Do you want to ride a bike by -20°C? Come to Montreal!

This post is dedicated to my friend J., who loves cycling. I made a collection of Montreal bikes. I was very surprised when I, on one of my first days in Montreal (temperature -17°C) have seen a guy riding his bike. He is not alone. There are many like him on the streets.  

It is -17°C. I feel frozen driving my car. How is he feeling?

Since then I have seen hundreds of bikes on streets of Montreal. Here are best bike pictures taken from January till March 2014:

 Todays French word:

cyclist - le cycliste

Roger, Roger do you hear MEEEEE!!!!

Right after my arrival to Montreal I wrote ‘very funny’ story about getting Canadian mobile phone in Montreal. My experience in Vancouver was excellent. That’s why I was very surprised it does not work in Quebec. OK it does not work with Rogers.

To refresh my story - I spend one hour in Rogers shop to fill in all forms to get Canadian SIM card for international phone calls. When everything done the shop girl told me I would only be able to make international call after three months. OK. We cancelled the contract.
End of act one.

The story goes further. Few days later I received an invoice per email. Yes, mistakes happen. I wrote back I am not Rogers customer and ask them to delete me immediately from all their databases.

End of act two.

Not the end. Last night I received email with another invoice. First thing in the morning I went to Rogers shop (the one from act one).

Angry!

After seven minutes (I did measure it as I assumed it will not go smoothly) I had the result.

Great!

Not really. Yes, Rogers returned all money,  EXCEPT of 1,43 CAD for TWO SMS and ONE international phone call (non of those was successful as the card was blocked for international calls/messaging). Actually only after those unsuccessful SMS/call the shop girl told me about the fact I would be able to make international phone calls only in April - two months after my departure from Canada. I am going to write a letter to CEO Mr. Alan D. Horn.

I am not angry any more. It is fun. New learning - wherever you are from do not believe ‘Western - developed - rich - educated’ countries have something special or better. It is everywhere the same.

The End?

... I am not alone ... thank you Internet for this picture ...

Dear O2, I apologize for all bad words I ever said about you. You are not perfect, nobody is. I am happy I am with you. And until I move to Vancouver I will dream about being WIND customer.

Todays French word:

Upset customer - please share this article with everybody.

Le client contrarié - S'il vous plaît partager cet article avec tous.

Skiing Nr. Two

This post is dedicated to R. my father. He spent almost all his life in mountains. He would love Canada.

Mountain Guard Canada - equipment same, only our Czech cabins are bit more cosy

This time I went to Orford, suggested to me by one of my classmates. Orford is three hills skiing resort very close to US border (http://www.orford.com/en/). It is a beautiful place, with many slopes. The weather was excellent. We experienced all - sun, snow showers, wind, as well as the temperature -15°C. 

... enjoying the view while riding ...

Imagine the wonderful creaky sound of snow when the temperature goes under -11°C. I have heard a lot about American snow, in particular the snow in America is very different from our European. I cannot confirm that. It was such amazing a day. It seemed to me the same. It is truth that powder snow is beautifully fluffy lasts all day  long. I guess despite the sunny weather stays the temperature deep down zero. This is not happening so often in Europe. 

... nothing more to say ...

Compared to my first experience in Chantecler the resort is much bigger and has big variety of slopes for all levels - from beginners to snowboard and free-ride lovers. 

On The Top

It was an amazing day. I enjoyed it a lot. Not to spoil Orford review, I will not talk about food. If you want to know more about this topic take a look on my previous post.

Driving Home

Todays French word:

Snow and winter - Neige et l’hiver.

Going to Hawaii

Fist short apology for having break in posting new blogs. I did not know my French lessons would be so demanding. But I made it. We had lots of fun and at the end an important exam. I am more than happy about my result.

70 out of 100 YES!!!

I did not expect that. I am very happy. Now I need to talk a lot to get used to it. I mean talk French, not talking a lot.

As you could see from my very brief post on Friday I will change location soon.

Hawaii

On the last minute I decided to visit my friend A. in Hawaii. She lives on the Maui Island. The plan is to discover a little the island that is, I was told since my childhood, the island of doing nothing.  As doing nothing is part of many current spiritual teaching I want to find out whether this is truth or not. I am very curious. And who would resist to going on Hawaii.

I am leaving next Monday from Montreal (currently -17^oC) to Hawaii (currently +21^oC).

Todays French word:

Doing nothing - Faire rien.

Next Station Hawaii ... more coming up soon

I Speak French! Do I Want To?

After two weeks of learning French, I remembered many bad experiences I made with French language in the past. I create my own theory about the world languages.

First of all I want to thank Canadians for being very patient with my French. They try much more than French in France. I have read many times French complaints about world not willing to speak French. There is even special Toubon law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubon_Law) in France that shall support and protect French language. No wonder. French is not an easy language, I have heard many times. I was afraid. So many hurdles.

My grammar is not strong in any of languages I speak. I am much more relaxed after two weeks of studying French. In many aspects is French grammar same or similar to Czech. I do understand the misery of ‘English is my mother language’ people. Understanding the concept of everything being HE or SHE must be very stressful. As a Czech person I miss IT. And I have to admit I have also an issue with two different WE. But I hope I will get it soon.

Next hurdle is the vocabulary. From learning previous languages I know it will come with the time.

French favourite hurdle - PRONUNCIATION! Here starts the fun. Whatever you say, French will not understand you. Do they do not want to? Do we all speak so bad? The answer is practice. I hope it helps.

After two weeks of French I do also understand much better why French was, and still is, main language of diplomats. Nobody understands precisely what you are talking about and if they do, they can pretend they do not. Is this a reason why we had so many wars in the past? Most probably not, but doubts remain. In contrast to complicated French is English winning the global language contest with its ‘easy to speak‘ approach. Shall we all in future only learn one language? NO!!!

I come from a small nation - Czech. There are only ca. twelve million people speaking Czech. We were always forced to learn other languages. I enjoy it a lot. I love many things about speaking other languages. You can simply enjoy talk with locals, but some expressions are, in particular language, more precise, funnier or just fit better to the situation. Here is summary of what I like about languages I speak:

German - I like its precise, structured and very technical format. I love the word GENIEßEN. In my ears the word says all about savour and/or enjoy.  

English - I love its ease. Google said English is the language with most words. Possible. I do not know. Maybe the scientists just multiplied all words with number if its users. My favourite word is BELIEVE. It is big and at the same time so close to life.

Russian - soft language, excellently suitable for discussions. Russian are experts in discussing anything. My beloved very emotional word in НЕПЕРЕЖИВАЙ.

Slovak - brother language. We know it best. Favourite word? I love all words used in songs of the Slovak group ELÁN and MAŠKRTNÝ.

... and the best Czech - mother language. What can I say? This quotation pop up in my mind when I was thinking about my favourite word.

Jan Werich, Czech actor and philosopher:

‘... take the word ass = PRDEL. It is in Czech swearing temple. We place where everything we could. We send uncomfortable people there. We even call it in desperation for help ...‘

Todays French word:

Yes, I love speaking French 

Oui, j'adore parler français.