Once again I’m going to blog about the weather. I know, I know, I’m a bit obsessed with the weather. I talk about it all the time, but it’s just so wonderful right now that I have to talk about it!

Montreal is in the middle of an Indian summer. “Indian summer” is an informal expression used in Canada and the Northern U.S. to describe the weather when there are unusually sunny, warm days in autumn, usually after the first frost.

This week the weather in Montreal has been amazing; it was 18°C a couple of days ago! To give you an idea of just how warm that is compared to typical weather at this time of year, the average temperature for Montreal on November 10 is 6°C. It’s a bit chillier now (today it’s 7°C) but it’s still a beautiful fall day with lots of sun.

The expression Indian summer is actually quite an old expression. If you’re interested in learning more about its history, check out this website.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/indian-summer.html

I hope you’re all having a wonderful fall day (or spring day for those of you listening in the Southern Hemisphere).

Harp

Last week was my birthday and it was an exciting one as I got to meet and interview my favourite new Canadian artist. When I was in Vancouver in the summer, I heard a song on the radio and it caught my attention right away (make sure you all check out the episode where Maura and I talk about Vancouver ).

This was the first song that I had heard in a long time that I loved from the first time I heard it. It’s called Road Regrets by Dan Mangan and it’s a beautiful song. I heard it a couple times when I was in Vancouver and loved it more each time I heard it. When I finally got back to Montreal I was able to find Dan on myspace (www.myspace.com/danmangan) and hear more of his music. Every song I heard I loved!!!

Dan is in the middle of a cross-country tour of Canada and he played in Montreal on my birthday. I had the opportunity to meet him right before his concert and I asked him some fun questions for you all to get to know him a bit more. There are a lot of great articles on the internet where serious music journalists interviewed Dan or reviewed his amazing CD. You can find these on his website, http://danmanganmusic.com. As I am an ESL podcaster and a huge fan, I decided to ask him some fun questions!

After talking for a bit about how much I love Dan’s music we started with my questions.

Me: What is your favourite road trip song?
Dan Mangan: Dynamite Walls by Hayden (another great Canadian artist).

Me: What is your favourite soundtrack (the music that plays during a movie)?
DM: American Beauty.

Me: What is your favourite band?
DM: Radiohead.

Me: What is the theme song for the tour so far?
DM: 2 Weeks by Grizzly Bears.

Me: What is the book that has inspired or affected you the most?
DM: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Me: What is your favourite city in Canada ?
DM: I really like Montreal. I don’t know if it’s my favourite, but I really like it.

Me: What is your favourite international city?
DM: Hmmmm, London, England.

Me: What would your last meal EVER be?
DM: A good curry!

Me: OK, this is a silly but fun question. Who is your favourite superhero?
DM: Hmmm, that is a hard one….Batman is my favourite, even if he doesn’t have any superhero powers.

Dan had to go back into the concert venue to set up for the show. Here are some pictures of the setting up and sound check.

The show was AMAZING. It was the best concert I have seen in a really, really long time. If Dan is touring in a city close to you, go check him out. You will not regret it! In the meantime check out his website and myspace page.

Thanks Dan for meeting with me, you rock!!!

There is a new movie that comes out today in Canada called Where The Wild Things Are. It is based on a children’s book by Maurice Sendak. This was a book that I read as a child, but it was actually published in 1963. If you want to know more about this book you can click here. The main character’s name is Max. He is sent to his room and goes on to imagine a world of ‘wild things.’

Here is a reading of the children’s book that I was lucky enough to find on youtube. The original illustrations are pretty beautiful.

Now that you know the children’s story, check out the new movie. It looks awesome! Adults are really enjoying it. And best of all, the critics love it too. The music in the video below is by Arcade Fire which is a band originally from Montreal. I think their music with this movie is a great combination. Enjoy!

I think every kid is fascinated with trains. My nephew loves taking the train and creating toy trains. Since I was young I have wanted to take the train, especially through the Rocky Mountains, from Edmonton to Vancouver, but I never had the chance.

When I started traveling overseas at the age of 21 I finally had the chance to take the train. I have taken the train in numerous countries and loved it every time.
I took the train across Europe and in Asia. I still remember the first time I took the train. It was an overnight train in China and it was so interesting. The train went from Beijing to Xi’an and it was quite cute with the fold up beds with pillows and blankets. The train in India on the other hand was much less fancy, with just a bare plastic bed, but it was still very fascinating to see the countryside roll by and even the traditions on the train, such as the chai (tea) vendors at every stop.

This past weekend I took the train for the first time in Canada. I went to Toronto to visit some of my family and decided that I should try taking the train. It was a very fun experience. The train ride from Montreal to Toronto is not very long (only about 5 hours) so it was not an overnight train but still very cool. The scenery was very beautiful. It was such a different perspective from driving. It was so relaxing, as it didn’t have the stress of traffic. I want to take the train again soon; maybe even an overnight train to Halifax in Nova Scotia or to Gaspésie in Quebec.

Do you like taking the train? Have you ever taken the train in Canada? If so what did you think?

Hello everyone!

We are experiencing some delays uploading our next episode. We have some interesting ones coming up…including the expressions to be handy and to bite off more than you can chew. For those of you who wrote to us asking to know more about Canada, we also have an upcoming episode about Vancouver. 

Here is a video that I wanted to post using the expression from the latest episode No Matter What. It a song called No matter what and the use the expression over and over again. The group is called Boy Zone and they are from the United Kingdom. I hope you enjoy it.

About 3 months ago a friend of mine decided to run a 10km race as part of the Montreal Marathon. After about a week of encouraging her, I decided that I too was going to run the 10km. I had NEVER ran in my life before. I am not a very athletic person but I work out semi-regularly but only ever in a gym. The first time I went out to practice for this race I was able to do 1.3km before feeling like I was dying. I was out of breath and sweating so much.

The more I trained for the race, the more I realized that I loved running. After a lot of training I finally competed in the 10km race last weekend. Even though this was a very competitive race I wasn’t running against people, but instead I was running against myself. This was a personal challenge for me. I went from running 1km on my first day to completing the 10km in my personal best time of 1:10:01. I am very proud of myself for this time even though most people in my category did much better. The race ended in the Olympic Stadium. It was an amazing thrill to run into the stadium with thousands of people cheering.

A full marathon is 42km and one day I might run one. It was an exhilarating race and I’m planning on doing another one in October with my running partner Julie. I have attached a picture of us with our medals (we didn’t win anything; everyone who finished the race got a medal).

I will give an update on my time when I finish my next 10km; I’m hoping to finish at least 5 minutes faster.

Has anyone out there run a 1/2 or full marathon? How was it? Where did you run it?

Harp

Photo by: Joanne and Matt

Hello!!

Today is the last day of our Book Giveaway contest. If you still want to enter the chance to win a free copy of Culips’ new book, English Q & A (in English and Japanese), look at the blog post below and make a comment.

As I was looking back at the previous post and others I noticed that I almost always use the exclamation mark (or exclamation point) in the title of my blog post. The reason I always do this is because I want to express my excitement and interest in what I am posting.

It also made me think about this interesting article I recently read. This article was all about the exclamation mark and how it had become popular again. In the very recent past, it was not common at all to use this punctuation. It was used only in novels and stories or by over-excited teenagers in notes to friends. But as email became more and more popular so did using exclamation marks.

(Here is where I found the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation)

The article is not an easy read for those of you who are just learning English. Here is a short list of some of the more interesting points I found.

• In the past many famous writers spoke against the use of exclamation marks. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.”
• The book Send: The Essential guide to Email for Office and Home states that “Thanks!!” is much friendlier than “Thanks” and using an exclamation mark for “I’ll see you at the conference!” shows that you are excited, but without an exclamation mark it is just stating a fact.
• Emails can be boring so using exclamation marks can help make the email more exciting.
• In the past, many typewriters did not have a key for the exclamation mark.
• Females use exclamation marks more often than men.
• Exclamation marks were first seen in 1400 and possibly come from the Latin lo, which means joy.
• Some people like the increase in the use of exclamation marks (like me) and other people do not! 

One more point of advice is that if you decide to use exclamation marks, don’t use too many in one email. It is unnecessary and may be mistaken for sarcasm or insincerity.

We have some exciting Culips news to tell all of you about!

Contest

1. Why do you want to study English?
2. How do you think Culips could be improved?
3. What three topics would you most like us to discuss in future podcast episodes?

Just answer one of these questions and your name will automatically be entered into the contest. We’ll announce the winner at the beginning of September and contact you by email to get your mailing address. So get posting!

Summer in Montreal is the time for festivals. We have already had our biggest festivals, the International Jazz festival and the Just for Laughs Comedy festival. Right now the festival for French music, Francofolies, is taking place in the streets of downtown Montreal. There are also many smaller festivals happening all the time in Montreal!

Recently we also had a festival for African music! My friends at Montrealmusic.tv asked me to help interview some of the English-speaking musicians playing the festival.  You can see me in some of the videos on their site (click here: Montrealmusic.tv), including FreshlyGround, a popular group from South Africa, and Neev, a local Montreal musician.

Thanks Montrealmusic.TV!

Yesterday was a beautiful day and so at lunch time I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and have my lunch outside. I was peacefully eating my lunch with a friend of mine when all of the sudden, out of nowhere, we started hearing REALLY loud music. It was Michael Jackson’s hit song “Beat It.” Not only was there loud music but suddenly a hundred or more people were dancing on the steps to the song. All of these people did  the choreographed dance to the song. After the song ended all of the people who were dancing just disappeared. I was so surprised, a lot of people who were like me and just having there lunch outside joined in the dancing. I don’t know the steps and I was too surprised to join in!      

When I got back to my office, I saw an article describing this impromptu (spontaneous) dancing. It started in Hong Kong where Michael Jackson fans played tribute to him with planned flash mob (a large group of people suddenly appear in public) performances. They started in Hong Kong but they have spread to Montreal . Has it spread to your part of the world? I have attached the article and also a YouTube video of the dance that I saw yesterday.

Click here to see the article I read and check out the clip of the dancing in Montreal below!