toronto food

this is so cool (click to see it bigger)

it is the toronto subway map with all of the station names replaced by an ethnic food that can be found in the neighbourhood.

time and change

i love to find polish music that i like, which is harder than normal because one, the most popular songs are terrible pop ballads or rock-rock (as opposed to indie rock), and two, i'm not there and can't check out new, little-known bands. here are three musicians i like a lot these days, with the songs grouped together by the theme of time and change. i like all of these most of all for their lyrics, but i think the first song has a sound that could be quite popular in north america too.

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about the songs:

ceci n'est pas un casino

i was super bored this weekend so to get my brain working a bit i decided to go to casino luxembourg. there's been an exhibition on for awhile now entitled 'ceci n'est pas un casino' (this is not a casino), because of course you'd think it was one by the name. the theme is basically fun and games, but with the element of frustration attached to gambling. frustrating or not, it was a really fun and funny set of works, the type of exhibition to go with a friend or two just to share in laughing or playing. i think i'll go again with one, especially to take some photos.

the first thing you see when you walk into the gallery is jacob dahlgren's massive wall of dartboards, complete with a little box on the floor filled with darts. looking at all of the bad shots on the boards, your first urge is to pick up a dart and try for the bull's-eye yourself. i think i got pretty close on my fourth try!

previous installation of jacob dahlgren's 'i, the world, things, life'

wandering

such a beautiful afternoon!

a couple of weeks ago i was in the grund (low part of luxembourg city) and i decided to make the most of the late afternoon sun by figuring out how to follow a little red line on my ipod map, which seemed to be a shortcut home. usually i take the elevator to ville haut (upper city) but there seemed to be a way through the grund. my very first task was to find out where the beginning of this shortcut was, as it seemed to start at a point i passed all the time but where i had never noticed a path before. it turned out that i had to climb a staircase in a tower at the end of Rue de la Tour Jacob and then follow a path along the fortifications for a little while. 

everyday(s)

two weeks ago i went to see the exhibition 'everyday(s)' at casino luxembourg. as is often the case, the descriptions in the pamphlet were often much more interesting than the works themselves but some pieces did stand out. just near the main entrance was a work called 'Kitchen, la cuisine transportable' by Christine Dupuis and Thorsten Baensch. it was a cute litle pop-up cafe that served snacks made by the artists in exchange for a recipe from the viewer. it's a fun compliment to the art gallery visit and it's interesting that they have 'shown' it around the world and so have compiled quite a lot of handwritten recipes in different languages.

(photo from animalvegetable on flickr)

a video by Cao Fei called 'COSPlayers' was surprisingly absorbing.

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just recently i started listening to les cowboys fringants again and realized that i like them a whole lot now. they're a very famous group from quebec who i first heard about when i did the summer bursary program in jonquiere in highschool. it's really such a shame that english canada is for the most part completely oblivious to the amazing cultural output of quebec. at least there was that wave of interest across north america when the arcade fire came on the scene...


in light of my struggles to use french everyday now (yes, i can order a coffee but practical things like 'please hem these pants' never previously entered my vocabulary), i've put together a playlist of french and sort-of-french songs that i've been listening to recently. the first is a eurovision finalist (!) that i just love (in fact it's the only one i could sing with the right accent, haha) and the rouge rouge one is worthwhile just for the educational video.


speaking of accent, the inability to roll my Rs is affecting every language i try to speak! i've already found a decent enough way to cope in polish, but for french it makes my anglophone accent 10x worse...at least i have a fun french class that i go to twice a week now :)

Alicante weekend

we went to alicante, spain a few weekends ago to get away from the winter. it was a nice 15-20 degrees most of the time, and very sunny. it was my first time in spain and i really liked the relaxed atmosphere, people sitting outside everywhere chatting, and the fact that families with children filled the parks at 10pm on a saturday night! a very different place to luxembourg, that's for sure.

yesterday, which was valentine's day, we went to diekirch for the annual cavalcade. it's basically a carnival and parade around the town, where everyone dresses up in funny costumes and has fun. one thing i've learned: luxembourgers like to be silly. and drink free beer :)

this couple asked us in luxembourgish to take their photo because they wanted to be in the newspaper. but this is close :)

it was my birthday on friday ( above is one of the little cakes i got as a present from g.) and the first one i've spent without all of my family and friends around me. it made me see the sort of life that's starting to come into existence for me here in luxembourg. i haven't met too many people yet, but i've done a major job search with lots of interviews, been hired as a freelance teacher at 3 language schools, began a course in luxembourgish which has already taught me speak in basic sentences, like ech leieren letzebuergesch, am beginning a course in french next week, have started a training course at one of the language schools, and have started studying tesol online. i've also gone to many delicious dinners and done a lot of fun things like swimming and visiting different cities. so it's been a productive month and a half and quite an interesting new year :) i look forward to what will come with this age of 24 (like maybe i'll start to look 17 years old, so that the woman at the swimming pool won't try to sell me a children's ticket, which is valid only to age 15!)

the last three sundays we went to three different towns in luxembourg: echternach, vianden and diekirch.
all were quite beautiful, though unfortunately on sundays everything is closed. i'll post some photos of echternach soon but here are a couple of vianden. it has a beautiful ancient castle, probably the most 'real' castle i've ever been in.

the quiet village

the gloomy castle on a hill

i was able to enroll in the luxembourgish course :) it's good to be able to start on something while i'm still searching for a job, and meet other people as well. the course will be a bit of a challenge because it is immersion luxembourgish, but because it's only beginner level and no one understands what the teacher is saying, she speaks french most of the time. it seems that every other student is completely fluent in french, possibly as a first language, but for me it's a double immersion in 2 foreign languages. i'm happy about that though, because i'm able to hear and practice french, and work on both languages at the same time. i was happy to notice that i could understand 90% of what the teacher was saying, and could chat a little bit in french with the students sitting near me :) 

(Byki Express)

a little bit about luxembourgish: it's spoken by only 390,000 people in the world (according to wikipedia), which is less than the population of luxembourg, at 493,500... it is probably spoken within the country by only around 300,000 because about 37% of the population are immigrants. compared to a city in canada like mississauga, which has a population 668,549, it is as though it is the language spoken by only half a city in the world. and considering the fact that it is an official language that is as distinct from german as dutch is (according to ethnologue) and used daily by luxembourgers in conversation, newspapers, and tv makes it quite amazing! 
so even if studying it isn't exactly very helpful anywhere else in the world, if i'm able to read the signs on the street, and understand what the cashier says at the shop, i think it will make living here that much nicer :)


i was also really struck by how multilingual this city really is. toronto is one of the most multicultural places in the world with hundreds of languages, but those languages are spoken in specific environments with other first-language speakers of them, while english is used everywhere else. occasionally one can find a bank in an ethnic area where the tellers can speak chinese and english, or portuguese and english, but that's really the extent of public multilingualism. here, people actually live in different languages. some people live entirely in english, some in french, some in luxembourgeois, and maybe it is even possible to live entirely in german. tellers at the bank or public offices easily switch between the 4 languages, and i'm sure some of them also speak dutch or portuguese. looking through job listings i see some bilingual positions but the most common are trilingual, and many are quadrilingual. as multicultural as toronto is, i don't think too many job positions want quadrilingual workers! 


although i used to feel that i spoke a few languages, now i realize how far i am from functionally trilingual and just feel in awe of the many people i see who are so fluent in so many languages!
so on that note, i have to go buy my luxembourgeois textbook and study some french as well this afternoon.

eternal

photo of the flame from taylor mcconnell 

the other night the eternal flame of luxembourg was out when we passed by... that isn't supposed to happen to eternal flames, is it?

day 5 in lux

i've been here for a few days now, and been pretty productive. i've already applied to a bunch of jobs, which was a priority, and can now deal with less important things and relax a little. 


some impressions so far:
-the streets are so clean and well-planned! amazing in comparison to toronto.. there are bike lanes everywhere, often separate from cars, veloh! bikes to borrow all over the city, and even scooter/motorcycle parking spots on the sidewalk

-it seems pretty safe.. the most 'dangerous' people i've seen so far are the teenage 'thugs' who hang out on the steps to the train station, singing french rap songs

-you can consider polish and luxembourgish drivers as opposites: polish won't even slow down for pedestrians, you just have to run across and hope you don't die, whereas in luxembourg people stop for me when i'm not even planning to cross the street..

-the food in the shops is reaally good :) a bit annoying that they run out of things like bread by evening, but that means it's always fresh

-there is a cookie called speculoos which apparently people are obsessed with. i got yogurt with it on the bottom, so assumed it was a type of fruit, but no it was yogurt with cookie mush on the bottom. i've seen it in many things and yesterday i wanted to buy peanut butter but instead found crunchy speculoos paste for spreading on bread. but it is quite a tasty cookie :)

it's a bit funny but somehow because i've decided to live here simple tasks seem pretty scary. if i was travelling, then i would maybe attempt to use french but just use english most of the time. because i'll be going to the same shops as a regular though, i feel that i should use french because it's the main language along with luxembourgish and it just feels rude not to use it if i'm able to. but i haven't spoken french really for about 6 years so just to say 'un pain au chocolat et un café s'il vous plaît' makes me all nervous. going out and having conversations in stores and restaurants is the best way to get over it i'm sure, but it's still scary. 

i tried to join a luxembourgeois course on monday actually, but it was full and i'm on a waiting list. hopefully a space will open up! i especially want to study french but there aren't any affordable courses starting soon, and knowing how to have a basic conversation at a store in luxembourgish would be nice. i'm really curious about the language and it would be quite fun to speak it a little bit :)