Destiny by Vanessa Pacheco

Hello Everyone! 

As this week theme is free 😊, I decide to bring on a topic that I really like: DESTINY.

I will use myself as an example. I had everything figure out to go to Vancouver, but somethings have happened and here I am in Montreal. I didn't want to say that because we have people from every where in the world with many different beliefs, but I do believe this is God's work. 

Coming to Montreal, I had the chance to get to know 3 great teachers. They have made me want to go fowarder to improve my English and not accept only to be understood, but also to try to speak as a native. I know this will take awhile, but I started this new fase in my life already. "All long way starts with the first step." 😉

Also I have met very nice people, who has become very good friends. Everybody trying to help each others by sharing experiences in Canada about work, gov't papers, university. It is nice to know that you have someone to counting on. We have had lot of fun together: lunches, parties, visintings, trips, shopping and for sure classes! Things are easier when are done in a great and fun enviroment as we have in BLI.

Well, after all this happiness and great moments with wonderful people, I must believe a great power put me here with all of you!

Thank you for everything! I have had so much fun here that I could even support this cold for longer!

I will miss you!

😘

how do I feel like International Student by Juan

    

I feel happy to stay in Canada, and choose it, because is a good place to study. The quality of life is excellent, unfortunately is not the same in Mexico, that's the reason I will give all my energy for this beautiful country. 

Since I came to Canada, I knew by government of canada and others websites, it's a country which receive immigrant people, but, as I can see, the canadian people, almost all are very nice, they always give you smile like in the subway, even in the supermarket, everybody want to help you, All the time I can hear: "SORRY =) !!!"

 Sometimes, after class, we hava a lot of option to go like restaurants, bars, museums, even activities like snowboarding, it's very interesting !!! 

If you want to come and study in Canada, the best advice is, try to preparing about your studies in you home country, vocabulary, because when you come to Canada, you will use it like advantage. And finally, enjoy your stay, even if the weather is almost -32 degrees.

     

   

I'm Here by Tiago Medeiros

             Few days ago, Lucia, my English teacher gave for us a lesson about artificial intelligence. The overview which we were reading had few exemples of movies where the artificial intelligence was present as a object used by us to become our life easier as something which could be a big problem.
            Usually, the robots in these movies are shown as something dependent on humans , even being "smarter" than humans. However, when the robots starts to show that they're as smart as humans, or for some reason start be a "emotional being", almost aways they become a big problem.                At large, If humans built robots which are able to have "feelings", they'll become a threat someday, in according with these movies. So, that discussion about sci-fi movies, robots and future made me remember of a movie called I'm Here. It's sci-fi romance short film written and directed by Spike Jonze( Other famous movies: Being John Malkovich(1999), Adaptation(2002), Where the wild Things are(2009), Her(2013).

           I'm here is a love story about two robots living in Los Angeles where humans and robots co-exist. In my point of view, a interesting thing about this movie is how the life is shown by robots' eyes. They aren't a threat, besides is possible to say they're more "humans" than real humans in this movie. It isn't a big movie as Spike Jonze is used to direct, but it's really good. You can watching it in just 32 minutes. The movie will be available in the end of that post , and I advice you using a headphone due to sound track quality.  Enjoy it !

Interesting Places to Explore Near School by Xiaolong

Montreal is a travel destination city. And our school is located in one of the most popular areas in the city. Needless to say that means the shops and restaurants near school are pretty expensive, but that also means we can reach some interesting places just in minutes of walk.

1, Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal
Location: 110 Notre-Dame Street West
How far from school: 3 minutes

I believe everyone knows it because it is too close to the school, but has anyone ever seen how it looks like inside? In fact the church's Gothic Revival architecture is among the most dramatic in the world; its interior is grand and colourful, its ceiling is coloured deep blue and decorated with golden stars, and the rest of the sanctuary is a polychrome of blues, azures, reds, purples, silver, and gold. It is filled with hundreds of intricate wooden carvings and several religious statues. Unusual for a church, the stained glass windows along the walls of the sanctuary do not depict biblical scenes, but rather scenes from the religious history of Montreal. It also has a Casavant Frères pipe organ, dated 1891, which comprises four keyboards, 92 stops using electropneumatic action and an adjustable combination system, 7000 individual pipes and a pedal board.

2, Old Port of Montreal
Location: 333 Rue de la Commune O
How far from school: 14 minutes

The Old Port of Montreal is the historic port of Montreal, it stretches for over two kilometres along the St-Lawrence River. It was used as early as 1611, when French fur traders used it as a trading post. In 1976, Montreal's Port activities were moved east. The Old Port was redeveloped in the early 1990s. It is today a recreational and historical area and draws six million tourists annually.

3, Montreal Science Centre
Location: King Edward Pier in the Old Port
How far from school: 14 minutes

The Montreal Science Centre is a science museum in Montreal. It is located on the King Edward Pier in the Old Port of Montreal. Established in 2000. The museum is home to interactive exhibitions on science and technology as well as an IMAX theatre.

4, Chinatown in Montreal
Location: De la Gauchetière Street
How far from school: 11 minutes

Chinatown in Montreal is located in the area of De la Gauchetière Street in Montreal. The neighbourhood contains many Asian restaurants, food markets, and convenience stores as well being home to many of Montreal's East Asian community centres, you can find very good and cheap restaurants here.

St. Patrick's Day by hiro

Before coming  here, I didn't  know St. Patrick's Day because we don't have it in Japan.
It's a day which celebrates St. Patrick. Who is he? He is a missionary. And what he did propagated the Christian Catholic faith. The date is 17th March. People believe it's the day when he died.

Most of  celebrating people wear a green things and they drink beer. What I was surprised was the beer color. Restaurant makes it green.I'm a one of the guy who enjoyed it.  I felt it was worse than normal. Actually Its flavor is as same as the normal, my friend said. It's interesting because  it is same beer but I didn't believe it's  same.
                          
And I also feel foreigner is stronger than japanease about alcohol. But I like drinking time.

😒 Patrick's Day in Montreal by Vanessa Pacheco

Hello, Everyone!

I don't know if all you know, but I am from Brazil and there we don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We watch great celebrations around the world on this day on tv though. People wearing green: green shirts, green hats, green necklace. Also laughing, hapiness and beer!

In the morning I left my place and....NOBODY was wearing green at all! I got so disappointed. I am so happy that I decided to put my cute little green hat inside my purse.

At school some people were wearing green, but in a very calm way, I would say, not the brightly and noisy way I was expecting.

When I thought my Patrick's Day failed, a group from BLI met in a pub, PEEL PUB, and then I had fun in my green day! Although the other tables were quite, our table was very happy! All foreigners, none from US, BRITAIN or CANADA. We were Brazilians, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Japaneses, Coreans and we had more fun this day than "the owner" of the holiday.

Well, I guess we were wishing St. Patrick's Day more than Montreal.

ST. Patrick's Day !!!! By Juan

Everyone on the western countries known about St. Patrick's Day, it could be the best day for Irish and not Irish people.

Every year, on March 17, millions of people all over the world take to the streets to watch the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade and everyone use the color green like suit, shoes, pants or every accesory with the same color.
   The Shamrock is the national symbol of Ireland, It's a small plant which has three leave.
   The Most famous about myths and legends, it could be about St. Patrick drove all the snake out of Ireland. Anyway, we know snakes not exist because the weather is to hard for the animals.
    Finally, St. Patricks Day, It's a good day to stay with your friends and drink beer until you can't remember your name

Renting an apartment in another country by Tiago Medeiros

   

       All of us, who are students or workers when we have moved  to another country, we need to find an apartment to live. It sounds easy but is not. Usually, we should do it through the internet ant this make us vulnerable. Unfortunately, there are persons who want cheat and take our money, therefore, be careful when you have to do something related to money on the internet.
      When I was in Brazil, before coming here in Montreal, I was looking for apartments in some websites made for it and of sales other thing too. It is not easy to choose a "house", even if temporary, using the internet to do something so important. I was attempting to find a good well located apartment near a metro station a few days and finally, I had found one.
      Everything seemed perfect. Good pictures, furnished, it was not expensive. Therefore, my wife have sent an email to the owner of the apartment. One day after that, We have received the answer about that apartment. The owner just spoke French , so my wife stated to keep touch with him because I do not know speaking anything in French.
     In accordance with my wife, he have said that he was em Paris end that apartment was of his daughter and he created an atmosphere of confidence. Suddenly, he asked for my wife to do a money transfer by Wester Union to show that we were really interested in that apartment. We had thought about it ( a lot ) and we had read what the owners usually do when foreign students, with no credit in the bank, had to do to rent a apartment. Sometimes they ask 3 or 4 months of early rentals and that situation have seemed "normal".
     We were almost doing the transfer for him when we had decided read more about what was the Wester Union  and how to use it, when we read, in the same website with we had found the advertisement of that apartment, this:

     To sum up, we almost lost our money thinking that it was not possible happens with us in Canada.
In Canada? No way!  We are deceived. It can happens anywhere. We have found a lot of these fakes advertisements on that website (craiglist), therefore, be careful  with your dear money in websites.

Benefits Technology By Vanessa Pacheco

The internet is part of everyone's lives in the world, even for those who don't like it. But for the ones who are able to enjoy its benefits, life is easier.

For people who live far from the their loved ones, the internet has been a great helper to their hearts. You may talk to someone in another country, just like you would do by phone with the advantage of seieng the person face to facr and for free. You can send a message and the person can see it promptly. In old times a letter could take months to reach its destination.

Also there are many people who find their true love with the help of sites built with this goal: to find couples who have the same desires and many common interests to increase the chance of finding the best  match possible.

Another great internet benefit is to accelarate the life nowadays. Some years ago people had to stop everything what they were doing to go to the bank to pay a bill, for example. Now you just need to connect your mobile or your personal computer to your bank and you will have access to almost all financial transactions possible.

Therefore it is noticed the internet has many benefits and they are related to making people's lives easier. Emotional help and use time in a better way are for sure the internet facilites.

Technology since 20 years ago By Juan

 

 We live in a place which is connected, everywhere you see, by technology, but, 20 years ago, it was totally different.

   When I was child, my mother gave me a typewirter which I learned how write using all my 10 fingers, and obviously, without see the letters. Then, my father gave me a video game consol, where I was facinated with the video games, but every day, I asked myself how video games work.

 After that, my parents gave my first computer which was the first in my village (maybe), and a year later, came the internet in Mexico, and it was awasome, but today it could be too boring, because before getting internet, you turned on the computer, after that, you would be sure if anyone in my house was using the telephone, after that, you wrote your phone number like username and pasword, then, you listened to a noisy sound in your computer, waited maybe 3 to 8 minutes before connecring to the internet.

 I waited like 25 minutes before turning on my computer to connect with my friends from my school using MSN Messenger, in that time, it was like whatsapp where you could send messages to your friends who had internet too, and the teacher said if someone had internet, you can find homework there....

I found friends who love computers like me, chat about that, we met in college, we took the new career, the name of the new career was Analyst Programmer, we went to college, but it was too easy for us that our teachers said it was optional came to school! But we came every Saturday and taught students who had problems with programming or maths....

 Two years later and after finishing my degree as an Analyst Programmer, I decided to study Engineer Telematics which was about technology, computers, networking and programming..


20 years later since my mom gave me a typewritter, I'm soo fascinated to technology and networking that I decided to study again in a beatiful country like Canada where I can use a lot of technology, more than in my own country and I feel eager to start my "CAREER LIKE ANALYST PROGRAMMER" next September in Canada !!!!

My experience in the Korean Army

I want to talk about my soldier experience in korea. In korea, if you are born a man, you have to join the army. Unfortunately, it's a duty for 21 months. Because South and Nouth korea are in a state of truce. I didn't think that would be a serious problem at first. But when I came to montreal to study English, the people who I met in montreal amazingly already knew about Kim jong un who is the president of Nouth korea. After that I accepted that's a serious problem. To return, we can enter the army at 20 years of age. Most of them join the army at 22 years. But I volunteered for military service at 20 years old. Because I wanted to finish my military life as soon as possible. And my position(major) was a food handler in the army. So I always had to wake up at 4:30am. And I was always cooking for 500 soldiers. It was very terrible. But fortunately when they were having field training or ranger training, I was just cooking for soldiers. So I didn't participate in any training. Haha:) so that's why I don't have any muscles. But I could improve my cutting and cooking skills. I had an amazing time in my life. And I miss my friends who I met in the army:D
-Mingue Kim

Donations by Tiago Medeiros

     

Nowadays, we have seen , and somehow have felt  what  lack of  social responsibility is making us. Everyone, from your neighbor (and you) to large industries are responsible for important things  which we need daily as water and energy. In fact, we could list several other things about that. However,  I will expose about what some friends , and I are doing since I started  organizing my trip to Montreal. 

      I was not used to doing someyhing as a simple donation of money,  clothes ,  even a little help. Obviously , I am not saying I  do not help my family or my best friends. I am saying about who you don’t know. Who you have never seen and heard about in your life. My mother always asked me to give my clothes away when I was young. Usually, I did not like when she did that, however, It made me think about why I  did no feel like to do that.

       After I got married, I saw my wife donate clothes to the Spiritist Center, where she had been visiting since she was a teenager. Spiritism is one of religions that generally are related to social programs in Brazil. It made me remember my mother  directly. When I was sure that I would move to Montreal, I started to organize everything that I could donate, and it was so strange. Choosing clothes that you will not need is not easy. It is kind of silly. I know that and It is okay. So, some memories about what I lived in this last years came to light. 

       I have worked as a teacher for only 2 years in my hometown. I have seen  many students who needed of donation  of clothes, and other important things that I finally made sure how important doing  those are. I am not sure, however, It perhaps had made a little difference in their lives. Likewise, I am aware that this is not enough to do a big difference in the world. You ( we) can do a hundred other things  however, I consider this as a good first step. Did you pay attention? I sad, FIRST step.

We need do much more than this.

Precious gift by Vanessa Pacheco

As the theme this week is social responsibility, I want you to think about how you deal with clean water. Have you noticed how tense it is when you are thisty and there isn't any shop close to you to buy a bottle of water? Imagine if you couldn't have it anywhere for days?

Right now in Brazil, even though it has many rivers, as it is a huge country, clean water has started to be a rare commodity in some houses. Rain season was not enough to fill up main rivers levels. Last year we had a very weak rain season. When you watch the news, families need water to clean their houses, to wash their clothes and even to take showers. You can imagine how you would deal with the same situation. And it is better to start figuring out what you can do to avoid the same situation happening to you.

It is important to stop wasting clean water! Little actions made by a lot of people brings big results. So, don't let the water running while you brush your teeth, neither when you wash your car; try to use the washing machine water to wash outside your house; try to have a system to collect rain water, then you will use as the one wash to wash streets, cars and anything else possiple. Actions as related would avoid a lack of this blessing item in the near future.

Companies should also play their role in society by using water in a responsible way. They could also separate part of their profit to make social activities in the community to debate and reinforce the importance of the water for the world.

The same attitude must be done by governments. But for them it is a bigger target as it will reach a whole nation. They can increase the amount of advertisiments of how to make better use of clean water on tv, bus stops, schools, government buildings. And they should give prizes to those who may achieve a goal related to well use of clean water.    

Clean water is a precious gift. It must be treaten as it.

By Vanessa Pacheco

Post-Montreal depression

Hey guys, I miss you so much. 

Yesterday I arrived at my home, Mexico. And well, I have a lot of feelings because I'm happy of being here with my family but I miss Montreal so much. 

I miss walk quite in the mornings, go to  the school and learn a second language. Here I can't practice my English, nobody speaks it. :(

I miss the cold, "nobody know what they have until they lost it", I miss the snow, the white streets, and even the routine of quite and put your boots all the time haha. 

I miss Siddiqa's classes, (yes, I'm crazy, I know), but she is funny and speaks Vietnami (I don't even know how I have to write that word) and she always has chocolats (the best part). 

Here I just need to use one pair of pants and that's so good and obviously the food here, is so much better but Montreal is magical, that city has something that charming you and you guys are amazing I spent the best and coldest month of my life, definitely.

 

Enjoy and send me some pictures!! 

Jaennette! 😊

MEXICO AND POWER PLANTS by JUAN

I want to talk about Mexico, and its Power plants, because in the last 12 years, we have had a lot of power plants using only Oil or coal to make Energy (Electricity) in our country. Since 2006, The Goverment  has signed with other countries, to change our plants, renew or only close, and we will make energy using only Gas, or our environment like eolic and solar plants....

I can see, since I started to work with the power plant company, It has made a lot of changes, since It has become efficient, to build new power plants using only Gas, in fact, we had a lot of tanks with Oil, but this oil we can use only every time, before, we used a lot of oil tanks every day...

My city has become a touristic city for a lot of people, not only mexicans, we have had a lot of canadian tourists from everywhere, from Vancuver to Halifax