mondial choral in laval

when our friend gianni was visiting we went to the "mondial choral" festival in laval (how poetic-al!). laval is an island just north of the island of montreal, which is part of the greater montreal area. the concept of that night: invite some bands, add a choir and have them rethink their songs with a choir in the background. for malajube - our favourite quebecois band we came to see - it worked really well. the video footage is not really high quality but it gives an idea!

calgary

calgary is a city located in western canada, in the province of alberta, a 4 hour flight away from montreal. alberta has been in the news quite a lot in the last few years because of its oil sands. so as you can imagine, calgary, a city with a population of just under a million, is booming! a lot of people go there to look for work, including a lot of quebecois. housing prices are rising fast and there are construction sites all over. while i was there for a trade show, i also noticed the low taxes and the multiple cowboy hats and boots. calgary is famous for its stampede, a huge outdoor rodeo held in the city for a week each year.
(on one of the pictures you can see my colleague julie and me showing off the scars we made when packing up our booth for the trade show.)

salaberry-de-valleyfield

julie, a friend of mine, invited me for a weekend in salaberry-de-valleyfield while pieter was away on his "european tour". valleyfield (short for salaberry-de-valleyfield) is a small town about an hour southwest from montreal. julie's boyfriend jonathan is originally from saint-louis-de-gonzague, a small village near valleyfield. we stayed at jonathan's parents' house and went to the states twice in two days - went for walks in high falls park and climbed lyon mountain (1167 meter high!), which is part of the adirondacks. even though it was the end of may, there was still some snow on our way up!

moving day

july first is moving day in quebec. that's the day every tenancy contract begins, so that's when everyone moves. having a specific day to move is - as far as i know - something that exists only in quebec. and something i really have trouble understanding the advantage of, even though wikipedia tells me the original reason was to prevent eviction of tenants during winter.
there are plenty of disadvantages, though: rental vans are overly expensive and hard to find, telephone and utility companies are overwhelmed with requests, traffic is hectic. the only people happy about this are the ones that are relieved because they don't have to move - this year anyway. we were part of this last group - and took pictures of other people's suffering...