Travels
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
Ottawa – A weekend to Remember
May 29th
Remember when I told you about looking forward to my exciting weekend in Ottawa? Well, I wanted to share a couple of the highlights, because the weekend did not disappoint!
An Horse
The concert was amazing. The opening band, called An Horse, did a great job. They had lots of energy and they sounded great! I met them before the concert and got a picture taken with them, which I have added here. By the way, that band name, “An Horse” is a little strange. Usually in English we use “a” before words that start with a consonant sound (like horse), not “an.” But the band is very unique, and so is their name!
Dan Mangan … what can I say that I haven’t already said? Basically he was FANTASTIC. It was great seeing him live again and I look forward to seeing him next time he is in the Montreal area. One of the big differences between this show and the last show that I saw of his in October was the crazy awesome energy of the crowd. For so many of the songs the whole crowd was singing with him. All his fans loved him and they showed him that by singing along loudly.
Dan Mangan
I spoke with Dan after the concert and asked him how it felt to have hundreds of people singing his songs with him. He said that it was an amazing feeling; he never imagined when he was writing the songs in his bedroom that this is where he would end up. Here is a picture we took together before the show.
To top off an already amazing weekend, because of the warm weather, the tulips (a kind of flower) in Ottawa were in full bloom. The Tulip Festival in Ottawa is very famous. This was the first time I was able to see the tulips there and they were beautiful. Here is the link to the festival website. I took some pictures on the Canadian Parliament grounds to show you all. Next year if you are going to be in the area of Ottawa, go see the tulips. They were beautiful!
Thanks again to An Horse and Dan for taking time to talk to me at the show!
Harp
Tulips
Train rides
Sep 27th
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?
Vineyard
Oct 23rd
Hello all,
I thought I would share a lovely adventure I went on with some of my colleagues (people/friends you work with) a couple of weekends ago.
One of my friends discovered a vineyard close to Montreal . It sounded like a great idea and indeed it was. I am very happy that I decided to go. We started the day early and drove to the vineyard which was about 1 hour away from Montreal . The vineyard is called Vignoble La Bauge and it was beautiful. It is a family business and they make about 25 000 bottles a year of different types of wine. The tour began with a short history of wine making in Canada (specifically Quebec ) and how the family got into the business of wine. We then went and picked grapes for the rest of the morning. It was very nice, there were a lot of grapes on the vines and it was a beautiful fall day to be out in the country. We had a nice lunch with some delicious wine from the vineyard. In the afternoon we got a tour of the whole farm, which included some exotic animals, as well as an explanation of how to make wine from beginning to end.
An interesting feature of the whole experience was that the grapes we picked will be made into wine that we can get a bottle of next year when it is ready.
I have included some pictures here that my friends Chris and Natalya took during the day.
Harp
Vineyard Grapes
Vineyard Shop
Vineyard Sign
Vineyard Full Buckets
Vineyard Row
Nest
Harp
Closeup Cutting
Vineyard Barn
Vineyard
Mont Tremblant
Oct 16th
Hey everyone!
How is the weather where you are? In Montreal (and most of Canada) it is getting colder. It is definitely autumn (or fall).In Canada, during autumn, the leaves on the trees change colours from green to red, orange and yellow.
Then they eventually fall to the ground.A couple weekends ago, I went with my friend Marcus on one of his tours at Iko Excursions. He gives tours to international students in Montreal. We went to Mont Tremblant (which means Trembling Mountain in English) and visited the area.The leaves on the trees were amazing! Even the Canadians on the trip were impressed!Of course, I had seen the leaves before but in the mountains they are even better.
By now, the leaves have probably already fallen. It doesn’t last long.I included a few pictures from the trip. Check out the amazing colours of leaves in the photos!
P.S. Hello to anyone from the tour!
Hiking in the USA
Sep 21st
Hey everyone!
As summer is finishing, I am already starting to reminisce (think of the past) about my mini-vacations.
In August I went to the state of New Hampshire and hiked up Mount Washington. This mountain is only a 4-hour drive from Montreal, and what a beautiful drive it is. Lots of scenic (lots of things to see) roads and amazing views along the way.
Mount Washington is known for having the wickedest (crazy and unpredictable) weather. It holds the world record for the highest record wind speed of 372 kilometres per hour! It wasn’t that crazy when we were there, but it was quite cold. It is 6288 feet high, and the highest peak (top points of a mountain) in the Northeastern United States.
Here are some photos of our (my boyfriend and I) hike to the summit (the highest point of the mountain)!
Boston
Jul 7th
Hi!
I hope you all have been having a great summer. I am loving the summer. In Montreal we have been very lucky to have some great weather, not too hot or muggy (hot and humid). The weekend before last I went to Boston with my boyfriend. One of my friends was driving there and we decided to carpool (share a car) together. Boston is about a 5-hour drive from Montreal.
We started the weekend very early (4:30am!!!) on Friday as we wanted to have as much time as possible in Boston. I had booked a B&B (Bed and Breakfast) through the Internet and when we finally arrived there Craig and I were both very happy. The B&B was in a cute neighbourhood on a street with beautiful brownstone buildings.
Craig and I spent the next 2 days discovering Boston. It is an amazing city! It was easy for us to walk around and see all the beautiful sites. Thankfully Craig is good at reading maps because I think we would have been lost otherwise. The highlights of the trip included the Mapparium (click for more information) and the Boston Public Library. This is by far the most beautiful library I have ever seen in my life. I fell in love with the building. I wanted to spend hours there. I have included some pictures.
We went to some great restaurants and had the famous Boston dish of clam chowder. Every single meal included various types of seafood but the best was when we had lobster at our friend’s house. It was delicious!
I am so happy I had the chance visit this beautiful city and if any of you are planning to visit North America it is definitely a city to see.
Bye everyone,
Harp
Beautiful Quebec
Jun 5th
Hi,
Sorry for the delay in posting an update about my holiday. It seems that there are not enough hours in a day to do all the things I want to do.
Let me start by saying that the Victoria Day Long Weekend was fantastic for me. It really felt a lot longer than only 3 days. I came back to work refreshed and relaxed.
After all the travels I have done internationally I have to say I’m always stunned by the beauty that makes up Canada. The weekend included a celebration on a rooftop patio overlooking Quebec city (our friends -actually it was Craig’s sister and her boyfriend – got engaged while in Quebec), a relaxing day checking out the art museums in Baie St. Paul (this is a beautiful little village that we used as our base camp for travels in the area), a bike ride around Isle-aux-Courdes (a nice island with great panoramic views of the St. Laurence River) and whale watching at Tadoussac (we saw a lot of whales, some quite close up).
The weekend was fantastic and I’m looking forward to our second set of visitors who will be arriving this weekend.
I have added some pictures for you all.
Harp
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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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