Living like a Canadian...

Place du Canada, ph. by Ana García

On Friday morning we were visiting the old part of Montreal, the Notre Dame Basilica (similar to that of Paris, with its two towers) and  the so called Old Harbour which is now a part of the city devoted to free-time and leisure activities. There was an exhibition of Star Wars at their Centre des Sciences, therefore, in front  of it, there was an exhibition panel with the bodies of Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, among others, and a hole in the place of the face so that you could put your head there and be taken photos, so we did; and when I was walking back to the sidewalk, I fell and I sprained my ankle. It hurt really really bad, but I continued walking because when you stop it gets cold and hurts more, so we went to visit the Castle of Ramezay, which was very interesting because it talks about the history of Montreal through the people who have lived in this castle. My ankle hurt so much that we went back  home and called the doctor.

A real Canadian doctor came to see me and my ankle on Saturday morning and told me he thought it was not broken, which I already knew, and put a dressing on my ankle; he also told me I could walk so we decided to take it easy and go for a short walk to Dorchester Square where we had great fun feeding the squirrels that know how to actually open and eat sunflower seeds and watching the photo session of a wedding couple and all of their family, especially picturesque because she was oriental and he was not and the mixture of the two families made it quite interesting. 

There are a lot of different cultures and people with different traditions and customs here in Montreal, I have already told you about French and English, but there is also a Chinatown, which we have visited today (they have fantastic buns!!), a Little Italy, and people from the rest of the world as well. 

To end up with, we visited the McGill University, which is the oldest university in Canada, it has a great campus, not very big, but very nice and cosy, and also houses the Redpath Museum, one of the oldest museums in Canada, which is a Natural Science Museum. We arrived home early because we are heading to Ottawa, capital city of Ontario and Canada, tomorrow morning. I'll tell you about it when I come back!!!

If you have any questions, leave your comments!!!

The trip of my life!!!

Canadian plug ph. by Ana García 

A great Miguel de Unamuno once said that "Fascism is cured through reading and Racism by travelling", I agree with him; that is the reason why I am writing about my personal trip to my students, so that they can learn to have an open mind, besides many of them want to know about it and this is the best way to keep them updated, as well as my friends.

Just two days ago, I started the trip of my life; last October, we bought the  tickets to go to Montreal and New York, we had first agreed with two families to exchange our homes (you can do that easily at IntercambioCasas.com), so the accomodation would be no problem. So, here we are, at a bilingual country which reminds me both of France and USA. 

It has been a long journey by plane (two of them because we changed plane at Munich) and we still have jet lag, we wake up before 6 o'clock in the morning, which is 12 in Spain. Yesterday we took it easy, we went to two supermarkets and it was really expensive!!!, especially the first one which delivered our food in less than an hour for less than Can.$5 (3,75€). Today we are going downtown (the town centre), so I'll tell you about it the next time. We are going to use public transport, we  bought a 3 day ticket for both bus and train for Can$16.

Did you know that different countries have different plugs and sockets?? 

Next course we can have a look at it in class and maybe make a poster, would you like that?

Leave your comments!!!

Le premier jour by Marc Levy.

Ed. Planeta

Marc Levy is a French author, in fact, he is the most widely read French writer outside of France. A few years ago, I read Et si c'était vrai, a very interesting short novel by this same author and I must say I really liked it, it was quite emotional and innovative from my point of view because of its treatment of life and death. It became very famous and they even made a film of it starring Reese Witherspoon which was called Just like heaven.
So when my sister told me she was about to finish another book by him, I asked her to lend it to me when she finished it; so she did, and when I had some time  I started reading it, just a few days ago. That is one of its best things, it takes a short time to read its almost 500 pages. I liked the beginning because it started at two separate points in the world, two parts, a man and a woman, two scientists, obviously they would end up together...  then when they meet, they already knew each other from the past!!!

Nevertheless, the story is quite unbelievable. They start  looking for the solution to a mystery that the necklace she was offered by a little boy back in Ethiopia where she was working represents. Two scientists go through an adventure that would be difficult for mercenaries... and according to other blogs, the novel is full of inacuraccies. What is worst, at the end of the book, the mystery isn't solved!! You have to read the second part of the novel called La première nuit (The First Night)!!! I know I read it in Spanish, which is not the same as reading in the original language (French), but I was disappointed; nonetheless, I admit it is great summer reading, because of the love story which keeps the novel moving.

One good thing about the book is the fact that my sister lent it to me, I wanted to talk to you about the possibility of reading through lending the books you have already read; there are several pages in the web and different possibilities, that is, you can get points through giving your book like in BookMooch or you can get in contact with other people and agree on how to exchange the books like with Book to Book, or a similar web completely in Spanish called LibrosCompartidos.com or also there is a movement that consists in leaving the book in a public place so that others can read it, this is called Book Crossing.

Do you like reading books in the summer? Have you ever used any of these webs to read books?
Leave your comments and tell us your experience!!!

Holidays at the beach...

Cádiz, by Ana García

Being on holidays is wonderful!!

Have a look at the beach I'm spending a few days at!! 

And what is better, it is so cool here in Cádiz, I miss my cardigan I left at home!

Where are you spending your holidays?

Tell me!!

Leave your comments!