Maarten not in Montreal

Hello everyone!

Just yesterday I realized people other than my family actually read my blog; sorry I've not been a very fastidious writer! Unfortunately for you McGill managed to make me feel like I always had work to do. As a consequence I lacked the quiet moments that inspire thoughts like, "hey, let's write something on my blog!"

I am back in Amsterdam now, slowly adjusting to living here again (the more slowly after a case of food poisoning, but I'm at the tail end of that now), and although I am missing my friends from Montreal, I am happy to be home. I have learned many things; too many really to sum them up here, even more so because many of what I've learnt is tacit, the kind of knowledge that can only be transferred through experience or directed questions. The experience has been very rewarding, and I will remember my time there fondly.

Thank you for reading!

Maarten

Snow!

See http://picasaweb.google.com/schiemaartenvan/6DecemberInTheSNOW

The nightowl and the meadowlark

It's 7.50 in the morning, and I'm glad to be up. I woke up early today, showered, got dressed, and went outside, since just around there corner there is a bakery that sells real Montreal bagels. I can tell you, they're good. I went there, met all the morning people going about their business, got my bagel with creamcheese and a coffee, read the news. It feels good.

But you know, I still don't quite believe in this distinction between morning and evening people. Not that I don't acknowledge that some people function better at night. It's just that I notice that I sometimes function better at night, sometimes better in the morning. It changes according to my schedule, and, more importantly, the way I feel about life. Which is why it seems to be that that does not have to do with biological factors, but rather with psychological disposition. Getting up early in the morning has everything to do with rousing oneself, and the person who can do that is definitely going to be able to enjoy themselves in the morning. I would let them sum it up by saying, "What a glorious day, let's make the most of it. Hello world!" The other end of the spectrum then belongs to people who need for the world to rouse them. They wake up basically because they have to, and have something of a dependency on the things around them to give them the signals they need to be roused. The world keeps poking them, poke -sunlight, poke-smell of coffee, poke-alarm clock, poke-can't sleep... "Alright, alright, I'm up!" and as they go along during the day they accumulate signals that stimulate them into being awake, untill at the end of the day they're wide awake processing all the things the world has been doing to them. Both cycles reinforce themselves.

Now the past few months I have mostly been going to bed late, waking up late. Partly because of my schedule; at the earliest my classes start at 10am. That's enough time to stay in bed a while. Partly it's because a lot of people around me stay up late - hey, I'm a student. Me being quite social, I enjoy their company and feel like I'm deserting it if I go to bed early (that's one of those reinforcing processes). On top of that, I simply have been having work that I, although I consider it interesting, don't particularly enjoy, making me put it off or at least waste some time doing other things. This means that at the end of the day, say around 8 or 9, I feel guilty enough to set myself to work and finish some of it - next time I check the clock it's already 11.30. But anyway, I can also do the work in the morning. I haven't been doing that because it seems such a hassle. It's not necessarily something you want to wake up to. I guess it's a matter of perception.

I enjoy the morning, though it's not quite like I don't get the charm of the following picture. I'm gonna get to work now though ;-)

Interesting parts from a mail (Dutch)

Ik heb geen moment overwogen of ik niet beter af zou zijn geweest door in Nederland te blijven. Ja dus, nuttige toevoeging. In de eerste plaats (denk ik wel) omdat ik hier zoveel mensen leer kennen van over de hele wereld; omdat McGill een school is die graag internationale studenten aantrekt, omdat je overal als internationale studenten die nog maar net in een nieuwe stad zijn open staat om contacten te leggen, omdat je, als je een beetje weet waarin je geïnteresseerd bent, er met mensen over kunt praten en erachter kunt komen dat je interesses deelt - en "environment" is zo'n hot topic dat iedereen er wel iets over te zeggen heeft, kortom, we (FPS) zijn hip! Maar ook omdat je in een andere omgeving terecht komt waar je opnieuw keuzes moet maken; met wie wil ik vrienden zijn, welke vakken wil ik volgen (en wil ik blijven bij de vakken die ik heb gekozen?), wat wil ik naast mijn studie doen, en/of is het belangrijk genoeg in vergelijking met studeren om ervoor níet huiswerk te maken? Ik merk dat ik nu veel duidelijker weet wat ik wil en wat ik interessant vind, en niet alleen op academisch gebied. Ook trouwens omdat je de kans hebt om dingen te verkennen en te ervaren hoe mensen leven en met onderwerpen als duurzaamheid omgaan aan de andere kant van de wereld. Vaak vindt je dingen die hetzelfde zijn, zowel als dingen die je anders benadert. In mijn geval heb ik nu een veel beter beeld van de Angelsaksische cultuur (economisch, academisch, levensstijl) zowel als van "Europese" en Nederlandse cultuur. En dat is, zeker voor ons duurzame milieutypes, zinvol om te begrijpen. Consumptiecultuur, wat is het en waar komt het vandaan? We hebben het in Nederland en denken dat we het kennen, maar omdat je het hier zoveel sterker ziet kan je (kan ik in ieder geval) veel beter begrijpen wat het drijft. En ja, het is simpelweg zoals in de films en series.

Now that I've lived here a while one of the things I've noticed is that Montreal assumes a different smell every day. Large parts of the city end up smelling like something in particular. One day it smells like freshly baked bread, the next like sewage. Today it smells like candy. And come to think of it that may not be so strange, considering how yesterday was Halloween. Maybe, and I can only speculate here, there's a relation, considering how some parts of the Montreal sewage system are connected directly to her surface waters (or so I've heard in my ecological economy class). Ah yes, Halloween. It really is quite a big thing here in Canada. For the past few weeks I've been hearing people discuss what to wear and seeing facebook messages showing off costumes. Apparently it's one of the few non-commercial feasts still out there. Of course there is always money to be made, but a lot of people make their own costumes and use the occasion to show off some creativity and original thought. At a party of one of my friends, someone taped red balloons all over his body, which is low-budget if anything is. If you cannot visualize the balloons and make the connection; it's a raspberry.

In other news, my mother was here last week. We took a lot of pictures!

on blogging

Some people are able to write in a blog like this weekly. Clearly I am not one of these people. Those same people often also manage to write eloquently about their place of residence, their daily activities, their favourite sandwich shop, mode of transportation and what not. Being unable to do so however should not keep me from trying. Maybe I owe an apology to those people (however few) that have returned to this blog to see if I had written something new yet, to find that no, the same old entry was gracing the top of the page. Well, it's not like I didn't want to. Every time the thought popped into my head however I was in transit. Probably just then, because every other moment of my life the past few weeks has been crammed with activities or things to consider. No, not the cool exciting story-of-a-lifetime activities. Simple daily uninteresting stuff like... Studying, writing a paper, meeting friends for coffee. I like doing these things most of the time but do not really think that you have the need to read about what I've been talking about with who, what my research paper is about and why, and so on. Surely you have better things to do with your time; at least I would, and have.
One recent event I think deserves mention here. About two weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I won something: In a random draw an online magazine I favour picked me as the recipient for four books related to the topic of the magazine; the personal essay. Furthermore, contrary to a lot of prizes I might have won but didn't I actually consider this a useful prize. I have been reading these books, "One Man's Meat" by E.B. White, "At Large and at Small" by Anne Fadiman most relevantly. What I really like about these books - and what makes them worth mentioning around here - is that they concern private thoughts relating to everyday things. If I find the time for it, which I might, considering that the coming month involves mostly research projects, I will see if I can somehow implement their style of writing here. Maybe we both will find it more fitting and hopefully more interesting than the alternative, and I will get to feel more like I am actually doing something by writing here.

Studies, friends and the Canadian outdoors

Before I really start writing this, let me say I will add pictures here soon. I just don't have them with me right now. For the time being find pictures on Picasa!

I've been here for three weeks now - what's that, a long holiday?- but it feels like I have been here forever. I guess that is something the mind does when you're working hard to make yourself at home; you're so busy processing all the new things and making yourself comfortable that you're actually hardwiring your brain to consider where you are as home, the place where you belong.
It really does feel that way. Whether due to Canadian friendliness, my position as a new student or simply the very cool people over here, I have met lots of great people these few weeks that I hope are or will become friends during the coming months. If any of them are reading this, cool! Good to find you on here. There's a lot to do together too! Montreal is a happening city with plenty of festivals, perhaps the best night life of Canada, an extensive student body, "the big outdoors" nearby and more. Among some of the cooler things I have been doing are going to an outdoor movie screening, visiting an art gallery (Check out Jenny Holzer; subversive modern art) and last but not least canoeing.
But that is not to mention college. I know that any description of "people here" is a broad generalization that shouldn't be taken very seriously. Having said that however I am under the impression that students (and teachers) around here are more inclined to take their studies and their career seriously, and out of all the people I met here a larger proportion seems to be quite driven. Which puts forward a challenge I am more than willing to take up. So even if classes are not too hard (which I see happening with one or two of my courses) I am looking for ways to get more out of them and broaden my learning in ways that are useful to me. For example, one of my courses is about the "geographic perspective on world environmental problems". Now this is something we have dealt with in Future Planet Studies (my program in the Netherlands). But I can actually use this course both to experience a different way of looking at them and to get myself up-to-date on basic and in-depth information about things like overfishing and deforestation. I have the broad scope of things, but I find that I, being an environmental sciences major -or equivalent thereof- should really have a decent and actual idea of the situation. Adding to that I seem to have picked courses that fit together well in providing tools for analyzing the way people deal with matters of location and subsistence in courses like geography and development and economic geography.
Speaking of location, I can say I have been very lucky in finding a physical home as well. After one day of reacting to offers on craigslist and on my first day of visiting a few that responded I found a place that is -or seems- perfectly suited to me. It is stuffed with books of varying natures and on many topics, inhabited by friendly and ecologically minded(!) people, and it is not only cycling distance from McGill but I am actually allowed to use one of the bikes my landlady owns(!). She also owns the canoe and was my companion for the canoeing trip. Errr, I think I'll get enough exercise this term. And if it's not outdoor due to something like insanely cold weather McGill has some sports facilities as well - among the things I found walking around their sports building was an indoor running track and squash courts.
Of course it's not all good ;-) Food is more expensive around here than I'm used to, and although some good price-hunting goes a long way I was almost stupified to find regular bread prices of $3.00 and pepper around $4! But then nowhere's perfect.