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).

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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.