Last Sabbath in the Brazilian church in Montreal

I've had the opportunity to be in many churches, and especially to play viola in different countries. And this time, while living in Montreal, it was not the exception. Feom the very first Sabbath that I arrived, I shared my talent and worshiped with my music. Since then, I felt accepted and welcome in that church. Many people would not understand why I chose to go to a Brazilian church instead of going to the hispanic one or even a french-speaking one. Besides the obvious reason that is not to ne explained here, I like the Brazilian worship style and convivencia.

But then I had to say goodbye, and believe me, saying goodbye is never easy. And this time is especially difficult because this church had become my "family" in Montreal (I did not know anybody in the city, and even before I arrived, they helped me out).

I might not be Brazilian, and I might not have moved to Montreal (for now) as a permanent resident, but the people in this church opened their heart to me as if I was to stay there as part of their church family.

I know that (almost) anywhere I may go, there will be a church where I can feel at home.

Chronicles of a winter in Canada - part 2

Continuing with my winter chronicles...
*click here for part 1

same place, summer and winter

In general, trying to cope with the winter hasn't been that bad. In fact, I find it better when it snows, or the few days after when there's still snow here and there. Not that it's starting to melt, it's not pretty anymore! Plus, it's still cold, but since you don't see lots of snow out there, what's the point of being cold?! I prefer it when it's all humid and snowing. At least I feel it's worth it wearing that big coat and those huge (but warm!) snow boots.

After one of the many snowfalls we had this winter.
Do you see the bust sign and the red lines? 
Well, that's where people usually walk to get in the bus.
The blue lines are for the sidewalk.

People had already told me that February was the worst month of the Canadian winter. In my opinion, in terms of temperature, January was way worse than February.

And February still looks white!

Then March started. Somehow, my mind started to think of spring, but at the same time I know that we still have a few more months of cold days. The snow is starting to melt (though I saw the news and there's more snow coming up tomorrow!), but that does not mean warmer days, yet.

Montreal, March 1st

In the meantime, there's pretty much no more snow in Toronto!!!!

Toronto, March 10th

What I've always liked about winters in the States, and now in Canada, is that though it is very extremely cold outside, once you're in the bus, metro or any building, that's it, you are not cold anymore. And you can find very warm winter clothes and boots.

So, in general, I don't think it has been a bad experience. Though I do want the winter to end already lol. The thing is that it's just too long. Yes, the snow is beautiful, but the temperatures are just not nice at all!

heroes

"[Los] verdaderos heroes pueden estar en tu propia casa, pueden ser tus padres."
Pavel Semanivsky

Liking fruits by countries

Every time I go to a new place, I stop disliking a new fruit. It is not that I love them all now, but at least I can eat them!
*Read GO as "live in place for a month or more with other-than-holiday purposes."


Tennessee > bananas
I worked in Tennessee for almost two months, and the family I lived with didn't eat lots of healthy foods. So I suggested them to buy some fruits, and guess what they brought home next day? Bananas!!! The problem was that I found bananas quite disgusting back then. But, I was really craving for fruit so I started eating bananas. The result? Now I can eat them without feeling like throwing up right after :)


Brazil's Northeast > coconut water
I don't think there's much to be explained here, since in the Northeast of Brazil, well... there's just LOTS of coconuts!! 
So when I was living there, people would offer me coconut water all the time, and I didn't want to be impolite so I would always drink it. But, being a super humid and hot place, I couldn't help but end up loving cold coconut water!


Sao Paulo > Kiwi
And here I need to explain that I didn't hate Kiwi, but I just didn't love it either. However, after almost a month of studying in Sao Paulo state, with lots of kiwi in the cafe, I ended up eating 3 or 4 per day!

My mouth just watered now! lol

Quebec > apples
Now I'm in Montreal, eating lots of apples, which were not exactly my favourite. But here, I find them juicier!


I can't find any real reason why I didn't like these fruits. I simply hadn't learned to enjoy their deliciousness. Which one is next? And where?

Chronicles of a winter in Canada - part 1

You can surely find many posts and articles about the winter (in Canada): how to survive winter, how to prepare for your first winter, Canadian winter 101, etc. And by no means this post intends to present a guide or a how to. This is just something I thought I had to write about, since it's my first official (two white Christmas holidays -Utah and Cali- don't count because both times were just for two weeks, with a car and on a holiday mood) and real winter. And by that I mean not the winter we have in Monterrey, with a few weeks days of 0º C and the rest of the season with temperatures around 10º C or more.

So the first snow of the winter 2013 was in November 28th, but it was very light. Little I knew how bad normal this winter was going to be. Normal because last year, the first snow was on Dec 24th, there were very few blizzards, and by March winter was all gone. This time? Well, it's been lots of snow so far. And there's more coming!

Views from my apartment window

Luckily, Canada, unlike the USA, has a great déneigement snow removal service. This, added to Montreal's great STM (public transportation system), helps people continue living their routines, despite the terrible weather conditions.

Winter went on and I had to get used to very cold days, and walking on messy roads and sidewalks (half of the time it was hard to walk on the sidewalk, so we just end up going to the streets instead). I didn't have, yet, appropriate winter boots, nor a warm enough winter jacket, so I had to wear like 3 sweaters plus my jacket in order to kind of tolerate the crazy temperatures.

There's no way your shoes boots won't get wet, so better go for waterproof ones.

I spent Christmas at my roommate's parent's place, 2 hours drive from Montreal. It was good to get out of the city for a few days. Since they are all Québécois, used to this kind of weather, they all decided to go out for a walk (on a day with -15º C!). And wanting to get some fresh air too, I went out with them. Oh boy! it was a bad idea!!

Taken right outside the door, so I was still ok.

As we started walking, my hands, feet and nose started to get colder.

The day they decided to drive us back to Montreal (December 27th), there was a very very bad blizzard (la tempête du siècle, 45cm in one day) and it took us 8 hours to get back. Most of the time, we had to go 20 km/h in the highway and it was twice blocked because of a carambolage multiple crash. Twice the car almost got stuck on the road because of the snow, and a couple of times visibility was almost 0. When we finally arrived in the apartment, the entrance was blocked with snow.

We almost got stuck trying to get back on the highway after this.

The blue lines show where the sidewalk is supposed to be.

This is how I found my room window when I got back.

After that historic storm, there has been more snowfall, but nothing as bad as that one.