Salut from Orford!  I'm am now entering week two of my stay here and so far I'm surviving.  My disgusting roommate who practically trashed our room has left, the room has been cleaned and so far I have no roommate at all.  Life is good.  The food is either a hit or miss but breakfast is always the same every day so we can expect at least one meal to be tasty.  I've met a lot of good musicians and people here and so far my time is enjoyable.  The masterclasses aren't as good as I had hoped with almost the entirety of them being in french but I can say I've received a glimpse into the "cult" (which is the technique) of Marc Durand, the famous pedagogue from the Université de Montreal.  Essentially, if you don't play with the same technique that is taught out east you are discredited.  It's kind of upsetting because that means I won't be able to play in any student concerts.  Still, I'm learning lots and getting a lot of practicing in.  Speaking of practicing time to go.

 

a bientôt,

 

-R

It has taken me almost five minutes to get to this page to add a blog entry because the computer I'm using at the Orford Arts Centre is 300 years old.  But here I am and time to list a description of my travels thus far in ''La belle province.''

 

I left Edmonton on Saturday morning with no problems.  Thanks to my cousin who gave me a ride to the airport I arrived on time.  The plane ride was a gigantic headache because some Suzuki violin exchange between Montreal and Edmonton was happening and the plane was filled with some fifty talking kids who would not let anyone take a nap.  Even the women and her baby that I was sitting next to didn't bother me at all.  So much for sleeping on the plane.  Even the ear plugs didn't help.

 

When I arrived in Montreal I was greeted by my friend Allison who put me up for the night in her ''shit hole'' apartment.  I actually didn't think it was that bad but she assured me it was a lot worse when her and her boyfriend moved in last month.  Allison showed me around old Montreal with its beautiful architecture and cathedral, modelled after Notre Dame in France.  Allison took some pictures with her digital camera so I'll be able to share the pictures with you after I return.  There were so many festivals in Montreal including the Just for Laughs festival, and African Cultural festival and the Out games (I actually met a participant in the Out games on my shuttle ride from the airport, she was from Holland and a very nice lady.)  The Just for Laughs festival was kind of odd and not really funny to an anglophone such as myself.  You couldn't understand the comedy or the displays - they had these dragon looking people on stilts with their tamer (who looked a lot like Malificent from Sleeping Beauty) who would pretend to eat people.  It wasn't all that humorous.  The African festival featured a number of musical acts and some displays selling artwork and other trinkety things.  The next day we had brunch at a breakfast chain called ''Chez Cora's'' where I ate a gigantic crepe stuffed with fruit and hazelnut chocolate sauce.  It was delicious but I didn't feel so great afterwards.

 

Orford has been enjoyable so far.  I've had one masterclass so far and Jean Saulnier appears to be a wonderful teacher.  His students are extremely talented and it is quite a humbling experience to watch them perform.  My only complain is that the masterclasses are mostly in French so I have to interrupt and ask questions if I hear Jean say something important to a student.  I look forward to playing for him after some more preparation.

 

The students are great and I hung out with some of my classmates last night.  We have an unspoken agreement that I will try and speak French to them and they will speak English back to me so that we are both practicing our second languages, although I wouldn't call French my second language because I'm actually quite terrible at speaking it.  Last night we played ping-pong where we practicied this concept.  One of the students brought two bottles of vodka with him to supplement whatever he wants to drink at the bar on campus.  That's right, there is a bar here.  Right now my roomate is passed out on his bed, stoned.  Sometimes I can't tell if I'm here to work or vacation.

 

That's all for now.  We'll see how I enjoy myself in the weeks to come.

 

Ciao er.... au revoir.

 

Ryan

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality and as my friend Jodie says,  "Listening to four-hundred and six year old [Alaskan senator] Ted Stevens" explain the inner workings of the internet.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Oh, by the way, this is also good.  Check out "There Goes the Gayborhood."

 

 

 

The Greyhound trip back from Lethbridge is always a great time.  I left Monday morning at 10 am and I had two seats to myself between Lethbridge and Calgary but when I boarded my connecting bus in Calgary for the ride to Edmonton it was so packed with people that I had to share a seat with someone.  I imagine it was that busy because the Calgary Stampede had just wrapped up.  On instruments of mass transportation I'm always reminded of the kind of people that take the greyhoud or transit just by listening to the conversations around me.  There is always your usual collection of demographics, each one making up a percentage of the denizens of the bus:  high school drop outs that dress like they're going to be the next Eminem, complete with colourful language that the rest of the bus certainly wants to hear; your redneck travellers who repeat everything they've heard on tv as their own opinion; your bubbly, talkative passengers who think you want to hear about their extended family when you really just want to sleep; your smokers who come back on the bus after a stop and just reek of residue from their unfiltered cigarettes;  and then there's passengers like me, desperately trying to nap with all these other people around me.  Essentially, it's a travelling zoo filled with a wonderful sampling of the best (and worst) Alberta has to offer.

 

Some things I heard on my trip:

 

"I was an uncle when I was eight!  Are you an uncle at all?" - The annoying kid next to me.

 

"Things are definitely better with Stephen Harper as prime minister.  We seem to have better relations with the Americans.  Bush never really liked that other guy." - The two rednecks behind me.

 

"You HAVE to go to Home Depot?  What do you mean you HAVE to go to Home Depot?  Fuck, I hate it when people say they HAVE to go somewhere like their legs are going to fall off or something.  Or they're going to die.  Fuck right, you're GOING to Home Depot.  FUUUCCCKKK." - the Eminem wanna-be two rows behind me blabbing on his cell phone.

 

"Wow!  Look at all those deer!" - The annoying kid beside me again.

 

"The gun registry was such a failiure.  I mean, the whole purpose of it was to go after criminals.  Do you think criminals are going to go and register their guns?" *man chuckles to himself, pleased with his wit.* - One of the rednecks behind me.  Funny, if you didn't register your gun, you were considered a criminial.  Seems we have more criminals in Canada with guns than ever before....

 

"  " - me, trying to sleep.

 

Have a gooder,

 

-R

So right now I'm in ye old Lethbridge visiting the family and getting some good practicing in.  It's always interesting coming back home and reading the local news to find out what's happening in this neck of the woods.  I apologize if this information is incorrect but apparently some crazy lady stole a family's dog and had it shaved and spayed so the family wouldn't recognize it.  They were able to track it down and found it was at a vets.  They tried to pick it up from the vets but the crazy lady beat them to it.  So the father followed the lady home and confronted her and apparently beat the hell out of her.  The dog is back with the family but I think the man has been charged with assault.  What about the crazy lady who kidnapped the dog in the first place?  How do people like this function in society?