Happy immigrant!

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!

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

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

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

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...

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

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!

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..?

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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?

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...

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