A Big Taste of Canada

Hello all! Once again, I apologize for the length of time between posts, and will once again resolve to never let it happen again (until the next time that is....)

So what have I been up to? I haven't done any large trips recently, but have been able to get outside of Lille for some weekend excursions. I went with some friends to a castle named Chateau Pierrefonds between Paris and Lille. The place was really fairytale like, sitting on top of a ridge, turrets and all that good stuff.

The next weekend we went to Gent, a city in Belgium. It is a really gorgeous place! It sits at the crossroads of two rivers, so the city is intersected by water. It is a really old looking city with lots of really great flemish architecture. We (two Finnish exchange students and I) stayed at a B&B in the city which doubled as an art gallery. It was a really cool place, we even had the chance to attend the opening of the gallery's new exposition of African influenced art. We checked out another castle that is situated in the heart of the city, dating from the 12th century, drank some good belgian beer and generally enjoyed the great weather....

Last weekend was a really special one. It was the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge (that nation-forming battle that we all learned about in school) Vimy is located not too far from Lille, so I was contacted by the Canadian consulate to help out with the ceremonies. I, being the patriotic Canadian, accepted her offer. I had an impression that this would be a big event, but was not prepared for the size of the event. There were almost 15,000 people there, more than half of whom were Canadian. (I don't think I've seen as many Canadian flags as I did that day) The queen, prime minister harper and Villepin, the prime minister of France all made speeches. I, being a volunteer, had prime seating, and was within 10 metres of the queen as she walked by to shake hands afterwards, my mom is so jealous! lol...

The monument itself and the surrounding area is really something that any Canadian visiting France must see. It really gives a perspective on the horrors of the Great War and the huge sacrifice that Canada made for it.

What was also really cool is that I had the chance to meet other Canadian students studying in Lille and elsewhere in France, so when I'm missing Canada, I can always call them up and share our nostalgia for the homeland....lol.....

Right now I am in Copenhagen visting Tanne, it has been a wonderful weekend with lots of sun and relaxation. Im back to France tommorow where I will have exams this week and then my school is pretty much finished aside from a few little projects....so early! I will be staying in Lille afterwards, continuing my teaching job for the month of may, profiting from my free time to make some trips in France and elsewhere. My mom is coming to Scotland in the middle of May, so i'll be there to see her from the 9th until the 15th. For June, I am planning a backpacking trip across eastern Europe.....big things....more details to come

Sorry for the length of this post, a function I guess of the length of time between the last one....I will try to get some pics added in the near future once I am on my own computer...

take care all and send me some emails! I need to know how things are going back home...

love you all!
Ian

Hey there!

My posts will unfortunately not include any pics for the next while as my computer has mysteriously decided to die on me :) Thats what you get with a 300$ ebay special I guess....lol...

It's been pretty stressful here recently with work and school getting pretty busy. Work, my english teaching job, has been pretty interesting. I'm teaching three adults who are pretty much beginners. We did the ABC's, "Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes" song, simon says, etc, etc. Its pretty funny doing this with a group of adults.....

I went to visit my friend Anna in Germany and Denmark...lol....she lives in northern Germany in a border town called Flensburg and her family lives in Denmark. I tried some traditional German food: Pork, Cabbage and Potatoes :) one of the biggest plates of food I've ever seen!! I couldn't even eat half of it. We spent a day in Flensburg touring around, it is a nice little town with a beautful harbor and architecture. We spent the rest of the weekend in southern Denmark with Anna's family . It was a pretty relaxing time, touring around the area and getting to know Anna a little better (we had met once in Canada 4 years ago and have kept in touch through email since) ....overall an excellent weekend....

Craziness here at the ESC Lille!!!! We are in the middle of the elections for the student councils here at the school, so things are getting pretty intense! The way that campaigns are run here are like nothing I have ever experienced before....

There are two competing councils for the BDE "Bureau d'entertainment" so each one has to organize a bar night for the school....These bar nights are in fact open bars, tickets are 5euros and one is able to drink as much as they'd like... :)

I went to one last night as I've been told over and over that these nights are something not to be missed, an integral part of the exchange experience...lol....It was definitely fun, a new experience one could say. I personally didn't drink too too much, but it was funny to see how drunk people got as the night progressed. I think that even by 11:30pm there was puke on the floor, not a good sign!! A little gross, a little crazy, but all in all a good time.

School is getting pretty busy now too. I think I've got 3 projects on the go now, so my schedule is getting a little bit more busy now...Im going to Germany next week to meet with an old friend from Centennial College, Anna, who is working there (a small city called Flensburg north of Hamburg) and Tanne will be coming down from Copenhagen to spend the weekend with us as well. Tanne has been battling pneumonia for the past week or two, so Im really hoping that she is feeling better by then and is able to come!!

Updates on that trip to come for all you loyal readers....

Ian

Work Started - Finally!!!

So, after nearly two months of waiting to get some action going on, it all comes in one big heap! Thats always the way it is I guess....
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I have a number of good things to mention. Firstly, I got news that I won the EDC student scholarship, a $3000 prize! On top of the cash is the added prestige that the award will bring to my resume....awesome! There is also the possibility of working with the EDC in an internship for the summer, something that is a great opportunity, but is kind of away from my plans to stay in Europe over the summer. I guess this is a good dilemma to be in though eh?

The second good piece of news is that I got myself a job here in France! Its actually in Belgium, but it is only a 20 minute train ride to the town, so its not that bad. I will be teaching english at a private company that caters to professionals mostly I think. I started training last saturday, and it was pretty interesting....I arrived and the trainer started speaking to me and my collegues in Arabic! He continued to speak in Arabic for the next 3 hours :) The point of this was to try to put us in the shoes of our students, arriving and knowing very little (in our case nothing) of the language. Needless to say it was an interesting experience, and I actually left with a few words of Arabic under my belt....salaam alakoum!

I started a class on Monday, the first one that will actually be worth credits for me....it was an intense case study on the wine industry. We were in the place of a Bordeaux winery that is looking to expand internationally. We had two days to analyse the market and create a marketing strategy for the company....we ended up working 12 hour days, but made the presentation today. Intense, but fun.....

Anyhow, thats all for now. Im off to Brussels tommorow and have my second day of training on saturday (maybe itll be Hindi then :) Ill be writing soon!!!

Norway Trip (Feb. 9th - 19th)

Well, I was off again for another voyage, this time to Northern Europe. I was invited by my girlfriend's family to join them and some of their family friends for a skiing vacation in Norway. The place is called Trysil and is located 200kms north of Oslo near Lillehammer (site of the winter Olympics a few years back)

I arrived in Copenhagen on the 9th to meet my girlfriend and then we went to meet her parents so that we could begin the voyage up by car. Tanne's family has a cottage in Sweden, about 200kms from Copenhagen, so it was decided that we would spend the friday and saturday nights there and complete our journey to Norway on Sunday. The cottage is beautiful! Its a really classic old style Swedish Cottage with a stone oven and heating by fireplace. When we arrived the place was completely cold, but as we threw some logs on the fire and started some cooking, the place came to life.

The stars there are amazing. Its been awhile since I've been outside of a city and had the chance to see the stars in their full glory. It was an amazingly clear night, perfect for a little stargazing. On saturday we took it slow, went for a walk around the cottage and awaited the family friends....Sunday saw the start of our voyage north, which was expected to take 8 hours...

The drive was really wonderful, beautiful scenery and wonderful weather (except for the frigid cold of -17). It was fairly uneventful until Tanne decided to drive the car off the road :) The roads were really slippery and we lost control and veered off the side. Luckily we were stopped by a little tree before rolling over. In the end, everyone was alright and the car was fine aside from a smashied light.....we arrived a few hours later than expected, but it was all good.

The cottage that we had was wonderful! It was a log cabin built for 11 people... we were 8 and so had plenty of space to relax. There was a Sauna as well!! The snowboarding was awesome and I even got out for 20 kms of Cross-country on one day (my first time!!) Near the end of the trip I injured my ankle snowboarding, but it was all good because I only missed one day.....

So, I'm back here in France now and have had some pretty good news here. I got a job teaching english which is really well paying and will allow me to work in the summer. This will allow me to finance myself here and lessen my reliance on debt and give me the flexibility to travel a bit more and live a bit more comfortably....I also found out that I won a scholarship from the EDC for $3000!! This is a great accomplishment that I am really proud of..... I have bought myself a bike here in Lille (50euros from ebay :) which will give me a bit more mobility. It is a really sexy red racing bike, maybe ill post a pic during my next post.....

thats all for now,

Ian

Amsterdam Pics

Amsterdam!

I was in amsterdam last weekend, and I must say, I love that city!!!!! I went with my friend Herby, an exchange student from Montreal as well. We made a reservation at a hostel and decided to take the bus up there.

Taking the bus is sortof a risky move as we had heard many horror stories about 6 hour delays and people getting left at reststops. But, it was half the price of the train and didn't take that much longer (5.5 hrs as opposed to 3.5) so we opted to take a risk.

We got there and found our hostel. It actually turned out to be really nice. It was located right next to a really big park and was a short walk from the centre. After putting down our bags, we got out for a little walk around the town to get an idea of the place. Amsterdam has definitely earned its reputation as the capital of bikes. There are bike paths all over the place and unwary tourists really must keep their eyes open or risk getting run over.

Later on in the night we went out again for a walk. We found ourselves in the redlight district which was really an ..... experience..... I am sure you've all heard about it, so I would go into details, but it was definitely strange for me. Later on we went to a coffee shop to experience that part of Amsterdam (typical tourists eh?) I didn't inhale though, I swear....lol.....

Saturday we spent walking around again. We were thinking of hitting up a museum, the Van Gogh or the Rijksmuseum, but the weather was too beautiful and we didn' really feel like spending 10euros to walk around inside. We met two really nice American girls at breakfast and planned a night out with them.....

The club that we ended up at was incredible!!! It was called Sinners. The music was great, a mix between house, hiphop and electro, and the 4 of us danced our asses off all night!!!! Fantastic, just what I needed :)

My camera was out of batteries for the trip, so as soon as I get them from Herby, ill post some pics.......trust me, there are some good ones!!

Next up is Norway for me. I will be away for the next week there for a skiing trip with Tanne's family. I promise to take pics this time and tell you all about it when I get back :) Take care all!!!