jeudi 3 avril 2008
A few meanderings
1. I noticed a bus stop Bible study on the train today, which was an unexpected surprise. I had heard about it a couple of months ago but didn't think that we would already have them in Calgary. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more in the coming weeks and to see if they will appear in different formats.
2. After so many years of wanting to get a hymnal for myself (and mentioning it on here), I went to one of the Christian bookstores in town only to discover that they no longer carried them! What a shock! I've checked the other stores' websites but they're not available there either. In fact, the one I'm after can only be found through Amazon in the States and Word Music, which I suppose isn't that bad although the shipping and handling fees might end up doubling the cost of the book.
3. I'm intrigued by farmers' markets, especially since I've yet to go to the Calgary Farmers' Market, Marché Jean-Talon, or Marché Atwater. Wait, I think I've been to the Atwater one but it was in the wintertime. I spent all last summer in Montreal and went near Jean-Talon once or twice but didn't make it to the market somehow; I shall have to correct that this year.
4. So yes, I'm heading back to Montreal again this summer. Surprise, surprise (okay, no one is actually surprised - one of my friends even predicted it weeks before I knew anything myself). I'm excited that I'll get to go back there this summer, and more so in that I'll get to see my friends again. I was thinking of who I could invite to my graduation but most of the names that popped into my head were of those who live far too many provinces away to be able to attend. I guess I'll have to celebrate my graduation over there as well :)
5. I'm thinking of getting a hostelling membership but I haven't decided if I'll end up using it enough before its expiry date. I'm looking into potential European trips but there is still a lot up in the air. Unfortunately, this is taking away from my thesis time; therefore, I need to stop planning and get writing! Oh, the temptations of travel to lure me away from research.
jeudi 3 janvier 2008
Year in review
After coming across these CBC News review quizzes today, I wondered how I would fare between my hometown and the city that I resided in last summer. Not surprisingly, I did pretty horribly for the city that I spent the majority of my time in last year. There were more than a couple of questions that left me positively stumped, which makes me think that I've been a bit of a recluse with my schoolwork keeping me away from society.
On the other hand, I knew I'd do much better with the news from Quebec, so hooray for a better score on this quiz :) Maybe I'm more intentional about learning what's happening in Montreal since I'm not living there any longer; too bad the same can't be said about local news! I may be off to a good start so far though, knowing that Alberta is enforcing a smoking ban, that Calgary cat owners need to get licences, and that we are the first Canadian city to reduce trans-fats from restaurants.
vendredi 22 juin 2007
YULblog, YYCblog?
This is true. I've always wondered if there was a semi-definitive Calgary blog that contained all the latest news and civic events, and just plain Calgaria-stuff but I haven't found anything. That's too bad because I really enjoy reading Montreal city weblog and Metroblogging Montreal (and just recently, Midnight Poutine) - those are some of the best places to find new restaurants or to hear about recent festivals and such around town. I do hope something for Calgary gets started soon; I've been feeling an eensy-bit homesick and it'd be great to find out what's happening there :)
lundi 21 mai 2007
Country folk
For the first time that I can remember in my life, channel 11 is no longer the French channel - it's now Country Music Television (CMT), with Radio-Canada having switched to channel 9 a few weeks ago. This just serves as further proof that I live in the West; country music must be pretty popular in this city if it has moved from one of the premium channels to a basic one. And when I came across this funny quote, I couldn't help but laugh and see how it reinforces the redneck/hick image even more: "The only thing I wasn't expecting was cowboys. You see them drive around in their big trucks, wearing their hats, boots and wranglers with big rodeo belt buckles - and it's normal!" - Lizzie Morris, engineering student at University of Lancaster/Edmonton. Oh yes, pickup trucks are quite the common occurrence on these prairie roads (one might say rather unfortunately)!
Libellés : Calgary
From one strike to another
Grrreat. I'll be going from one potential transit strike here in Calgary (pending 72-hour notice) to another that will most likely take place in two days in Montreal. Having lived through the Calgary transit strike that happened six years ago, I know that if another strike is called anytime soon, it will be even more chaotic with the large numbers of people that have moved here since. I'm also worried about the looming strike in Montreal - I've become so transit-dependent over there that I simply won't have any options of getting around except for the kindness of my friends. I am grateful that I'll be living close to downtown this time so that I won't have to traverse across the whole island to possibly use the limited Metro and bus service. I know other people will be in even worse pickles. Well, no sense in dwelling on it now, not when I still have numerous assignments to finish up before I can even get on that plane! I'm hopeful that things will work out, one way or another.
vendredi 30 mars 2007
Once delusional Calgaria
I heard about this website on the radio but didn't get a chance to check it out until now. It's no longer delusional but the description of Calgaria is pretty funny. It's another provincial government's attempt to lure people away from Calgary back to their respective hometowns (the other province being Saskatchewan). After seeing the urban problems that we've faced in the past little while - overcrowdedness, a skyrocketing housing boom, lack of planned city infrastructure - I'm wondering if these ads will help not only the other provinces but us as well in any way.
Libellés : Calgary
vendredi 9 mars 2007
Transit joys
I thought I was imagining things yesterday afternoon when I saw someone on the C-train reading what looked to be a Metro newspaper. I kept staring at it for a while wondering what language it was in since I had only seen it in French. My first thought was, "Did that man bring that paper all the way from Montreal? That doesn't make any sense!" My thinking isn't usually too logical. After seeing that the paper was indeed in English (you'd think the missing accent would tip me off), I figured that Calgary was now distributing this free daily transit newspaper, and it is! I saw a woman with a copy of it today, which made me wonder where I could get my hands on one. I haven't seen any newsstands in the train stations yet, so I'll have to find out what these "strategic locations" are (they must be hidden from as far I can tell since I've seen all of two people reading them).
Another great transit find has been coming across this article about a proposed Smart Card system for Montreal, which makes me really excited about how convenient it'll be to take transit there in the future! It will certainly take away the guesswork when I'm trying to figure out what ticket I need to buy to go from the bus or Metro to the commuter train or vice versa. And Quebec City too - that means the RTC will join the STM and AMT in one big happy family!
I don't know when I became a transit nerd but now I have this habit of collecting transit maps from my travels. Not only are they handy for getting around town, they make pretty fun souvenirs too. The strangest one has to be the subway map from the MBTA that has this blurb at the bottom: "Ironic. The guy who fought communism has a stop on the red line." That guy is JFK and he doesn't even get the stop to himself but has to share it with the University of Massachusetts. At least he's not sharing it with Aquarium or Butler :)
Admittedly, I used to hate taking transit in high school. I didn't mind it for school since I was downtown but for getting to church, it was a nightmare (a bus here, a train there, another bus somewhere else). I guess taking it last year was a struggle as well since my commutes from the West Island to downtown Montreal would take hours, making me exhausted before I even got to my destination.
Even though they were draining trips, I know I missed a great opportunity with that experience. I could have had so many chances to talk with people on the bus or Metro rather than being off in my own world listening to music or just staring out the window. Thinking back on it now, I'm saddened at my lack of initiative and my selfishness for being wrapped up in my own thoughts instead of reaching out to others. I have friends who have this amazing ability to sustain engaging conversations with people on transit all the time. I have a long way to go before I get to that point but I want to be open to the opportunities that God may have for me when I take transit. I often listen to music to pass the time but what if that is blocking me from communicating with people? In fact, I know it's getting in the way of doing that.
I missed the start of Lent this year (my trip to Montreal always throws me off track with the timing) but I think just for the rest of this month, I am going to limit how often I escape from connecting with people while I'm on the train and bus. I wonder if there are any random conversations that God may have waiting for me. It'll be exciting to find out.
Update: Forgot to link to this fun collection of the world's top 11 underground transit systems. This link and the Smart Card article courtesy of montreal city weblog. I also came across some Metro newsstands today - they're actually everywhere throughout downtown! These bright green containers can be found outside the train stations (no use of indoor wire racks thus far), so happy Metro-ing!
jeudi 25 janvier 2007
Prairie culture
Yes, I've all but disappeared from the blogging world - it was a much-needed break but I'm ready to come back to this "Asian Newsstand".
I found out today that some of my best friends from Montreal will be flying out west in a few days! Even though I'll be in Montreal in less than a month, seeing them out here will be fantastic. One of my friends has never been to western Canada and so I'm thinking of the things that we can introduce to him. I know that some people would say Calgarian culture is... well, an oxymoron although I'm not that extreme - I do believe there is a culture, however undefined it may be. There is all that Stampede stuff but February isn't really a time for cowpoke. In trying to figure out what to do, I'm reminded of when my friends and I first went to Montreal and how our friends over there decided to introduce us to a menagerie of spruce beer, la tire, sugar pie and smoked meat among other things (not all at once!). I'd love for my friends to come to Calgary and experience the fun and unique things that we have, food and otherwise.
So are there suggestions as to what would be essential for an American-Quebecker to experience in Calgary? I have some activities, events and places in mind but I know there are things I'll miss. For someone who has only been to Heritage Park once because of a mandatory school field trip in grade two or something, I know there's a lot of culture here I need to experience myself! And isn't it terrible that I've also only been to Fish Creek Provincial Park once in all the years I've lived here? Well, at least I've been to the Calgary Tower twice.
I've just set a personal record for the number of links I've made to Wikipedia here. It's so much easier than linking to all the separate official websites :)
Libellés : Calgary
mardi 7 novembre 2006
Old Cowtown
I was chatting with one of my classmates when we discovered that we were both born and raised in Calgary, leading us to reminisce about the things that we grew up with in a smaller city back then. People who have lived here then or for a long time will remember these things as well. I wish I could recall more things but this is what I have so far:
- CFCN used to be on channel 5
- Buckshot and Benny the Bear entertained us every weekend
- CFCN used to have a Broadcast Tent on the Stampede grounds where kids could go and get autographs from Buckshot and Benny the Bear
- Calgary Co-op used to have $1.49 days on the first Monday of every month (or was it Tuesday?)
- Global TV used to be an independent television station
- Pacific Place Mall used to be Franklin Mall
- Electric Avenue was always in the news for some problem
- The southbound train used to go to Anderson, none of these long and cumbersome transit station names!
- The city had to cajole people into going to the hockey games if memory serves me correctly
- Canadian Airlines used to have an office overlooking Memorial Drive
- Canadian Airlines also used to have their logo on the Saddledome back when they owned it
- The "City of Calgary" almost became "Calgary City" because the domain of calgary.com was unavailable; however, calgary.ca was available at the time preventing this change
- The IMAX theatre was super for science class field trips until it shut down
- The Calgary Sun adopted a tabloid-format sometime in the 90s 80s and used to have a Sunshine Boy which was really quite ugly. Thanks to Ian for letting me know the correct decade - along with his other great Calgary memories! I seem to remember this format change so that must have come earlier than I thought :)
- People went to the London Town Square movie theatre before the Sunridge Spectrum was built
- We had the Calgary Cannons baseball team and the Calgary Public Library would offer free game tickets to kids in its summer reading program
- The Calgary Mirror used to serve as the community/neighbourhood newspaper
- AGT transformed into the animal-acting empire of Telus
- The local news used to air CrimeStoppers reenactments - do they still do this?
I've missed a bunch of other things so please leave a comment if there's something I didn't cover. Oh Cowtown, how you've changed and become so much more crowded.
Libellés : Calgary
jeudi 24 août 2006
Solar and local news
- Goodbye Pluto, it's too bad that kids will now grow up calling you a dwarf planet.
- Hello Drive-In movie theatre, although it'll probably be too crowded to see you before the winter comes.
- Here's to the best in Calgary's 2006 FFWD vote; I hope they're kidding about the big sunglasses.
- My usual expression for being unable to go to events such as Hong Kong Days or Expo Latino this week (the expression is more appropriate for the former).
- According to the radio yesterday, Calgary is the 4th most expensive city in the world to park your car in. This and other traffic situations aren't surprising.
Libellés : Calgary
mercredi 16 août 2006
Trip planning
I was so excited when I heard that Calgary Transit was planning on introducing a Trip Planner on their website, similar to what I used on Montreal's Tous Azimuts. I've been looking forward to using it ever since I got back but I'm pretty disappointed and frustrated that there is one basic thing I can't do on it. This is what the planner says: Do not use hyphens, unit/suite numbers, street types (i.e. St., Ave., Pl., Blvd.) and directional indicators (i.e. NE, NW, SE, SW). This borders on ridiculous when I can't put in my destination if all I have is an address (which obviously uses street types and directional indicators, i.e. quadrants)! It isn't completely terrible because they do provide a list of places - the places of worship list is very impressive - but I would think that providing both the option of inputing an address and typing out landmarks would work best. Hmpfh, this is one thing I do miss about STM - their trip planner is absolutely fantastic. I hope that Calgary's will eventually reach that level; I guess I'll continue planning my trips the old-fashioned way with transit maps and maybe a phone call here and there!
Libellés : Calgary
mardi 15 août 2006
Mid-August
I write my last college final exam this week and then I can finally relax and enjoy this wonderful summer! I'll be heading to Global Fest and I'm hoping, the Gopher Hole Museum, which has been on my list of to-do's for years now. During these next few weeks, there will be lots of spring/summer cleaning and organizing as I prepare for seminary. I've actually been looking forward to cleaning my room all summer, and now that papers are out of the way, I can go through all my stuff and purge to my heart's content! And while I've been studying for my final, I have rediscovered all this Chinese music that I used to listen to when I was younger :)
Libellés : Calgary
lundi 19 juin 2006
Bienvenue à Cowtown
I have just survived a wedding and am finally getting caught up with everything from the past few months while I've been away. While I do consider Montréal to be my other home, I'm finding that I appreciate this home much more than I did before. When I went to church yesterday, walking in the doors was such a wonderful experience. I remember breathing a sigh of relief knowing that I was truly back and it was so freeing.
I do miss hearing French though and every time I hear it somewhere, I start to wander towards that direction. It's going to be a struggle for me not to forget everything I've learned but I'm praying that God will help the grammar and vocabulary to stay fresh in my mind. I am anxious to get back to Montréal but not so much that I am going to miss savouring the joy of being with family, friends, church and everything else here :)
* Would that make it a vache ville? Ville de vache? Hmmm.
Libellés : Calgary
mercredi 19 avril 2006
Home on the range
I'm home but barely. I've been out everyday since I've gotten back and it won't change for another week or so. I imagined that once I returned, I would be able to spend a couple of days recovering but it's been a non-stop "go, go, go" (hence the lack of updates on here). Re-entry has been interesting and seeing my friends come back has been a blast. I very muchly enjoy the Calgary airport, but I could do without seeing it for a little while longer. My thoughts are completely scattered; I'm happy to be home and I desperately need sleep :)
Libellés : Calgary
lundi 10 avril 2006
Souvenirs
At this time next week, I will be on the other side of the country. It feels surreal that this experience is coming to an end but I think I'm ready to head home. I miss my family and friends, and very random things like driving down the Deerfoot, the quick weather changes, being at church with my best friends, the Cheesecake Café, my books at home, seeing the mountains from my room, hanging out with the librarian at school, the amazing LRT system, walking only a block to get movie rentals, spending time in parking lots with my classmates, sipping vanilla tea at my professors' home, my church's old prayer chapel, and so much more. Time has flown by and pretty shortly, I will get to experience all of those things from home again!
Libellés : Calgary
dimanche 5 mars 2006
Ragamans
I mean, anagrams. I learned of this off of the montreal city weblog and noticed some creative transit maps from Boing Boing of cities that I've taken transit in: Calgary, Vancouver, Boston and Montreal, Montreal 2. Language isn't exactly clean on any of these (maybe that will be the next challenge!) but it is a pretty humourous idea. Ahh transit.
Libellés : Calgary, Montreal, travel
samedi 7 janvier 2006
Picture project
I've always enjoyed participating in Michelle's fun blogging projects and this year, it looks like it will be a great one. That's right, Hometown Six has begun! The task is: January's Hometown Six involves collecting photographs of six signs of your hometown or area's name.
On that note, here is the first of six hometown photos. This is part of a picture that I took for a class assignment which I happened to have on hand (er, computer). Whenever I see something that mentions "The City of Calgary", I always think back to the kerfuffle a few years ago about the possible name change to "Calgary City" and how it was over some person's refusal to sell a website domain. Anyways, I'm extremely glad that it didn't change; it just doesn't sound right.
The second is something that has already appeared on here, but it is from Montreal. I'll probably be posting pictures of that city for the next few months instead of Calgary because it makes more sense :) I'm a bit sad that I'll be leaving Calgary behind but there will always be the second half of this year to take more pictures of it. Meanwhile, I'll have to remember to take the next four pictures this month!
Libellés : Calgary
mardi 22 novembre 2005
Still summer
Oh the weather outside is lovely... we just broke a record with our high temperature of 19.9 degrees Celsius today! It definitely gave me an excuse to visit the playground :)
Update: November 23rd also broke another record with a high of 17.7 degrees Celsius.
Libellés : Calgary
lundi 29 août 2005
Snapshots
Since my friend was visiting from Montréal, my friends and I were able to do a lot of fun things this weekend. We ended up going downtown for Globalfest and caught a couple of cultural pavilions, street bazaars, and even a film festival. It was crowded but there were a ton of activities that we could take part in. The most random thing that happened these last few days had to be when we left a restaurant and saw a Bollywood film shooting in progress. It was pretty neat seeing people do things I'd only read or heard about, like measuring the distance of an object from the camera and other various things.
Wow, there were so many highlights this past week, from one road trip to the next. And now, it is back to work and all-day meetings to kick that off, wooh! People seem to be starting school, but I feel like it won't be starting for a while. At this point, I think I actually want to get back to classes as strange as that is :)
Libellés : Calgary
vendredi 8 juillet 2005
Stampede spirit
The Calgary Stampede kicked off officially today, and unofficially last night. I found out yesterday on a billboard that there's double the fireworks this year, most likely because of Alberta's birthday. It seemed like it was triple the fireworks last night because I got to see them at three different times, so it's sure to be a spectacular show each night.
I think I've been going every year since I was born, except for once or twice because of the chicken pox, but I still haven't been to events like the rodeo, chuckwagons or Grandstand show. This may be the year when I finally get to see the things that tourists come for. Makes me wonder what it is I do every year at the Stampede if I don't go to those events :) Oh yeah, the rides and the food - mmm just a few days or so until I can have those corn dogs and mini donuts and everything else.
Libellés : Calgary
