~The Road Less Taken~

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

At least that's what they call it here.

A 3 day weekend that resulted in a 1600km trek (ok it was a drive) from
bedford to montreal to quebec city then back to bedford (you can check it up
on mapquest).

Saturday
Woke up early, packed all our stuff in the car, drove up to montreal.
Stopped by in Vermont to see the Bem and Jerry's Ice Cream factory (american
pie tastes very, very nice). And everyone in the States can sing the chorus
of a song of the same name (daniel should be familiar with this too, ahem
LDP). Got to Montreal in the afternoon, took on duties as navigator and tour
guide. Learnt some French (well actually its quebec-ese). First thought of
Canada - it smelled bad. Just as we crossed the border, we were greeting
with cow smells. But it got better. Montreael is like this island city
(familiar eh). We explored the old town (vieux montreal) and chinatown
(quatierre chinois), went up this funiculaire and biodome (something to do
with the 1976 olympics, the funiculaire being some seng-et train that leads
to a tower and the biodome being what used to be a velodrome ie. cycling
stadium). Lots of trouble finding the motel (well it was near the airport -
cheaper). Booked a cheap hotel for sunday nite (original 180, now 90
canadian dollars). Cheap for 5 people lar.

Sunday
rain allegedly from the remnants of tropical storm anesto (ernesto?) chilled
the place. Woke up late, ended missing the english service at the chinese
baptist church in montreal and going for the chinese-cantonese one instead.
Also saw this monstrous building (St Joseph's Oratorio). Drove round the
circuit gilles de villenueve (again daniel would know). Very zai (in more
ways than one).Then we tried to take the scenic route to quebec city(chemin
du roi - king's way) and ended up getting there at nightfall. Tried Poutine
(french fries in gravy with cheese). canadian fast food is baaaad.

Monday
Labor day. resumed tour guide duties in the lite rain, quebec old town,
seeing another monstrous building (Chateau Frontenac). Its all french here.
Saw this really cool chess set (with cats and mice). A short jaunt on the
ile d Orlean (an island) with many houses that are red and white. Well its
supposed to be known for its rusticness. Then the very very long trip back,
with unfortunate disruptions and getting offtracked finding petrol stations
(For the record we pumped 2 full tanks in one day). Kepy awake by noxious
sulphurous gaseous emissions by my brother. He's nasty, all right. my mum
had to throw away the basil plant she kept from canada at the border guard.
Got home really late. Don't we just love the china tour group travelling
lifestyle?

Tuesday
First day of school.School Bus (FOC) arrives at 7am. Still don't know what
to say when ppl come up to me and say "whats up". As with all first days of
school its quite boring. But I shall try to describe it well. School is
split into 3 different days. day 1, 2 and 3. and it contines to rotate. like
that.

Homeroom (aka classroom). Its where youre supposed to be in the early
morning and for study period. Otherwise I'll probably never see my
"classmates" at all. It has a clock (the old type where the second hand
moves continuously , not in jerks) and a tattered american flag. And the
pledge is really, really short. The principal and teachers are generally
nice people.

First period, English. The teacher (a guy named mr berlino) talked for the
whole time. They all think I'm Si, Ding (dont blame them, really). He's
going to cover poetry (suprise), short stories (gasp) and novels
(Huckleberry finn, great gatsby). Not to mention puritan literature (aka
the crucible) and ghastly grammar. Apparently SAT is taken in the year i'm
in. Doesn't think much about Cliffnotes

Second period, AP Calc. The class was intact from the previous year
apparently, and only me and another guy are new. Well, the teacher is a
triathlete who likes to talk about his children. Nice class of people who
claim to like math.

Break. Did nothing really. Can' t play soccer (or any other games) during
break or lunch. Real sad.

third period, US History. Now what would I be doing here? At least the
teacher is nice and expects everyone to be nice (much unlike Alvin tan).
Hopefully I'll develop the critical analytical skills they claim to foster.

Fourth period, Sociology. I took this for fun. Finds out the teacher is a
little dramatic (in an irish way). Introduced to us the socialogical method
of thinking - by thinking about the factors that would impact him and his
wife decision to have a second child by IVF). He the kind of teacher i think
daryl would like (thats probably the best way to describe him). Showed us a
pic of his first daughter (by IVF too)

Fifth period, Biology. Now what would Ding be doing here? Well it turns out
that most ppl in my year would be taking this as their science class.
Teacher has a pic of her and her daughter. She's about phuan's build but
nothing like phuan in terms of personality. She going to give us a stamp for
every lesson we're on time (????) and belives in making us force keep an
interactive notebook to facilitate learning. First by listening, then by
writing and rewriting notes, then by drawing diagrams (compulsory to be
colourful). Its supposed to be memorising based and starts with organic
chem.

End School.

(oh yeah and the derek thing, i might feel that way too so relax, k?)

LimClanStrummer blogged at 7:08 AM

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...