Canada
Twins Parade
Jul 30th
Ha ha ha!
The Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal just ended last weekend. I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Twins Parade. I had heard of it before but I had never attended. It was super interesting and fun to watch!
The concept for the Twins Parade is very simple – Lots of twins walking down the street together. This year the theme was a ball, which is a fancy, formal evening dance party, so the twins were dressed up. You can find out more about it here at their website.
There were twins dancing around and twins being driven around. There were twin (and triplet) babies.There was also a set of twins in carriage who were said to be 100 years old. Every once in awhile you might meet someone who is a twin, but is was strangely fun to see so many at once!
Here is some footage from the Twins Parade shot by my friend who was also there!
Dragon’s Beard Candy in Chinatown
Jun 26th
Hi everybody!
It’s summertime in the Northern Hemisphere and in Montreal that means that it’s time for all kinds of festivals and outdoor events like sidewalk sales. A sidewalk sale is a special event where all the stores and restaurants on a certain street or in a certain area move outside and sell their things in front of their stores, on the sidewalk.
I had a neat cultural experience this afternoon in Montreal’s Chinatown (an area where many Chinese and East Asian immigrants and families live). There was a big sidewalk sale happening in Chinatown, so my boyfriend and I went to explore the neighbourhood a little and to see what interesting things we could discover.
One of the most interesting things we saw was a little shop selling a special kind of candy called dragon’s beard candy. It’s called “dragon’s beard” candy because the sugary candy is pulled and stretched again and again until it’s thin and wispy like the hairs of a long white beard. Then the thin strands are wrapped around a yummy mixture of peanuts, sesame seeds, chocolate, and coconut.
Photo by Ryan King
Photo by Ryan King
The owner of the shop and his assistants make the candy right there in front of you, so in addition to getting to eat some really interesting, delicious candy, you also get to see how it’s made, which is really entertaining!
If you’d like to read more about dragon’s beard candy, here’s an article about the shop we visited in Montreal’s Chinatown: Dragon Beard Candy in Montreal and around the World.
Photo by Ryan King
What kinds of festivals and events happen in your town in the summer? We’d love to hear about them!
Jessie
Snowshoeing!
Mar 5th
Hey all!
I went snowshoeing a couple weeks ago and wanted to share some photos with you. You can see in the picture where we are standing that my two friends are wearing some funny things on their feet. These are snowshoes! They are like shoes for snow. But actually, they are just attachments that go on the bottom of your boots. When you wear snowshoes you can walk in the forest in deep snow and these special attachments help keep you above the snow.
Check out the frozen waterfall behind us.
They actually have snowshoes all over the world and we don’t know exactly when or where they were invented. Here is a link to a little interesting article about the history of snowshoes.
Snowshoe is a noun, but can also be used as a verb.
I had to upload these pictures now, because it seems like it is almost spring in our part of Canada. We have been having temperatures above 0 with lots of sun lately. Hopefully spring has come early this year!
We're taking a break!
Olympic Fever
Feb 18th
I love the Olympics, I always have and I always will. As a young girl, I remember being excited whenever the Olympics were happening. I was about 7 years old when the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics happened and I remember watching many of the different events. I love both the Summer and Winter Olympics and have my favourite events for each. In the Summer Olympics, I love watching swimming and track. In Winter Olympics, I love speed skating, figure skating, snowboarding, bob-sledding; OK, really, I love them all!
I have been very excited about Vancouver 2010 for the last couple months. Before the Olympics started the Olympic flame was carried across Canada by thousands of people, some famous athletes but mainly by ordinary Canadians. I wish I could have been one of the lucky torch bearers. When the Olympic Flame was in Montreal I went to the Old Port of Montreal to celebrate. It was a very cold night but it was very exciting to see the flame so close and to see the excitement of the crowd and of the torch bearers. I have added some pictures that I took that night.
I think that most Canadians have Olympic Fever right now. At work, at school, with friends or even on the bus, everyone is talking about the Olympics. It was exciting when Canada finally won its first Olympic gold medal on home soil. Canada has won many gold medals at Olympics in different countries but never before in Canada .
The best part of the Olympics is hearing the stories about different athletes and their struggles to become an Olympic athlete. I always cheer for Canada but I also love hearing the stories about athletes from different parts of the world and cheering for them too.
Are you watching the Olympics? How many medals does your country have? What is your favorite sport to watch?
Also if you want to hear more about the city of Vancouver here is a link to the episode that Maura and I did last year.
Check out my cheques!
Feb 10th
Hi everyone,
One of the things I love about being a part of this podcast is seeing the English that we share here at Culips being used in real situation that I encounter in my life! The other day I was waiting at a cash register to pay for some photocopies and I noticed a box that said “Rain Checks.” Do you know what this means? When I saw this it made me think of the episode that we did talking about that exact expression. You can find it here. Luckily, I didn’t need a rain check that time.
Then it also got me thinking about the word check and how normally in Canada we should spell the word cheque. Many Canadians do not know the spelling differences between what we use here and other countries. This means that even business documents or advertising may contain words spelled incorrectly by Canadian standards. Depending what kind of English you are studying you might see words spelled differently. This is another good reason to check out our section on these spelling differences here. Culips is based in Canada, so we decided to use Canadian spelling, of course.
I wonder if you have ever noticed spelling differences or been confused by them. Or do you think that it is easy to understand spelling differences between Canada, the U.S. and Britain?
Hat Head!
Jan 13th
Hey everyone!
Today (like most days in winter) I was thinking about hat head. I have hat head pretty much every day in winter…and I don’t like it!
Hat head is an expression we use in Canada (and the U.S.) to describe what hair looks like after someone has worn a hat for some time. After wearing a hat for a few hours, the hair is often flat underneath. If you have straight hair normally, the hair underneath may have a line in it. If you have curly hair (like me) when you take off a hat, some of your hair is flat and some is curly.
It is not usually a problem for me in the summer because I don’t wear hats but in the winter most people wear hats because it is so cold. At least others have hat head too and it’s not just me! Lots of Canadians have hat head.
Do you get hat head often?
Do you want to see my hat head? 
And do you know the Canadian word for winter hat? It’s toque (sometimes spelled tuque or touque)!
Happy New Year
Dec 31st
Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!
In some places midnight has already passed…Happy New Year too you! As I write this, in Montreal the party has yet to begin. The weather was super cold a couple days ago, but luckily it has warmed up and is currently only -5! People are ready to get bundled up (dressed in warm clothes) to go out and celebrate New Year’s.
All of us at Culips are looking forward to bringing you even more, funky new episodes and other fun functions on our site in the new year! Robin, Jessie, Harp and I hope to be in more contact with you!
Thanks for listening! We truly appreciate it! And….HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!
Hiking around Montreal
Jun 15th
A few posts back, Jessie wrote about Mount Royal (a small mountain located on the island of Montreal). And just outside of Montreal there are even more mountains to choose from! Since the weather in Montreal is getting warmer and warmer I have been lucky enough to get out of Montreal on weekends and get back to nature.
A couple weeks ago some friends and I went to an area outside of Montreal called the Eastern Townships. This is a mountainous region in Quebec. We went to a little town called Mont Orford and enjoyed all the green trees around us and the amazing views on the hike. When we started the hike we were very warm and it was sunny. But when we got to the top, the weather changed and suddenly we needed to wear jackets and long-sleeved shirts. It was so cold! We had goosebumps (little bumps on our skin we get when we feel cold). The weather can change fast here, especially in the spring.
Last weekend we went to the Laurentians, a very popular place for tourists that is north of Montreal. It was also so green and beautiful. There are many cute little shops along the way there. There are many antique (old, valuable items) shops and many little places to eat too.
This time there were a lot of bugs (insects)! My friends and I all got bitten a lot. We were bitten by mosquitoes and black flies. These are two kind of insects that bite people and leave them feeling so itchy! It was worth it though, because the weather was so warm and the country was beautiful!
I have to go scratch my mosquito bites now!
Farmer's Market
Sep 3rd
Hello Everyone!
I hope you all have enjoyed your summer. I can’t believe it is already September. It seems like on the first day of September it is no longer summer but fall (autumn). It is still very hot in Montreal; it was +31°C today.
One thing that I love about summer and fall in Montreal is the farmer’s market. These are my favourite places to go wander in the afternoon on a Saturday or Sunday. I always feel like cooking and eating when I am surrounded by such delicious looking produce (fresh fruit and vegetables).
In Montreal there are 2 main markets that people go to, Atwater Market and Jean Talon Market. Both are amazing and I love exploring them both. You can find fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, cheese, and meats.
September and October are harvest months in Quebec. Harvest time is when most of the fruit and vegetables are ready to be picked and are taken to the markets. It is a time when markets are full of delicious apples, pumpkins and potatoes.
I have added some pictures from my last visit to Atwater market for you all to enjoy. Also in case you are wondering, mais is French for corn.
Harp
Of all the podcasts with 'real world' English examples, I like yours the best. Maybe its the fun you put into the lessons. The students can here that in your voices. And they also feel your dedication to what you are doing - it's just not a job you do, but a gift you give to everyone who listens. And while the students like the Lipservice PDFs for all the information it contains, as a teacher I am impressed by the professional effort put into making them. I give the Culips podcast and the Culips crew my highest recommendation, both as a teacher, and a listener. 
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