Montreal
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
Indian Summer
Nov 12th
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
Marathon
Sep 18th
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
Montreal Music TV!
Aug 5th
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!
Michael Jackson Tribute
Jul 28th
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!
Stevie Wonder in Montreal!
Jul 2nd
Hello everyone!
There has been a lot happening in Montreal lately. Yesterday was Canada Day so there were lots of celebrations all across the country. July 1 is also the day when many people move to new apartments in the province of Quebec. Many leases (the aggreements between owner and renter) finish at the end of June.
But before that, on June 30, there was a lot of excitement in Montreal. The Jazz Festival began with an opening performance, free for all, in the heart of the city (downtown). This year the opening performance got everyone’s attention. This year Stevie Wonder played a free concert outside. There was some rain, but still thousands of people waited outside for hours for the show to begin. Here is an article about it in the local English newspaper.
I looked around youtube to find a video of the concert for you. The video below is not the best quality but it is one of Stevie Wonder’s most famous songs. And it is also super fun when the chorus (the repeated part of a song) comes and everyone sings along!
I was on the radio last week!
Jun 1st
Hello everyone!
A good friend of mine who is originally from Montreal now lives in Vancouver. Her name is Marie-Eve and she has a radio show on CITR, which is a community radio station with all kinds of cultural shows and podcasts. You can look at the schdule for their shows here.
On May 21, 2009 I was interviewed by Marie-Eve for her radio show French Connection. Her show is all about Quebec culture in Canada. She interviewed me about being anglophone (English speaker) living in Quebec. We talked about all the cultural differences between English and French culture. It was really fun. Click here to check out my interview.
Some of the interview was also done in French (I was nervous speaking French) so if you are a French speaker this is extra nice for you!
Sunday Afternoon in Mount Royal Park
May 27th
Last weekend I had a great adventure and learned more about Montreal culture at the same time!
On Sunday afternoon my boyfriend and I took the metro (that’s what we call the subway here in Montreal) over to the stop closest to Mount Royal Park, then walked up the busy street for a few minutes to get to the park. It was a beautiful day and the park was full of people enjoying the sunshine.
Photo by Ryan King
But it isn’t just the sunshine that people go to Mount Royal Park to enjoy. Every Sunday, from early May to late September, there are a couple of special events in the park.
The big event, called the Tamtams, is like a big drumming, music, and dancing party. Lots of people bring their drums and play music, while other people prefer to dance along to the beat, or just sit back and enjoy the music. Anyone who brings a drum is welcome to play, and some people bring other instruments too, like tambourines.
When a group of people get together to play music without a strict plan or rules about who has to play what, we call it a jam session or just a jam. You could say that the Tamtams is one very big jam session!
Photo by Ryan King
The other event we watched at the park was just as interesting as the Tamtams. Further up the hill, under the shade of some trees, a group of people gather every Sunday to do something called live action role playing, or LARP for short. People dress up as medieval warriors and have battles right there in the woods! All of the weapons are made out of foam and duct tape, so nobody gets hurt. From what we saw, it looked like there were two big teams fighting each other. If someone got hit in the arm, they had to hold it behind their back for the rest of the battle. If they got hit in the leg they had to go down onto their knee. The battle was really interesting to watch, and some of the costumes were amazing! Some people were just wearing normal t-shirts and jeans, but some were wearing incredible suits of armor and had huge painted shields to protect them.
Photo by Ryan King
If you’re ever in Montreal on a Sunday afternoon, I highly recommend a visit to Mount Royal Park!
Snow Storm!
Jan 8th
Here in Montreal the snow is coming down hard! It started snowing sometime yesterday morning and it hasn’t stopped. This morning I woke up to more snow!
It is so beautiful…especially from inside. Although, I think that a tropical beach is beautiful too 
Have all of you out there experienced snow?
This is a picture of my friend from my balcony in Montreal? Check out the snow behind him.
Winter…not yet
Nov 17th
Today is a cold day in Montreal. We have had pretty mild (not too warm and not too cold) temperatures so far this fall, but winter is coming soon. (And yes, I know I post about the weather often, but I am obsessed!)
We will be getting snow any day now (very soon).
I found a little video on youtube to show you what winter can be like in Canada….and to remind myself too.
It looks beautiful but remember, the person who made that video was inside! Haha!
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