Blank Slate: 100 Hours of Art

With my final semester in university coming to an end, so was the 40th Annual Undergraduate Exhibition: Blank Slate, held at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) between March 20th – April 5th.

Progress of the 100 hours that went into my grad thesis piece “Follow”

Follow me into “Follow”

Le bf seeing my piece for the first time (:

For those of you interested in knowing the concepts behind my painting:
My Artist Statement

This painting explores the relationship between travel and social media. Inspired by Osmann’s “Follow Me To” series posted on Instagram, I document my travels by constructing photos in a similar manner—from the first person view of the photographer (my boyfriend), with me leading him into various destinations. The canvas is arranged chronologically into 72 equally sliced horizontal bands—one for each destination that I’ve visited during this past year.
Today, the most important element in traveling, the visual experience, is emphasized by technology. The pixelated quality of the photographic compilation is a comment on the ubiquity of the digital snapshot and social networking platforms—the need to document and share every experience. The fragmented appearance of the slices reinforces the fragility of moments in memory, where each horizontal band represents a preserved slice from a singular voyage.
Set against the abstracted background, the outlined figure is recognizable when viewed from afar. The one-to-one scale of the canvas invites the viewers to closely examine each individual slice. Although more details are revealed upon closer inspection, there’s not enough information to geographically locate the image. Compositionally, the image contradicts the convention of the clichéd tourist photos—a frontal view of the subject with an iconic monument as the backdrop. The abstraction of the background forces the audience to examine the act of traveling itself, rather than focusing on identifying the destination. As Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes.” The goal of my work is to introduce a contemporary perspective that examines the relationship between traveling, digital technology and the desire to preserve the moment.

P.S. “Follow” got selected by the Public Art Advisory Committee of the Region of Waterloo, and I got a contract to have my piece hang in their headquarters for the next year! :D

And just to show a few the other pieces that I liked by my fellow talented classmates:

by Minsang Song

“The Explication of the Old Man” (oil paint) by Dan Timmins

“Big Owl” by Sarah Faucher

“French Fry Suit” by JoAnn Ball

“Self” (performance with saran wrap and tape) by Julia Scappatura

“Cold, Hard Truth” by Lindsay Davies

Group photo!

Becoming Québécois 101: Cabane à Sucre

With spring slowly approaching, so does the season for extracting the sap of maple syrup. After finding out that a sugar cabin (cabane à sucre) called le Chalet des Érables is opened while I’m back in Montreal for reading week, le bf and I decided to drive out to Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, a city in southwestern Quebec, to check it out.

A sugar cabin, also known as a sugar shack, consists of a series of cabins where sap collected from sugar maple trees is boiled into maple syrup.
Historically, sugar houses were a tradition introduced to New France by settlers of Swiss and Normand origin in the 17th century. The purpose was to produce delicious syrup for trade and for personal use during the Winter. After the British conquest of 1763, the tradition was spread to the Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but remained the only family-related tradition in Quebec.

Though I’ve already visited one other cabane à sucre near Montreal before, I was very excited about this one since their website boast of having various animals :D

Upon arrival, our first stop was the reception hall, where lunch was being served.

Inside the salle à manger

Rustic decorations with the light

The quality of the food wasn’t too refined (kind of expected since it’s all-you-can-eat), and the portions were big for the two of us. Still, it’s worth to try it at least once in my opinion. All the dishes are complemented by maple syrup, which were freshly produced on-site.

All-you-can-eat lunch:
Bread, pea soup, sausage and ham in maple syrup, oreilles de crisse (fried smoked pork jowls) with eggs, potatoes, salted bacon, baked beans, ice cream sugar tart

Le bf really liked the oreilles de crisse (the brown crispy things with the eggs), and we originally thought they were made from bits of bacon. After researching afterwards, I found out that oreilles de crisse, a traditional Quebec dish, is made of deep-fried smoked pork jowls, traditionally topped with maple syrup.
An interesting piece of knowledge that came with it:
The word crisse is the Quebec French profanity word for “Christ”. So the name of the dish literally translates to “Christ’s ears”! Sounds delicious, doesn’t it? :P

After lunch, I wanted to go see the animals, but not before we make a stop at the wooden stand outside for some maple taffy (tire sur la neige).

Maple taffy is made by boiling maple sap past the point where it would form maple syrup, but not so long that it becomes maple butter or maple sugar. It’s part of traditional culture in Quebec. It’s poured onto the snow and then lifted with a small wooden stick and eaten as a snack.

Tire sur la neige (maple taffy)

Yummmy!

We kept coming back to the taffy stand, le bf ate a totally of 6 tire sur la neige! That’s how good the maple syrup was :D

I found out that the best way to bond with the animals was to offer them food. Good thing I smuggled some bread from the dining halls from lunch :P

All the deer came after they saw I had food

The biggest deer of the herd, he kept pushing the others out of the way to get bread from me

Mama sheep protecting her babies

Timid baby lambs

My new goat friend: Goat-migo!

 
I became fast friends with the goat, I swear by the end of our visit he could recognize me. He really liked thebread I gave him and kept stand up with his front legs on the ledge. I almost thought he was going to follow us home!

He’s attempting to eat my coat!

One of the baby goats (:

Looking kinda derpy :P

This alpaca needs some combing

—–
The visit to the llama and alpaca was not so enjoyable for le bf. I’m not sure if he did something to irritate the llama, but he spat on le bf, twice!
(Maybe he didn’t spit on me since I gave him bread? :P)

The llama likes bread

Where all the maple syrup comes from

Adventures near the Old Port: La Banquise, Ice Fishing, La Maison du Macaron

Since I had a week from school for reading week, I had time to come to Montreal and do some of the fun stuff that le bf and I have been wanting to do for ages!

We kinda had to pack a few places to go within a Sunrday since le bf still had to work during the weekdays. So to be efficient, everything we did that day was located near the Old Port.

Starting off with brunch at Poutine La Banquise, which is a restaurant specializing in, of course, the French Canadian delicacy: poutine!
Located on 994 Rachel Street East, this casual restaurant is opened 24 hours and serves 25 different types of poutines.
As we arrived, there was already a line of people forming outside the store. Luckily the queue progressed quickly and we were inside and seated within 15 minutes.

We picked 2 different regular sized ones: La Miam and La Danse, they were both delicious! Le bf and I both preferred La Miam though, since it had a heavier flavor and various different ingredients in the toppings.

La Miam: ground beef, merguez sausages, onions, tomatoes & swiss cheese

La Danse: chicken, onions, bacon, pepper sauce

So happy with food :D

Note: These are only regular sized dishes! If you’re REALLY hungry or with a group of people, you can always go for the large size (:

We overestimated the size of our stomachs and had to pack the rest to go. The leftovers made a good dinner after being reheated though :D

Afterwards, with full tummies we felt ready to do some ice fishing at the Ice Fishing Village (Village de Pêche Blanche) on the Old Port.

After getting our fishing permits from the reception, we were assigned a tent and given various equipment: a fishing rod, a bucket full of live baits, and a sifter to filter out ice.

Our bucket full of baits

I was a bit worried beforehand about standing hours on a lake at -20C. However, upon entering our tent, I was pleasantly surprised by the heater and little chairs that were inside. 4 holes were drilled inside the tent, and 2 were outside. Though inside the tent it wasn’t as warm as it is in a house, it was a lot better than having to stand outside with the wind chills.

Inside of our tent (#15)

I was surprised that they had given us little fish as bait, and couldn’t bear the thought of having to put hooks through their tiny, writhing bodies ): Fortunately le bf was there to do the necessary tasks.

Ready to do some fishin’!

We stayed for about 2 hours, and decided to leave as the sun was starting to set and we were getting hungry. Though we didn’t catch anything, I was able to convince le bf to let me free the rest of the bait fish, so it wasn’t a total lost :D

Sunset by the Old Port

We decided to go to La Maison du Macaron for some tasty desserts before heading back home.

Sortilège: Frais et parfumé, ce mélange réunit le thé vert pencha aux parfums des fruits exotiques, papaye et
mangue. des notes sucrées et fraîches.
suggéré : en accompagnement des desserts à base de fruits… $3.10

Miam! : Macaron garni d’un crémeux au citron et de framboises fraîches… $6.75

Mûre-mûre: Pâte sablée, crème légère à la pulpe de mûre, morceaux de mûres fraîches, mousse à la purée de marron, confit à la pulpe de mûre… $11.50

Just a couple of macarons for the road:

Macaron du mois: Rose
fraise & rhubarbe:
Biscuit macaron bicolore parsemé de sucre rouge garni d’une ganache aux pulpes de fraise et
rhubarbe

I have to say, even though Ladurée is still my favorite brand for macarons, the ones from La Maison du Macaron were really good!

Under the Sea We Go – Ripley’s Aquarium

Once I heard about the recently opened Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, I knew I had to convince le bf to bring me there, since we were already planning to visit Toronto for a weekend. After some light coercing, le bf agreed to go there since it was conveniently located beside the CN Tower, a tourist must-see destination. The ticket was a bit pricey: $29.98 for adults over 14 years-old. But since I’ve heard some very good things about it from various friends, I had my mind set on going anyways.

The aquarium was divided in different sections, our first stop was the Canadian Waters Gallery, which includes 17 different tanks featuring creatures that can be found in the Great Lakes and Canada’s surrounding seas.

I don’t know why these fishies are stacking themselves

American Lobster with huge arms!

Next stop was The Gallery, featuring a variety of delicate species living in fragile ecosystems.

So this is what it looks like underneath a starfish

The Weedy Sea Dragon: it’s stunning and it really does look like a plant!

Sparkly piranhas

The Ray Bay was one of my favorite spaces in the aquarium. There was a huge tank featuring dozens of stingrays that glide through the water as if they’re flying. We stayed there for a good 20 minutes to watch a diver feed the stingrays as well (:

Spotted Eagle Ray flying in the water

They look like they have faces underneath them ._.

After the stingray show, I was feeling a bit woozy from all the underwater picture-taking (or maybe I was just too excited to see all these pretty fishies :P), so we took a break in the the Rainbow Reef, across from all the colourful, tropical creatures.

Afterwards, we went on to the Dangerous Lagoon, which was probably the most exciting section of the entire aquarium. It begins with an underwater tunnel bringing the visitors through the gallery on a conveyor belt to see the many different species of sharks and other species.
It was a really cool experience going through the tunnel, with all the sea life swimming around and on top of us, you really get a sense of being underneath the sea!

A Sand Tiger Shark with some crazy teeth

The giant grouper: can reach up to 400 kg, they’re humongous!

Last but not least, the Planet Jellies! My personal favorite space of the aquarium, probably since it’s so visually pleasing to look at. Featuring 5 different species of jellies, the colors of the jellies are absolutely stunning against the colour-changing displays.

Chrysaora fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettle)

This one is missing a piece, looks like it’s dying ):

Moon Jellies

An upside-down jellyfish

Spotted Lagoon Jellies

Being Touristy in Toronto

Some new photos added to the Around the World section from our mini weekend trip in Toronto :D

We were particularly happy with this one (it looks good enough to be an ad for the CN Tower or Moose Knuckles, doesn’t it? :P):

CN Tower, Toronto, Canada

Aside from the CN Tower, we also visited the new Ripely’s Aquarium and went to some interesting restaurants there. More updates will come shortly!

Ristorante Portovino – Company Christmas Dinner

So my dad’s company decided to have a fancy dinner at the Italian restaurant Ristorante Portovino.
There were a lot of people going, so we had a custom-made menu which included: the antipasto, a choice between 2 main courses (salmon or ossobuco), and dessert (cannoli, chocolate mousse, or crème brûlée) with coffee or tea.

I was surprised at how big the portion of the antipasto was, luckily it was meant to be shared between 4 people. I liked that there were a variety of different things to choose from from the plate, and I particularly enjoyed the smoke salmon and prosciutto and honeydew.

Antipasto – Crispy calamari, smoked salmon, bocconcini, Italian tomatoes, capicollo, salami, prosciutto, grilled Italian sausage, honeydew and cantaloupe, capuccine capers, olives, roasted peppers and marinated eggplants

Salmone Alla Griglia Mediterraneo – Fresh grilled Atlantic salmon, topped with a mixture of cold pressed olive oil, lemon juice, fresh oregano and garlic.

I picked the ossobuco without really knowing what it was. Though I don’t usually order red meat at restaurants (I’m more of a seafood kinda gal), I was glad the I accidentally made this mistake this time. The meat was so tender that it felt like it was melting in my mouth. And as it was my first time eating ossobuco, it was interesting for me to eat the bone marrows with the tiny spoon that came with the dish.

Ossobuco Alla Milanaise – Quebec milk fed veal shank braised in its own juices with tomatoes, fine herbs and white wine, garnished with gremolata.

The portions of the desserts were quite small, but I was happy to get to get a taste of all 3 different kinds (:

Dessert: Cannoli Portovino

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse

Dessert: Crème brûlée

We were even each given a box of Lindt chocolate at the end :D

Lindt Gourmet Truffles

How was everyone’s Christmas food adventures?
Omnomnom (:

Follow me to Florida: Christmas Edition

New additions to the Follow Me series in the Around the World section, featuring photos on my second trip to Florida this year with le bf.
This was my first time spending Christmas holidays in a tropical climate since I’ve lived in Taiwan as a child! Gotta say, it felt a tad weird for the Canadian in me to see Christmas ornaments and lights hanging on palm trees :P
Overall it was awesome not to be freezing in the -20 something Celsius in Montreal though!

“Asia”, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Orlando, USA

And more updates from the holidays will come out soon, I promise (:

Authentic French pastry since 1952: Duc de Lorraine

Now that I finally have some time to do some posts after the whole midterms/assignments/Halloween madness (this is what university student life does to you), I realized that I haven’t done a review for Duc de Lorraine, one of my favorite pastry shops located at Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal.
I’ve actually been there twice already in late August. Both times we got the patio seat on the big sofas, with a nice view of the famous Saint Joseph’s Oratory :D

The first time I was there with my sister, my mom, and some friends of my mom. The waiter was very attentive, he came over and sat down beside us to explain everything on the menu before we ordered. While waiting for our food to arrive, my sister and I couldn’t resist the urge to snoop inside the store as we saw a lot of pretty desserts inside.

Just to show a few:

Paris Brest: made of choux pastry and a praline flavoured cream

Assortment of tarts

Religieuse: made of two choux pastry cases, one larger than the other, filled with crème pâtissière, mostly commonly chocolate or mocha

We wanted to try all the desserts! However, as it turned out, we’ve ordered more than enough food, so we didn’t end up getting the desserts.

Nom ALL the foods!

House Salad

Salmon salad

Assiette de charcuterie | Meat plate

Assiette de formage | Cheese plate

I really liked one of the cheeses: La Tomme de Savoie aux Mare, from Savoie in the French Alps. It is a mild, semi-firm cow’s milk cheese. This one in particular had a fruity taste (the black stuff on top are dried fermented grapes I believe).

Tomme de Savoie aux Mare

The 5 of us (all females) kept asking for refills of baguettes (which were free) to go with the cheese and charcuterie. I’m pretty sure that’s why our waiter recognized me the second time I went there :P

My second visit was with my family and le bf (who had invited them to celebrate receiving his work visa :D). This time we finally got the chance to try some of the desserts, which were really good as well!

Left top to bottom right: meat and cheese plate, grilled cheese baguette, ham and cheese quiche, opera cake, mousse aux fruits, tiramisu

All in all, this is a good place to go to if you’re in the mood to experience some real French food and European atmosphere (all of their staff are actually from France)!

Bon omnomnomage to all you foodies out there♥

Mot du Jour

Piètre (adj)

médiocre, dérisoire, négligeable

The Chen Cats

So I’ve recently made an Instagram account featuring the 3 super photogenic cats of my family: Harry, Mia, and Leo :D
For all you cat lovers, follow these cuties by adding @thechencats or check them out here: http://instagram.com/thechencats

Mia playing hide and seek in with the covers

Leo being a top model

Harry looking pensive

Back to school for fall term

Hello everyone, sorry for not updating the blog for so long. After my last final exam I was caught in a frenzy of packing to go back to Montreal, and then packing again for 2 weeks in Florida. With fall term starting again in 2 days, I’m back again in Waterloo, and I finally have time to go through the numerous amount of photos that I’ve taken during the trip and do some belated updates.

Here are some of the things from Florida I want to cover for the next few days:
– Restaurant reviews (we went to so many good restaurants during the trip, and I took a ton food photos being the foodie I am :P)
– Some of the cool places that we’ve visited:
> Aquatica
> Busch Garden
> Clearwater Beach
> Miami
> Bahia Honda Beach
> Hemingway House
> Theater of the SeaAnd of course I’ll try to keep up with the L’Amour du Jour quotes and Places to Visit Before You Die as well. Looks like I’ve got a lot of blogging to do! :P

Restaurant Français: Le Surcouf

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, since I’ve been done exams I’ve been on holiday mode and finally enjoying the joys of being a lazy bum and hanging around all day just chilling :P

Since le bf and I are leaving for our Florida trip soon (TOMORROW!), we decided to have a dinner with him and my family before (treat of le lovely bf, might I add (: ).

We landed on choosing the French restaurant Le Surcouf, located on the island of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. We discovered it one day after having lunch in the area, the quaint appearance of the restaurant caught our eye (also their sign advertised a 3 course meal for $25:P ), so we went in to take a look at their menu. I fell in love with the interior decor and atmosphere immediately.

Interior view of the restaurant

So the 5 of us (le bf, me, my sister, my parents) decided to order 4 of their Formule bistro, which is a set menu offered on Sunday to Thursday nights.

We were delighted when they served the Amuse-Bouche, which my parents weren’t expecting since they’re not familiar with the courses of a French meal.

L’Amuse-bouche: mousse au avocat / avocado mousse

The white objects on the couscous that I thought were so sort of fruit (like pear slices) at first glance turned out to be big pieces of scallops. I really liked the contrasting textures of the grainy couscous and the soft scallops.

Entrée (Appetizer): La suprise du chef – Couscous with scallops

Entrée (Appetizer): Salade

We asked for medium rare for the steak. The blue cheese sauce was delicious, and the portion was hearty. I highly recommend this for all the meat-lovers.

Plat Principal (Main Course): Bavette de boeuf sauce Roquefort (Beef bavette with blue cheese sauce)

Plat Principal (Main Course): Pavé de thon grillé, sauce vierge aux tomates sèches et olives noires (Grilled tuna with sundried tomatoes and black olive salsa)

Plat Principal (Main Course): Croquette de confit de canard sur verdure (Duck confit croquette on mixed greens)

Dessert: Crème caramel

Dessert: Sorbet

Dessert: des fruits

Dessert: Mousse au chocolat

La Mignardise: Cholocat covered orange slices

Le bf and I

Papa and Mama Chen

All in all, a very satisfying and sophisticated meal, my parents were quite impressed and are already planning to come back again.
Also, We were lucky we only ordered 4 portions instead of 5, it would have definitely been too much!

Finally, a giant pepper grinder found in the restaurant to end this post:

It’s literally half my size!

Bon omnomnomage everyone! (:

ALL the foods!

Some adventures with food from my Montreal weekend:

We went to one of my all-time favorite Lebanese restaurant, Poissonnerie & Restaurant Rayan, located in Côte-des-Neiges for some fresh seafood.
The cool thing about this restaurant is that you get to pick from the display case the food what you want to order, tell them how you want it to be made, and then they cook it right away after. Therefore the food is not only fresh, but they’re also very flexible with adjusting the portion, since the price is measure by weight.

The dressing was really good!

A whole grilled fish with spices

Sauteed shrimps with onions

Aside from the meat of the fish being a bit dry (since we ordered it to be grilled), everything was delicious. I think we ordered a bit too much though, since aside from the salad, the shrimps, and the fish, we also ordered a slice of salmon, and sweet potato fries. Luckily my dad and le bf were more skilled at me and my mom at omnomnoming all the foods :D

Afterwards we went to St. Joseph’s Oratory, which was just around the block, for a small post-meal hike.

St. Joseph Oratory: Canada’s largest church

Beautiful sunset view from St. Joseph

And then there was date night with le bf at Casa Grecque, the night before I had to come back to Waterloo (:
It was lovely sitting outside on the patio, while listening to the street artists sing on the sidewalk.

Salad, bread, soup, and we brought our own wine!

The steak and grill platter for 2

Hope you guys had an awesome weekend full of noms too! <3

A Day With Nature: Biodôme & Jardin Botanique

As promised, this an update from my adventures in Montreal on the weekend of July 12th.

Le bf and I decided visit some touristy places that he hasn’t been to yet: Biodôme & Jardin Botanique!
Though I’ve already been to Biodôme before I was still super excited since I love looking at all the animals :D

The picture-perfect Tour de Montréal

Riding frogs at the entrance

The Biodôme allows visitors to walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas:
Section 1) The Tropical Forest is a replica of the South American rainforest.

The world’s largest rodent, the capybara, and its duck friend (:

Sparkly piranhas… not as dangerous looking as I expected

Little black monkey (Goeldi’s marmoset) jumping over our heads!

The golden lion tamarin, one of the cutest animals in the dome :3

I wonder how these birds hide from their predators being so brightly colored?

Section 2) The Laurentian Forest is a replica of the North American wilderness.

It is gathering wood to bring back to its house. These are some well-fed beavers :P

Section 3) The Saint Lawrence Marine Eco-system is an estuary habitat modelled on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

I’m strangely drawn by the creatures under the sea

I thought it was cute, le bf though it looked like Gollum LOL

Section 4) A polar area that is divided into Arctic and Antarctic.

Being penguins in the Arctics :D

Their cute little waddle reminds me of Happy Feet (:

On our way out we found this giant bird just chilling at the exit. No big deal. I really wanted to touch it!

After taking a small food break in the Biodôme cafeteria, we headed towards the Botanical Garden. The day was glorious and the sun was blazing. After 10 minutes of walking, though I was all sweaty from the heat, I was pleasanlty surprised to see all the big plant sculptures from the Montreal International Mosaicultures (MIM) 2013 Show Exhibition. 50 participants from 30 different countries are showcasing their works which reflects the different cultures of their countries, using the theme of Land of Hope as an inspiration while incorporating several sub-themes:
– Interdependence of man and nature
– Humankind’s positive actions for the environment
– Species and ecosystems that are endangered or at risk
– Nature in the urban environment
– Beauty and fragility of life on earth

Here are some photos of the ones I liked, taken during our 3 hour walk in the humongous garden:

Belgium • Province of Hainaut •
The Insects’ Garden

Aquatic Garden

United States • Atlanta • Fragile Frogs!

China • Shanghai • A True Story!

Japan • Tokyo-Shibuya • Hachiko, the Loyal Dog

1 Japan • Hamamatsu • Hamamatsu, City of Creativity: Looking Toward the Future Through a Symbiosis of Man and Nature

Canada • Val d’Or • Near the City of Gold

Spotted this little guy on the road in Shade Garden. He doesn’t look impressed.

Chile • Easter Island • Guardians of the Island

Canada • Montréal • Spirits of the Wood – Coventina

England • (Heather Jansch) • Hope and Odyssey

Canada • Montréal • Mother Earth

France • Comesse’s Butterfly

Malaysia • Hands Up!

Malaysia • Hands Up!

Canada • WWF • Ambassadors of Hope

Japan • Okinawa • Small Clownfish and Anemone

It was too hot to keep the shirt on :P

Canada • Montréal (Albert Mondor) • The Garden of Glass and Meta

Canada • Verdun • Upheaval

Canada • Repentigny • The Bridge Between Generations

France • Department of Moselle • Memories of a Childhood Dinner

Canada • Nunavut Cape Dorset • Nanuk

Madagascar • All in a Row

Canada • Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie • The Heart Tree

Canada • Montréal • The Man who Planted Trees

The exhibit is open until September, so I highly recommend who ever happens to be in Montreal to go visit it. Not only are all the sculptures beautifully made, each of them come with a small story describing the meaning of the work, which was interesting to read. Plus, since the sculptures are quite sparsely spread, you can easily spend 2-3 hours walking around, which is quite the work out! (My legs were sore for 2 days straight after lol)

My number one (:

Mot du Jour

Empathie (nf)  

 (=psychologie) Faculté de s’identifier à autrui, de ressentir les sensations d’un autre.

Follow Me to Montreal

Some new Follow Me photos up from my weekend trip back to Montreal, featuring Biodôme and other awesome places (:

I’ll probably try to do a post soon with more photos, there were quite a bit since it was a beautiful weekend and we spent a good amount of time visiting places. So stay tuned!

Mot du Jour

Sanction (nf)  

   (=mesure)   sanction  
prendre des sanctions contre      to impose sanctions on
sanction pénale      penalty

   (=conséquence)   consequence, penalty  
la sanction a été immédiate      there were immediate consequences

     (approbation ou rejet)    la sanction des urnes      the verdict of the ballot box
la sanction des électeurs      the verdict of the electorate

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Quite a few interesting facts about the place that I’ve been living in for
4 years that I didn’t know before:

Mot du Jour

So despite of my incessant attempts of keeping my French up to level, it’s true that I felt that recently I feel my French slowly slipping away as I’m trapped as a busy computer science student in the English-speaking Waterloo for another month before returning back to Montreal.

Fortunately my caring bf has agreed to teach me a word everyday to help with this endeavor, which I would like to share with everyone. Hopefully it’ll help me to better remember it (:

To start off of this new trend of mine:

Canicule (nf)  

   (=chaleur)   scorching heat

   (=vague de chaleur)   heat wave

   Ex. On dit que ce sera la canicule la semaine prochaine!

Fellow Me :)

Mini update in the Around the World section from the weekend trip in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. I liked how they turned out :D

Vieux Port, Montreal, QC, Canada

Sunday is for picnic and animals (:

These were from a couple weeks back when le bf was still in Waterloo. To us the gorgeous summer weather outside means PICNICS! We decided to have lunch out on a grass field near Waterloo Park, which is really close to where I’m living, which was awesome, since we’d get to go to walk through the petting zoo that’s inside the park after eating :D

All the noms (: I made the salad!

The main attraction of the day: llamas!

It wanted food from us

White & brown llamas

Deer living in the same area as llamas

Caught this guy chilling on the grass

Albino peacock

Biggest rooster I’ve ever seen

Fat turkey

And later, while walking on the University of Waterloo campus, near St.Jerome’s University:

Geese crossing :)

Family of geese

Baby Canadian goose, so cute!

Update: Follow Me Around the World

Go check out the new photos added in the Around the World section, featuring a little piece of our adventures in Canada so far :)

Peter Russell Rock Garden, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Caught Between Canada and America: Niagara Falls

Since le bf had came early all the way from Paris to be with me for my 22nd birthday, we want to do a mini trip on the weekend of May 31, before my actual birthday. We settled on renting a car on the Friday and driving to Niagara from Waterloo, since it only takes about an hour and half (still, it was my first experience driving on my own without my parents, and I got both of us there alive! :D).
Leaving it up to le bf to plan the details of this trip, I didn’t really know what we were going to do once we were in Niagara. It turns out there was actually a lot to do besides from looking at the waterfalls!

Picnic by the falls! Check out this yummy burrito prepared by le bf :3

The tallest building around, the Skylon Tower

Silly sunglasses photos are a must-do :)

After lunch we walked along the Fallsview Tourist Area, there were lots of restaurants, hotels, and a bunch of tourist attractions:

Just being Canadian chilling with the blue moose

Greetings and lots of bacon to France from Canada :D

Amateur photographer on the loose!

Surprise from le bf: he reserved tickets to Nightmare Fear Factory!
Famed to be the “The scariest and best haunted house attraction in Niagara Falls Canada”, it was probably one of the scariest experience I’ve had in a long time. We spent quite a bit of time in there too, since I was clinging so hard on to le bf the whole time that he had a hard time walking lol. I guess it’s more the fact that people are scared of the unknown that really made me uncomfortable in there. But honestly I was so frightened because it was completely dark inside, and there were constantly things jumping out and touching us…

We were basically walking like this the whole time inside lol

After at lot of yelling and screaming (from me), and comforting (from le bf), we finally made it out of the haunted house. Talking about it afterwards in broad daylight, I had to admit it was kind of fun… in a scary way :P
After all that adrenaline, we were both getting hungry. That’s when the second surprise from le bf was revealed, he had reserved early dinner for us at the Revolving Dining Room! The view was spectacular from up there :D

Complimentary bread and butter. The butter balls are so cute :3

Mixed Garden Green Salad

My main course: Grilled Fresh Salmon Filet with Mousseline Sauce

His main course: Roast Prime Rib of Beef au Jus

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse Chantilly

View of the America and Bridal Veil Falls from the Skylon Tower

Canadian Horseshoe Falls

The perfect panorama

They took photos of us before we took the elevator to go up the dinning area, and of course they tried to make us buy it afterwards when we came back down. But we were getting good at saying no to vendors (thanks to living in China lol), and we firmly refused their persistent attempt to sell us bounded photos at $25 each. And we took photos of the photos instead :P

We’re drowning!

Taking photos of photos… cuz we cheap like that :P

Afterwards we decided to take a walk and go to the big Hershey’s store there, since we had coupons for free samples :)

A little too excited for the Hershey’s store :3

5 lbs of chocolate!

After, we discovered that there was a casino just beside, and decided to go in to take a look. It was my first time in a casino, so I’ve decided to play just once and stop after that. I chose to play $10 (the minimum bet) on Roulette, and I won! :D I was so excited that I dragged le bf to the Rain Forest Cafe for drinks :3

Our victory drinks: Canadian beer and strawberry Daiquiri

Cool animal chairs, I got the tiger!

This restaurant was interesting since it was rain forest themed and even had some live animals inside:

Red feet big turtle … looking not so content

We thought this was a rubber shark until it started moving around lol

And then there were lights and fireworks to complete the awesome trip:

Lights on the falls at night

Pretty :)

Apparently there’s fireworks every Friday in the summer :)

Coolest photo from the night — the artsy blurry effect is actually due to the water droplets on my lens coming from the falls

P.S. I didn’t do ANY photoshopping, not even touch-ups, on the photos with the waterfalls. They’re beautiful just the way the are :D

Je suis ombrée

So my birthday is just around the corner, and I’ve been wanting to change my hair up a little.
I settled on ombré, since one of my friends recently got that too, and the results were good.
Originally I thought the tips of my hair would be lighter, but I’am actually quite happy with how mine turned out :)

Ombré hair refers to hair color fading from dark to light, or vice versa. Instead of the color starting from the roots, it gradually becomes lighter, or darker, towards the ends. The word “ombré” in French means shadow or shade.

Before

After!

Back view

I got it done at Volum Studio by stylist Maria, at Conestoga Mall, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Countdown: 6 days – Paris

Can’t believe in less than a week I will be seeing le bf in Canada !

This totally reminds me of all the good times last summer when I was in France, so I’ve decided to put together a photo collage (which will be event-themed) for each day of the countdown, to highlight all the memorable times we had together :)

Chilling by the pool. Guess whose cute red swim short’s in the background? :P

My first traditional French meal which lasted for a whole 3 hours! Each course was delicious :)

So much cheese omnomnom

This was before I got my Nikon, so please excuse the shitty photo quality lol.

Leo the Cat

So as I promised my lovely sister, I’m featuring her cat Leo on the blog today!
As you can see he’s quite fashionable, dressed in a pink Polo shirt and all.
This shirt is actually made for human babies… I guess you could say that Leo could lose a few pounds :P

Polo cat!

Food Porn

I had the most delicious tiramisu and cheese cake at this cute vintage coffee shop called Brûlerie St-Denis on Côte-des-Neiges:

I miss real food like this now that I’m back to school :(

Then Vs Now

Our attempt at one of those then-versus-now photos that are oh-so-popular these days :)

Check out the Photography section for more photos!

So I like to pick up random things off the ground.

Look what I found on my way to my first French class?
2 of my favorite things!

I washed and sanitized it of course, and now it lives on my desk :)

Canada’s not too shabby either, eh?

Spent a pleasant afternoon walking in the Parc du Centenaire in Dollard-des-Ormeaux (:

Now that I’m back in Canada…

Things I will NOT miss from China:

• Mobs of Chinese people EVERYWHERE
• Yelling Asians (they’re not even angry, it’s just how they talk normally)
• People spitting everywhere (do Chinese people produce more spit then other races?)
• Children peeing & pooing on the street
• Forceful vendors chasing you to try to sell you things
• People having no respect for the concept of queuing
• Cars honking (so loud that I can hear it from the 46th floor of my apartment)
• The traffic (don’t even get me started, it’s a jungle here. I feel like I’m literally risking my life every time I cross a street)
• People smoking everywhere
• People playing loud music in public transportation without using headphones
• Dirty, DIRTY bathrooms that never come with tissue paper (the toilet’s basically a hole on the ground)
• Clothing/electronics/food/water of very questionable quality
• Never being able to see blue skies or the sun due to air pollution
• Having to use a converter for all my electronics
• Having to wait for water to heat up in my apartment (which takes around half an hour everytime)
• Vendors calling every customer 美女(pretty lady) or 帥哥 (handsome boy), it just ain’t special if EVERYONE is good-looking to them…

Things I WILL miss from China:

• FOOD (so cheap and accessible at all hours)
• Cheap transportation (lots of bus, trains, and taxis)
• Cheap youth hostels
• Cheap clothing and accessories (like cellphone covers)
• Relatively low living cost in general (for a foreigner)
• Relatively cheap & convenient every day services (like getting massages, ordering take-out, doing nails, dry cleaning expensive handbags/coats…etc)
• Lots of places to travel to (China is HUGE)
• Curious people wanting to chat with us (Since it’s pretty obvious that we’re foreigners, they always want to know where we’re from)
• The awesome view from our 46th floored apartment
• All the crazy adventures with le bf ):

All you can eat at Wanda Plaza

Queen Kelly’s Ice Cream Hightea at Haagan Dazs

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   
                   

Yea we did a lot of eating in China. Omnomnom all the way!