Air Adventures and the First Night

August 27th, 2010

Well, we made it to Jerusalem! There was a point in our travels where I didn’t know if we would catch our flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. We chose Delta as our provider, as they were the least expensive. Our flight from ICT to Atlanta was scheduled to depart at 5:15pm CST. It arrived at 6:45, which left no layover time in Atlanta. We ran the distance of the airport as they were calling our names over the intercom. We made the flight, however not all of our bags made it. They will be mailing our lost bag tomorrow when it arrives in Israel.

We took a Nesher taxi bus from the Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem. We ended up, at of pure coincidence, sitting next to member of our Israel program on the bus. After we arrived at our apartment, we met the other participants that arrived early. We went out for dinner and drinks that night.

Us at a bar in downtown Jerusalem. Picture taken by our program director.

This morning, we took a stroll through our neighborhood to Ben Yehuda Market.

 

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Back in Kansas

July 31st, 2010

Ashley and I arrived back in Kansas this week. We spent 43 hours on Greyhound buses. During which time two passengers were removed in handcuffs and one was left at a bus stop after she mouthed off to the bus driver.

Now that we are back, our time has been spent prepping for our next adventure, Jerusalem! We depart August 25.

From now until then, a lot has to be done. We ended up talking Greyhound in to changing our destination from Kansas City to Wichita at no charge, meaning we arrived in Wichita early but still need to visit Kansas City to scrap our old car and pick up the supplies we left.

We also need to take care of a number of repairs to electronics. This laptop goes in for warranty service later this week; the power jack is loose causing the computer to occasionally not charge. Our new Nikon camera has to have the flash repaired, it arrived broken. And, my iPod Classic no longer plays audio. Despite being four years old, I spoke with Apple and it seems that it is a manufacture’s defect and will be repaired at no charge. Overall cost of all repairs; only $6 to cover shipping of the camera. I love warranties. Now let’s hope everything arrives back before August 25.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Mont Royal

July 25th, 2010

This afternoon we climbed Mont Royal. At the top is a overlook of the city. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tomorrow is our last day in Montreal. Our bus departs late at night on Monday and we will arrive in Kansas City, MO on Wednesday. We’ll sell our broken car and pick up our gear we left at our friend’s parent’s house before heading back to Wichita.

One month from today we will be on a plane to Israel.

Next month Jerusalem!

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Only in Canada

July 24th, 2010

Came across this sign at Parc La Fontaine. Only in Canada would the government have to post a “No Hockey” sign in a public park.

It has been awhile since our last update, it has been hard finding Internet access and free time.

This has been a very eventful. We finished classes, moved to another host’s house, ate great food and saw a number of Montreal attractions.

Class

Overall I would not recommend UQAM’s summer language courses. Despite claims that the course would be primarily conversation based, we never truly engaged in any conversation lessons. However, thanks to the Couch Surfing program, we have been able to stay with a number of native French speakers allowing us to practice and improve our French.

New Host

Well not that new. We moved back in with our first hosts. The apartment is downtown (our last location was in the suburbs), allowing us to engage in a plethora of fun activities. Plus, we once again have reliable Internet access. To use the Internet at our last host’s apartment, we had to pull chairs next to the window in the kitchen to steal the neighbor’s access.

Food

Most importantly, we have had some great food this week! Ashley discovered an amazing Afghani restaurant with the best prepared lamb shanks. Yum. We also munched on chocolate bobka from a local Jewish pastry shop. Bobka is a pastry made out of layers of phyllo dough and creamy chocolate.

Attractions

Our favorite attraction of the week had to be the “Just for Laughs” festival. We only saw two skits performed, but they were great. The best skit had to be the Bollywood dancers. I forgot the camera but snapped a few photos with my cell phone. I will hopefully post them soon.

We also visited the Museum of Modern Art and a museum on the history of Montreal.

Today, Ashley and I walked to Parc La Fontaine, one of the premier parks in Montreal. On our way we stumbled across a rugby game. I don’t quite understand the game, but it was fun to watch.

Below is a picture of us at the Montreal Port from last week.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Lazy Weekend

July 18th, 2010

Our weekend so far has been rather lazy. Yesterday we planned on hiking Mont Royal, the mountain that is the namesake for the city of Montreal. The term Mountain is a bit misleading as Mont Royal is more of a medium-sized hill, or as I like to think of it, a Kansas mountain. Also on our schedule was watching the fireworks display at the port. Yesterday’s thunderstorm had a different idea.

We ended up stranded at home all day long. Lots of naps, lots of catching up on design work and of course a late-night thriller movie à français.

5150 Rue des Ormes is a horror/thriller movie made in Quebec. A teenager crashes his bicycle and when he goes to a nearby home to call a cab, he stumbles across a man being murdered inside the house. Over the course of five months the teenager is held captive by the family and he descends in to madness. Eventually he is given the ultimatum, beat his captor at a game of chess or forever be held captive. Sounds corny but the director makes it work. *Spoiler* Ultimately he is forced to play a game of chess using the preserved bodies of the killer’s victims as the pieces and is one move away from winning when the police arrive.*spoiler*

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1331291/

The director of the film is heralded as the “Stephen King of Quebec”. And like many Stephen King movies I enjoyed the film but, given the opportunity, I doubt I would watch it again.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Poutine and Pirated Internet

July 17th, 2010

It’s been a few days since my last post. Our Internet access here is spotty at best. The University does not offer wireless Internet to summer students, and you must stand in line at the library to gain a temporary Internet pass at the Montreal Library. As for Internet at our host homes, everyone pirates Internet from their neighbors.

Today we finished our second week of class. Only one week left. It is amazing how quickly time has flown. We had our first Poutine meal yesterday. Poutine is a Montreal specialty that consists of French fries with cheese curds drenched in gravy. It sounds unappetizing, but it is delicious!


Photo from Wikipedia

We moved in with a new host on Wednesday. We now have a whole room to ourselves; however, the location is well-outside walking distance to the University. The host is in his 40′s with a ten year-old boy. He became part of the Couch Surfing project to give his son a chance to meet people from around the world and learn about different cultures. The host doesn’t speak much English, but he speaks English better than I do French. We’ll be with this host until the 23rd of July.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Cabin in the Countryside

July 11th, 2010

Ashley and I had a great time at our host’s cabin this weekend. I was a couple hour drive outside of the city, through some of the greenest countryside. The cabin itself is part of a community situated next to a private lake with a beautiful sand beach. Most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach and swimming.

Joining us at the cabin was some of our host’s extended family. Our host comes from an Italian family and we had sit down meals for lunch and dinner that were to die for— Large, family-sized portions with tons of courses. We had steak and shrimp for dinner last night and Italian pasta for lunch. Oh, and all their appliances are restored antiques.

 

The first photo is of the plage (beach) and lac (lake). The second photo is of the outdoor pizza oven, how cool is that? Lastly we have one of three antique stoves in the house.

 

Tomorrow morning I have an interview with an Israeli nonprofit consulting firm for an internship position while in Israel. The place is very hip and has operations in NY, Chicago and Jerusalem. http://www.PresenTense.org

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Goodbye to our First Host

July 10th, 2010

This morning we said goodbye to our first hosts. We were very lucky to meet such great people on our first stay in Montreal.

 

We just arrived with our new host, qui s’appelle Bradley. We’re going to spend the weekend in the country at his cabin.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Le Biodome

July 8th, 2010

Today we were supposed to visit the Biodome. Unfortunately, the staff decided to go on strike this week. Instead, we visited a cathedral/museum. It was pretty, not the Biodome by any means, but still nice.

 

Stained-glass window in Cathedral

 

Photos from the top of the bell tower. The first one is the Biosphere, America’s contribution to the World Fair in the 1960s. The second photo is of the Cirque du Soleil tents. The angel was added to the cathedral in the mid-1900s.

 

As we were leaving, we came across the colonial army marching through the streets. They are getting ready to turn in to the historic Rue Saint-Paul area. With them playing and the scenery around them, it’s like something from centuries ago.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold

Tour of the Old City

July 8th, 2010

Photos of our walking tour of Old Montreal.

You can see the evolution of the city in this photo. Instead of leveling buildings, they would be converted in to larger ones.

Basilica de Notre-Dame. Under construction, much like everything else in Montreal. I was told a joke while on the tour that Montreal has two seasons, Winter and construction season.

We walked down Rue (French for Street) Saint-Paul. It was a gorgeous part of the city. Markets galore, street performers and cobble-stone roads. Très belle.

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Please consider making a $3 or more donation to aid Ashley and me in our travels. Thank you.

D. Brent Arnold