Last weekend of Explore

Yes! We are now heading to our last weekend in Ottawa, with this incredible program Explore. Many of my friends are going to Toronto during the weekend, but I'm not.  Here are my plans for these 3 days:
Friday night: I decided to go to a sale in a used clothes shop with my dear sister. I will then go to downtown and eat in a fancy restaurant with friends who are going to Toronto!

Saturday: I plan to go to the beach with the Explore program. I love beach. We don't have any accessible and free beaches in Montreal, so it's the time to enjoy! I expect to relax and read my novel The girl who kicked the hornet's nest from Stieg Larsson. After, I plan to go in downtown and hang with friends. At 10 o'clock, I want to see Mosaika. Finally, I will go directly to bed!

Sunday and Monday: I don't have any clue what to do during these two days.

Pay it Forward

Is human nature essentially good or bad? Do we all deserve a second chance? Do helping others is always the good thing to do?

The touching movie Pay it forward makes us think about our responsibility toward others and shows us how helping someone can change drastically the live of more than one person. Directed by Mimi Leder, this drama was filmed in 2000 in Las Vegas. The movie is about the adventures of two characters: Trevor (Haley Joel Osment) and Chris (Jay Mohr). Trevor is a young boy living in a dysfunctional family composed of a alcoholic mom, Arlene (Helen Hunt), and a violent and alcoholic dad, Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi). Inspired by a homework given by his teacher Mr Simonet (Kevin Spacey), he elaborates the concept of Pay it forward, which consists to help three strangers, so they could each help three other strangers and so on.

At the same time, Chris, a journalist in search of an exceptional article, tries to find out the origin of the Pay it forward concept, after being given a car from a total stranger.
We follow their live up to the end, when Chris finally meet Trevor, the initiator of the movment.  


I didn't get bored at all during the movie. The music was quite repetitive but it didn't really disturbed me.

I love this movie for the message it was sending us. It is all about courage, love and self-giving. The determination of Trevor to improve the world around him and his personal world is remarkable. For a young boy of 12 years old, he has a maturity way above the others. He follows his convictions, by helping an homeless man, by defending a bullied student and by giving his mother a second chance in life. He is a model, an inspiration. He is certainly the most interesting character in the movie. It made me think a lot about myself and about how I could personally improve the live of others and also my own life.


I wouldn't say that this movie is part of my Top 5 best movies, but it is a good movie that I recommand to everyone.

One day, I'll be on top of the world

My blood is right now in ebullition
And hot tears are burning my dirty cheaks
My face is a volcano erruption
And my mouth is close so I canno't speak

Then, I receive a kick in the stomach
He laughed rudely and spit on my head
I couldn't recall his name, maybe Jack
They hit me in the face again and left

Now, my body is a field of strong pain
But one day, I'll be on top of the world
Because motivation flows in my veins
My vengence will be terrible, oh lord

They will beg for their mercy on their knees
I will forgive them for apologies

 

Zip Lining, no thank you!

Only one week left in Ottawa! Isn't that crazy? Time has passed so fast and you Folks are great to follow my journey in this exotic city of that extravagant country, Canada. Only one activity has really disappointed me: Zip Lining at the Chutes Coulonges.

On the morning of the activity, we had to arrive at 7h40 at the bus station Baseline (which is 40 minutes from my house). We then made 2h30 hours of driving. It was soooooo long. Moreover, the driver lost himself so it was even longer. We arrived there and we started the activity. It was fun, but it last only 1h30. We were a lot of students so we are seperated in 3 groups. However, the third group didn't have enough time according to the employees of the site, so they made zip lining for only 20 minutes. It was very frustrating for them. After 2h30 of bus, 2h of waiting and 75$ of fees, they had fun for only 20 minutes! I wasn't in that group but I felt very revolted for them. It wasn't fair.

Explore program were supposed to make a complain to the company. I don't know if they actually did it. This activity really disappointed me and I wouldn't propose it again next year.

Art in Ottawa

Ottawa is a city full of surprises. One thing in particular that surprised me was the street arts.What is street art? Street art is art, specifically visual art, developed in public spaces, that is, "in the streets".

We don't have this kind of stuff in Montreal. We can see musicians, but not street artists. It was the first time I had seen something like that.

 

 The artist that surprised me the most was doing incredibly realistic imitations of known paintings with color chalks on the ground (The Scream from Edvard Munch, La nuit étoilée from Van Gogh and others). I was shocked by the similarity of the color, and the complexity of his work. It was amazing. He had put a hat in which passer-by could drop a few pennies.

 

Even though he is maybe very poor, I have respect for that artist; he is a real artist to me. Art can be interpret differently but, according to me, art need to be a passion, a way to express yourself. I assume that passing the day on all fours wasn't very relaxing for him, but he had made choices. Instead of passing the day immobile and quemanding money with a small poster saying something like: Need to get out of Ottawa, Help me! , he had decided to use that time to enlight the streets of Ottawa. He shares his talent with the people and brings them happiness. I think that this is the thought of a real artist. You create not for money, but for yourself.

OH OH OH! It's magic

It been only a week I’m in Ottawa and so many things have happened. Courses, theaters, new people activities, new home… I have no time to get bored! On that Saturday morning, I was preparing to get to an activity of zip lining. I had woken up at 6h45 and  I was very tired. My host dad brought me to a bus station so I could take a bus to get to Baseline station, our meeting spot. Alone, I walked to the bus stop, slowly.

Ottawa public transport is a bit different than Montreal’s. The buses stop at stations, which are recognized by their red color. I was now waiting at Pleasant Parks station and I was ten minutes in advance.

I sat down and waited. Silence. No. Not silence. A soft melody was playing for me on that morning. Just for me. Bird songs. Rustlings of the leaves. Far urban noises. The wind caressed my skin sensually. I was overwhelmed by the smell of nature brought by the wind. I was alone, physically and mentally. I could hear the nature talking to me, telling me his secrets, or maybe more showing them to me. I smiled. I closed my eye. I opened my eye. The bus was there.

We all need some moments for ourselves, some moments of loneliness. This was mine.

MIAM

Mia-Fay Nadeau. Isn’t that a strange name? Just like me, my name is original and special (my parents always tell me I'm special). I was adopted in China when i was only 5 months-old with my twin sister, Fannie. That’s why I’m totally Canadian in my heart. I like to compare myself to a banana. White inside and yellow outside.

I leave in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal. I have a small black poodle named Puccini. He is my soul mate.

I love to read, to do shopping, to see friends and to travel. Talking about travel, I’m actually in Ottawa for one month to learn English with the program Explore. I decided to try this program to improve my English and to experiment something new.

I hope to make new friends and to improve my English during the next 5 weeks of the program. I want to explore Ottawa the best I can and to be a MASTER of this city at the end.

Follow me in the epic and exotic adventure in… Ottawa!