let's talk.

I have to do it, so might as well make it fun. Bachelor in English Studies at UdeM in Montréal, Qc. All pictures by me, unless indicated otherwise!

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Shared Interests

There is not much people who have a degree in English literature that aren’t teacher. I feel lucky to have a family where literature and arts are an important part of our education. My aunt studied English literature at the University of Montreal many years ago. I knew that, but I never really asked her what she was doing for a living. When I got this assignment, I figured it would be a great opportunity to bond a little bit more with my godmother and learn new things about her job and her life. I learned that she also did a degree in education, so that she could teach. She used to be an English teacher at the École National de cirque in Montréal, Québec for a few years. She used to be a school tutor for the teenagers participating in a kids’s talent show based in Montréal called Mixmania. As of now, my aunt mostly works as a translator and corrector for well known magazines such as National Geographic and Nature. She is a freelancer, which means she decides on the contracts she wants to work on and has a saying on the time she has to do to complete them. Her work gave her the chance to travel to a lot of places in the world, but mostly in the United States and in France. She says she doesn’t miss being a teacher, although she did love it, but she prefers her job as a freelance translator, because she gets to work on various subjects and learn new things every time, rather than always teaching the same subject. She is also someone who prefers to work alone, so having her own office at home works best for her, instead of travelling to the same office every day. I thought it was really interesting to learn more about my aunt’s life and career, and it gave us the chance to realize that we have more in common than what we thought. I found out a new kind of career that I could do after the end of my education and discovered that there is more to do with an English degree than just teaching or journalism. I really liked that moment I got to share with her and enjoyed that I got to know her better, as well as talking about our mutual passion for writing. It was a great experience to have.

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Meeting Meek

I really am not the kind of student who asks to see professors in their office hours, because most of the time, the hours where teachers put themselves available are during my other classes or work shifts. Sometimes although, people have to make sacrifices in order to make sure their school paperwork is in order. Last year, my first of university, I was doing a bi-disciplinary program, French and English Literature Studies. After that first year, were I failed two classes for the first time in the history of my schooling, I realized that I didn’t like French Literature all that much. I did a bit of research and discovered that I could have classes credited into my new program, English Studies, which is basically the same field. I contacted the professor at the Head of the department, which happened to be a teacher I had last semester, so I already knew her well. In my e-mail, I gave her my availabilities, which were during her class hours, so we agreed to meet after her class and that I’d miss a little bit of mine. Once in her office, the two of us went over my two last semesters, my motivations for trying out a new program of study and what classes could be credited into my new program so that I wouldn’t have to extend my bachelor by a full year. After going all over this, we went to another woman’s office to put all of it into the school system. A bachelor’s degree is normally 90 credit: 36 mandatory, 45 optional and 9 of choice. Lucky me, out of 8 classes of 3 credits transferred to my English Studies program, five classes went from “optional” in the old one to “mandatory” in the new, so that was a stress relieved. The other three went into the “of choice” category, since they were French classes, so I wouldn’t have to think of that part of my credits anymore. Of course, nothing is perfect, I have two classes that were not credited, so that equals to 6 credits that I have to do somewhere in the next year and a half in order to graduate within three years. I discussed with my professor and we agreed that considering my grades and my motivation to keep my degree as short as possible, I’d be able to have 2 semesters with 6 classes instead of 5, and leave my last semester with just 5 classes, to let me time to do my bachelor’s project. Even though I miss almost 45 minutes of my class because of this appointment, it turned out great and I managed to organize my next year of school. It was worth it. 

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Work and Workout

I did this assignment earlier in the semester, but it took me a while do post it, because I couldn’t manage my time. I went to the Henri-Julien park near my apartment in Ahuntsic and brought my computer with me to work. I had a friend with me who also wanted to work on her homework and hang out, so it was perfect. We went quite early in the afternoon, so we could have nice places to let our bags and also have the basketball court all to ourselves. We started by clearing our minds with a couple of minutes of basketball, just to have fun before drowning ourselves into homework. We decided to stay as long as we would have the court or at least half of it. Lucky us, that ended up meaning two and a half hours. We went back to doing homework for about 30 minutes, helping each other out and enjoying the last string of summer left out. After every 30 minutes of homework, we took 30 minutes to play basketball and talk, just to really get our minds off homework and enjoy a beautiful day. We both always enjoyed that sport, but we could never consider ourselves good, because we spent more time running around chasing the ball and missing the basket than actually playing. Although, for the rare times we managed to make a nice shot at the way too high basket, we had the habit to shout really loudly “AND KOBY SCORES!” in reference to American former NBA (National Basketball Association) basketball player Koby Bryant. That couple of minutes of pure fun made us really let go of our work and when we got back to it, our heads were clear, and we felt the last bits of adrenaline still, so we were ready to finish these papers. When we were focused on homework, we were so into it that almost nothing could distract us, probably because we were tired from running. As soon as we decided to take a break and play again, that moment felt like a Christmas morning. It gave me some rest from homework and gave me the chance to play a sport I always really liked. In the end, I think for me the best combo for getting my homework done is to take breaks to play a sport that really drains my energy so that I can focus on my work better afterwards. I’m just a bit sad that I can’t play basketball outdoors all year long, since there is snow for almost eight months out of twelve... Back to work, Koby. 

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Margaret Atwood Talks

On November 12th, 2019, at the St. James United United Church, in Montreal, Margaret Atwood, the famous Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel The Testaments was being interviewed about her newest release. Mrs Atwood talked about her new book, her life path and how she became the woman she is now, as well as her life before she became the successful author we know her for. Before the event, I was super excited to be in the same room as this amazing woman and experience this night of a well known author talking to me (and about 600 other people, but that’s not the point). I expected the event to be formal, for the interviewer to focus on Mrs Atwood solely and for everything to be relatively quiet. That wasn’t it at all. First, the event was already scheduled late at night and it started half an hour late, then the author was introduced like a rockstar, with the crowd cheering really loud (emphases by the echo of the church) and it was looking more like a friendly talk. The interviewer seemed really not prepared, the questions were either very vague or not about Margaret Atwood at all. At one point, the famous author even answered a question with “How does this relate to me?”, and that is the moment when I felt even more uncomfortable with the whole thing, stating that the event was already weird from the beginning. The interviewer misquoted Atwood’s work also (well she actually quoted something that had no link at all), and when Atwood tried to redirect her by saying what she thought the other lady meant, the woman just went on with her first idea, which I thought was extremely unprofessional. I expected so much from that particular night, and in the end I just left very disappointed. Margaret Atwood really tried her best to answer the questions or comments in a clear way, but the interviewer had really planned her set of questions and the event was mostly awkward. The setting was nice, the church was a perfect place to host this kind of event since the echo gave a chance to everyone to hear clearly what was being said, as well as having a lot of seats on different levels, so that everyone could see the two women talking. Also, the latter were sitting higher than the crowd that was on the main floor, so it gave a great visual. Basically, the whole event could have been a really great thing and everything was in place of it to be, but the talk was the most deceiving thing that happened. 

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Work and Meditate

I am not someone who likes to meditate, because focusing on my breathing causes me, don't ask me why, more anxiety. At first, I thought of doing 30 minutes of homework and then meditating for 10 minutes, but as I was starting to write my project, I realized I wouldn’t be able to have much work done if I kept interrupting myself to focus on my breath or clear my head for several minutes at a time. When I need to clear my head, usually it only takes a few seconds out of focus and then I’m ready to work again. Since I actually wanted to finish my homework, I decided that I would work for a full hour, without interrupting myself, and then take a small meditation break of about 15 minutes to both clear out my head and sort my ideas. Also, that was my assignment. I really wanted to experience the whole thing for a while, in order to understand it and to oblige myself to get some work done, so I decided to test it for 3 hours, which means that I worked for an hour, took a 15 minute break, worked a while again and so on, so that I’d have three full hours of work and three breaks as well. I activated a timer on my phone, so that I’d know when to stop or get back to doing my homework again. The first hour, I was getting anxious as if I’d miss the timer and reck my schedule, so I couldn’t focus on my paper and almost didn’t write anything. The pause arrived and I took that time to calm myself down, remind me that nothing was set in stone and that it was just an experiment, my life wasn’t depending on it. Who would have thought that trying to meditate during the finals would be so stressful... For the next part, I really got to focus on what I had to do and finally I managed to move forward on my paper. I enjoyed the second break, though I mostly used it so organize my ideas and think about other things in general, since yoga and deep breaths are still not my cup of tea. In the end, after those three hours of work and overall 30 minutes of rest, I had finished most of the paper due and I was feeling mostly at peace. I granted myself a bigger recess and enjoyed a new Netflix Christmas movie, because, well, I can’t wait for this semester to be over. On this note, yoga. 

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Career Goals 101

It took me a while before I could answer the second most common questions ever asked when I tell people I’m studying English literature. The first one being “What kind of job can you end up doing with that degree?”. The answer is easy: there is a ton of possibilities. The second “What do you want to do as a career?” is a bit tricky. I’ve never thought of studying in anything else than literature. Reading and writing always have been my forte, so that path was clear. I’ve studied General French literature in cegep and was determined to follow that road in college, but I never had a perfect goal set as to what my career would be. As I’m finishing my first semester of my second year of bachelor, my idea is defined: I want to teach. I love working with kids, but I can’t see myself teaching in elementary or high school, I need a different kind of challenge and energy in my class. I plan on teaching in cegep or university. There are a few advantages to teaching in higher education, for example, there is no need to do a degree in education, which is four years long. Although, a bachelor’s degree is not enough to teach in most schools, so there is the obligation to do a master’s degree or a doctorate. As of right now, I’m still trying to finish my bachelor without drastically failing my classes, so I’m not thinking about a PhD yet. I found out while reading articles that I could do a certificate in education or pedagogy to raises my chances of finding a job after my studies. I also found out that before becoming a teacher in college, it’s better to apply as a lecturer at first, to earn experience and to really make sure that it’s a job meant for us. I mostly read about things I already knew about, but I found interesting elements and clarifications on them. I know that teachings tests patience and as technology continues to evolve, it also teaches to adapt ourselves to it and set boundaries with the students about this ever growing way of communicating. Even thought it’s not a quota program, there are still expectations required to pursue one’s studies into the master’s degree, such as a global GPA of 3.3. The main thing I’d have to do before the end of my bachelor is to raise said GPA by a couple of points, and expect the best out of it.

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Having Each Other’s Backs

I’m the last person to ask someone to read my essays and homework in order to correct the typos of grammatical errors. So far, I’ve never had a significantly bad grade on a paper using that method of correcting myself progressively as I am writing. Of course, I wasn’t going to change that winning formula so soon, so I did what I always did before, taking the fact that I had this assignment to do, so I proofread my little sister’s essay. What I usually do when she asks me to read her homework and correct them (she does it from time to time because of her dyslexia) is I ask her about the subject before reading it and let her explain the specific terms used in her field of study. Then, I read her essay once, without pointing anything, just to understand it and figure out the length of her work. Afterwards, I take a closer look at the sentences, point out typos and grammar mistakes. I never retype the sentences myself, but I have a little talk with my sister about that particular point and figure out with her how she can write what she wants to express in a grammatically accurate way. Sometimes, we can spent a good amount of time on a same paragraph, just to make sure that everything is still accurate in the terms of her field, but as well as being error-free at most. I also revise with her the way things are positioned, either the title, her paragraphs as a whole or some elements within them. Usually, that process is done a few days prior to the hand-in of her essay, to give her some time to add any extra things in the remaining time. The day or night before she has to hand it in to her professor, we read the essay together again and make additional changes if needed. We do this whole process mainly in times where her work has a greater value into her final mark in the semester, so either during the midterm exams and during the finals. Whenever we’re in doubt about something, we also rely on Internet, dictionaries of various kinds and we often call or send a text message to our dad if our question(s) remain unanswered. Even though she trusts me fully to help her, we both know that I, too, could make mistakes. Because of that, we are not afraid to request help from third parties to make sure everything is fine and that she’ll have a grade that she deserves. That’s good teamwork. 

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Alice in the Wonderland of Our World

Courtesy of Centaur Theater Company

Everyone knows the story of Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland, but the adaptations in the 21st century are pretty uncommon. What’s sadly not uncommon anymore are terrorists attacks all around the globe. In large gatherings of people, around monuments or in calm places, just to set their foot. This version of Alice is one of those. A woman, Alice, lost her husband to a terrorist attack in the grocery store of their cozy neighbourhood. She goes on the Italy trip they planned together, and her husband, Ever, appears to her as an entity. The design of the set was meant to represent the narrow path on the side of the mountain Alice was visiting, so the actors didn’t have a love of space to move around. To me, the lightning used didn’t match well the plot, since it was a dim light, like if it was meant to pretend a sundown, but it was repeated multiple times that it was the early afternoon. The amount of space between the  stage and the audience was especially small, as well as the room itself. It did made the audience feel closer to the actors, but so did it made an unappreciated proximity in the audience. Every single sound, laugh or commentary expressed by the people in the room were really disturbing, which made me lose my focus on the play in multiple occasions. Although, a big thumbs up to the actors who, I don't know how, managed to remain unbothered by the people constantly talking during their performance. The play itself was disturbing in some ways. It engaged with difficult subjects, such as terrorism, death of a loved one, grief and the confrontation of one’s fears. There were beautiful metaphors within the play to illustrate these difficult subjects. Basically, Alice’s path was to go from one side of the mountain to the other. She stopped in the middle of her journey, and that is were Ever started to appear to her. The character is reminded frequently, first by the spirit of Ever and then by a bypassed later on, that at this point, going back was as long as going further on. The trip represented her journey with the grief of her husband. With all the progression she has made so far (leaving her home, travelling, etc.), she is at the “middle” of her grief. If she started to isolate herself again, fear everything and living with the constant thought of “what if”, she’d be going back on the same path she has already taken. Of course, it is also reminded that a grief doesn’t really have an ending, the loved one will always be missed, but life still goes on for the living. I really like that metaphor, because it made a valid point and was expressed really well, even thought death is a rather difficult subject.

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Hey, Hades.

Jessica Gallant as Aphrodite at Segal Center in Montreal.

AMAZING. MAGICAL. Honestly, it was perfect. I’m already a big fan of musicals and greek mythology, hence it was a match made in heaven for me. The costumes were really meant to match the personality of the character. For example, Aphrodite, goddess of love, is wearing sparkly dresses, high heels and has heavy makeup on. Hades, god of the death, wears black and/or red, has dark eyeliner and a leather jacket for most of the play. The actors clearly loved the role they played, which made the whole atmosphere sincerely amazing. The center of attention really was the actors and dancers, so there wasn’t an insanely huge amount of decors and props. To me, it really made the cast shine and the audience had to focus on what was being said or sang. It made me feel completely at one with the play. I don’t think I’ve ever loved something so much. Since the stage wasn’t enormous, the use of stairs and an elevated section made the whole play more “experimental” in a way, which I adored, because I think that it was used well in various scenes. The songs were truly mesmerizing. The beats were funky in most of them, it made the audience want to sing and dance with the cast. The slower and sadder songs, quite rare, almost had me in tears. Some jokes, either about greek mythology or popular culture were added in them in a very simple way, it didn’t feel forced at all. There were a couple of swear words here and there in the whole play, and as much as it could be considered inappropriate or useless, to my opinion it wasn’t bad. I could imagine the play without these few swear words, it would be as good I’m sure, but they added a little touch of fun. The audience wasn’t shocked by these punching moments and it gave them their place. The story line wasn’t shocking at all, since there are many versions of Persephone’s story. The plot was based on the main elements of the greek legend, but was adapted into a love story, where she made a choice herself, and not with the version that is more often depicted, where Hades would’ve raped her. It made the tale friendlier and based on personal choices and challenges, not an horror story focused on power and disgusting actions. To sum up, the cast delivered a beautiful performance, filled with talent. It kind of makes me sad that I’ll never see this play ever again. At least, there is the soundtrack available! Truly magic. 

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The Handmaid’s Tale

An unique story. Feminist in some ways, very oppressed in others. A dystopian world, where only a country experience this crumbling way of living. Much of the elements of the Handmaid’s Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, are difficult to transpose into imagery. The American website Hulu, a streaming video service, owns the rights for the adaptation into a television show. In terms of clothings, scenery and visual effects, since it is set as if the characters were in the nineteenth century, because of the Republic of Gilhead, the book is fairly easy to set into a movie or television show. The movie industry has proven that it has always been easier to recreate the past than to try to imagine and adapt futuristic ideas into imagery. As I read the book, it was way easier to imagine the scenes than the characters themselves. First, because they are not actually described physically and are identified almost solely by their clothing. Second, I really just could not put facial traits onto the names, they were what the government (in the book of course) made them: different coloured dresses. When I first saw the show, I was not disappointed by the actors chosen, because I had no expectations. The locations and the ways scenes were portrayed were not deceiving in themselves, they reflected the book pretty well I think, but they were obviously not exactly how I imagined them. Of course, nothing is perfect in life and being able to represent perfectly a novel into a movie is honestly impossible. I disliked that some scenes were recreated entirely, because it changed some parts of the plot significantly. I understand that the T.V. show has to have a little more action than the book and  the events have to chain one another rather quickly, which is not the case in at least the first half of the book. I still think it caused significant plot holes from parts that were kept in the show, as well as creating new ones. I liked that the show was rather transparent. What I mean is that there was various crude elements and it wasn’t really censured, which I appreciated. I gave a sense of “truth” to the what the characters were living. To sum up, I was pretty happy with how the novel was adapted into the Hulu show. I still have to admit that I enjoyed the book more though, it was more detailed and calmer than the T.V. show. Good work though. 

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Studying English Literature in a French University

I always have been someone more comfortable reading and writing my ideas and some concepts than doing calculus and science experiments. Don’t get me wrong although: I can write a five page essay on a given science subject with ease and explain every single detail with actual scientific information, but do not ask me to do all the other parts of the experimentation or give out the necessary mathematic formulas to do it, I’ll fail. So when my high school years were over and I had to find a field of study in my higher education, there was not a very various range of programs to chose from. That’s when I decided to go in General Literature in a French CEGEP. But even though my first language is French, I always preferred English, but my parents wouldn’t want me to go to an English CEGEP, so there I was. When it was time to go to university, I had a bit more choices, but literature was still my destiny. I started in the bi-disciplinary bachelor program of French and English Literature Studies, but soon realized that English literature was my one true love. Then, I stayed in the same French university —simply called Université de Montréal, in Montréal, Québec (who would have thought?)—, but pursued my academic studies solely in Shakespeare’s native language. Why though? Of course, it mostly was because I had way better grades in English than French for some unexplainable reason, then because literature was the only field of study I could really picture myself in and lastly, because of the diversity of content. In English, maybe just because of the professors, the students get to express their opinions on the texts and authors seen in class and share their thoughts collectively. The points of view are much more diverse in this environment from what I noticed, and they are an important part of the general curriculum. Also, English literature itself is more varied, because it is found all around the globe and not just in France and Quebec, unlike French literature. Then, it is possible to observe different cultures, norms and habits from the writers anywhere in the world. It is also in constant expansion, with English being the usually preferred language of literature. To study any form of literature in any language, the main point in common, as well as the most important to my opinion, is to be passionate about it. Why chose to study literature? Because it really fulfills the mind and the heart with beautiful writings from everywhere on Earth and it is a cultural and spiritual enrichment for everyone involved. It really is worth the work.

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Another place

I was wandering off in the Mont-Royal area, when I remembered this assignment. I didn’t think I’d be able to spend a whole hour doing something in a place I was not familiar with. I am not the kind of person who enjoys being alone, so I was feeling really uneasy about this. But I decided to do it anyways, for the thrill of getting out of my comfort zone. I followed Mont-Royal ave. to the the Jeanne-Mance Park and sat on the empty bleachers. I allowed myself a couple of moments to observe my surroundings, with the people enjoying the rare day of warmth in this rainy autumn, the dogs running and the rays of sun hitting the grass at my feet. I sat on the far end, where I believed I wouldn’t be bothered. I started reading Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale and fell into the story. I enjoyed being outdoors and faintly hearing life happening next to me. It made the reading highly life-like, since a lot of scenes I was reading were happening outside; the chirping of birds and the wind made me feel like I was present during those moments in Offred’s life. I ended up staying almost two full hours in that lovely park, reading a rather dark story and thinking about nothing else than what was happening in the book. Afterwards, when I clicked back to life, all I could think about was how much I enjoyed this experience and that going out of my comfort zone for something like this was not as bad and as scary as I thought it would be. I’m the type of person who is always scared of looking lonely or “weird” when I’m not accompanied in a public space, so at first I was not comfortable at all with the idea of being alone in a place where I am not usually productive. I am now happy to say that I was very wrong and that it was a special experience in the end. I’m both glad I had this kind of assignment and that I had the nerves to do it, considering my very anxious temperament. I also think I chose the perfect day to sit outside for a rather long time, since it was warm and sunny in Montreal. Honestly, I would recommend anyone to do this once in a while. 

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Walking through history

Watching a play at the theater is an experience unique. Each play is different, each representation has its own unique characteristics. The Italian-born theater director Arianna Bardesono creates an experience out of the ordinary in Montreal by having her public walk through two neighbourhoods highly known for their Hasidic Jews population, Outremont and Mile-End. Les Voisines, an urban audio-walk creates a sense of proximity between the public, a single person at a time instead of an audience or group, and the narrator. In this case, the narrator, Arianna herself, is the only “actor” and can only be heard through the headphones. This creates a very uneasy feeling at first, because of the accuracy of her text, either from the elements described, but as well by the description of her feelings while walking through these streets, showing how similar her experience and the public’s are to each other. Bardesono’s voice gives a sense of companionship, as if she was physically there to tell the story. The audio-walk eliminates the separation the actual set creates in a more “classical” theater by letting the walker touch and see from close-by the elements surrounding him/her, which gives a very unique feeling. Furthermore, although the audio gives an incredible experience by itself, the History lesson given through the “play” is crucial to really understand what the walker is going through and why he/her is doing this particular path. Even though they are part of Montreal’s population and culture, and Arianna explains it well, Hasidic Jews do not mix and interact with people outside of their religion, which makes them distinguishable. They are both the most well visually known cultural group in Montreal and the less known, because apart from the fact that they can easily be identified through a crowd, people tend to know very little about the Hasidic religion. Walking through the neighbourhoods gives a chance to the public to really understand this community by seeing it right in front of their eyes and being forced to stop and simply observe what’s in front of them. Les Voisines makes the walker, for an hour, believes that he/she is visiting a whole new world —full of wonders, unusual aspects and mysteries—, but most importantly a new religion, in the heart of the “City of Saints”. Pretty ironic, no?