Today was a National Day of Action for students across Canada to demonstrate their longing for “high-quality, accessible post-secondary education.” Students were meant to meet at 1:30pm at the Roddick Gates and march out to the Premier’s office, before a gay afternoon of “food, drinks (of all kinds), and festivities” alongside a screening of the movie “My Student Loan”.
Wow. It’s a little different here from what I’m used to back home. (more…)
I came up to our residence level of the Hillel house this evening to find my roommate Emmanuel incredulously looking over two boxes of groceries on the kitchen table that had obviously been delivered sometime in the evening. There was something wrong here: we had already received our groceries earlier that day from the people Hillel charges with the task (the restaurant-owners); they had never been delivered like that before; and on inspection, not everything was kosher. But some of the contents needed refrigerating so we knew we had to do something quickly. And one of the boxes was leaving a dark liquid on our kitchen table. (more…)
This afternoon, while at Tali’s tea party in her Chabad-House apartment—delicately lit with the red radiance of the ner tamid—Anthony invited me and Naomi to see a movie tonight. Although neither of us was available to go with him, Naomi asked which movie. He replied “Smoking Asses” which left both of us confused. Eventually we discovered that the three of us were thinking different things:
Since the winter had finally decided to commence, I had been wondering when I’d be able to make it out to the slopes and try on some ski-boots for size. Naomi’s idea to spend a weekend at her friend Carla’s holiday house near Mt Tremblant didn’t work out in the end. But on about the 10th of January, the Ghetto Shul broadcast a Facebook message to declare a trip to the same area for the weekend of the 20th. While it was strange that they should advertise by Facebook before they did by email when there were only 20 spots available (apart from organisers), and despite the cost of $85 excluding any ski gear rental and lift ticket at the notoriously expensive mountain, I jumped at the opportunity. (more…)
What do you wear in -20°C but calm, partially sunny weather? Long underwear, or not? Argh!
Yes, I am still in Montreal till April. I am here for a second semester, so if you happen to be visiting this side of the earth (and, for instance, your initials are JM) you should give me a call on
+1-514-659-4506
And don’t leave a voice message. I still can’t check them and even when Fido resets my access code it doesn’t work, and I’m waiting for them to get back to me…
On Tuesday night I got to spend a romantic evening with my girlfriend, Naomi. We stayed up all night, side by side, until dawn broke… underneath the library, writing papers. (more…)
December 1. First day of a new season, at least by Australian accounts. And certainly too by the accounts of Montreal weather. It has hardly snowed since the day when I reported it, and I’ve been repeatedly admonished for calling that snow in the first place. (more…)
One of the first things I did when I got to McGill was find out what singing groups I could join. After all, I had decided a couple of years ago that 2006 would be the year for singing: having been involved in Hineni, people would ask me (mostly after synagogue), “so what are you doing with that voice of yours Joel?” and I replied, “too busy… after Hineni”. So this year was set aside for singing. I led a lot more services in synagogue than ever before, got a couple of paid jobs as a chazzan, and joined two choirs in Sydney: the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (finally capitulating to Warren), and the Madrigal Society (under the leadership of Anthony who I encountered regularly, although he gave me no pressure to join). I enjoyed them a lot. I was even a little surprised to do so. (more…)
I have a decision to make. I have confirmed that it is technically possible for me to stay in Montreal for another semester. After all, four months studying here is not so long to take in the opportunities of the area (seeing Montreal, Canada, North-Eastern America), and staying longer will let me see more, do more, solidify relationships, yield to people’s cries not to go so soon, and do the other half of a fascinating course in the History of Jewish Bible Interpretation… And now is the only time I can do it. (more…)
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