Canada Diary Entry - Aug 27/28 (also Canada Checkout)

Today is a very long day. More or less, it is two days rolled into one.

(Oh, I apologize for today's different order of notifying people about the current status. Everything is mixed up :-) )

On Sat, Aug 27 at 07:00 I left the house on the way to the yet-unknown bus station (or say, the way was unknown), only to arrive at home in BT, Germany, at 15:00 the following day. Without time difference, this means I wore my black suede shoes (okay, make that "leather") about 26 hours without taking them off. In the plane, while I would have had time aplenty, unfortunately a lack of space made it impossible to get rid of them. Just as well as it was impossible to have a good sleep; this means I'm heading for a very long day today without rest, too. (I plan on readjusting my time lag within one day. This is a very ambitious idea - it is actually easier to go West than East in terms of adaptation. But this is because you can stand longer days better, as they usually occur on westbound trips. This means, my 48h day will go a long way in the right direction.)

I am already looking somewhat haggard upon arrival at the bus terminus in Montreal. This means, I just spent 7h in the bus, and still 19h to go:



This is the plane which will faithfully carry me back to the Old World:



Leaving Canada, looking down on Montreal:



Europe looking through the clouds, me looking down on Germany:



How does this Frankfurt view compare to, eh, Edmonton, eh:




And finally, this is the last shot that can be somehow reasonably linked to the now-ended Canada experience:




This is it.
No more.
So finally, in this place, I want to thank all the readers (who read all this stuff the last weeks? I will have to check the logs) and everybody in Canada who helped making this trip the second-best I ever had :-). It's been really a great time.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 26

Update to yesterday: Actually, I didn't do nothing.
Instead, after doing nothing, we went to a (Chinese) restaurant, where I almost had fried frogs' legs. However, they were sold out.

Given that today is my last day in Canada, today's task can be reduced to the following exercise:


Exercise:
Find a valid transformation from the situation as depicted in (Exhibit A) into the situation shown in (Exhibit B). Available time: 12 hours.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:



Update:
Have been dining in a Polish restaurant, as a kind of thank-you to my hosts here - and to show them one from my own culture, without any intercultural communication issues on my side :-). Had some zurek and kopytka there... in Toronto.
But before, I saw something very strange along the street. I took a picture.



At first glance, this might be a satellite dish. But then... an unexpected conspiracy of unimaginable consequences rises its ugly head. Have a second look at exactly where the dish is oriented.
Right. At the upper level window. And well, what is the only thinkable reason?
Right again. Those guys are slowly frying their mother-in-law!

Another interesting thing I saw and wanted to show to you guys back at home. Look at the price tag... one Euro is about 1.45 Canadian dollars:



Then, finally, one last view back at Toronto vanishing in the dark:



Side note:
Starting from a discussion about raising kids, I got confronted with the question... "at what age should a mom start washing her son's penis? Is two okay, or four or five?"
My first reaction was... "the interesting question would be rather, when to stop?".

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 25

I did nothing today.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 24

You wouldn't believe - today, we've been to Niagara!

(As a short story at the side, let's note that I thought for many years that Niagara is actually in Africa, somewhere near Victoria Lake or something... and that the famous daredevil-explorer Livingston has crossed the falls in a wooden barrel. This is because a childrens' illustrated lexikon showed something confusing.)
So, back to the story. Got up early, checked out the way on the map (very clever idea, since yesterday evening on the way to a Jazz bar in downtown I got severely lost on Toronto highways; but in the end this turned out to be useful, since I found a very nice Polish restaurant for Friday night this way) and got going.

So, these are the Canadian-side Horseshoe Falls (the bigger part of the Niagara Falls, the other being the American Falls) as seen from a small vessel which goes right into the mist under the falls:




Everybody here looks very peculiar:



After having seen the falls from above, below, and behind, a short trip further south along the border down to Fort Erie followed (a "historical site"; everything older than 100 years is one, but this seems to have been the site of a battle between the British (or Canadians) and the U.S. in the war of 1812).
BTW, one wouldn't believe this is the same river only a few kilometres upstream on the way to Fort Erie:



Fort Erie, without anybody to check tickets since it's supposed to be closed:



Niagara (the city) itself is a junk, since it's infested by cheap and cheapest stores of the most cheap kind, and tries to shape itself as a gambling and honeymooning place:



Finally, this crossed my way on the highway back to Toronto, or actually lay in the lake water, and it seems it hasn't been intentionally put there as a "shopping&dining" site:

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 23

Googling for the phrases
"polish restaurant" toronto,
and what do I get?

Some of the hits are...

KIVI o@ca.on.york.toronto.globe_and_mail 2004-10-20 published ... Often he would meet Mr. CIAMAGA at a Polish restaurant, where a week before his death he ...

Oliver, do you know the old Polish restaurant Mazurka on Prince-Arthur? ... In fact, the Toronto Board of Health estimates the number of premature deaths at ...

112932, Missisauga, Well established Polish Restaurant, going cheap for ...

I deem this to be a bit unsettling, if you wish to invite people to one of these.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 22

Toronto Islands, a tourist and family trap in the area shown here, and a secluded living space in another, not visited area, and an airport and Toronto's only "clothing optional" beach (not visited) in a third area:




And a bit of Canadian museum advertising:

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 21

This is the cute small person we are taking care of, or actually AC does.



For brunch, we went to this Chinese dim sum restaurant (probably that's wrong, but well, I'm open for improvement suggestions). You get your food not by ordering, but calling out to the waiter just passing by with a small wagon full of steaming pots when he happens to be carrying something you'd like.




And finally, this is how a Canadian suburb housing area looks like when the sun is shining (actually it's shining most of the time):

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 20

Returned the car today in the morning. Had to fill it up at the last minute, so went to a station right next to the car rental and saw a the last moment the posted "Full Service". Having no idea what this meant, I collected my stuff in the car, and when I wanted to get out, a black came up to my car, and urged me to say "Fill it up". Incredible; I felt so colonialist.

Then got lost in metro in search for a brunch restaurant called "Eggspectations". Since there was an enormous lineup of people waiting for a table already, I went searching for buns and got lost again.





Saw a "shop-dine-tour" bus on street. You obviously cannot name a tourist site just tourist site here, it must be shopping&dining.



Then went looking for Greyhound Bus station for a bus to bring me to Montreal next Saturday. Since I bought the ticket seven days in advance, it cost me only 49$ instead of 98$. For the latter price, I could have had a convertible rented including gas.

Later, seen illegal DVD stores in Chinese (or Oriental) mall. This means, there are stores (not only booths) selling nothing but pirated DVD copies here. New films like Stealth (the worst film of the year), Fantastic Four, Blade Trinity etc etc. The prosecution fine for film piracy is about 200$ here (two hundred Canadian dollars, equal to about 140 EUR). Authorities closed down one shop here some time ago; but after paying the 200$, they reopened and are now available 24/7.

In the evening, we drove out of Toronto for BBQ at the friends' friends' place. The friends' friend's girlfriend's important dog (a small white dog I insulted by calling it "poodle" although it's a "bichon" or something) was at least as important as the friends' little kid. Furthermore, there was a large grill; not as large as the friends', but still wow. This friends' friend allegedly uses the grill even in winter ("I put on my jacket, fire up the grill, come back in, then just pull down the meat").
Referring to yesterday's thunderstorm, "yesterday was hell, we lost power twice", as seen on TV.
Besides, this guy said "you can't be logical & artistic at the same time, it's mutually exclusive". This means that he - since he's some kind of tech guy - cannot decorate his place in style.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 19

The day started with rain.
Then, since it's been the final day of the Eastern-Canada trip, and it was supposed to be a long ride, it started out with a search for a Tim Horton's. (Probably nobody at home knows what this is: It's the best (which is Canadian slang for either "newest", "biggest", or "best-known") coffee shop around. This means, you find them everywhere, selling coffee and donuts.) This search turned out to be longer than anticipated; mostly because I got lost on the way back to the highway.

Visiting the "world-famous" 1000 islands was somewhat imposs due to weather conditions: Toronto weather was expected to be "very bad", and there was a weather warning for Western Ontario in effect, with actually a tornado touchdown somewhere west of Toronto. So, being trapped for one or two hours on a cruise boat seemed to be a bad idea.

On the radio, I heard a documentary about an energy generating windmill to be built in Quebec. Yes, the kind of Windmuehlen creating energy all over Europe. Here, this means not building another windmill field, but rather *the* one/first windmill. Anyway, since this is Canada and everything must be either dining or shopping compatible, they said that it is possible this will become a major "tourist attraction". Cute, eh.

Finally, I got myself a compass. In Kingston, which turned out to be "one of Canada's best-kept secrets", according to the mayor's words in a tourist map guide. No wonder, I'd say, it kept its secret from me, too.
After getting lost so many times... I bought myself a massive brass compass. And it works.

Right after that, there was something on the street I can only call "tow crash". A very unusual way of towing away a car... hopefully, I can give you a picture of that later.

Here it is:



Kingston, town of churches - one street, five churches, *in a row*. All of different (Christian) congregation. And all are always burned, at least three times... and rebuilt. Canadians like to burn their churches, or maybe they treat it as some kind of divine test. Or maybe (that's my suspicion of a conspiracy of unimaginable consequences) the different congregations just keep putting fire to each other's houses of god.

Note: Toilets in Canada are always free, meaning you don't have to pay like in Germany. Never. And they are always rated at "1.0gpf". If you don't know what that means, there's a translation as "3.8lpf".

At night, there were lots of images of flooded Toronto on TV. Some million $ of damage, flooded streets, and the tornado actually left a trace of destruction you're usually only expecting from Florida.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 18

Got a hotel room reserved in Ottawa yesterday, through Internet in the great Bibliotheque Nationale.
In the early morning hours, a car alarm system rang three times. Then, I fantasized about hearing Eastern German voices complaining on the corridor.

During breakfast, down from the condo behind the hotel's terrace, came Montreal's scary sneeze, five times... loud and massive. This mirrored Quebec's scary sneeze, which sent me jumping when I crossed an open window in Quebec's old city a few days before... the MW kind of sneeze, right next to one's unsuspecting ear.

Ottawa is part of Mall Land, meaning people go shopping&dining in malls here, contrasting to Quebec province, which looks just like Europe in not having malls, instead lots of pedestrian zone streets.

Ambled along the Ottawa river in the evening, until some loud bangs could be heard - not only changing of the guards in Parliament Hill, but also a parade celebrating 150 years of Ottawa being the capital of the Confederation of Canada.




Saw great "Spirit of Canada" light show being projected onto the Parliament building afterwards (MW: three beamers, about 2000sqm area (or, as Quebequois would count, about 20000 pi. ca.), and bright); then had very expensive Guiness in nearby bar.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 17

09:40: Breakfast on the backyard terrace. Toast, coffee, marmalade, classical music on the radio, blue skies, shade under some trees... The birds are early today; usually they arrive at 10 o'clock.

"Yesterday" on the air. (...)

Upon a moment's reflection, I find it impressive to be in Nouvelle France. Just think of it - New France...

(This is only a part of today`s notes, but the rest is not... er... compiled yet. So please stand by until next time.)

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 16, 2nd part

Guess which one of the statues in the background is supposed to be St-Philippe:


Really finally: This is France.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 16

09:10, still in bed:
- X? Are you working? Really? Or is your brain still empty?
- MW? Are you watering Overlord?
- TG? Have they taken your fingerprints?

Montreal downtown:


L`Oratoire de St-Joseph:



11:30:
Went to bibliotheque nationale, after looking at public Internet booth in Metro and getting a hint from a passerby, who directed the online-seeking to said library. There, an incredibly stunning sight: Lots of people, in a building that offered all kinds of media (books, audio CDs, DVDs, online), most in French, spanning over several stories, very modern, very expensive... children, teenagers, adults, seniors, all making use of the library's offers. I wonder where funding comes from... probably a kind of French-marketing coup of Quebec province. (Later, I found that Montreal has been nominated "capitale mondiale du livre" by the UNESCO.
Got a three-day ticket for Metro. Car is safely parked right in front of the hotel, for free. Pretty unusual and cool, eh.

Saw some "prying (!) images" at church shop.

Incredibly, here in Quebec, although Canada uses the metric system, lengths are given in "pouces", French for inch... pretty useless, eh.
Besides, in spite of their language fanatism, you can get "rosbif" at Subway.

In accordance with Canadian space wasting, there are no turning rear wheels on shopping carts in supermarkets, forcing you to handle the cart with a non-holonomic control law, contrary to European standards.
Besides, you get double plastic bags for each two or three pieces of merchandise, meaning you leave the shop with about five to six double-walled plastic bags for a medium-sized shopping tour.

Finally, there are no pedestrian traffic lights on many Montreal crossings, only car traffic lights which double as pedestrian ones.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 15

Today, the Quebec visit comes to a close and now Montr閍l comes into view.
First, a trip to the Chutes de Montmorency: Waterfalls some 10min northeast of Quebec, complete with cablecar and 30m more height than the Niagara Falls. Nice view over the St Laurence river, and refreshing water spray from the falls.




Had lunch at a cozy little waterfront restaurant on the 蝜e d'Orl閍ns, an island just off the waterfall and off Quebec, complete with strawberry field, a bison park, churches, strawberry-selling farmers, artists galleries (everywhere in Quebec province), and surprisingly, no Asian tourists around. For the first time in about 2.5 weeks, no Asian face to be seen. I feel a bit deplaced, after all these places I've been to here.



This morning, I cut out a piece of MW's valuable polarizing filter and am now using it in front of my camera lens. Furthermore, I'm running around looking at everything through this plastic piece; must be looking quite stupid. But anyway, the effect is great (cf. pictures).
Then en route to Montreal; driving at speeds around 100km/h is mind-numbingly boring. You think your brains rot instantly after one hour.
In Montreal, checked in at a very cozy (one-star) hotel with great colors (white doorframes, green walls, dark-red staircase), brick walls inside, and original paintings on the walls. Only the air conditioner had to be cleaned on site.
Yesterday, my telephone card ran out of credit, so now I am completely cut off communications. But well... it is a change. And I need a bit of no-communication time right now. Thanks for understanding...
However, now (22:00) I will probably leave the room and go looking for wireless internet access in a bar down the street.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 14

There are much less Canadian flags in Quebec than anywhere else - less than in Toronto, much less than in Edmonton. Instead, there's the white-on-blue cross of Quebec flying.
While service staff in so-called "Central Canada" or Alberta is very forthcoming, very friendly, Quebec is very different... people are nice, but not friendly. They don't say "hello, how's your day" and stuff
Tried to decode some weird Inuitutquktukwuqtuqtug script at an Inuit statue at Parliament Hill in Quebec. Right next to it, a very small French-Canadian assembl閑s nationales cooperation tree can be seen.
Though I couldn't understand it before, the separatist movement in Quebec becomes clear when seeing it... being French at heart, they are Northern Americans as well, and finally royal-british-Canadians as well, since the Queen is still their sovereign. No wonder they feel not at home.
For lunch, going to a very nice-looking Tunisian restaurant failed, and two waiters tried to explain some French mumble-jumble about why the cuisine est ferm? Then went to Japanese restaurant: Eating on a Tatami mat without shoes, and without sake (the Japanese owner tried to explain why to me in French). Feet started hurting after 20 minutes of kneeling... but surprisingly, it still went quite well. Another first-timer.
Finally, I had to notice that Quebec is basically Paris without Renaults and Citroens.





Final Note: Of course, I am not telling you all this stuff about "wow, this place is great" and "how incredibly nice people are here", because this is - of course - implicit. Therefore, here you'll only find what is *out of the ordinary*...

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 13

Got up in a flurry of clothes&general packing. Then been expedited to car rental, got a nice Chrysler ("intermediate, 4drs, a/c or similar") there. Highway is very relaxed since everybody goes at same speed, thus no stressful rear view mirror checks req. On the way to Quebec City.



2nd Tim Horton's visit this morning. Coffee's the word of the day.
I know now why there's a speed limit to 100km/h on highways. They are long, boring, and narrower than Autobahnen in Germany, meaning that any slight lapse in concentration leads to immediate veering off the street.
Bought gasoline in Quebec, in French, without problems.
Montreal immediately convinced me by being suffused with radio stations with mixed French-Spanish moderation and music.
"Fiat Panis" - motto of the UNO FAO Food and Agriculture Organization, as stated at the Chateau de Frontenac hotel wall.
In Quebec, just to make it clear that they are in fact different from everybody around, you have to turn doorknobs and water taps exactly the other way round. This means at first you cannot open doors, and turning off water always first results in a very loud splash before you manage shutdown.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 12

Fri, Aug 12th

Undercaffeinated, & it shows.

Spent all morning playing with, waiting for, or hanging around with AC's sister AU's little kid CU. Now going to city (rainy) at 15:30.

"March Of The Penguins"! Finally coming to a cinema near me! (Kind of the old story btwn the prophet and the mountain.) Note: Canadians applaud at film's end. Another note: W/o asking, you are served salted popcorn.

(Side comment: Remember EDM Starbucks' spoon-attached toilet key.)

Eating dinner @ Asian restaurant: "East!". Too many choices. Fried banana as dessert, soo delicious.
Finding #1: European restaurants don't deep-fry sweet-sour pork first.
Finding #2: The mixed-couple assumption (or MCA; male w/ Asian female) almost always holds (for the people in the know, this means "for all except for a set of finite cardinality").

Toronto at night; somebody "killed the elephant, and they know it".

Finally: Filling up a car is a) to be done at night, since gas is cheaper then, b) nice, since you pay less bucks than you tank litres (for 0.929 CAD/l, or about 0.61 EUR/l), and c) a complete hell because everybody arrives from different directions and doesn't give way; a wonder there are no shootings.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 11

Thu, Aug 11th

- Note: No "child prostitution is sexual abuse" posters in Toronto, contrary to Edmonton.

- One has to lure Canadians with shopping&dining facilities, otherwise they won't come: Unionville, for example, is a 200-yrs-old town next to Toronto (see pictures), but nobody might come if it weren't advertised as "great shopping and dining!"





In Chinese restaurant for lunch. About 50 tables, and I am the only Western guy here. It's incredibly loud... how can they understand English, much less Chinese here?

Note: Tomorrow, the big Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa-Kingston tour starts. To anybody who doesn't know... this might mean I have even less Internet than currently. Although currently, I cannot complain - the connection is fast, only time is limited. So please, don't be upset when updates might come in more rarely than they used to...

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 10

Wed, Aug 10th

Note: I will try, upon multiple request, to modify the PDA diary entries I write in shorthand during the day into a kind of longer, more easily readable (or legible) form in the future.

Parading X's IROS 2005 tee in Toronto today. Seems to turn hot today again - 32 degrees Celsius at least, and humid; like NYC in August.
Got morning coffee at Tim Horton's Drive In. (Gasoline, even Shell V Power, is just 91 oct maximum.)
(Am not half as used to getting around here on my own as in Edmonton.)
Been to Distillery, a former brewery-and-distillery-turned-art-district. Very nice-to-look-at art; then burned my left hand badly with scalding-hot coffee; turned better later.



Now trapped in lakeside foodcourt due to monsoon-like rain.
Coffee is sold in styrofoam cups; beer as well. Canadians seem to revel in shopping, malls, and everything related to commerce.
Toronto is hot & humid, to repeat myself.
Seen a PDA which is cute, and possibly cheaper than in Germany. Luckily, didn't buy on first impulse. (Update: Really lucky, since it's ten bucks cheaper in Germany.)
Searched the "Duff's Famous Wings" in pouring rain... finding Bayview Street took about one hour. Had some "medium hot" ("= Very Hot" according to the menu) chicken wings plus three dips in the infamous Armaggedon sauce. I survived because of having thought of ordering hot chocolate instead of beer.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 9

Tue, Aug 9th

Woke up at 09:00. While showering, found out y - I'm jetlagged again! Wow.
13:00: In line for CN Tower visit (allegedly the world's highest tower at 553m, and the highest man-made observatory at 447m). Lots of ppl, seems there shld b anotr tower built 4 all of them. Toronto seems to skim all Can tourists. In queue, there are short films shown w titles like "Tower Terror - Bungee". Pressurized air sec check.




Much more multicultural soc than EDM - not only whites&Asians, but also Blacks, S-Europeans, Indians, ...
On top. Hvn't bn that high since 97 in NYC. Great view, long queues. Switching off TV sets w Clié.
Been on top - the SkyPod. Then RT'd to Chinatown, bought some bowls, ate in gd restaurant which wldn't rcv a license in D, tho.
Only three whites on full bus home.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 8

Mon, Aug 8th

Slept very very long into the day, for the first time in quite a while. A real night - going to bed early, waking up at a natural, body-clock-controlled time. Wow :-)
Been to the Mall today. Well... I find that I do not need anything. That's cool, but somehow I feel cut off from Canadian lifestyle, which seems to revolve around shopping in malls. But I rode a car - in Canada! It feels more or less like at home, only I noticed I started to have deprivations symptoms from not having conducted one for over a week already.
(BTW, the reason for sometimes very short entries in this blog is that a large part has been written on my Clié so far. The text input facilities are okay, but not too great for longer amounts of text, so a lot of abbreviations is necessary.)
Sitting at my own laptop right now, with two others around me. A cozy little afternoon.
Musing about the great time I spent in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with the great people I met there.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 7

Sun, Aug 7th

05:00: Clié rings. Hv abt 10min to get ready & checked out after initial slacking.
Sky Shuttle all right, w escort to bus, lots of handwaving. Waiting for boarding now. Rain. Italian girl (~10yrs) w little brother & mo waiting, too; her pants so low they uncover her pink undies right down to the thigh.
Almost there; cldn't sleep all flight, so feeling very crappy. Safe, very smooth landing.
Altho extremely tired, went to "Taste of the Danforth" - street festival in Toronto, which, in spite of being located in the Greek quarter, sports foods from all over the world. Had an impressive 1st impression of this city: More like New York than Edmonton.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 6

Sat, Aug 6th

06:00: Exhausted after very short night, spent partly on luxuriant crème carpet. Waiting for LRT to full-day coach tour to Columbia Icefield.
06:55: Am prob the worst-shaved participant on the bus :-).
12:15: 1st "real" stop, unplanned - Athabasca Falls, 10min. Lots of ppl on one walkway over the falls. Great scenery, though. Next stop Icefields, some 100km(?).
17:45: On way back, after all programme. Really scenic way... but just *so* long! Icefield's been extremely cold&windy, as promised. Bus is hot, for a change.







21:30: Had short stop for coffee, pee & bus checkup. Down the road, everywhere oil pumps, partly burning gas, connected to subterr pipelines. Farmers receive only fees for access roads and such on their land, no oil royalties. Interestingly - not a single windmill anywhere.
23:30: Driver dropped us off at Lister Hall, luckily, in heavy rain. Arranged for Sky Shuttle for tomorrow morning at recep. Now packing, last meetings. Late shower, contrary to habits. Short night again :-)

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 5

Fri, Aug 5th

Been told twice in two days, independently, that I look like - guess - a so-called artist. Though I hv, allegedly, musicians hands. Get that.
Dian-Hua fried my prez-carrying USB stick again this morning. Luckily I anticipated & bckupped b4.
Y'day evening, I had the abs *greatest imaginable* view over EDM from the 26th story. So incredible, I'm at a loss for words.



Can's waste incred amounts of water evrywhr. Plus, cars hv car plates only at the rear side, not at front.
All the 3 intrstng prezs of curr session got cancelled after listened to one terr trivial talk. Fri p.m. .
Everybody is very positive abt surgical robots, not a single diff opin. Allegedly, Japan is a good place. Conversely, SLAM, being the biggest single topic here, is at "a dead end".
18:00: Farewell Banquet. Food (sushi, tho BT ones r better) went really quickly, then got drunk. Afterwards saw "Star Wars 3" in a somehow badly pirated copy at Linda's roommate-free place.

Canada Diary Entry - Aug 4

Thu, Aug 4th

Turned late y'day, but had a great walk. Have to pay Icefields Tour today, and ran out of funds, so had to use the ATM. Lister Hall has one; accptd my EC card w/o probs; easier than anticipated.
Today's 1st session chair is 1st speaker; already late.
Today's talks seem more interesting. Am being constantly x'd abt whether I "held my baby close" tonight - meaning where I kept my PDA.
Incred'ly, I stumbled across prez of Dr. Dirk E., unfort sb else prezzed.



So-called "perogies" for lunch. Was offered diet coke by default. What's more, in a tin can, which I had a hard time to open. Not used to that eco-terrorism stuff any more.
Internet finally working - even w my Linux box, meaning mail & all stored passwds are working. Feels like office ;-)
(General observation: Koreans and Chinese have similar, medium English caps, Japanese speak worse.)
Anotr interesting & worthless finding: Nestea in Canada is sweetened. More facts: Middle-aged Japanese delegates can go to the pissoir, take a leak, wash hands, and dry them *all* with a suitcase in one hand.
The 2nd or 3rd intrstng talk just got cancelled due to no-show... WLAN still not working. Too many ppl for just two APs.
18:32. Conference banquet abt to start, 15h until prez: Fried my USB stick containing the prez, killing all data. How improb is that?
It's such a small world. Would one ever have imagined my bit of Chinese learning would ever pay off? At least I can pronounce the Chin conf delegates' names more correctly now...

Canada Diary Entry - July 31...Aug 3

Sun, July 31

Train Idar-Oberstein->Ffm/Airport; late. Using massive yellow trolley for books suitcase. Latte w Maman&Papa. AC's hot glue gun as single, checked baggage. Got an emergency exit seat ("you are so tall... I think I can give you an emergency exit seat.")
40.000ft, -47 deg Centigrade. Flew over Iceland; black&white glaciers, volcanoes. "Catch me if you can" as 2nd in-flight film - Canadian airline, movie with actual sex.
Quaker Chocolate Chip/Brisures de chocolat. Northern Hudson Bay: Opened the window blind; floating ice up to the horizon, black in places; bluest skies. Smooth flight.
Canadian soil - islands in H. Bay: brown, streaks of snow. Greenish lakes inbetween. No habitation for several thousands of miles. (Note: KB's bday. Congratz.)
Less water below now; i.e. covering only about 20% of the ground. Still no habitation.
21:10. Apart from actually crossing the polar time zone singularity, this is probably the fastest way to spend time: It's still brightest day outside. Slowly becoming tired.
Damn - forgot my travel hat. Seems my 1st souvenir's already booked.
22:45: OMG! I can see streets below! Even one car, per about 400sqkm. Got handed a déclaration douanière, all in French ("eh?"). Luckily federal regulations hold and there's an English page, too.
Laudatio for Captain Alan Snowy; retiring after 44yrs of service, started flying at age 17. Descent for Calgary; 30 deg on ground.
When seeing those plains, it becomes clear why fs always display ground as checkerboard.
Calgary Airpt: Stay clear of the windows. Extremely sunny&hot outside, a/c'd inside. Got camera batteries, after having had to give up on taking pictures during flight's 1st leg. Very tired now; 16:53 CMT, 00:53 CEST. Cell phone noticed a time zone change; unfortunately it settled for wrong time anyway.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome on board. It's just a few minutes until we can activate a/c."
Taxi to hotel; straight to bed; excursions tomorrow.

Mon, Aug 1

Woke up at 04:00 local time. Dark and quiet outside. Up to now, Edmonton has not shown its million-ppl face. Will call home now.
Sun shining straight into my room, across from Butterdome.
09:00: Waiting for bus, line 4. Streets long, broad, &almost empty. Before, got lost in Lister Hall caverns in search of Internet. No USB, so no blog update. Feeling a bit unwell.



West Edmonton Mall. Almost empty. Asian supermarket with live crabs (wiggling), being packed alive quite harshly. (BTW, whole city seems to be occupied by elder sportsmen - some World Masters Games on.) Noteworthy: The consumers' temple WEM sports only a few cafes, and no libraries/newsstands. Ice-skating? (Note: y'day the taxi driver informed me that the city is celebrating its 100th b'day this year. "Pretty old.") Having very spicy tom yang gum in WEM. Tell Techno M. Bublé is very in here, since Canadian. Incred many Asians; some mixed couples, but always the female Asian. Fled from a popcorn booth after ordering, before paying upon seeing the size of "medium" bags.
What's an (edible) Saskatoon? (Note: y'day's 1st car seen sported a "7.0l" plate.) 30 deg. Edm downtown coming into sight.



(Hours later, at Alberta Legislature...) Actually, the preconceptions about this place are right. People are incred friendly, greeting each other incessantly, posters asking ppl to be helpful, nobody having fear (terror being some strange idea of national politics), and subways and lonely dark corners are clean, safe, and don't smell. This is just incred so far.

Tue, Aug 2

Woke up at 06:00. Seems like jetlag retreats 2h a day. Tried to sleep on, but to no avail. Plan for today: Old Strathcona, river, zoo. Bluuue sky. Going to be hot. Need to get myself a hat.
Again stunning ppl, asking for my jetlag recovery.
Incred! Bought a bball cap - red with Maple Leaf. On a 35% discount for turning a lucky wheel! Altho I didn't want to at first. And prob I insulted the salesgirl when asking her if this is tourist stuff - they wear this here, too. And! I witnessed a squirrel shouting at a cat! (In Strathcona.)



Along the river: More squeaking squirrels. Becoming ubiquitous. Then to Muttart Conservatory, a botanical garden installation on the Strathcona side (which is btw a kind of alternative, smaller sister city to EDM). In the green meadows around, the EDM ski club. Meeting the same Australian woman all the time, since I arrived packed with the taxi. Relaxing in the Conservatory pyramids.



17:40. On way back. Visited Shaw Centre, venue of tomorrow's conf, then got into what I was told later is Canada place. A wondrously spacious place, completely devoid of ppl. It took me quite a while to find out about the fact that it's August 1st, public holiday. Still, like y'day (Sunday), shops are open. Not all, but enough to remind one of, say, Prague - ppl work there on weekends, too. (Note: Even pubescent girls in groups are polite here.) Had a long talk w 2 guards in CanPlace, one of whom had been stationed with Can Army in Lahr until 1989. Gave me/the Germans advice to stay optimistic in spite of current probs. Met the Australians three times today in the city.
Thunderstorm w lightning in the evening. The soles of my feet itch&hurt from walking.

Wed, Aug 3

Already drowsy upon waking up. Why?
1st conf day, already late. Luckily I know from y'day's xp that I don't get anything out of SLAM...
It's so incred. The subway ("LRT") wagons are 1) made by Siemens/Duewag, 2) from 1977, and 3) clean. No graffiti, no scratching, no dirt.



Have been the only white at Canada Place's Food Court's Ginza-japan lunch bar: Teriyaki chicken; 100 Japanese, 1 white. Internet mostly works only with installed notebooks here, WLAN doesn't for me.
Later: Finally, this Internet stuff got resolved, at least I could hook up my Dian-Hua to the wired access point. No WLAN, though. I think it's high time for a new notebook, esp when comparing my brick to the sleek new pieces of the Jap conf participants.
Had a long discussion w Linda W and Sa Li abt the Can univ education system - undergrad, grad, bachelor, master, who gets money, who pays money... all very confusing to the newcomer. But they are a great source of information.



Then continued the talking over a Starbucks coffee. Now I know sb whose parents have been serving for the People's Liberation Army... Walked all the way from Shaw CC to univ to Lister Hall. Dark and full of mosquitoes, but great. This place is just so safe.
I think I should start recapping the presentations I attended, otrwz they'll mix up into a large bunch of hogwash. Who knows what Rao-Blackwellized particle filters, or RBPF for short, are? Anyone? I thought I knew for a moment today.