Jazz Fest and festivals galore!

Apologies all! I thought this was posted mid-July, but it wasn’t. Here it is now, without further ado!

Summer is festival season in Montreal, as many of you many know, and so we’ve been trying to hit as many as we can. I mentioned a couple entries ago that Jon’s sister, Ashley, fresh from high school graduation, has come to stay with us for a few months. She’ll be taking classes in Ohio for a couple years before transferring up here to get a degree in photography. While she’s here, Jon has set her up internships with photographers so she can get her feet wet while learning the city.

Yesterday, she watched the set-up of the International Jazz Festival while shadowing a photographer from the Montréal Gazette. It’s huge (the largest jazz festival in the world),  attended by 2 million people each year according to Wikipedia. I also learned from the Wikipedia entry that there are more than 500 concerts typically offered, with 350 of those outside and free to the public. The festival started June 30 and ends July 12.

The festival opened with the legendary Stevie Wonder on June 30, which we definitely had to check out. He was actually one of the outdoor, free-to-the-public concerts. Can you believe it?

Stevie Wonder (photo thanks to the Montreal Jazz Fest website, linked here.)

The concert was packed by the time we got there, so we ended up on a spill-over stage with a giant screen showing the concert. It was awesome, even if we had to watch on a screen. We left mid-way through after it started to rain, but still enjoyed the show. He made a beautiful tribute to Michael Jackson, and even played a few Michael Jackson songs.

more after the jump

LABoratoire Créatif

Since there was a long hiatus in our posts, I’m going to try to catch up on what we’ve missed. First, we went to a Marché du LABoratoire Créatif, a fashion sale featuring designers from Quebec at Ailes de la Mode, held by LABoratoire Créatif. Check out their website for a listing of designers, future fashion shows, events, clothing and products to buy, and more. The sale was awesome, though not nearly as big of an event as we were expecting. Without knowing what to expect, though, we definitely enjoyed it and I’ve become a fan of LAB Créatif. At least several of the designers featured were actually at the show, and I did end up buying a really cute dress/tunic. The designers featured included:

Meg Couture | Cluc Couture | Ève Gravel | Grob | Judy Design | Lilidom | Station 8 | Ysol | Annie 50 | J’bouj | NKI | Mir Handbags | Mode Cherry Bobin | Valérie Dumaine | Véronique Miljkovitch | KSL | Atelier B | WillBe Design | Dita & Bella | Extenso 14 + | Ruelle | Oöm Ethikwear | Atelier Héricher | Ressac

All of the above are links to each designer or company’s website, so check them out! Click “more” for a sneak-peak of the designs.

Oh Canada

So we apologize, yet again, for falling off the wagon with the blog. Jon’s sister, Ashley, who just graduated high school, has been staying with us for the past few weeks and will be with us a few more weeks. She’s checking out schools in the area and is interning at a few photography studios, as she plans to move to Montreal to study photography. She’ll begin classes this fall back in Ohio, but wants to transfer in a couple years.

In other news, Beau is badly behaved as ever and we’re trying desperately to get him into obedience school. Between not getting calls returned and other complications, we think he will be able to start soon. Thank heavens!

Quebec flag, Canada flag, Montreal flag

And, last but not least, it is Canada Day again (tomorrow), and then the 4th of July a few days later. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Since many of our readers are American, and since I’ve heard jokes about how Canadians don’t know the national anthem (possibly the same way some American’s don’t), I’ve decided to post the lyrics. Here goes:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Thanks to Canadian Heritage for the lyrics, and to Flickr user P M M for the flag photo, taken in Old Montreal.

Tomorrow, which is officially Canada Day, we’ll be taking Ashley to the Canada Day parade that we loved so much last year. We blogged about it, so check the archives for pictures.

One more note, for Pam, Mom, Dad, and all the family members who have requested–we have not forgotten to post pictures of our apartment. We’ve been working on a few final details, but do promise to get pictures up soon. We’ll try to get at least a few posted this week, and more to come.

Thanks for your patience, and stay posted!

Over React Much?

http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/05/19/il-est-interdit-dinterdire/

Just to show everyone that Montreal isn’t QUITE the land of rainbows and butterflies that we sometimes portray it as…I read this disturbing article on one of my favorite Montreal blogs “Spacing Montreal”.

A 38-year old law student and mother of two was briefly arrested (read, handcuffed) and fined for not using the handrail on an escalator in the Metro.

Wow.  That’s all I can say.

To the uber-strict officer’s credit, it turns out it IS technically illegal to not use the handrail, which seems like another strange matter all it’s own.  But really…?  I guess from now on I’m never going to walk around with my shoe untied, since I certainly can’t afford a 500 dollar fine!

I’m ALIVE!

Wow, it’s been YEARS it seems since I’ve posted anything, so in order to avoid my account being deactivated or something I figured I would send out a brief update. Jen and I have been frantically working on the finishing touches of our apartment. We made much progress over this past three-day weekend (Victoria Day, for all you non-Canadians) and we’re as excited as EVER about our home.

We purchased a small herb garden and even a raspberry bush, and we got our fancy library set up and our guest room just about finished.

We’ll hopefully get some pictures up soon.

In other news Beauregard is still misbehaving, but certainly has enough good points to make it worth the trouble.

We will be heading back to Ohio in a few weeks for my younger sister’s high school graduation.

That’s all for now. If anyone is interested in understanding a bit more about why we have relocated to Montreal, I ran across this great little post this morning.

http://newurbanshapes.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/41/

Scroll down for the English version.

Beauregard the Boston Terrier

Beauregard and Jen

Meet Beauregard, our new Boston Terrier. He is 7 months old and filled with energy and kisses. It seems that now we see Bostons everywhere, but it’s probably just one of those things.

Jon and I started looking at different dog breeds not too long after we lost Zorro, just to ease the emptiness. We decided that a Boston Terrier would be a perfect fit, so we started looking. Since Bostons have a signature black-and-white coat, making them look like they are wearing tuxedos, the breed earned the nickname, “The American Gentleman”.

Thinking that a gentleman (or gentlewoman) deserved a distinguished name, and that an alliteration with the letter “B” for “Boston” would be appropriate, Jon and I put on our thinking caps and started to think of names. I picked Bernadette for a girl, and Jon picked Beauregard for a boy dog. (More than one person since then have mentioned being thankful the dog was a boy, fearing for a poor little girl dog named Bernie. But that’s beside the point)

More after the jump…

Zorro

Jon and I are so sorry for yet again another break in entries, but we are back and ready to post!

It has been crazy and eventful, to say the least, since our last entry. Our beloved dog, Zorro, died on March 24 from heart disease. Zorro was a part of our family and we miss him terribly, but we truly appreciate all the kind words and sentiments we have received from friends and family.

Zorro

We both wanted to post in the blog about him, but haven’t gotten around to actually posting an entry until now. Even beyond the grief of losing the little guy, this past month has been a whirlwind of navigating through the process of renewing our work permits (more on that later), handling taxes for both countries, a week-long business trip for Jon, and various other craziness.

More to come very soon.

Haitian Delights in Villeray

We’re back! We are officially completely moved in, though we are still rearranging and settling in. Finally, we found a new tenant for our old apartment, and our lease is officially transferred (yay!). Also, Jon and I are both now on Twitter! My username is jen_in_montreal and Jon’s is jknodell. Feel free to follow us!

Yesterday, Jon and I tried Ange & Ricky, one of two Haitian restaurants (and small markets) nearby. We have already tried Marché Meli Melo, which is a Haitian grocery store with a carry out and a few tables in the back. The food is great, and Jon and I have quickly become fans. We figured it was time to try out Ange & Ricky, and it was amazing!

After walking in the door, we were greeted by Ange, who apologized for her English (once we informed her that our French is nonexistent), and offered us samples of the food. We ordered two trios: the goat and the vegetable with beef. Each came with rice and beans, two fried plantains, and salad. We stopped the minute we felt full, and managed to save half of each assiette (platter) for lunch. Thus we both had delicious lunches two days in a row!

Goat with rice, fried plantains, and salad; photo courtesy of Midnight Poutine

inside Ange & Ricky; photo courtesy of Midnight Poutine

Click below for the rest of the entry, photos, and location information for both Marché Meli Melo and Ange & Ricky.

Catching Up

Okay, sorry everyone for the lapse in action here at the blog.  Our schedules have been pretty crazy since Christmas.  We promise some updates soon as news develops.  The biggest news to date is the acquisition of a new apartment!

A Salvadoran birthday feast at Las Palmas

Jon took me to an amazing Salvardoran restaurant in Villeray for my birthday yesterday. It may have been more casual than a traditional birthday dinner, but it was a perfect choice. I have wanted to go to Latin America, South America, or Africa to do (non-religious) missionary or relief work since high school, and El Salvador was the country I had originally planned on going. In short, Jon’s choice of a Salvadoran restaurant was just perfect.

The decor was very homey, the service quick and friendly, and the food delicious. I ordered for us in Spanish, which was very exciting for me, since I rarely get a chance to practice. We ordered off of the Salvadoran specialties menu, and ordered two tamales con pollo (chicken tamales), an order of fried yucca with steak and salad, and an order of platanos con frijoles y crema (fried plantains with beans and sour cream).

Fried yucca with steak