Madame PluPlu v.2.0

AJAJAJ

2009-04-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

- time go so fast

Documentary film festival in town!

2008-11-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

Documentary film festival! Yes! Finally I have the chance to actually go and see some great documentaries here at the festival of RIDM. Also I will attend two master classes given by Fernand Melgar and then one with Stan Neumann. That's going to be quite amazing!
By now I'm able to follow a film in French too, as long as it's subtitled in French that is. And since it's an international festival with many languages involved, it often is the case.
So, today I saw an excellent documentary named Water, People and Yellow Cans. It was a frightening experience to see the global problems connected with the theme of water. Sometimes it's just way to much, sometimes it's all gone and sometimes it's a struggle just to get water to drink every day. I really liked the film, and feel that the environmental issues has in documentaries a great medium. If you get the chance, watch this film. It gives a visual, a voice and a face to the water related catastrophes our world are facing, new and old.

Tomorrow I'm watching this one: Une morte insencée. I have high hopes for that one.

Immigrant life

2008-11-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

When you go to the bank in Montreal, they don't ask for an identity card - they ask for TWO! It's normal here. - What?? Passport only? No, how will we be sure it's really you? You could have faked it!
So, today I went there with both my passport and my official Canadian resident card (which shows I have an status as permanent resident). The lady looked at it, very suspicious, then she said she had to verify with someone in the bank, which she did. Then she wanted to verify with immigration of Canada that the check they had sent me was REALLY sent by them. Which she did. Then she spoke to a supervisor about it. Then she came back and looked at me really suspicious and asked if I had any immigration documents to show, which I didn't have. Finally she asked - Where do you come from? Sweden, I squeezed out, trembling by now, feeling like a thief who belonged on Guantanamo! - Aha! Sweden!! Why didn't you just say so, here's your money!
Fuck, we Do have a good reputation here. Next time I'm gonna wrap myself in a Swedish flag with a Viking-helmet with the two horns and all, maybe THAT will satisfy these hopelessly crèpes-eating, plu-plu-pluuuu-speaking, overly suspicious Montrealers. My God! Should I sing the anthem too??

2008-11-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

Well, sorry, yes, I know, it's ridiculous... but it's just so funny pictures!
Check out more here.

A big gap is imploding!

2008-11-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

I woke up with a smile today... Obama, Obama, OBAMA!
He actually, really, f***ing made it to the White House! Man! As a Swede, do I really, fully realize how smashing, crazy, unbelievably unlikely this election was? I mean, in Sweden, we already have a socio-political and left leaning context to place our prime minister in, but in the USA? Yes, they do have a social agenda, of course, but the American Dream are very excluding for the majority. And from my reading, listening and discussing all the official politics of Obama for months now, and to hear his vibrant election speech yesterday night, there is no doubt that this new president will come with a socio, leftist change big time! I'm so happy for the people of the states - and the rest of the world! - that this overwhelming election of Obama could take place. Me and M was glued to the computer and TV yesterday evening, and when Obama finally entered the stage as an elected president, we were both smiling and listening intensely, it felt somewhat surreal. It's true, they did it! The white population finally showed something graceful about themselves here, that despite the history of racism, they now got together with there fellow Americans and actually elected the first black president of USA, which is not any tiny country among the small ones in the world.
I heard a black guy say, that this means crazy much for the young black community, just the small but oh so important words in the USA to a child - "You too can become the president one day!", now the black community can actually say this to their children and feel that it's possible for real. When I heard this, I started to realize what a gap there is that are now starting to implode. It's mind blowing - and for real!

Citizen.org

2008-11-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

New link in my list of links.

For all of you who seeks facts, check it out! Very interesting is the facts about the Bush governments secrecy policies and politics around homeland security after September 11.

www.citizen.org

Word of the day:

2008-11-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

"I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein."

- John A. Mitten, 64, the inventor of the new McCain-Palin rally-chant: “John McCain! Not Hussein!”, talks with reporter about Obama's middle name, at rally in Florida yesterday.

The Onion - sick humor I love

2008-10-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

I just love the sick humor of theOnion.com and their Onion News Network with news broadcasts of highest quality humor.

Je parle française!!!!

2008-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

J'ai fini mon deuxième cours de français, et je suis très, très content! J'ai fait 3 essais finals (écriture, compréhension et oral), et j'ai eu 100% sur tous!
Whoooohooo! Finallèment, je peux parler française!
Maintenant, j'ai un semaine de vacances, et mercredi le 4 novembre, le troisième cours de français commence! The final 3 months! Puh!

If the world could vote

2008-10-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

...they would vote like this. Cast your vote here.

Trust me - I'm a maverick

2008-10-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

I just watched the beautiful 30 minutes infomercial of Obama - and YES, He Rocks! For some reason I actually start believing in the USA again, kinda. I mean, they do have all this gun-shooting, oil-drilling, money-making, trucker-sports-beer-drinking-hunting-humorfree-honk-honk-dudes, hockey-mom-money-digging-no-sex-until-the-brah-comes-of-women, with a love for wars and God, at the same time. But, surprise, they do have a cool and obviously intelligent dude like Obama. Maybe it's his African heritage that makes him different? But, don't forget the words of the nice old lady I shared earlier in this blog; - he's been raised by a white family, so he's probably white deep inside. Well, anyway, I can't tell you enough of how much I agree with this hopefully coming president. It's what the world needs right now, and yes, Canada to, being their closest neighbor with a scary Harper-the-knife-sharpener (he cuts in the cultural budget faster than Zorro can swing his machete). And if you don't like Obama-my-Man, check out the McCain's new ad on John the Truthtwisters homepage. It has some moments in it of Obamas more unprepared photos. You know the ones when you are caught looking like you just swallowed the whole Thanks giving turkey and are about to burp it back up.
I actually don't know what I will do when this election is over? I've spent sooooo much time engaging myself in the stories around it, that I will probably have some kind of project-coma afterwards. Did I mention that I even dreamed about Obama? Yes, it was a shower scene in it, but it's not what you think. Honestly! No, I mean it, it's true, Joe the Plumber wasn't there, NO, I mean, Obama the President was, I mean...
Really.
It's true.
You have to believe me.

Sarah the Lapdancer

2008-10-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Haha! The 25+ something potential voter answered on the journalists question about what he thought about Govenor Sarah Parlin;
She's just talking about Joe the Plumber and Average Joe all the time. I don't want an Average Me as the president, I want someone smarter than me!

Doesn't that just sum up the whole rhetoric of the Republicans so nicely?!
(Photo: Charlie Riedel)

Unpaid filmjob = happy PluPlu!!

2008-10-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

Got a un-paid research job within the documentary film industry here! Tjoho!!! With some luck, the well known filmmaker will like me enough to actually engage me in the filming-part as well, but that will take place about 2010, IF she will get the money. Can't tell much more until the project is official. But I'm just so super happy to be able to work for such an well established and amazing filmmaker in Quebec. It's flattering - and exciting!

Whatch this!

2008-10-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

YouTube rocks! Don't miss out on this super spin-off from the Budweiser commercial some years ago, remember the screaming dudes: Whaaaaaaasssssssuuuuup????!!!!
Well, here they are in a new shape, and it's not a commercial for Budweiser anymore..

Check it out here.

Fantastic day again of filmmaking

2008-10-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

I came along with Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth for a shooting they made in Montreal. It was a celebration of the famous montrealian Norman Bethune, who is a medical hero in China and Spain, and very much a respected man in Canada, but dead since many years ago. He made blood transfusion possible during the Spanish war and in China too he worked against tuberculosis and with blood transfusion etc. A very much interesting man! So they had a sculpture of him restored and put back in place in the heart of Montreal, with people like the representative of China in Canada, the mayor of Montreal and other known people. And me, but I'm not so known, just yet that is :)
So I "worked" as Magnus and Martins assistant for the day, seeing them in close-up work on the floor so naturally demanding their space between national TV-stations big cameras and photographers, and then later at a museum filming another session with prominent people. I mean, maybe not the biggest shooting, but wow, I'm just soooo thrilled and happy to have the opportunity to be with, learn from these guys and hopefully one day do it myself with more knowledge and confidence in my luggage. It's so inspiring and joyful to see somebody do the job they love! And I think they liked me, so who knows, maybe I will be asked to continue a bit more with them. I will at least join Magnus for a 2 days intensive course of documentary film making in late November, it's really expensive, but worth every penny, I hope!
Whoooohoooooooo!!! Happy happy PuPlu!!

Obaaaamaaaaa

2008-10-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

I wanna quote a great thing said by an 60-something year old Florida former Republican voter, who now will vote for Obama. This is what she wrote on a New York Time's debateforum after the third debate between Obama/McCain:

"I am an independent who has voted Republican. I’m a pollster’s dream. I’m 60-year-old white woman in Tampa, Florida. I was a HIllary supporter.

I am going wtih Obama. I had decided this before the debate, but his performance tonight solidified my choice. I think that he demonstrated that he’s thoughtful, and can see shades of gray in the issues. These are the qualties that I want in a president.

McCain was kind of angry, that like Palin, he relied on talking points. He seemed hopelessly out of touch on the issues. I could not believe the school vouchers answer. His attacks felt sort of desperate and weirdly rehearsed; they often felt out-of-context.

The Joe the Plumber thing was comical. My younger brother is a plumber and he makes more than $100k a year. If the guy was going to make more money by buying the business, then he should pay more in taxes. I don’t think McCain’s argument here made much sense.

I own a small business. Yes, if you file as a sole proprietor, you could have income of more than $250k. But I also get a lot of tax breaks for my business — and would have more under Obama’s plan.

What McCain is glossing over is that if your business income gets that high, it frequently makes more sense for you to pay yourself a salary and file a separate return as a business/corporation. That’s why so few would be affected under Obama’s plan. (It’s something like 3%)

McCain looked angry, made snarky comments and said things that I know are simply not true. Obama needed to show that he’s steady and trustworthy, and I think that he did that.

What really struck me, particularly after sleeping on it, was that Obama would explain a point, often correcting McCain, who would then go on and make the same false statement again. I found this disturbing. My dad did that when he had early Alzheimer’s.

I thought that Obama’s comments on abortion were well thought out, too. I haven’t seen this issue discussed in a national forum.

I agree that Obama missed some opportunities. But I can understand why he played it a bit safe.

I don’t think that Obama needed to harsh on Palin. Watching McCain defend her was enough. Biden - great foreign policy experience. McCain said Palin was “refreshing” twice. What is she, an air freshener? Polls show that 35% of Americans think she is qualified to be president, and that number keeps going down.

Three weeks ago, I was on the fence. McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign woke me up. His negative campaign truly put me off. His people have called me saying he’s a Muslim and a terrorist. I’m not stupid, for crying out loud!

After the debate, I can’t wait to cast my vote for Obama!!
-Florida voter"

Fantastic day of filmmaking!

2008-10-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

I had a fantastic day yesterday! I woke up by a phone call from one of my favorite documentary filmmakers in Canada, the Swedish born Magnus Isacsson. We meet at an outdoors opening event the night before, for the interesting art-"terrorist"-organization ATSA's new store CHANGE, and he now phoned to ask if I wanted to come with him to a sound studio at the national film board, for sound-mix of his new documentary. If I wanted to?? YES!
So, of we went, and I spent a whole afternoon in this spectacular mixing studio (which was big as a full cinema theater with the movie screen as the monitor!), watching and learning by the big guys. What a privilege! It was so inspiring to get to see how the high professionals work, and boy, it's very different from anything I have experienced so far in my own non-funded work. It goes fast, smooth, and nothing is too complicated when you have all these experts doing the job. For the sound mix, there was one sound designer who has been designing the films whole sound scape, one head sound technician and his sound assistant, the two directors (Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth) - and me.
We later followed up the evening by attending an opening of a documentary film at Cinéma du Parc - Mirages d'un Eldorado by Montreal-based Martin Frigon.
This day has definitely been a turning point - or a more pin-pointed start, of my future. I'm overly happy! Thank you Magnus, for giving me this day!

Hockey-mom Palin

2008-10-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Oh my dear... It was time for the fight between the politic dinosaur and the Alaskan hockey-mom; Biden vs Palin. She made it through, squeezed herself painfully with a rapid tongue of jidderish and had the voice of a correcting mama. She did the same thing as her fellow friend McNoBrain, trying to persuasive the voters in a very, very patronizing way. It's funny, but to me Palin and her lapdog McCain come across as smearing aliens in their way of speaking and sometimes just as barking dogs. They have non what so ever credibility in my eyes, and it stuns me that anyone at all are even willing to be connected to their believes.

Palin hade it on her agenda tonight to not answer any question she could possibly avoid, with the result that not much clever came across her lipstick. She seemed well instructed and cleverly filled up with facts and dirty words on the Obama/Biden part, but no real statements. She did say though that she doesn't support gay marriage (nor does Biden, but he want's equal citizen rights within laws and society), she want more domestic drilling of oil, she wants to implement the now famous "surge-technique" that went on in Iraq to Afghanistan, even though the States own military general in Afghanistan have stated that that wouldn't work there, she also supports the idea of selling out the health care system to the private market, leaving the people unprotected to the market prices... bla, bla, etc.

Biden on the other hand, he's experienced enough to see when a kiddo has entered the game. He didn't fall for her tactic of trying to anger him and start pointing the finger against her. He kept himself cool, attacked McNoBrain hard, talked all about in favor of Obama and came across as intelligent, experienced and with an actual agenda of wanting good in this world. He was sharp and harsh in his critique of McCain, but I think he struggles a lot with his accessibility for the younger voters and the not so well introduced voters, in his way of rambling numbers and figures and long talks of complex politics. But the content that came through is that he knows what he's talking about and that he's trustworthy with a strong politic, plenty of great changes on the agenda and a mind set on peace. Which I guess is what the people wants to know.
Well, I say if you haven't already, watch it yourself, it's quite a show.

McNoBrain makes me giggle

2008-09-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

I just saw the first debate between Obama and McCain, and I mean - HEEEELLOOOOOO???!!! How on earth can anyone even consider voting for Mc NoBrain? I agree with my M at home, when he said that he wouldn't even let McCain take care of our cat! Just by looking at his face, you KNOW he can't be trusted.

McCain made me giggle over and over, but also scared me with his nonsense. He spoke with this low, conspiracy voice, like "Liiiisten to meeeee, my dear old (read rich republican) friends. I'm the ONE to trust in all this. Trrruuuuust meeee..." Urk!
He repeatedly used Obamas words in his own answers, but it all came out fake. He tried to tell lies about Obama, but it kinda back-fired. And he had a sloppy and disgusting ending; on Obamas remarks that he wouldn't let the war veterans end up without economic help when they return sick and devastated, like many have been experiencing during Bush-time, McCain looked into the camera and said in a sad voice that HE LOVES the American veterans and they know he will take care of them. Bläääsch! Sooooo smootshy disgusting.

Anyway, happy to say that Obama did good, maybe not perfect, but really, really good, and McNoBrain wasn't much to have at all. He mostly looked like an ashamed and lost old dude. Now it's gonna be fun to see Palin facing Biden in their debate soon. But he better watch out, she's really a vicious character.

It's new, it's sassy, it's hot - iiiiiit's Madame PluPlu v.2.0!!!!!

2008-09-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yes sir, I can boogie!, like ABBA sang during the happy years of my parents generation.
I'm back after a, hmm.. let's just call it an emotional vacation, or "djävla sommarlov", and suddenly it hit me, my dear Madame PluPlu with ALL it's enormous amount of steady readers (hello you few and blipping aliens in my space), you are all missed soooo much by me! So, here I am, in a new and never seen before hot comeback, that will forever clear your dubious mind on the topic of this side of the Atlantic called l'Amérique du nord!
It's new, it's sassy, it's hot - iiiiiit's Madame PluPlu v.2.0!!!!!
Stay tuned!

Happy immigrant!

2008-05-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

Jajjemän! I've got a French course for immigrants - after all trouble and disappointment. Tjooo!
So, nowadays I'm studying French full time, unfortunately in afternoons/evenings, from 1 - 8 every day. We are a super nice bunch of beginners, trying to make this language into our won. But man, it's hard! Since I did take some classes before I actually feel like I'm quite good in the context of the beginners course, but it's still very, very hard. But I enjoy sooo much being there, learning and meeting all these amazing new people. At the moment I'm hanging out mostly with some Iranians, a bunch of happy Chinese, an energetic Indian, a cute Bangladeshi girl and some Russians, Cara bean, Colombians and Argentinians. It's quite a wird group together, but ojoj, we have so much fun! I love being an immigrant, well, at least for the sake of meeting others in the same situation. It's such an weird and outcast way of being, and you learn sooooo much about everything from life itself, longing, beeing outside, emotions, loneliness and belonging. It makes you humble in a way I never experienced before. Maybe I can say this because I'm an very lucky immigrant, guess things would have been different if I had to leave my own country due to other facts than pure love. I know. But still.

Viva la Espanol!

2008-05-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

My new amazing friends are all from South America, a super nice mix of countries and the beautiful Spanish. It's full of happy laughter, friendly teasing humor and South American music. I love it! Unfortunately the two closest, whom I spend days learning French with and drinking tons of coffee, are both leaving back to their countries (Argentina and Colombia) in the end of June! Madre Mia! It's going to be sooooo lonely and quiet here without them. They are really making my life here lively and exciting. But me and my friend K from the states will be here, struggling along the path of love.

streets of Montreal

2008-05-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Does this feel like American streets to you? I'm thinking Amsterdam or maybe even in Austria somewhere. This is pictures from a nice neighborhood around the hip area of the Plateau. Like it! Common to see graffiti everywhere.

Bajja

2008-05-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

Bah! Immigration rules! I didn't get my free 3 months French course due to some kind of an waiting list for at least 3 months! That's a looooong f***ing time when all you need is really the language! ANGRYYYY!!! And on top of those 3 months comes 2 months summer break for the courses, so my course won't start until late August! Man! Shitty immigration.

arty farty

2008-05-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Me and M went for the electronic art happening "Feed" at the festival Elektra yesterday night. It was supposed to be spectacular and cool and mind blowing. They talked about loosing track of space and find yourself lost in ambiance... öööh.. arty talk. Well... The artist was working with physical sound (you know, when your body starts vibrating due to heavy low frequency sound), 2D computer animation art, stage smoke/fog and strobe lights. All in all I would conclude it like this: after stressing to get there in time, we had to actually wait 40 minutes since it was delayed (supposed to start at 11 in the night), so by the time we were seated we were very tired. It starts with heavy sound (cool) and an arty animation on big screen with weirdly moving naked body floating around in the air, becoming multiplied and weirder as time went on (fun for the first 5 minutes). After kinda 10 minutes of not much actually happening, suddenly there came a heavy, duty fake stage-smoke, thick as grandma's whipped cream, and in an instant everyone around you in the audience dissapered in the fog and you found yourself "alone" and isolated. Cool! But irritating for the lungs and a bit like a sleeping pill. Then starts a flickering strobe light, music more intense and heavy, strobe a bit shifting with music... This was meditatively slow - and quite boring and after 15 minutes of nonstop of this, I couldn't help falling in and out of sleep, M too, I just didn't see it at the time. Then it was suddenly over, but the heavy smoke stayed and nobody could find their way out and everyone was coughing. Just great. Arty and weird. This is what they say in the festival program:
"... The loss of control that arises from this immersive environment assures a sensorial, emotionally satisfying and
truly alarming experience. This is a great opportunity for you to put your senses to the test… and experience something beyond understanding."
Yes, they were right - it was beyond my understanding - and the fire alarm actually did went of

mmmm... camera...

2008-05-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today me and my French-class friend A went to look at some video cameras for me... Mmmmmm... I felt like a kid in a candy store.
This is the favorite so far. Canon XH A1

METAL head bang

2008-05-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, my dude loves the metal scene and hard rock (sorry M, my categorization might be off the track a bit..), and since it's been his birthday recently, we decided to celebrate it a bit more by going for a show of metal music. And hey, it was the Swedish band Meshuggah playing, which M really likes), before the grand show of Ministry. Yes, it was hard rock/metal alright! I had a really good time, even though I had my earplugs stuffed extra deep in. Meshuggah ruled! It's dark, heavy and angry, every ingredience to make you wanna punch someone in the face. I really enjoyed to watch all these head banging guys and girls with looooong hair, on and off stage, some even sitting and head-banging. Rock'n'roll grandpa'! So, it won't convince me to start loving metal or hard rock, but it was great to actually be at a good show and just see it for real once. And Ministry, well, that's something. Very political, huge video screen showing really super good "film-sequences" behind, adding story to the music, a lot of Bush and war and anger and anarchy. And the singer was all dressed up in weird outfits and make-up, there was a cow scull attached to his mic stand and the band was performing behind a high metal fence, which was part of the staging, not for security. Very stylish! I only had one problem; I was sick as a half dead cow in fever caused by the measles (yes, it's true, all red dotted over my body!) and actually fell asleep in the middle of Ministry's show. Hmm... how's that for a resumé.
And a funny thing happened. Next to me in the crowed I spotted a known face, and yes, there she was, in all her glory: the Swedish Robyn! Hey hopp! I'm all surrounded by Sweden. :)

ROOOOAAAARGH!!!!

2008-04-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

I found this very inspiring Swedish independent documentary filmmaker, well, she's been in Montreal for 15 years now, but anyway. So, she just won a film competition on social subject documentaries in Montreal and I wrote her a mail to just, well, I guess I was hoping for just a friendly contact, just to start somewhere. And boy, did I get friendly answer alright! She instantly invited me over and we had a nice chat and she for some reason just evoke that ROOOOAAAARGH inside of me that I've been hiding for so long out of bad self esteem (I guess), a scream that is shouting out loud inside of me:
I WANT TO BE AN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER!!!!!!

So, I say, let's do it!

Häpp!

TICK-TACK

2008-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

I've discovered something that's makes a huge differens between living in Montreal and Stockholm: Montreal is somewhat timeless! In Stockholm, everywhere you go you will always find a clock ticking on a wall somewhere, right. Even the subway are divided into minutes, announcements coming out of delays by minutes and when is the next train to arrive, even buses have timeschedules by minutes announced on digital screens. But here subways are coming and going within 10 minutes interval, and you kinda newer know when. There's an exception from this at the biggest down town metro station and 2 more close to it, where BIG screens shows some kind of metro TV with commercials and some news and announcements of events (in silence) - and the time and next arrival of the train, but on all the other stations, people just walk down to the platform and wait knowing you won't have to wait more than 10 minutes, sometimes less than 1 minute. I love this! And usually there is no clock indicating time ANYWHERE to be found whenever you really need one! For the first time in my life I found myself having an actual need for my arm-watch, just as soon as I manage to remember to buy a new battery. Why I haven't done that yet? I still haven't seen ONE store selling clocks!

Future is near

2008-04-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this might sound a bit rude, but that's not what I'm trying to say here, it's actually good news.
I went to see some newly produced films from filmmakers in Quebec. I was highly dissapointed. Sorry to say this, but it kinda gives me good hope about my own abilities... Take a really not happening student documentary film, too long (1 hour), add not happening camera and strange editing that never takes the story anywhere it wants to go - and then excellent mixed sound! - and you start wondering what's going on here? But after the credits rolled by you realize - it's been professionally funded by all kinds of Canadian fonds and film fonds - and therefor this so-so production can afford a professional sound mixing. Halleluja! This country are blessed with film fond money - and it doesn't seem hard to get it. Yeeeha!

kitkat

2008-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Trying to make our little kitten friendly with the BIG male cat of the B&B house... It's not going too well... (The kitten has many claws)

I'm an legal alien!

2008-04-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

YES! Today we crossed the border to USA, swinged around the pole (fully dressed!) and entered into Canada again, got my final stamps and signatures in my documents for immigration - and Whips! I'M AN LEGAL ALIEN! So, now I have my immigration done and are now living in Canada as an permanent resident. Tomorrow I'm handing in my application for the Canadian social number, medical insurance and then a French course full time payed by the government for us immigrants. So, after 3 months of full time French, I believe I will be a master of the language, neh?!
Tomorrow we "move" to our new residency for a month - the Bed & Breakfast!
Miss you all!

D'oh! Var ä bruuudarna..?

2008-04-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

Jag citerar ur DN:

"Simpsons portas i Venezuela

Den satiriska teveserien "Simpsons" fortsätter att skapa kontrovers i Sydamerika.

För ett par år sedan planerade Rio de Janeiros turistbyrå att stämma Simpsons-skaparna efter familjens kaotiska Rio-resa.
Nu kastas den dysfunktionella amerikanska kärnfamiljen ut från venezuelansk morgonteve i Caracaskanalen Televen. Venezuelas tevemyndighet menar att Simpson är ett dåligt föredöme för unga och sprider "budskap som går emot all uppfostran av pojkar, flickor och tonåringar".
Vilket program som ersätter "Simpsons"?
"Baywatch", såklart. "

Living spacious

2008-04-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

We're doing a spring move - for 1 month only! Happen to meet this sparkling woman who after meeting me only once asked if maybe we would like to baby-sit her big house and cat - AND Bed & Breakfast! She's going on a trip for a month so we are from now on Bed & Breakfast "owners" right in the down town of Montreal! Hihi! Never thought that would happen.

So, need a place to stay?

Beer is fantastic

2008-04-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, I told you so! In Montreal they have amazing beer culture, with their own micro breweries. My favourite place right now is Dieu du Ciel, that makes my newest favourite beer: Black Pepper Beer!
Check out their beer menu, quite impressive neh::
http://www.dieuduciel.com/en/beers.php?nom_en=

Mitaine - je t'aime

2008-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

I know I know.. This cat-name will sound strange in Swedish, but it is a French speaking cat, so we just had to give her a French name. And it happened to be the first thing we called her when she first moved in, that got stuvked into our minds, so here it is:

MITAINE - which means Tumvante in Swedish. Why? Because she has six feet! yes, she's a bit strange, with like eight claws on each front foot. So, it really looks like she has Mitaine's on.

Je parle un peu français

2008-04-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Salut!
Finally! My French are going the right way!!! The other day I had my very first longer talk compleatly in French with another person than my own ego. Yes! It was actually one of the other immigrant french students, but she speaks very good French, way over me, since she's been here for 2 years now. But she speaks kinda easy light French, and not the crazy quebecois dialect they have here. And yep! I got it all! And I answered to in French, even though I speak bad turc-french, but hey, I'm just sooooo happy it finally starts!
Je me souviens!

St. Paddy's Day!!!

2008-03-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day! Tjoho! This is the crazy celebrated Irish day, when everything goes in green, I even saw a poor dog who had his fur colored green, and everyone are covered in green costumes and crazy hats and bracelets and anything green they could find in the dollarama shop.

We celebrated this strange event during a Sunday around lunch , first watching the HUGE parade (apparently the St-Patricks Day-celebration in Montreal is the biggest outside Ireland itself!) - then drinking beer like crazy and the mood in the Irish bar was very, very high - and absolutely PACKED of people, we could hardly move. I felt like I was back in the student pub in Norrköping at some sort of an "pubtömmning". I mean - CRAAAAZZZYYYYYY!!! Everybody sang and screamed and danced and drank like maniacs.
This is the only day when Montrealers are aloud to drink alcohol out on the streets in the open, so I believe this might have added to the high spirit. Everybody had a brown paper bag with a little something inside, including me of course. Stand up for your right - to paaaaaarrrrrrtyyyy!!

America behind bars?

2008-03-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

I read an astonishing article the other day, saying that "... more than one in 100 American adults now is incarcerated, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project."

Wow, what are they doing over there? Could it be that Americans are more criminal than other countries population, or is the system just more likely to sentence people to prison, even for minor offenses? Well, I choose to believe the later.
The article goes on:

"... Texas' prison population -- 171,790 -- is the nation's highest, according to the study. The study concluded that much of the growth in prison populations has to do with "a wave of policy choices that are sending more lawbreakers to prison and, through popular 'three-strikes' measures and other sentencing enhancements, keeping them there longer."
"... Men are about 10 times more likely to be incarcerated, but the female population is growing at a faster rate. The study also found that age limits jail time. One in every 53 people in their 20s is in prison, but above age 55 that falls to one in 837. Even so, between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 and older rose from 41,586 to 113,358, a jump of 173 percent.

The racial disparity is stark: While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that same age group the figure is one in nine."

Yes, I'm amazed... This is crazy...

So happy I live in Canada, though, I haven't seen the figures here, yet...

Let me introduce...

2008-03-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I took a break from the blog, but now I'm back!

Let me present our new best friend - Theeeeeee ... *TAM-TAM-TA-TAAAM*
"No-Name" cat!!!

She came to live with us a week ago and we became best friends all three of us from the very fist moment. She's a loving purring-machine, full of energy and funfun! We are amazed. Didn't know how much I really missed having cat around, she really makes the home even more homey! Right now she's 4 months old, so bit too young to walk outside by her self, and there is amazing lot of snow too, so she would disappear, but as soon as spring is here she will be an outdoors cat for sure. She's already hunting down her toy mouse with precision and dedication.

So, she doesn't have a name yet, but it will come soon I think. Any suggestions?

Otherwise our life is good, M is working crazy and playing till I fear his fingers will fall of, he's good!, and I'm struggling with French and looking for jobs. So far I've applied for three really interesting ones I hope to get, but no news yet. I'll keep you posted.

Eastern is soon here, and then my best childhood friend C is coming, so I'm sooooo excited and happy about this.

Are you there? Let me know, fun to know if anyone is reading. Well, otherwise, at least I'm contributing to the information age.

Miss you all dearly!
Love/PluPlu

super article!

2008-02-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

C sent me this article and when I read it I felt like it truly put words to how it feels to move to another country and not have the language. read it, it's really super! Thanks C! Sorry, only in Swedish...

http://www.00tal.com/arkiv/art9_10.html

happy times

2008-02-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

Helloo,

I seem to be fading a bit in my updating of this blog, don't know if this indicates a good or a bad thing. I guess I have more things to do now than before that doesn't include a computer. Well, not that my life has taken such a drastic change, even though I now can officially stay in Canada and find a work, but I have a better feeling inside that came with these new possibilities. I'm happier, more out going and less likely to burst into tears for nothing. And that is an amazing change inside! And this makes me less motivated to spend my time in front of the computer and therefor less time spent on the blog. Sorry! I guess I'm happy! :)

Je parle un peu français

2008-02-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

Häpp! So, today at French-class I for the first time didn't feel sooooo lost any more! yes, still a lot, A LOT of struggling, especially to remember how to say stuff, but I feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of it, I understand so much more, it starting to make sense to me and I have fun learning again. Now I just have to get one of those French big pointy noises and talk about women and wine, then I'll be ready for anything!
YEIIIPPIIII!!!

Oscar

2008-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

The Oscars are beeing shown on a big screen in a big movie complex in town. I think I should go, just for the laugh! 250 people in the same room watching celebrities cry and thank God for creating them. Hey - can it be better, and it's for free.

update

2008-02-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

So, time for up-date from me to you:

My passport is out traveling on its own, taking flights cross the big ocean. I've sent it to London to get my visa for permanent resident glued in, gulp! A bit weird to put you passport into a little envelope and send it away for a journey through countries and flights, all by it self. I really hope it will find its way back to me. Don't wanna have another "plu-plu-person" living in Canada carrying my passport and name.

I had my 3:rd meeting with my new found friend K. She's really nice and we have fun chatting! Went for coffee and some shopping actually, I haven't been shopping since I got here in September so it was nice. Actually, to meet a new person like this is probably the closest thing to blind-dating as I will ever come. It's fun and a bit strange, but nice. I like it! And it's such an blessing to have someone to talk to that are going through the same thing as I am, and who understands the roller coaster emotions it gives you.

I'm trying to write my thieses, (C-uppsatsen), and it's actually fun. Still in the process of reading and trying to figure out what the real subject will be, but right now I'm into documentary films and environmental discourse. You know, Al Gore and stuff. Reading course books at the moment and it feels good to get back into the thughts and theories again. I'm ready for it, I think. I have some idéa back in my head to finish my masters here in Montreal within journalism, but hey, well see about that. Cause here you have to pay loads of money for your studies, in lovely Sweden it's for free.... Hmmmm... what to do..

My French is moving, just can't say in what direction. I'll keep you posted. :)

I'm applying for a job at Ericsson! Hoppala! Well, you know, I need a job... And it might be funfun too, who knows. I'll keep you posted on this. And M got a job too, super fast! He literally applied and had the interview within the same week. Now that's something! Congrats M!! :)

Tonight I'm having my 4:th meeting with friend K, we're going for a nice locally brewed beer to celebrate my visa!

Salut!

Happy happy joy joy - visa is here!

2008-02-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

TJOHOOOOOO!!!

I've got my permanent residency visa today!!!!! This is what we've been waiting for all this time! It went faster than we thought it would, so it's super duper! Wow! This means I'm aloud to stay here as long as I would like to, I can work, study, get access to doctors, apply for courses, get grants for film making if I wanted that. Basically I'm a Canadian now, just not able to vote and have a Canadian passport (I can apply for Canadian citizenship after 2 years, if I want to).

So, that's my great news! I feel happy and confused at the same time, but mostly just happy happy joy joy!

I miss you all my friends! Tell me what you're up to?

Love/pluplu

"...a decision has been made..."???

2008-02-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

PS.... I might, and I say it again - MIGHT - have got my immigration application for a visa for Canada approved...! We'll know for sure in some days I believe. But the web page where I can follow my application says that "a decision has been made" and office will contact me. Please say it's the decision I've been waiting for... PLEEEASE!!!

HO-HO-HO-HOOOOCKYFRILLA!

2008-02-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to my first hockey game - ever! It was quite something! I have no idea what the scores were at the end (5-3 to the Chiefs?), but HELLOOOOOO!!! What were they doing fighting all the time?? I mean, there were suddenly a fight and BOOOM! - loud music crashing down on us like a heavy metal band on disco-speed and the two muscle hunks on skates started circling around, and around, and... gääääsp... aaaaroooouuuunnnnd, sometimes a little bonk! on the nose and no blood, no cool black eye - no nothing. Disapointing! It were some sort of a dance I believe. And they didn't stop it, it was kinda aloud in some weird way, never seen anything like it, thought sport was all about health and good old spirit in tight clothes with bad smell, guess I was wrong. And during this "fight" event, that took place more than often, the drunk part of the hunk-wanna-be audience were doing their hunk-hunk-hunk-sound, cheering for the poor dancing gentlemen on the ice and the a bit left out players in each team had to stand back on the side and wait it all out, looking a bit bored. Then they were done, after about a minute or two, and the game could go on. Strange, I must say. Learned later that these guys fighting are actually meant to be fighting for real. They kinda have a guy in the opposite team to go for with a fist if the guy are playing too too good or beeing too hard on their guys or something. Just to put some tension into it, like skating fast, pushing each other into the walls so it sings and shooting the rock hard piece of plastic as hard as possible were it hurts the most, like this all wouldn't be enough - let's fight! : )
And of course there were also all-dressed-up-for-pleasure 18 year old girlie-girls doing their sexy bon-bon dances to BAD music (Ace of Base came twice) in white mini-skirts (with white G-strings under, I saw them, more than once!) - YES, welcome to the American continent! Felt like being in a highschool movie - but live. One old and frogstyle-looking dude were checking out the poor, willingly dancing grandchild-aged girl next to him with a look that leaves out absolutely nothing. Brrrr.... I felt colder than the ice just by beeing in the same room as him.
Well, so, don't get me wrong now, I enjoyed the game a lot, the players were good and the tempo high, but I must say that I had my best entertainment on the side with my new found friend chatting with me. Thanks K for bringing me there, it was quite a ride! :)

kiddo

2008-02-09T17:39:00.000-08:00

Tjo! Today I went sledging down a snowy hill! Feel like a kiddo again. Funfunfun!

On the roadmap to friends 2

2008-02-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

So, of course the girl I met for coffee was super nice and we had fun talking for 2 hours! Finally someone to share Montreal-beginner-stories with, if you know what I mean. I believe we have quite the same experience of the adjusting problems and roller coaster emotions. So, we will meet again, for sure! Haaaaaappy me! :)

Fat Tuesday!

2008-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

In USA they have Super Tuesday.
In Sweden we have FetTisdag.
Could it be the same?

On the road-map to friends

2008-02-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

I'm looking for friends, I'm feeling very lonely in this town. You know, I do have M, we're together a lot and having a blast. But sometimes it's nice to have others around you, someone to share life stories with, gossip, have coffee, talk over the phone (just to get a phone call would be amazing), or just to share different points of views. You know, simple life things, friends in its own essence. So, I joined this network for friend-seekers in Montreal (and around the world) called MEETin.org
I'm new so far, but the whole idea around it is to get people together and have fun and hopefully meet new friends during. So, I signed in and looked around, and there was some nice people there. I got in contact with a girl from USA, who lives here under kinda the same circumstances as I do, and we found out we live actually very close to each other too, and we're getting together tomorrow morning for a coffee! Hey! That's something, huh?! Hopefully we'll have a good time, she seems like a fun girl to me! On the road-map to friends...
Watch out Montreal - here comes "Super-Friendly Jessie"! Ta-da-ta-taaaaaa!!

T-TV

2008-02-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks to P we are now hooked on The Sarah Connor Chronicles! Watched the first pilot episode yesterday, nice stuff, of course can't be compared with the Terminator films, but that's the thing with spinn-off TV-series. I can live with that. The only thing I find a bit hard to melt is the over sexy new Sarah, just too much lips in one frame for me. But if we know her character right she will probably get them smashed and punched at least 10 times before this story is over, so they might change a bit.

Quebec name and vikings 2

2008-02-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

hmm... M said he was doubting this thing I found about the name Quebec came from Sweden via the Vikings... (see earlier input two steps down). I looked it up and Canadian officials claim it's from the indian culture and their name Kebec, wish means narrow creek or something, pointing at the river St Laurent and the narrowing parts around the city of Quebec. Well, this all makes a lot of sence, probably the one who claimed the Swedish point of view was just a bit jelous - cause in fact he himself is a Swedish scientist/author.
Well, as the story goes about my hometown of Arvika (wish is not a fact coming from this Swedish scientist), the name means something like the battlefield of the vikings (ar = battle, vika = rowing men in shift (vikings) ). How about that! :)

Bläääsch!

2008-02-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Uärk... Just saw the movie La Grande Bouffe - I'm feeling sick!

Ha! I knew it! Sweden is loosing words to Quebec.

2008-02-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Looki what I found on the web. This might make people here more interested in Sweden, and stop complaining when I claim the stole our Swedish words!
(I borrow this text from http://www.nordicway.com/search/Quebec.htm)

" QUEBEC IS SWEDISH!
The Normand Samuel Champlain and his friends sailed from the harbour of Honfleur in Normandy, France to North America in 1608 with the intention of founding a colony there. They landed in eastern Canada and named the land they claimed Quebec. They brought the name from their home in Normandy, just like other emigrants had done before them, and have done since then. What the settlers probably did not know was that the name Quebec has Scandinavian origins, having been brought to France by the Vikings in the tenth century.
(The very interesting book "The Frenchmen from the North" by Clas Brunius has a detailed account of the existence of many Nordic names in Normandy, stemming from the time when Vikings from Denmark, Norway and Sweden took possession of this province. Language analysts like the Dane Jakob Jakobsen have also uncovered some fascinating information about this).
The Viking chief Rollo rewarded his men by giving them land in Normandy. At the same time he started imposing a tax on the farms and the estates. They therefore had to be registered and this was done by French clerks knowledgeable in Latin and in writing. They tried to transcript the unfamiliar Nordic names in Latin. The "Kallebäck" from the western part of Sweden was then written down in Latin as "Calidusbeccus", later transformed into French as "Caudebec". Skånish Ivetofta eventually became Yvetot.
Similarly "Kvillebäck" (the Kville creek) became Quebec. And there we are! Quebec is Swedish, more precisely the name comes from Bohuslän, the western-most province of Sweden situated to the north of Gothenburg. The Vikings emigrating from the place called "The Kville Creek" took the name to Normandy when they settled down there 1 000 years ago. The community and parish Kville still exists in Bohusldn, Sweden."

naked illegal alien 2

2008-02-03T10:26:00.001-08:00

hmm... I discovered something suspicious at the swimming pool the other day, I now know the trick the girls have to be able to change clothes without being seen naked. For those who doesn't think it's enough to shower with swimsuit on and then after get dressed facing the corner of the room all wrapped up in towels (usually two) and zig-zag themselves like worms to get swimsuit of and underwear on without showing skin, they change in the tiny toilet rooms. (no, not IN the toilet, they have already been swimming. All you see is feet under the door, bags being zipped open and closed and schwuuuuungz - out comes a properly covered female body, dressed and maked-up and hair in place, ready to meet the gaze of the world again, and my amused eyes. Way to go girls! (BRÄNN BH:n!)

First contact with the aliens

2008-02-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

So, I got spoken to by a stranger from Montreal yesterday, the very first in over 6 months that tries to make contact with me just like that. It was in a coffee shop in the English speaking area of NDG (west of the city), where I had an afternoon of boring exploration. (yes, I said boooooring, only beautiful houses and no kicking energy at all.) So, there I was sitting with my coffee and an English newspaper, The Gazette, when suddenly this qute guy came up to me with a pen and a piece of paper and very awkwardly asks if he can do a goofy thing and ask for my telephonenumber. Man, of course very flattering, even in it's own fumbling goofyness, but why in the world was this my first contact with this new people? Typical! I have never, EVER in my whole life been asked for my number before by a stranger I haven't even said a word to before. But the most amazing feeling in the whole situation was to not feel anything but flattered and not interested AT ALL, and to tell him, "Sorry, I'm married." and really feel super happy in that!
I'm so in love with my man, that no little guy can charm me with a smile and a piece of paper. Take a hike dude.

Frodo - my best friend

2008-02-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

So, now I have finished the whole book of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings! Together me and Frodo have been fighting monsters in dark places and man! that freaky, super-scary spider she-monster! Uuuuuuhhhhh! I was sooooo scared that I was jumping up and down in the bed, waking up M all the time and kept having scary nightmares about super-sized monster spiders crawling up the walls around the bed, waking up sweating and shaking and had M to check if it was for real. Yes, I have fobia for spiders! And the worst thing is that this appartment of ours seems to be the super-nest of disgusting pale yellow-white BIG spiders who keep crawling in and scare me. poor M, who hate hurting any one or anything, has to terminate them for me. I'm a serious spider-hating woman!

Talking about terminator, we also have watched all three the Terminator movies again! The first one is a masterpiece, the second super, the third is pointless. But hey, for sure, it WILL be back! Maybe Arnold could do something about that slaughter-machine of Mr Bush too...?

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2008-01-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

YES!!! My best childhood friend, C, is coming in late March for a visit!!! YEEEEEEPPIIIIIEEEE!!! I'm sooooo happy, cause not only will I have someone visiting me, first one so far, bu it will be a good friend I always has known, lost for many years in the labyrinths of life, and now found back to and we now kick off just as we used to! Tjohooooo!

Funny that thing of meeting someone again - and you feel like you already know this person inside out, without actually knowing anything about her life as it is now a days. Looking at her is for me to look at a 10 year old sparkling girl, but with a 27 year old mind, knowledge and outlook. Strange and great at the same time.

C, I'm waiting like crazy! Happy happy joy joy!

Love you all
/pluplu

Quebec men goes fishing

2008-01-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hmm... It seems like Quebec men like to fish in the international sea of women. In my class, where there is 8 women, 5 of us is brought to Quebec out of love, "forced" to marry to be able to stay and all of us are "forced" by the immigration system to become a housewife unwillingly while doing it. Grrrrreat!

back in school

2008-01-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

So, I'm back behind the school bench, slowly wriggeling my tounge around wird sounds to try to make sense, ANY sense at all. But no, I seem to have lost most of my (sense?) abilities of speaking French over Christmas holidays. Plu plu plu pluääääää! I don't get it, ok?! What a super duper weird language it is, really!
But the class is nice and the teacher too, so I'm having fun, and that's really what I need just now anyway, so I can live with the language problem.
By the way, yesterday a women phoned and told me something in difficult and rapid French. "Sorry, I said, do you speak English?" "Njae, only little very... Your French course beginner tomorrow start, ok."
Great neh, smart thinking.

djunglelaw

2008-01-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

It's forbidden by law in Montreal to be in the city's parks between 12 at night to 6 in the morning.
Why? A hint is the huge amount of homeless people here and commercial areas who doesn't like them around...
Hmm...

stores and beers

2008-01-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

In the food stores in Montreal they have bagboys - those boys or girls who pack your food while you're paying the cashier. I always feel a bit stupid standing there waiting, but sometimes I try to help, but usually that just complicate things for them. But the real pain is when the bagboy is missing, and the cashier has to do the job - after she/he dealt with the money. Then she/he slowly starts packing for you and the line of people just keeps growing behind you. Efficient? I wouldn't say. Service minded - definitely!

Then you have the amazing coldrooms ( I said room!) with beer - ALL kinds of beer - in every store, even the tiny corner stores that you find everywhere there might live people! I mean, hey baberiba! How service minded can it be?! Being used to maybe a small fridge in the back of the store with some commercial 2,5% beer, if I'm lucky, I found this completely cool! You have everything from commercial stuff to locally brewed beer, amber, brown, dark, blonde, you name it. And of course - it's ALL strong beer! Tjohooo!

naked illegal alien

2008-01-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

Something is strange about Canadian girls - they are shy of showing nakedness in front of each other. I'm still the only one who showers naked after swimming at the swimming pool. And they stare at me like I'm an alien, a NAKED illegal alien! It's a bit amusing. But I always thought the American continent was all about sex and showing booty, but apparently that ends with the Canadian border.

housewife dovetail-style

2008-01-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Hahahahahahaha!!! Guess what I found. M has this old cooking book "The settlement cook book" (with the subtitle: The way to a man's heart), first printed in 1901, but this one has been re-edited 1960, so it's been modernized, it says on the cover. And in the book you can find not only recipes, but also amazing tips of how to be a good housewife, made for newly wedded wife or up to expert level housekeeper. So, since my new life is a bit on the upside down-side for the moment and I'm a bit of an unwillingly housewife, I thought it could be some good ideas in the book for me. And listen to this:

Housekeeping guide
Make a schedule of essential housekeeping tasks, and use this as a guide to jobs to do every day, once a week, at the major change-over time in the spring and fall. Clean regularly; dirt and stains are easier to remove when fresh. First, list your daily chores, general tidying, bed-making, top-dusting, sweeping and vacuuming, care of the bathroom and kitchen, meal preparation and dishwashing.
Make a second list of chores done on special days of the week: ideally, each room should be done thoroughly once a week, with work divided equally among the working days you allot to housekeeping. (...) Learn to dovetail jobs (kedjearbeta), so that two can be going at once. Let the washer run by itself while you do surface cleaning. Dovetail your own time and motions, too.

I love it! I learned so much by reading this and are now doing everything according to the book. At this very moment I'm dovetailing hard by being lazy in my bed while writing this super important information to you all - AND drinking coffee at the same time! Like if this wouldn't be enough I have also the privilege of watching my dear husband dovetailing in the kitchen, cleaning the stove and the dishes (all according to the great book) while cooking a big ham old grandma-style! And around this we have wrapped amazing jazz music into our ears, so that we can let dreams wander freely at the same time as this heavy work is being done.
Thank you "The settlement Cookbook", for all the inspiration you have given us. Now I'm gonna move over to implement dovetailing on my very body movements.

long time

2008-01-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

You know what? I´ve been in Canada for over 6 months!!!! Whooohooooo!!!!

blub-blub-bla-bla-plu-plu

2008-01-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

French, French, FRENCH!!!! I´m loosing my hair over this soooo complicated language! Why is it so hard to learn? I just don't get it at all, practicing really hard, I would say, reading and translating and trying to talk and listening and listening and listening. But no! Nothing stays! I feel like a gold fish in a glass bubble, I can see the world out there, but instead of swimming in it, I'm going around and around in my glass bubble, forgetting where I was one round ago. Blääää! M claims that I'm doing fine, but I think he might say it a bit out of love. :) Well, it's good that he does, it gives me that little extra to keep going.

Otherwise, life is good here, I just learned that my immigration application might be finished processed by end of March, and if really, really lucky even as early as end February! Wow! Then I can work, tjoooohoooo!! I have so much need of working that whenever I start talking about it I get all rounded up and angry and crying out of frustration. I'm telling you friends, this has for sure been the HARDEST thing I have ever done on my life! To push yourself through this porridge of reglations, laws, wondering, worry, thoughts of this and that, context change and assimilation, puh - not easy. But hey, I'm still kicking, neh!
Miss you all! Tell me how you're doing!
Love/pluplu

Indier i min hemstad!

2008-01-14T23:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry, only in Swedish:

Denna artikel står att läsa i Nya Wermlands Tidning:

"Nio indier smugglades till Arvika via en plomberad trailer från Luxemburg. De trodde att de kom till London."

Lite längre ned:
"– Är de här för att söka asyl kommer de att lämnas över till Migrationsverket. Men är de här illegalt blir det ett avvisningsbeslut och i väntan körs de till förvar i Flen, säger en polis. (...) Alla beslut fattas av beslutsfattare i utlänningsrätt, i det här fallet chefen för gränspolisen i Västerås. Chefen för gränspolisen i Värmland är på semester – i Indien."

Stackars indier, Arvika är liksom inte the place to be. Tror faktiskt att dessa 9 skulle vara de enda indierna där, någonsin... Men så som indierna i religionen har elefanter med många armar, så har Arvika sin fågelman, med fågelhuvud, köttig manskropp, två armar och tre (!) ben. Mitt på torget. Enastående vackert! Älskad av alla, saknad av ingen.

night blues

2008-01-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

I can't sleep, instead I'm in my bed thinking about the woman I met today that had more beard than my own husband... Huga!!
And then I'm thinking about you my friends and wondering what you are doing today? Please tell me... I'm having night blues...

Little Sweden in Montreal

2008-01-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

No, I can't live without you - you amazing Swedish people. Realized that it is a nice thing to keep the Swedish contacts in a new country, who knows, maybe they are sitting on an amazing job opportunity for me some day? So, I found the Swedish Club in Montreal on the net and hey!, they are having a pub evening in two days! Hellooo Sweeeeden! Here I come. Well, I must say that the homepage leaves me wondering about who they actually are, just enough to feel interested in finding out. And if not anything, a good beer is always a good beer, neh.

How ever I do, I will never get far away from Swedish connections as long as I'm learning French, that's for sure. Man, who would have known there was sooo much Swedish words stolen by the francophones? We should take it to court fellows! They took our dear word "trottoar", and what about our important word "dusch" and the deeply beloved "cement". The only comfort in this tragedy is that they can't spell. (trottoir, douche, ciment). Here is a word we should steal from them: limitation (hastighetsbegränsning) But wait, isn't that already stolen from English? Hmm.. gotta look into this.

blip-blip

2008-01-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

Wohooo, my blog is filling up slowly of self reflexive, super-selfish (hmm.. how do you spell that word without making it look like a fish?), self concentrated, only-about-me-me-me-text!!! Yeaha! I told you I would take some time of concentrating on myself, and hey, that´s what I´m doing, neh. But today is the day of change! I came to the conclusion (with a little help of my friend :) that I have to start looking around myself, otherwise my inspiration will never come back fully. And how am I then gonna start writing those documentary film scripts I soooo much wanna do?

So, news is the best way to start, so today I´m listening to CBC - Canada Broadcasting Corp.! Tjo! It´s funfunfun! Wanna join me?

contrasts in city

2008-01-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

I love the contrasts in this city, all the different people and views in the streets, the mix of very ugly and very nice and interesting. When you walk in down town you'll meet a lot of homeless people, much more than I´m used to, and it´s to me a wonder how they can survive a Montreal winter with freezing cold winds and snow, sometimes temperatures under -40. Brrrr...

I like all the amazing amount of projects and courses and other initiatives that I see everywhere around where I look, stuff for supporting this and that and to spreading the knowledge about this and that. It´s about homelessness, HIV, drugs, mixed cultures, immigrants, languages, youth in trouble, disabled, psychic related problems, environmental projects, political awareness... etc.. you name it... I must say, it feels much more alive than in Sweden, maybe I´m wrong, but it´s the feeling I get.

A supernice contrast you see especially down town is all the churches completely squeezed in between high office buildings and big shoppingmalls. This city is famous for all its churches, and I guess they came long before the sky scrapers... Unfortunatly I still mis a digital camera, so you will have to come here and see it for yourselves (peak, peak :)

Another really nice thing is the buildings that are left from the world Expo in 1967, I have only visited one of them, the Biosphere, an amazing structure on one of the islands in the Lawrence river. It´s now turned into a nature history museum with a focus on environmental issues and biology. Very, very cool to see the architecture. But I still haven´t visited the amazing apartment building Habitat 67, witch is an extra ordinary structure along the water close to the harbor. I saw a TV program about this building before I moved and I just have to see it soon! It´s built out of cubes, all the same but each and everyone a bit turned around in different angles so all of them have their own part of the view, some sunny sides and a own private garden inside in between the neighbors "cube" apartment. It was supposed to be built for an uncosty living with quite low rent, but of course it became an artistic hit and now all the cool people with tons of money and architectual interest lives here.
Wanna join me for an excursion?
PS: most photos can be viewed in full size by clicking on them.

Big Brother sees me

2008-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

One strange but good thing happened when I entered the customs in Montreal this time flying home to Canada. The girl behind the counter scanned my passport as they always do, gave it back and told me to pay a visit to the immigration in the office behind her. I had not told her anything about anything, so I supposed my immigration application and status popped up on her computer screen when she scanned the passport. So me and M went in there, a guy asked us some easy questions and said ok, stamped the passport and off we went. Puh! Always scary while you´re in there, cause they could suddenly change their minds about something ans decide to send me back on the returning flight for almost nothing. So we were happy everything went so smoth. And this means I´m officially in their systems now - and big brother is keeping an eye on me. Gulp!

getting there slowly

2008-01-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

I´m continuing my journey into the Quebec´n lifestyle. Today I signed up for a pottery class, finally, I´ve been wanting to do that since I finished high school. And I even managed to get my own library loan card - and I loaned some seriebooks that looked nice and a French study book. So, now I am equipped and I feel so happy to have done this two things. Never in my life I thought I would be soooo happy over getting myself a library card, but life can be surprising...

Multi culti

2008-01-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

One thing I love about Montreal is all the multi cultural food and people. 5 minutes from our house we have an amazing market with all the vegetables, fruit, meat, bread, wine and cheese you could ever want from all around the world I would say. And around the market you can find super Chinese restaurants (I mean real ones as in the chef and the owners are usually a Chinese family working together all of them with the kids running around or grandma peeling the carrots in the corner) and halal kitchens and Italian, African, Spanish food places are close by too... And my new love is all those amazing Chinese noodle soups, especially the one with smoked veil (kalv), soooo delicious, you have to come over and try it! Multu culti is da shit!

Bonne année!!!

2008-01-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone! Thanks for the all the hugs and talks and cheering we got from all of you we met in Sweden! You have no idea how much it meant for me and how much in need of that I was!!! Thank you, you all made my (our) Christmas and kicked me in a good mood for this brand new happy year!!!

Me and M throw a new years eve party here at home, some nice friends and a lot of food and Swedish snaps later I discovered a funny and nice thing around 12 at night. We had a snaps each in our hands, raising it for the big Salut, and they asked me what my new years resolution would be... Resolution??!! Man, how good isn´t that? In Sweden we always make promises - just to break them a few weeks later. But a resolution, thats something extra! I loved it. And here it is: My resolution for 2008 is to let go of the old so new can come in!

Happy resolution guys!

Love/pluplu

Jholapplä?

2007-12-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Swedish and French are not at all far away from eachother when it comes to words. They laugh a lot here when I say the very Swedish word "långkalsong", and it shows out to be old, old French. Weird. So is also Swedish "byrå, fåtölj, betong, trottoar", etc... I always claim it's Swedish words that the French has adopted, nobody seems to belive me. And my grandparents always said "jordäpplen" for potatoes, guess that this comes as an direct translation from French pommes de terre. Well, in Värmland they said "jholapplä", but thats a language of its own. :)

French Canadians complain about the frenchmen in France, there is apparently an old and still strong discussion about what is the real French language. In France they seem to have mixed up a lot of French with English words now, and in Quebec they laugh about this. In France they even subtitle the French Canadian movies with French. Now, that's something! But French in Canada is quite heavy on its dialect, suits me fine, coming from deep forests of Värmland!

French moving forward

2007-12-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

My French course is funfunfun! We have now learned how to ask questions in many different ways, very confusing and fun, hopeless to remember when to use what, but who cares. I'm happy as long as I can ask for my coffee. Have become a helplessly coffee-holic lately. But it's sooooo gooood! :)

Tonight I'm having a second rendez-vous of my own with a friend since I got here. Yeeeaaaa! Happy inside! Maybe I'll even impress on him with my French.

Sweden are finally thinking!

2007-12-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, this was interesting! Now Sweden knows what to use their military defense for, finally! Star ship troopers?

Read this article from today at SR's homepage. (sorry, only in Swedish)

Klimatet oroar mer än militära angrepp.

snowy day of fun

2007-12-04T05:08:00.000-08:00

Hmm.. It's still snowing - and forecast tells us of 3 days of more heavily snowing... It's gonna be tough in the city. I just waked up and looked out of my window to see all the cars they so carefully and with so much pain digged out yesterday, is now all covered and jammed in with 1,5 meters of packed snow (along both sides and cars close parked in front and behind) again from the clearing of the road and heavy snowing. Poor car-owners I say. Well, maybe this is their punishment for polluting the air, neh?! "The one who digs a whole..."
Off to French course, then library down town for some hours of reading, a visit to the Centre d'histoire de Montréal and then to Museum of Fine Arts for an exhibition of Canadian electronic arts, later on Swedish course for M´s friend and home late tonight. Full day in Montreal! :)

Right now...

2007-12-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

...I miss yoooooouuuuuuuu!!!!!

translation please!

2007-12-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

You who know me knows how hard it is for me to be quiet, most of the time that is. But I'll tell you, here I have learned how to be quiet, not because I actually want to, but I just don't know what people around me are talking about, so I don't know what to say. "Pluuu, pluplu pluuuplupluuuu uuu pluuu plu!" Poor M almost has his musical ears falling off when he gets home and I might have been quiet for 10 hours in a row alone at home! "Blablablablaaaaa! :)
Sometimes when I sit there listening to other peoples happy talks with jokes and laughters and funny stories - so it seems, I don't understand a thing - I just want to do something surprising for them. Maybe I should just go for the very famous and effective Swedish-French expression;
"Eta gelé me treskée i vedbóa!" That should keep them occupied for a while.

our home & co.

2007-12-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

We live in a old house that probably has seen it's days of glory go by many years ago. It's not so charming from the outside, but has a nice ambiance inside in our little one room and a kitchen hut. It's charming I think, and it has got a very nice little outdoors space, like a Swedish wood veranda with glass windows facing a small garden. I like it a lot, and it's close to the huge fruit and vegetable market and other stores and coffee shops and things. Nice! It's also very, very close to a small indoors swimming pool and library, and 4 evenings per week they have a free hour of swimming, so I go there as often as I can now. Very nice! I'm gonna be swimming myself to success! (and slim down from my three months of laziness and good food and M's homemade amazing wine and all nice locally brewed beer)
The only real downside with or apartment is our neighbor. Actually, it's not him who is the problem, he's really nice, it's just that in between our apartments the walls seems to be made out of rise paper or something, it used to be a big house and they seem to have just split the first floor into 2 apartments, without much thought behind it. And the neighbor love playing the radio with bad music, and watch football games loud on TV with hectic commentators screaming in French. I hear him cooking food, putting down the glass on the table, walking around, talking over the phone, snore during night, and sometimes I can even hear him fart...
Besides him we have a funny but friendly housewife next door, who seems to have her goal in life set on keeping track on what her neighbors does - or doesn't do. She invited me over to view her apartment, showing EVERY room, including the bathroom, asking me over and over if I didn't think it was Oh! so beautiful?! Well, I must say - it was different. Very kitschy Italian style with gold and pink and plastic and porcelain figurines everywhere, even in the bathroom. We also has got a very nice neighbor to the right who has a small white dog called Sushi - we were thinking of getting a cat named Soya.

snowstorm

2007-12-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Snowstorm, it almost sounds romantic, doesn't it? Well, I spent the weekend with M on his tour while in Quebec City, we had funfun! But this morning we woke up to a snow storm, learned that they had closed all the schools in whole Quebec region (not the city, the hole HUGE region across Canada). It was cold and snowy and above all windy! Brrrrr... My car ride back to Montreal never came, so I took the bus and came back to a completely white, covered in snow Montreal. Amazing sight! It was like 30-40 cm fresh, powdery snow and all the cars parked along the streets were all covered in snow and jammed from when they had cleared the streets of the snow. People digging down everywhere trying to get their cars out. (Wished I had a digital camera so I could show you how it looked like, but I posted this free pictures from the web to give some snowy ambiance of Montreal to you, not as much snow as it is here to day, but anyway.) But no one here seems surprised at all by all this snow and storm, they are more or less used to it. This is gonna be a very hard winter for me I think.

a coffee avec moi?

2007-11-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

Coffee shops - my new livingroom/workspace/dreamingspace! With a laptop and a cup of good (sometimes horrible) coffee, I can stay in these spaces for hours and hours. It might sound like heaven for many of you, but frankly, I use it not only for working (like studying French and trying and oh so hard trying to come up with something project-look-alike to do), but mostly to feel less isolated and pretend that I'm actually are DOING something! Yes, it's isolating to move to a new country, in many ways. but, I'm getting there, slowly, but for sure. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger; - I'll be back!
Yeeeeeeh!!! :)

Quebec City on my radar

2007-11-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

M has left 3 days ago for a one and a half weeks tour with a contemporary dance group. Dancing beauties all around him, hmpfrr!! :) A bit lonely evenings over here...
But in two days I'll meeting him in Quebec City, about 4 hours drive from Montreal. We were there about a month ago, and it's a very nice and beautiful city with about 300 000 people, kinda touristic, but it has a very nice charm and beautiful view over river and mountains. And I LOVE the mountains!!!
To get there I'll use the super good system of the so called "Allo Stop", which is a community based transport system, where private drivers can announce their travels and the traveler pay a small amount of money to go along, like 1/3 of the costs of a bus ride.

"de som har nedsatt människosyn..."

2007-11-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

I just found this amazing expression on SVT's homepage, regarding en evening show "Grotesco".
I like it! I'll add this to my vocabulary.

suburbia

2007-11-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

I saw a documentary film about suburbs, a subject that I find amusing. It's so interesting to see how and what city planners think when they plan how we are going to live. And can there be any more depressing than these kind of living - suburbs in the American continent. You would recognize the style from the TV series Desperate Housewife, you know, the perfect houses all looking exactly the same with small gardens and a pool in the backyard. Highly depressing!

Unfortunately the film wasn't that good, in the very end the charachters we were following turned into the camera and told us they were actually actors. Then followed some bad excuses why it was like that, followed by the answer from the director on my direct question of why he made it like that: "- I wanted to tell documentary in a new storytelling mode, and I didn't want to spend months out there in the suburb to try to catch something good on tape."

Well, doesn't that just kill the whole feeling the film tried to tell us - the feeling of beeing stucked in these suburbs, alone and in a slow, boring pace.

confession

2007-11-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

I have to confess... After all this almost 3 months of dark feeling about the city, it's funny, but suddenly it seems to slowly grow on me. Deep down inside, I´m starting to feel a homey-feeling, I kinda like the city now. And the colours of brown aren't that brown anymore, even though it still seems to be the favourite colour of the architects in Montreal. And this is funny too, that I feel this at the time of the year when all green (and WOW canadian maple tree-sparkling autumn red!) leaves and grass is gone, you know, this is the time when most things look more brown and boring. But I kinda like it, it looks strange and dark, but funny and warm inside.

Am I coming home finally?

¿Hable Francés?

2007-11-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

So, I've started my French course for immigrants! Twice a week in the mornings we meet in this small classroom with a teacher trying to get us to understand this oh so complicated language! He's doing a great job I think, can't be easy with all this different nationalities and languages thrown cross over the big table between confused students. I must say it's very amusing to listen to our brave attempts to enter the French world, and I will probably learn just as much Spanish as French...

First snow! Tjoohoooo!

2007-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

Winter's coming!!! Yeeeee! M woke me up with a big smile, a nice cup of coffee and said; look out of the window! And hey! Winter white in our little back garden! Yes, I know, it wont be there for long, but it's just such a nice feeling.

We also has got a very, VERY chubby squirrel in our garden, that we try to feed even more chubby. As I have heard, Montreal has got COOOOOLD winters, like minus 30 with strong wind and humidity, BRRRRRrrrrr... So, I feel that it's my duty to feed my totem animal (and probably even my relative in former life) the squirrel. We gave him pure peanut butter mixed with sunflower seeds. He seemed to enjoy it - a lot. :)

How's weather like for you guys?

Come on and rob me!

2007-11-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

TJOHOOOO!!! We recieved those very, very important papers from the immigration!! But what's this?? Oh, it's not the approval of M to become my sponsor, like we thought, it's new papers to fill in - this time for Quebec and not for the Canadian government like last time. Now, this is the charm of living in a province that wants to break free from the country. Everything has to be decided upon twice.

And isn't it charming that it also means you have to pay that amazingly expensive administrative costs - TWICE!

Come on Quebec - Je me souviens - trust me.

Quebec, me and French

2007-11-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Quebec the second largest province of Canada with a population of 7, 700 807, where French is the official language. In Quebec the French is very important to the French speaking people, manly due to cultural and historical reasons. So far, I have only gotten a small part of what Quebec's history really is about, but is seems quite violent and filled with political disputes. I'm really going to try to learn more, but I don't want to get the information only by reading about it, I want to learn it slowly by people living it. Hopefully this will give me the right idea and the feeling of the hole thing. For curious people out there, check out Quebec on Wikipedia.

One thing though, that strikes me, is the amazingly strange way to work around the French courses and us immigrants. As I've told you already, me and M has been looking around a lot for a French course for immigrants for me, but with no success until this week. Finally someone wants me! But anyway, how come it's so difficult for us immigrants to get the best way possible into the society - learning the main language - while we are applying for permanent residency - which is the time when we aren't aloud to work anyway and we have to much time to spend for our own good. I tried to explain this for myself with the normal Swedish jantelag-excuses; well, since I haven't received permanent residence status, the government can't be sure I will stay in the country and therefor they don't want to spend all this money on me. But hey, then I realized that they are really stupid to not do this, since I'm already here, married and most probably won't leave, and I have all this time learning French while waiting, so they should be fucking HAPPY that I really want to get integrated into their society and when I finally (most probably) will get approved, I will be already speaking their language and can get a job and pay taxes! Hey! What's their problem?! The very, very few that might get a negative response on their immigration application, in worst cases the government has been loosing some money on them. But isn't that ok if they have been able to give a good representation of the country and spread their oh, so precious and important language, that they have fought, and still are fighting so hard for to keep.
It makes me confused...

Guess what I´m reading right now?

2007-11-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

"Connaissez-vous la bonne nouvelle? Dans la forêt , un petit prince ets né! C'est Bambi, le faon si joli..."

Nope, still no understanding of French....

Me Inga with the ryggsäck!

2007-11-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

Plup pluuuu pluplu pluuu plupluplu plu pluuuuuuu! Struggling with my French and feeling low. Is it just me? Am I stupid or what? I just can't seem to remember all these strange sounds and words, can't get them to stay inside of my brain long enough to have them there when I need them. Well, I mean, I can say things like; Would you like some coffee? Hello, how are you? I'm fine! My name is Madame PluPlu. Thank's for the food (which I sometimes happen to turn into "Thank's for the bull", but that's ok). So, I CAN say some few things, but this just won't do it if I want to live here, and it's been 2 months already. I kinda thought I would be a bit more talkative by now, but no.

M phoned many different French-courses for immigrants, and we've been around talking to them, but they all turned me down due to one missing paper for the immigration, we are still waiting for some decisions to be made in the process. We might get some important papers next week! Yeeeiiiiippiiii! Stressful to wait all this time.
But so, when I had almost given up on hope, some friendly little place welcomed me, probably they went around some rules for that, and I'm finally gonna start my road to French interaction next week! Wow! Suddenly I have a new feeling about this place and I'm feeling much happier. It's been heavy to feel so outside of everything due to language problems and feeling new and lost and without work. But now at least I will be meeting some new people twice a week and learn French and have something to get me going. I've been going down this spiral of loneliness for some weeks. Even though M is helping me a lot and we have spent so much time together, it's difficult to be dependent on only one person. I actually have got one job already, once a week I give Swedish-lessons for a guy, and that's fun. I try my best to teach M Swedish too, and he's GOOD! It's gonna be fun to be able to speak 3 languages fluently together one day!

Immigration is a funny thing, all of the sudden I feel closer to all the other nationalities of immigrants around me than before - people from China, Brazil, Argentina, India, Pakistan, Zambia, Chile, Japan... - and me... Strange, I never thought of immigrants this way before, but suddenly I get a small insight in what kind of process we have to go through to move to another country, and man!, it's a lot to think about and crazy much papers to fill in and get and send here and there and copies to be made and photos to be taken and stuff and stuff. And before you leave home, everything goes into a crazy spinn of papers, doctors examinations with x-ray of your lungs, blood tests, control of my eyes and more and 50 questions to answer like; "Have you got HIV?" "How much alcohol do you drink per week?." And then selling my stuff at home, packing stuff to bring in 3 big bags, leaving my job and colleges whom I love, leaving my home, saying bye-bye to friends and family (oh, how much I miss you all!) and then PLOPP!!! - you land in a completely new context and are supposed to start everything over just like that. Sorry, but I can't help feeling a bit lost and confused - and lonely. You know, it sounds like this amazing adventure - and yes, in many ways it is - but at the same time, it's damn hard to do it all over, harder than I thought. Thank god I have all these Chinese and Indians and Brazilians to belong to - if only I could understand their language...

Madame PluPlu up to surface

2007-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

So, hello friends and friends to come. This is my new life, virtually! Up until yesterday I was determined to never ever get one of those "blogs", pouring out my life's happy and not so happy moments into the public... This was before I actually read some good ones on the web! Thank you all! So, I wont promise you a good blog, but definitely an attempt to one. And why not writing it in English I thought, since this might attract some locals too... :) But please don't hesitate to write me in any language, Swedish, English or even French (I just might not be able to answer for some days on the French ones, gotta decode it first..)

So, here I am, in a new place, new space and wow!, a new world is opening in front of my (new) shoes too! Me being completely like my totem animal - the Squirrel - fast, jumping, energetic and going nuts, finds myself lost in a big, brown, BROWN city (they seem to have only one way of designing houses here, bricks in 4000 shades of brown, occasionally grey) with a very, very "precise" language, as M calls it - French! (I call it complicated.) Oh boy, I say, now what a tricky language it is... And this will also explain my blogs name, Madame PluPlu, since this is the closest to French I seem to come. All I hear when people talk is that sound, ..."plu plu pluuuu, plu plu pluu pluuuu..." Well, my hopes and intention is to finally decode this into real words, and maybe, just maybe be able to say something myself. One Day...

So, at this point, I'm living happily with M in a nice and calm part of town, not too far from fun stuff, but still far enough to avoid all the hip and cool down towners, which aim and goal seem to be to raise prices on living. But, they are fun to watch from time to time, I just jump on the subway train and surface 10 minutes later among concrete and sky scrapes, dirty backstreets and shopping people. It is a nice contrast and I think it's just that contrast that could best describe this town. Montreal - the city of thousand contrasts - and shades of brown!