were being loud and obnoxious, as only young people can get, and didn't realize that their stupid comments about how boring the panels sounded could be heard by everyone inside the room. Way to make the panelists feel good, jerks. If I had had presence of mind, I would have chewed their heads off made them apologize to Chris and Claude.

In fact, those kids were waiting for the totally awesome and intellectually stimulating panel called "Les anime que vous aimez détester." </sarcasm> The panel apparently consisted of random debates between people intent on pissing everyone else off in the room, and squealing fangirls.

Afterwards, we left the place feeling sufficiently creeped out from too many people, but satisfied with the two DVDs we gained from attending. Until we watched them, that is. Why HOW did they make 26 episodes of that show?!

No, we didn't see Irulanne.

Yes I Was Travelling.

I'm currently listening to this orchestral but hilarious History of Canada on CBC Radio One. Radio Two will be playing the program again.

Sunday June 11, 2006
From the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia
the CBC Radio Orchestra welcomes Canada's favourite storyteller, Stuart McLean - the
host of Vinyl Café - for a program of words and music
Stuart McLean, narrator
Mario Bernardi, conductor
CBC Radio Orchestra
Clifford Crawley: Overture on a Canadian Theme (or two)
Cameron Wilson & Stuart McLean: History of Canada
John Beckwith "Polka" from Music for Dancing
Cameron Wilson & Stuart McLean: I Remember Wayne (world premiere)

I went to Montreal this weekend, but it was a bit too hectic to do much. So you'll have to forgive me if I haven't called anyone nor posted. On the other hand, I witnessed PJ getting a nice suit. Finally!!! (We'll have pictures up when he comes by later next week.)

I'll have to take back that "Worst Onramp 3V4R" on the Quebec map that I commented on. I haven't driven very much throughout this city, just up to boonytown Valcartier and back. I avoided going on the highway, due to my complete disdain of Quebec drivers stemming from the funeral incident.

But I decided after having sufficient experience, I was ready to tackle the disgusting roadways of Quebec near the bridges. My mum had warned me that it was kind of crappy.



For the first time driving by myself, I actually thought I was going to die. There are stop signs on the onramps. Mysteriously appearing onramps. LOTS of mysteriously appearing onramps. And then a really weird curve in the road. With an onramp on both sides mysteriously appearing. LOOK.

If the highways look like spaghetti to you, that should explain why Quebec drivers are completely insane.

Aishiteruze Baby

You'll have to forgive me for thinking the worse for japanese anime and manga culture. I have been exposed to much too much of the stuff. Anyway, the worst that I have seen involves something so utterly disgusting but apparently popular enough to be called "lolicon" (no, there's much, much worse but I won't say it). The first part of that word stems from "lolita" so you get the idea. When I first watched the first several minutes of Aishiteruze Baby, I had a terrible, terrible feeling it was going to be just that.

Fortunately I was quite wrong. But knowing that there exists something called the internet, there is probably going to be fan-made crap that will twist the entire thing into such trash.

I'll stop thinking so terribly about this show and talk about how cute it is.

Hooray! It's a schoolkid story that's neither boring nor ridiculous! A 15 17 year old boy is put in guardianship of his 5 year old cousin when her mother disappears. It's all a bit disturbing at first because the boy's got some weird relationships with his female friends at school, but it's all innocent. An innocent love at first sight. :)

The story develops with realistic issues that a 5 year old could experience. None of that candy-coated "my friends have better toys than me" crap. More like issues of abandonment, solitude, jealousy, child abuse... on the other hand, the show deals with them at a decent pace and without making you feel like throttling certain characters despite some weighty topics.

Jorgh probably won't like the series too much because it doesn't have any hand-to-hand combat, perpetual powering up, absurd comedy, or boobs. OK, it has boobs. But not naked boobs.

ADD.: So the manga series ends differently, and it's much, much more heart-tugging than the anime ending, although things seemed more rushed.

Another One Joins the Fray

Much to my joy (or chagrin?) Stephen joined LJ and already has an entry up! The user name is kind of funny though. ;)

Everyone's got some sort of redesign going on. Maybe I'll do that too. When I am more awake.

Run for the Cure 2006

Dear Reader,

Once again I am participating in the Run For the Cure, where I train by running, from being a blob of goo to becoming an average-fit Canadian and actually accomplishing a 5 km run around the old city. This time around, though, I have started much, much earlier and my goal is to make the 5 km below 25 minutes. (Or not.) Either way, I will still be raising funds and I hope that you can help me reach the $150 goal.

Last year's $300 was quite wonderful, mostly due to one anonymous donor helping me reach the threshold of registration-waiving. :):):) Although I am grateful for this benevolence, I don't think it could be repeated, so my goal this year is once again $150.

I registered for the Quebec City run, Sunday, 1 October 2006. I'll leave the progress report to the very end where we can all analyse my lack of routine.

Thanks for your support!

Yours truly,
Ms C, the blob

Tales of Quebec City and Her Disgusting Ways

I was watching this guy (probably from the apartment building across the driveway) sweep around the garbage bin. Oh my god, I thought. Maybe the landlord or someone with a brain finally decided to pick up all the crap around the driveway and parking lot. Maybe they're actually going to sweep the entire lot! Maybe, just maybe, someone will remove that huge branch that got cut off the tree, and pull up the roots of the smaller tree that got chopped down for absolutely no reason!

The guy pushed the broom around the parking space behind the garbage bin, spreading the sand and junk a bit more, shoveled up the crap and disappeared.

Just when I thought that people around here couldn't be more selfish or stupider.

---

I have determined that it is frustrating to live in this city. I found that I am not alone, though, as I browsed the shallower depths of the internet.

Though Jorghnassen is constantly skeptical of the wild animals of the internet, I truly believe that a guy is currently stranded in Vieux-Quebec and is seeking aid. His story is that he was fired from a language monitor job at a school on the south shore, and he is living in a hostel on his last small change. (But there's more to that story.) Of course, I am also skeptical of anyone I don't personally know on the internet, but I could not help but feel terrible that nobody on the SA forum could volunteer to help the guy. Why? Because there just isn't anyone of the registered hundred thousand people living in this particular city.

Jorghnassen is completely against helping the guy out, but I can't help him either because I don't have a forums account, I don't trust internet strangers any more than he does, and I don't have a way to contact him anyway.

The second story I will tell is about a woman who is apparently "hanging by a thread" living here. She is just as frustrated at not having employment and having little career options for a person from the West. (Oh those ROC-ians.) I made some suggestions to her (you'll be able to tell by the comments), as she seems to think that the only options here are telemarketer, interviewer, or webcam-whore.

Well, maybe. I'd like to think that even unilinguals can still survive here by not remaining unilingual.

It remains to be seen if I should start forming a community of frustrated anglos living in Quebec City. The VEQ really isn't doing a great job retaining us pathetic young people. :(

Oh My God Someone Listened to Me.

Jorghnassen went through the McGill Reporter a few days ago, and told me that someone is actually revamping the McGill website.

...

This means I have to donate something, don't I? :|

Something's Coming...

I don't know / what it is / but it is / gonna be greaaaaaat!

There are two beans sprouting!!! And there are other chinese vegetables actually growing!

About an hour ago, I noticed these two kids from the building across the driveway poking around in the tulip garden. Puzzled, I let them play around some more, seeing that they weren't pulling up things or stepping on the bed. Then the girl ran away but the boy spoke up: "Il y a plein de limaces!"

Wha-?

In his palm, the squirming slug struggled slowly in its slime. The boy reported that he had already picked out all the slugs from the flowerbed. I merely acknowledged him and waddled off to water the vegetables.

This explains why there's been a foam baseball bat nearby for the last two weeks.

Another thread popped up (or pooped up) on the SA forums for more covers of video game music. I don't know any of those posted. I think the next one I make will be a bit more obscure for amateurs of old school video games.

Maple Story

Compy disappeared my previous rambling. :(

But that's ok because it was boring anyway. :|

I play Maple Story (link only accessible using IE) because it's free, it's cute, and it's a 2D side-scrolling MMORPG that doesn't require me to upgrade my computer any further. :)

[Contrast this to HOMMV that I built this computer for. Then after the specs came out, I realized I still can't play HOMMV with my compy. :(:(:( ]

Nobody else I know plays this game. :(

If you do decide to go on Maple Story, you can find me on the Khaini server. I'm a rogue named Maranone and right now I'm completely dressed in red.

I have to join with these preteens?