Quick Update
The meeting went great last week! I am so relieved and happy. We were all quite sleepy at work, and this week has been kind of ... "oh... that's right, I do that here, don't I? What was my job like before this meeting took over my life?..." But the meeting was a huge success. We were incredibly complimented for the excellent organization, and we just might have made a difference in the world because of it. A lot of barriers were broken down; people apparently talked about issues that have been taboo for the last 25 years. It feels good to know that I was part of fostering that kind of environment.
So that's been that. Halloween is coming up, and daN and i are working on our costumes this weekend. But also, we are going to play Boggle and go for a walk in the Fells! YAY!
In other news, last night I went to a bar to watch the Red Sox games (or the first five innings). I had utterly forgotten how much I like watching baseball.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
I'm ALiVe...
Hey there -- just a note to my friends to let you know that i'm still alive and almost on the other end of my crazy time. I'm on call for work this weekend, and the big meeting that i mentioned in the last post is almost here -- tomorrow and the day after. I've been working 12+ hour days at work the last week (and don't forget the hour commute on either end), and I'll be working from 7am - 9pm the next two days. But it will all be worth it. This meeting is very exciting, and I'm proud to be a part of it, and I'm glad that it's about to happen. I'm exhausted! It takes a lot of time to plan meetings. I designed the programs, worked with a printer to get them done, tracked the speakers' itineraries and made hotel rooms and other travel arrangements along with itineraries for them, kept track of registration and waitlist manually, printed name badges for all of the attendees, poster presenters, and speakers...Oy vey.
Also, i had a WONDERFUL time at Mum's wedding. The best part was watching Mum drive up the hill in a tractor to the pulpit made of corn stalks, pumpkins, and hay bales. It was AWESOME. Mum and Rick both teared up while she was singing to him during the ceremony. It was a lovely wedding. Someday I'll have pictures of it available on my online photo album.
Last weekend, i had a blast with Patty, Kat, and Rebecca from the good old days of Hampshire College. Friday night, we rented a room at Do Re Mi Karaoke in Allston, and it was SO MUCH FUN. They have a great selection of songs to choose from -- and TONs of them. It's BYOB, and costs about as much as an evening of bowling would. I had a blast. The following day, we drove out to Northampton and Amherst to wander around Hampshire College reminiscing and play with the goats and drink fresh pressed apple cider. Revisiting Northampton's wonderful independent shops was also a lot of fun, and so was going to our favorite Japanese restaurant. Mmm.
The weekends were marred only by the fact that i hadn't been home in a while and officially ran myself ragged -- i got a full blown sinus infection sometime after getting back from Monhegan around October 2, and I suffered through it until i finally got some antibiotics a week and a half ago. Within 48 hours of going on them, i felt much better. It was my first time on antibiotics in three years (since my sinus surgery) and that's certainly a record for me.
It was funny -- I called my doctor's office from work and told them that I wanted my doctor to call me so I could talk to her about my sinus infection when she had a chance. The receptionist said, "she'll probably want you to come in -- they don't really like to prescribe things over the phone anymore. Do you want me to set up an appointment with you?"
"No," I said, "please have her call me back first."
"Alriiight," she responded, as if to say, "suit yourself."
She called me back about an hour later. "The doctor wants to know if amoxicillin is alright."
HA! That's right! Because you look back at my medical history, and 90% of it is sinus infections. I know it when i have it.
Anyway, that's all to say that this month has been really good but hard, made harder by being really sick for more than half of it, and made harder by the fact that I can't stand how dirty the bathroom is, etc. I have had a lot of fun, but I have also been really sick and am just starting to feel "normal" again. But I wouldn't have traded any of it for the world. How often do I get to go to Monhegan, see my mum get married, and reunite with old roommates at Hampshire Homecoming? So they all happened on the same month. Oh well. Oh yeah -- somewhere in there, i got a deep tissue massage because i really needed it.
Yesterday, I had the day off and was home for the first time in over a month, and i realized i had forgotten how to relax. That was troubling. It didn't take me long to figure it out again, though :)
Sorry this post is so scattered. There's been so much good stuff that i can't possibly contain all of it. The point is, i miss you guys and hope you're doing well. And pretty soon, i might even be able to see you.
Hey there -- just a note to my friends to let you know that i'm still alive and almost on the other end of my crazy time. I'm on call for work this weekend, and the big meeting that i mentioned in the last post is almost here -- tomorrow and the day after. I've been working 12+ hour days at work the last week (and don't forget the hour commute on either end), and I'll be working from 7am - 9pm the next two days. But it will all be worth it. This meeting is very exciting, and I'm proud to be a part of it, and I'm glad that it's about to happen. I'm exhausted! It takes a lot of time to plan meetings. I designed the programs, worked with a printer to get them done, tracked the speakers' itineraries and made hotel rooms and other travel arrangements along with itineraries for them, kept track of registration and waitlist manually, printed name badges for all of the attendees, poster presenters, and speakers...Oy vey.
Also, i had a WONDERFUL time at Mum's wedding. The best part was watching Mum drive up the hill in a tractor to the pulpit made of corn stalks, pumpkins, and hay bales. It was AWESOME. Mum and Rick both teared up while she was singing to him during the ceremony. It was a lovely wedding. Someday I'll have pictures of it available on my online photo album.
Last weekend, i had a blast with Patty, Kat, and Rebecca from the good old days of Hampshire College. Friday night, we rented a room at Do Re Mi Karaoke in Allston, and it was SO MUCH FUN. They have a great selection of songs to choose from -- and TONs of them. It's BYOB, and costs about as much as an evening of bowling would. I had a blast. The following day, we drove out to Northampton and Amherst to wander around Hampshire College reminiscing and play with the goats and drink fresh pressed apple cider. Revisiting Northampton's wonderful independent shops was also a lot of fun, and so was going to our favorite Japanese restaurant. Mmm.
The weekends were marred only by the fact that i hadn't been home in a while and officially ran myself ragged -- i got a full blown sinus infection sometime after getting back from Monhegan around October 2, and I suffered through it until i finally got some antibiotics a week and a half ago. Within 48 hours of going on them, i felt much better. It was my first time on antibiotics in three years (since my sinus surgery) and that's certainly a record for me.
It was funny -- I called my doctor's office from work and told them that I wanted my doctor to call me so I could talk to her about my sinus infection when she had a chance. The receptionist said, "she'll probably want you to come in -- they don't really like to prescribe things over the phone anymore. Do you want me to set up an appointment with you?"
"No," I said, "please have her call me back first."
"Alriiight," she responded, as if to say, "suit yourself."
She called me back about an hour later. "The doctor wants to know if amoxicillin is alright."
HA! That's right! Because you look back at my medical history, and 90% of it is sinus infections. I know it when i have it.
Anyway, that's all to say that this month has been really good but hard, made harder by being really sick for more than half of it, and made harder by the fact that I can't stand how dirty the bathroom is, etc. I have had a lot of fun, but I have also been really sick and am just starting to feel "normal" again. But I wouldn't have traded any of it for the world. How often do I get to go to Monhegan, see my mum get married, and reunite with old roommates at Hampshire Homecoming? So they all happened on the same month. Oh well. Oh yeah -- somewhere in there, i got a deep tissue massage because i really needed it.
Yesterday, I had the day off and was home for the first time in over a month, and i realized i had forgotten how to relax. That was troubling. It didn't take me long to figure it out again, though :)
Sorry this post is so scattered. There's been so much good stuff that i can't possibly contain all of it. The point is, i miss you guys and hope you're doing well. And pretty soon, i might even be able to see you.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Monhegan Island, 2007 -- Deep Release (aka, really long entry)
So. I hadn't realized how tense my shoulders were on a very deep level until this weekend. That's because they're still twitching in release. Yoga on Monhegan Island is something really special. At the risk of sounding woo-woo (and i am woo-woo, so deal with it), I connected with the earth during my yoga this time in a way that i maybe hadn't ever before, and when lying in savasana (the final resting pose) my shoulders just let loose -- and started twitching! And they still are when i let them relax. Which tells me two things:
1. I should go get some deep tissue massage as soon as possible. It's a little worrying that when I relax my shoulders instead of holding them in an icy lock, they convulse around l/seisurely.
2. There really is something about being in a truer nature with no electricity, no buzzing of electrical things like computers, machines in general, and the background level of excess light and sound. I obviously have a hard time relaxing in a city setting. That was pretty obvious when we returned yesterday after being in the car, and rather than being relieved to be home as usual, i felt.... stressed out about it. All this unnecessary stuff, all this noise, all this light, all the buzzing.
Even stranger is that my allergies have kicked back in now that I have returned home. Whether it's from stress, whether it's because the pollution down here has irritated them again, or whether it's percentage of decorative flowering trees (male semen plants spewing forth pollen with fewer female plants around to absorb it all) -- I am feeling downright sick again today. Did that happen when I was in the middle of a forest on an island in Maine? Nope. Fascinating.
But I'll get off my soapbox now. We all know that Hippy Lindsay is happier in Nature.
Monhegan is a special place at THAT.
Friday morning, the Bogs, Dave, daN, and I took the 10:00 boat out to Monhegan Island. The sea was choppy, and i actually got a little nausea for the first time on a boat ever simply because it was foggy and I couldn't see the horizon if i tried. We made it out there in good time, and shortly thereafter, the sun came out :) Just in time for us to get settled and go out for a sprint down to Lobster Cove, around the corner to one side to a shipwreck that is more rusty every time i see it, and around the other corner is the house of Jaime Wyeth, famous Maine watercolorist. It was near sunset, and the colors of autumn meeting the steely sky and ocean were overwhelming. Literally. It brought me to tears as I stopped dead in my tracks. How beautiful.
And the next couple days proceeded like that. We stayed there on Friday and Saturday nights, leaving on the 12:30 boat on Sunday. But it felt like a lot longer. I would love to have been there for a lot longer indeed. Fortunately, Monhegan is one of those places where a little bit of time is quite healing, and i don't leave feeling as though i wasn't there for long enough. I just appreciate every bit of being there.
Maybe it's that there's nothing else to do there, but everything feels so much better on Monhegan. Spend the days hiking the trails, but it's small enough to hike back to the house for lunch and dinner so you don't have to carry anything other than water and an extra layer for when it gets cold. Spend the evenings playing games and talking and going to bed early. There's literally nothing to do but to enjoy being there. Since I was physically removed from daily life, i didn't find myself thinking about future plans, or what i had to do or who i was going to try to see that day somehow (as is often the case when we go somewhere that there are many people whom we know and love) -- all we had to do was be there. All we had to do was enjoy eating the incredibly simply and yet somehow all-too-flavorful food. All we had to do was take in the views, revel in bouncing from rock to rock, revel in the contrast of fall colors, revel in the Fairy Forest and pause to make them a nice house. Nothing to do but be present.
When we got home last night, i caught myself rushing around. Why? It wasn't going to save me any time. I found myself habitually doing three things at the same time. (!!?!?) I might be the queen of multitasking, but that doesn't mean that i should be doing it in my spare time. I am making a point of doing one thing at a time right now in my spare time. I have been driving myself crazy, and now i'm going to have to spend $250 on a deep tissue massage to unwind the damage I have helped to do, totally unwittingly. I need to pay more attention!
Enough about that. Here are the pictures:
On that note, it's going to be a very busy few weeks, and I'll be off-the-radar.
OK -- that's long enough. I'm going to go shower and make some pie (not at the same time).
One thing at a time.
So. I hadn't realized how tense my shoulders were on a very deep level until this weekend. That's because they're still twitching in release. Yoga on Monhegan Island is something really special. At the risk of sounding woo-woo (and i am woo-woo, so deal with it), I connected with the earth during my yoga this time in a way that i maybe hadn't ever before, and when lying in savasana (the final resting pose) my shoulders just let loose -- and started twitching! And they still are when i let them relax. Which tells me two things:
1. I should go get some deep tissue massage as soon as possible. It's a little worrying that when I relax my shoulders instead of holding them in an icy lock, they convulse around l/seisurely.
2. There really is something about being in a truer nature with no electricity, no buzzing of electrical things like computers, machines in general, and the background level of excess light and sound. I obviously have a hard time relaxing in a city setting. That was pretty obvious when we returned yesterday after being in the car, and rather than being relieved to be home as usual, i felt.... stressed out about it. All this unnecessary stuff, all this noise, all this light, all the buzzing.
Even stranger is that my allergies have kicked back in now that I have returned home. Whether it's from stress, whether it's because the pollution down here has irritated them again, or whether it's percentage of decorative flowering trees (male semen plants spewing forth pollen with fewer female plants around to absorb it all) -- I am feeling downright sick again today. Did that happen when I was in the middle of a forest on an island in Maine? Nope. Fascinating.
But I'll get off my soapbox now. We all know that Hippy Lindsay is happier in Nature.
Monhegan is a special place at THAT.
Friday morning, the Bogs, Dave, daN, and I took the 10:00 boat out to Monhegan Island. The sea was choppy, and i actually got a little nausea for the first time on a boat ever simply because it was foggy and I couldn't see the horizon if i tried. We made it out there in good time, and shortly thereafter, the sun came out :) Just in time for us to get settled and go out for a sprint down to Lobster Cove, around the corner to one side to a shipwreck that is more rusty every time i see it, and around the other corner is the house of Jaime Wyeth, famous Maine watercolorist. It was near sunset, and the colors of autumn meeting the steely sky and ocean were overwhelming. Literally. It brought me to tears as I stopped dead in my tracks. How beautiful.
And the next couple days proceeded like that. We stayed there on Friday and Saturday nights, leaving on the 12:30 boat on Sunday. But it felt like a lot longer. I would love to have been there for a lot longer indeed. Fortunately, Monhegan is one of those places where a little bit of time is quite healing, and i don't leave feeling as though i wasn't there for long enough. I just appreciate every bit of being there.
Maybe it's that there's nothing else to do there, but everything feels so much better on Monhegan. Spend the days hiking the trails, but it's small enough to hike back to the house for lunch and dinner so you don't have to carry anything other than water and an extra layer for when it gets cold. Spend the evenings playing games and talking and going to bed early. There's literally nothing to do but to enjoy being there. Since I was physically removed from daily life, i didn't find myself thinking about future plans, or what i had to do or who i was going to try to see that day somehow (as is often the case when we go somewhere that there are many people whom we know and love) -- all we had to do was be there. All we had to do was enjoy eating the incredibly simply and yet somehow all-too-flavorful food. All we had to do was take in the views, revel in bouncing from rock to rock, revel in the contrast of fall colors, revel in the Fairy Forest and pause to make them a nice house. Nothing to do but be present.
When we got home last night, i caught myself rushing around. Why? It wasn't going to save me any time. I found myself habitually doing three things at the same time. (!!?!?) I might be the queen of multitasking, but that doesn't mean that i should be doing it in my spare time. I am making a point of doing one thing at a time right now in my spare time. I have been driving myself crazy, and now i'm going to have to spend $250 on a deep tissue massage to unwind the damage I have helped to do, totally unwittingly. I need to pay more attention!
Enough about that. Here are the pictures:
On that note, it's going to be a very busy few weeks, and I'll be off-the-radar.
- Weekend of October 7, daN and i are going to Maine again for my Mum's wedding! YAY!
- Weekend of October 14, some beloved Hampshire friends of mine are visiting, and we'll be going to Hampshire for bits of the alumni weekend.
- Weekend of October 20, i'll be preparing for a big meeting that has been taking up all my time at work lately.
- Weekend of October 27, no offense, i'll be introvert-ing pretty hardcore.
OK -- that's long enough. I'm going to go shower and make some pie (not at the same time).
One thing at a time.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Reflections
I have been feeling quite reflective of late.
Here are some examples:
I was walking to the T on Thursday morning, the morning of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year for humans and animals) and realized that that day felt like New Year's to me. Not the way that January 1 feels, but the way that I would expect January 1 to feel. I have never been able to identify with that date as a new year. Autumn full moons, on the other hand, always make me feel as though tides are turning (and they are!) and the earth is starting a new part of its course (and it is! it tilt literally changes directions, remember!). Fall and Spring are much more natural times of year for the New Year to happen, planetarily speaking. Maybe it's because of the school year, and maybe it's because I truly sense my connection with the earth, but I decided that Rosh Hashanah, at least this year, was my New Year, too.
In contrast to my prior location of vocation, the Pru, which announces itself at 15 miles, my current location is tiny and old, practically undetectable between Faneuil Hall and the Financial District. No one knows where I work because it's this cool old building, and the door is an unassuming piece of work between a shoe store and a liquor store. I sometimes imagine myself a spy as I covertly slip into the building between the crowds of Freedom Trail Tours.
I have been feeling quite reflective of late.
Here are some examples:
I was walking to the T on Thursday morning, the morning of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year for humans and animals) and realized that that day felt like New Year's to me. Not the way that January 1 feels, but the way that I would expect January 1 to feel. I have never been able to identify with that date as a new year. Autumn full moons, on the other hand, always make me feel as though tides are turning (and they are!) and the earth is starting a new part of its course (and it is! it tilt literally changes directions, remember!). Fall and Spring are much more natural times of year for the New Year to happen, planetarily speaking. Maybe it's because of the school year, and maybe it's because I truly sense my connection with the earth, but I decided that Rosh Hashanah, at least this year, was my New Year, too.
In contrast to my prior location of vocation, the Pru, which announces itself at 15 miles, my current location is tiny and old, practically undetectable between Faneuil Hall and the Financial District. No one knows where I work because it's this cool old building, and the door is an unassuming piece of work between a shoe store and a liquor store. I sometimes imagine myself a spy as I covertly slip into the building between the crowds of Freedom Trail Tours.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Fashion Statement
Over the last few years, it's been dawning on me that i really do enjoy fashion and on a certain level, always have, whether I let myself show it or not. In 4th grade, I designed a fashion line of my own. It didn't go anywhere, of course, but rather was a statement of my fascination with how fabric and color interact with the human form, not to mention my own expression feminity, my personal drag.
Puberty and the grunge era coincided for me, as it did for many of us, and it seemed like a perfectly convenient time for me to swear off my interest with looking nice and calling attention to my pubing self. For the next few years, baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts were my uniform -- the uncomfortable teen's mumu. Theatre became my outlet for looking girly, as it presented me with countless opportunities to sport houndstooth suits and classy heels, red evening dresses and lipstick, as well as a safe place to experiment with how make-up and ace bandages can make me look like a man.
As I moved out of my teen years, I had fun personalizing the jeans and t-shirts by turning them into "hide-me-hippy" clothing, a series of fashion choices that visually placed me in the demographic of my personal and political preferences. This trend continued into college, where my clothing often went well with my pajamas (convenient for rolling out of bed, eating a bowl of cereal, and going to class).
After college (which, remember, I finished at the ripe old age of 23) I began noticing the desire to find "my personal style." Bouncing back and forth between more closely fitting T's and experimenting with black pants and pink skirts, I think I finally found my personal style last fall. Having an office job made it harder in some ways and easier in others; there are restrictions, but it also gave me reasons to actually buy nice looking clothing that cost more -- something I had never had a reason to do in the past. Since I'm so cheap and feel bad every time I spend money on myself, I needed a reason to buy things that looked nice.
So I've embraced the bright, splashy skirts, mock turtleneck cap sleeve shirts with gathered necklines, and of course, 3 1/2 inch saddle shoe heels. I enjoy combining business casual with hippie scarves, and have noticed that the new haircut looks great with big earrings. I have found that I prefer wearing brown over black. I have figured out what make-up flatters me and what I can do without. I have also figured out that if it's not comfortable, I'm not going to wear it. That one has cost me money to figure out, but it will cost me less in the long run. I've spent a lot of money on cheap shoes and shirts that looked fine but were ultimately painful. Spending more money on something comfy AND flattering is much better than having a LOT of cheap stuff in my closet that I never wear.
These changes have happened over time. My yoga practice has allowed me to reconnect with long forgotten childhood memories (good and bad) and childhood passions (e.g. art -- I hadn't done art for 10 years and have started drawing again). It only makes sense that I would reconnect with my enjoyment of fashion and "dressing up." For a while, I was afraid of what I was "changing into." Instead, I've come to understand that I am getting closer to becoming a whole person again, and that admitting to my hobbies and being OK with them is part of that. I might renew my subscription to "Vogue" after all.
Over the last few years, it's been dawning on me that i really do enjoy fashion and on a certain level, always have, whether I let myself show it or not. In 4th grade, I designed a fashion line of my own. It didn't go anywhere, of course, but rather was a statement of my fascination with how fabric and color interact with the human form, not to mention my own expression feminity, my personal drag.
Puberty and the grunge era coincided for me, as it did for many of us, and it seemed like a perfectly convenient time for me to swear off my interest with looking nice and calling attention to my pubing self. For the next few years, baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts were my uniform -- the uncomfortable teen's mumu. Theatre became my outlet for looking girly, as it presented me with countless opportunities to sport houndstooth suits and classy heels, red evening dresses and lipstick, as well as a safe place to experiment with how make-up and ace bandages can make me look like a man.
As I moved out of my teen years, I had fun personalizing the jeans and t-shirts by turning them into "hide-me-hippy" clothing, a series of fashion choices that visually placed me in the demographic of my personal and political preferences. This trend continued into college, where my clothing often went well with my pajamas (convenient for rolling out of bed, eating a bowl of cereal, and going to class).
After college (which, remember, I finished at the ripe old age of 23) I began noticing the desire to find "my personal style." Bouncing back and forth between more closely fitting T's and experimenting with black pants and pink skirts, I think I finally found my personal style last fall. Having an office job made it harder in some ways and easier in others; there are restrictions, but it also gave me reasons to actually buy nice looking clothing that cost more -- something I had never had a reason to do in the past. Since I'm so cheap and feel bad every time I spend money on myself, I needed a reason to buy things that looked nice.
So I've embraced the bright, splashy skirts, mock turtleneck cap sleeve shirts with gathered necklines, and of course, 3 1/2 inch saddle shoe heels. I enjoy combining business casual with hippie scarves, and have noticed that the new haircut looks great with big earrings. I have found that I prefer wearing brown over black. I have figured out what make-up flatters me and what I can do without. I have also figured out that if it's not comfortable, I'm not going to wear it. That one has cost me money to figure out, but it will cost me less in the long run. I've spent a lot of money on cheap shoes and shirts that looked fine but were ultimately painful. Spending more money on something comfy AND flattering is much better than having a LOT of cheap stuff in my closet that I never wear.
These changes have happened over time. My yoga practice has allowed me to reconnect with long forgotten childhood memories (good and bad) and childhood passions (e.g. art -- I hadn't done art for 10 years and have started drawing again). It only makes sense that I would reconnect with my enjoyment of fashion and "dressing up." For a while, I was afraid of what I was "changing into." Instead, I've come to understand that I am getting closer to becoming a whole person again, and that admitting to my hobbies and being OK with them is part of that. I might renew my subscription to "Vogue" after all.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Les Bon Séjours en Québec
What an eventful last week or so it has been!
As you may know, daN and i went on vacation in Québec City. Unfortunately, I cannot find the camera to show you pictures right now, but I can tell you that I had utterly underestimated that place for basically my whole life. I had been thinking of it as Montréal, which I love and have been to a few times. However, Montréal is pretty English-speaking and didn't feel all that European to me. I had been thinking that Québec City was going to be basically the same thing, only a tad older. Hoooo No! I was wrong. It is so French! I had been unfair to denigrate it so! Québec is lovely. We stayed just outside of the old city (it was about a 10-15 minute walk -- totally do-able) at a place called Auberge L'Autre Jardin whose particular schtick is environmental and social consciousness. They even put forth a system where we would be able to communicate to the staff whether we wanted our towels from the previous day changed out or not so as to avoid waste. I am a big fan. Their breakfast (included in the price of the room) was delicious organic fairly traded everything (complete with croissants and local artisan raspberry preserves), and they had energy efficient lights everywhere. The only problem was that the beds were a bit too firm for me and daN. We don't need pillow-top or anything, but it was a bit firm for the both of us. Ah well.
While we were there, we mainly walked around. We did manage to see a very cool exhibit on the history of dragons at Musée de la Civilisation for formality's sake, but in retrospect, I wish we had gone to La Musée des Beaux Arts. There is so much rich history and so many opportunities for reading at every corner post in that city that we were totally "read out" by the time we reached the exhibit. Note to self: favor art museums over history museums while on trips with rich history bursting out of every nook. It was a bit much.
Walking around was where we found all the rich history. There is this BEAUTIFUL park called the Plains of Abraham where the French and British faced off to determine who would attain rule of Canada. As we know, it went to Great Britain. The history is funny. It is evident that the French in Québec chafe under British rule even now to some extent, and there is a palpable sense of loss and regret not to be "french" anymore. However, on our tour of Parliament, we learned some of the reasons why there's only some sense of regret: the British have been good to them, by and large. Canada is a sovereign nation, not to England, but to themselves. I had not realized that Queen Elizabeth is also "Queen of Canada." Rather than British Parliament, Canada reports to the monarchy, which as we all know, is a symbolic figurehead with no real power and has been for quite some time. No real threat there. Great Britain under George III was also quick to grant Canada any and all demands in the 1780's and 90's to avoid the likes of the French and American Revolutions. That set the stage for a far more progressively democratic nation than they would have been granted under French rule at that time. The sense of loss at the war monuments seemed bittersweet in that "it's too bad it couldn't have worked out between the two of us" kind of way.
I gleaned all this from an amateur crash course in history from the Québecois Parliament tour we went on and from reading all of the inscriptions on all the monuments and dedicated parks we came across.
Let's just put it this way: there was enough green space there for me to piece together a patchwork history of the province and simultaneously feel like I was in this bucolic French countryside. So much green space! It was almost unbelievable. One minute, we'd be walking in a densely packed, cobblestoned neighborhood perfumed by flower boxes. Every square inch of space was taken up with old stone buildings. In fact, were it not for the ubiquitous fetid flower boxes, the place would have taken up a mantel more appropriate to a prison. It's amazing what a little bit of color can do to improve the quaintness of a place. The next minute, we'd round a bend and this vast park with trees, amazingly landscaped monuments would unfold before us. With the Citadel on one side and the cliffs of the wide St. Lawrence river on the other side, the wind blew through my now-shortened hair and I got cold! The chill of my old friend the Northeastern Autumn was in the air, and I was truly on vacation.
The Food: just a short bit. Yes, it deserves the capital "F." By and large, I did pretty well sticking to my dietary restrictions. However, that didn't stop me from having a couple of crêpes and croissants. And boy, were they tasty! Back to real life, though.
The Language: those Québecois are too good at detecting when people are more comfortable speaking English than I would have liked! I only gave up and let one of them speak to me in English once when I was particularly tired, or when there was something that I truly didn't know how to talk about in French. Most of the time, though, they liked it when I persevered in conducting affairs in French, and daN observed that I was treated better as a direct result.
That's got to be enough reading for you for now, and I've got to go to yoga class. All in all, the trip was worth the 7.5 hour drive, and I will certainly return.
What an eventful last week or so it has been!
As you may know, daN and i went on vacation in Québec City. Unfortunately, I cannot find the camera to show you pictures right now, but I can tell you that I had utterly underestimated that place for basically my whole life. I had been thinking of it as Montréal, which I love and have been to a few times. However, Montréal is pretty English-speaking and didn't feel all that European to me. I had been thinking that Québec City was going to be basically the same thing, only a tad older. Hoooo No! I was wrong. It is so French! I had been unfair to denigrate it so! Québec is lovely. We stayed just outside of the old city (it was about a 10-15 minute walk -- totally do-able) at a place called Auberge L'Autre Jardin whose particular schtick is environmental and social consciousness. They even put forth a system where we would be able to communicate to the staff whether we wanted our towels from the previous day changed out or not so as to avoid waste. I am a big fan. Their breakfast (included in the price of the room) was delicious organic fairly traded everything (complete with croissants and local artisan raspberry preserves), and they had energy efficient lights everywhere. The only problem was that the beds were a bit too firm for me and daN. We don't need pillow-top or anything, but it was a bit firm for the both of us. Ah well.
While we were there, we mainly walked around. We did manage to see a very cool exhibit on the history of dragons at Musée de la Civilisation for formality's sake, but in retrospect, I wish we had gone to La Musée des Beaux Arts. There is so much rich history and so many opportunities for reading at every corner post in that city that we were totally "read out" by the time we reached the exhibit. Note to self: favor art museums over history museums while on trips with rich history bursting out of every nook. It was a bit much.
Walking around was where we found all the rich history. There is this BEAUTIFUL park called the Plains of Abraham where the French and British faced off to determine who would attain rule of Canada. As we know, it went to Great Britain. The history is funny. It is evident that the French in Québec chafe under British rule even now to some extent, and there is a palpable sense of loss and regret not to be "french" anymore. However, on our tour of Parliament, we learned some of the reasons why there's only some sense of regret: the British have been good to them, by and large. Canada is a sovereign nation, not to England, but to themselves. I had not realized that Queen Elizabeth is also "Queen of Canada." Rather than British Parliament, Canada reports to the monarchy, which as we all know, is a symbolic figurehead with no real power and has been for quite some time. No real threat there. Great Britain under George III was also quick to grant Canada any and all demands in the 1780's and 90's to avoid the likes of the French and American Revolutions. That set the stage for a far more progressively democratic nation than they would have been granted under French rule at that time. The sense of loss at the war monuments seemed bittersweet in that "it's too bad it couldn't have worked out between the two of us" kind of way.
I gleaned all this from an amateur crash course in history from the Québecois Parliament tour we went on and from reading all of the inscriptions on all the monuments and dedicated parks we came across.
Let's just put it this way: there was enough green space there for me to piece together a patchwork history of the province and simultaneously feel like I was in this bucolic French countryside. So much green space! It was almost unbelievable. One minute, we'd be walking in a densely packed, cobblestoned neighborhood perfumed by flower boxes. Every square inch of space was taken up with old stone buildings. In fact, were it not for the ubiquitous fetid flower boxes, the place would have taken up a mantel more appropriate to a prison. It's amazing what a little bit of color can do to improve the quaintness of a place. The next minute, we'd round a bend and this vast park with trees, amazingly landscaped monuments would unfold before us. With the Citadel on one side and the cliffs of the wide St. Lawrence river on the other side, the wind blew through my now-shortened hair and I got cold! The chill of my old friend the Northeastern Autumn was in the air, and I was truly on vacation.
The Food: just a short bit. Yes, it deserves the capital "F." By and large, I did pretty well sticking to my dietary restrictions. However, that didn't stop me from having a couple of crêpes and croissants. And boy, were they tasty! Back to real life, though.
The Language: those Québecois are too good at detecting when people are more comfortable speaking English than I would have liked! I only gave up and let one of them speak to me in English once when I was particularly tired, or when there was something that I truly didn't know how to talk about in French. Most of the time, though, they liked it when I persevered in conducting affairs in French, and daN observed that I was treated better as a direct result.
That's got to be enough reading for you for now, and I've got to go to yoga class. All in all, the trip was worth the 7.5 hour drive, and I will certainly return.
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