| Vakantie!! |
[16 May 2008|03:08pm] |
eindelijk weer internet, telefoonbereik en stroom! En, nog belangrijker, een beetje tijd om jullie op de hoogte te houden.
Tentamens voorbij, Pieter & ouders gearriveerd, en een heeeleboel al gezien en gedaan. De lange, uitgebreide verhalen komen nog, maar voor nu even alles in een notedop:
- eten bij Juliette & Chocolat met o.a. Keren
- naar hotel verhuizen
- Pieter ophalen van vliegtuig, roomservice besteld. 1e dag: regen! Langs mijn oude huisje, McGill en Indigo (ubergrote boekenwinkel). Eten bij Boccachino's om de Montreal Canadians uitgeschakeld te zien worden door Philadelphia. Het B&B waar we verblijven is ubermooi en leuk.
- zondag: biodome (want regen) en oude haven. Gegeten bij de indiaan (indiaas eten is de bom!)
- maandag: kadootjes voor de hond en poes van B&B gekocht (ieee zo lieff!!), slepen met koffers, ouders ophalen, verblijven in ultragrote suite (hoera voor vaders die gratis kamers kunnen regelen!)
- dinsdag: oude haven, downtown, overal gelopen, IMAX-film (over de grand canyon).
- woensdag: via de plateau langs mijn oude huisje & de McGill campus om vervolgens de Mt Royal te beklimmen (met een boel boeken, want ouders wilden ook even bij Indigo kijken). 's avonds Notre Dame Basilica bezocht, waar ze een lichtshow hadden. Daarna eten bij House of Jazz (leuk!)
- donderdag: biodome, eten in Trois Rivieres, naar Quebec.
- vrijdag: rondlopen in Quebec, ghost tour gedaan (privé tour, haha, echt de gaafste/leukste die ik tot noch toe gedaan heb. We eindigden 's nachts in een hele grote kerk, zonder licht, heel bijzonder)
- zaterdag: via Canyon Ste Anne naar Tadoussac. Bij aankomst (B&B lag aan de Saguenay rivier, in het echte walvissen-seizoen kan je vanuit het raam de walvissen zien zwemmen/opspringen) door de eigenaar onze planning gekregen. "Eerst gaan jullie daar en daar naar de zonsondergang kijken, dan gaan jullie in x restaurant eten, daarna kan je evt wat drinken. Daarna moet je het strand helemaal aflopen en krill stampen. Morgen mee met de boot om walvissen te kijken, daarna picknicken bij de duinen" en zodoende deden wij. Walvissen gezien (Minke's en Beluga's).
- maandag: langs fjorden de Saguenay rivier omhoog gevolgd (naar het westen), picknicken bij Baie Marguerite, geen walvissen gezien. Daarna Ste Rose du nord, relatief kort hiking trail langs fjorden gevolgd. Bij Chicoutimi rivier overgestoken om aan de zuidkant de rivier weer terug te volgen. Overnachten bij Gites du fjord in L'anse St. Jean. Er was alleen geen stroom, dus we konden niet eten etc, langs een aantal dorpjes gereden voor we ergens konden eten (La Baie).
- dinsdag: uitkijk l'anse st jean, wilden naar Baie Eternité (dicht), anderen ook. Stuk offroad gereden (verkeerde 'afslag') langs de fjord. Hele grote beverburcht (echte) gezien. Voor de verandering eens zelf gekookt.
- woensdag: via route 175 terug naar Montreal gereden, door de Laurentians heen. Onderweg zagen we BEREN langs de weg!! Een mamma beer en 2 baby beren, langs de kant van de weg, midden op de dag. Heeel gaaf. Helaas geen foto's (ging zo snel!).
- donderdag: ouders op vliegtuig gezet, auto gehuurd (voor dezelfde prijs een veel grotere/luxere auto meegekregen dan we besteld hadden :) ), overnachten in Kingston bij een B&B gerund door een Iers vrouwtje van zeker in de 70.
- vrijdag: wassen gedraaid (moet ook gebeuren), beetje door Kingston heen gebanjerd.
( fotoos )
Al met al, Canada is gaaf, groot, natuurrijk, rustig, wild, ruig en STIL (vooral (noordelijk) Quebec. Benieuwd wat Ontario allemaal te bieden heeft.
tot snel!
xoxox
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| De laatste loodjes |
[14 Apr 2008|05:39pm] |
Nadat afgelopen weekend de allerlaatste sneeuw van deze winter is gevallen, zijn we nu toch echt op weg naar de lente/zomer. Vandaag ons take-home examen ingeleverd, wat alweer het tweede vak is dat we afgesloten hebben. Het lijkt erop dat onze hoogste cijfers voor Memory and Brain en Lisp zullen zijn, wat compleet tegen alle verwachtigen in is :')
Twee van onze huisgenoten zijn al vertrokken naar een nieuw appartement. De laatste vertrekt woensdag. Het is ineens heel stil en rustig in huis en het is vooral jammer dat de poes weg is. We hadden namelijk een poes voor een weekje ongeveer. De deurbel ging, Brenda deed open en vroeg vol verbazing "did we order a cat??" toen ze een vrouw met poes in haar armen aantrof. Het betrof een zwangere vondeling waar wij tijdelijk voor zouden zorgen, anders moest ze ingeslapen worden. Het was zeker een mengelmoesje, want haar staart had lange haren en ze maakte dezelfde typische geluidjes als Maine Coons. Maar poes is nu dus meeverhuisd met mijn inmiddels ex-huisgenootjes.
Toch, er staan goede dingen in het vooruitzicht. Over anderhalve week ongeveer is deze tentamenperiode voorbij, zijn we klaar hier en is het vakantietijd. In de tussentijd mogen we genieten van het volgende:
Hoe is het in Nederland?
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| "What's rocketscience about being here at 4pm?" |
[24 Mar 2008|05:15pm] |
Nadat ik weken ziek was, mijn verjaardag moest skippen en heel druk & zielig was, werd het dan uiteindelijk toch 20 maart 2008, 23:59. Nog een paar minuten en we zouden vertrekken naar NEW YORK.
Maar eerst nog even alsnog een:
na 3 cocktails en een paar dagen zonder slaap ben ik niet zo charmant meer ;). oh & voor de mensen die niet weten waarom die dag de allergaafste van het jaar is; die kennen me duidelijk niet goed genoeg :p
( Back in the Big Apple )
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| Snowstorm! |
[08 Mar 2008|08:16pm] |
Today is not only International Vrouwendag and Renske's birthday (have a blast :)!), but also the day of another snowstorm. It was extremy misty and visibility was nearly nonexistant. To let you all experience the joy that is a snowstorm, here's a video I found on youtube:
here
It's getting warmer, everywhere in the world, which means more snow and more snowstorms. When we just came here, the first couple of days of January there was also a snowstorm and they said that already more snow had fallen than in the whole year before (2007), eventhough in 2007 Montreal also had some crazy snowstorms in December.
It had been warming up, with the temperature somewhere around zero degrees last week, and they had started clearing the streets completely of all the snow. Which is a good thing, because just today before the afternoon already about 5 - 10 cm of snow had fallen and for the rest of the afternoon and during the night they expect another 15-20 cm's.
This is how they usually clear the streets of snow:
click!
( my view this afternoon )
edit: here is a nice video of how the Quebec province looks like:
here
Some parts of Montreal look like this as well, mainly the outskirts, obviously. In the center most of the snow gets removed (except for snow in gardens, remember that picture of me standing next to a huge pile of snow? All the gardens still look like that). The snow that's taken out of the cities, is dumped in certain places in the mountains, for instance. But, because there's so much of it, sometimes during the summer it doesn't even melt anymore. Think about it, the piles in the movie above for instance are already as high as the houses, but because of the weight of the snow on top, the bottom parts is compressed snow (ice), and the layer of ice gets bigger and bigger as more snow falls on top. Maybe it's better the ice might not melt, because that's a huge pile of water you don't really want to flood your house.
Edit: inmiddels is de sneeuw over gegaan in icepellets en harde windstoten en zijn er een berg waarschuwingen uitgegeven, wat weer een leuke melding op de weer website gaf:
( what the warnings say )
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| Mushers |
[02 Mar 2008|05:13pm] |
This weekend we traveled to Saint Etienne de Lauzon, somewhere near Quebec City, to play with dogs. One hundred and twenty huskies, malamutes, akita's, samoyeds, crossbreeds and some other working dogs, to be exact.
We left Montreal very early friday morning, to catch a bus to Ste Foy, where we would be picked up and brought to Aventure Inukshuk. Upon arrival we got introduced to the dogs before we were taught about sleighing techniques and such. And then, on y va!
The first day the sky was as blue as the eyes of one of the puppy dogs and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day to be out, eventhough a blue sky and sunshine usually means that it's at least -13 degrees. The adventure started with a few glitches, though. The dogs were very anxious to go-go-go, but every so often you have to stop (wait for the other sleighs, a dog has to poo, dogs from the sleigh in front of you are fighting or pooing, etc), which doesn't make the dogs too happy. At a certain moments, our two middle dogs started fighting. The guide on the sleigh in front of us had to pull them apart (at first he yelled "get your dogs in order", but well, we had gotten very clear directions that "when dogs fight, wait for guide to pull them apart", which is what we did). It gradually became clear to us that we had a bit of an inexperienced team. Or, not really inexperienced, mainly naughty. One of our leader dogs, Zucky, has a bit of a mind of his own. Plus, he isn't too fond of the guide who was on the sleigh in front of us, which meant that if he came too close, he'd try to bite him in the ankle, and if they were too far away, he'd try to do other naughty things. And so, at a certain moment, when we had stopped again, Zucky decided it would be much more fun to run the other way and suddenly, all our dogs were behind our sleigh. "Get the leader dogs and bring them back to the front". Well, it sounded easy enough, but trying to get two very strong dogs to go through four other dogs in a different direction than they are interested in is not easy. Fortunately, the guide helped and straightened them out again. When we were on our way again I half jokingly said to Brenda "well, all they've left to do now is take the wrong path at an intersection." We had hardly stopped laughing about how crazy that would be, when they did turn right while the rest turned left. And again, the guide had to help us out. The guide was fed up with Zucky, and chained him on to his own sleigh, so for a while we were half dragged by the sleigh in front of us. Later on, he unchained us again, and fortunately for us Zucky wasn't naughty for us.
Another team wasn't as fortunate. Their dogs had been quite good during the whole trip, until we were nearing the end. The dogs had decided they didn't want to go home, and took a wrong turn. Now their sleigh was parallel to the rest of us, but separated by a very steep, very deep ditch. The guides were discussing what to do, as it would take too much time for one of them to go back, turn the dogs & the sleigh around, and get back. The next group was already waiting for us. So they decided that they had to go through the ditch. Mind you, I'm talking at least 10 meters deep and very, very steep. I sure was glad it wasn't our sleigh. The dogs made it, ofcourse (well, the mushers had to get out and help push the sleigh).
After the sleighing we went snowshoeing, which was very interesting. My snowshoes didn't really want to stay tightly laced and they kept on loosening, which was a bit annoying, but it was fun nonetheless. It's weird to be able to walk on a big pile of snow where moments before (without the snowshoes) you would sink in at least knee deep. On the snowshoeing 'trip' the guide showed us the cabin where we would be sleeping that night. It was about 200 meters from the main camp, in the middle of the woods. It had a little fireplace which you had to fill up with wood every so often, otherwise it would go out and we would be freezing at night. It was quite cold at night, but we had a lot of blankets to keep us warm. The cold was coming up through the matress, though, so I rolled myself more and more into the blanket to keep warm. I was a bit out of it, because I had a migraine attack that evening and I didn't want to take any medication because it's side effects are muscle aches, stiffness and having to pee all the time. Since I didn't feel like going to the outhouse 10 times in the cold, I decided I'd just try to sleep it off. It was very quiet, except for the dogs howling like wolfs every so often. It doesn't get any more Canadian than that ;)
The next day we woke up inside a snow globe. It was snowing outside, which made for a very different atmosphere. It made the second sleighing experience quite interesting. Sometimes you have to help the dogs a bit, by stepping, or running behind the sleigh and pushing it (never let go do, or you'll lose your dogs&sleigh ;) ). However, it didn't really work, cause as soon as you stepped off the sleigh, your leg would sink knee deep into the snow which makes it impossible to run or step. It was much more peaceful and it was absolutely magnificent, sleighing around in a Canadian forest, snow coming down, and all you heard was the rustling of the sleigh over the snow and the chains of the dogs. This time we had a fantastic team which wasn't naughty once. They didn't even fight once.
Well, I'm sure you're bored of all this now, so here are the pictures. We took a million pictures of the dog's behinds, so I only put up a few since they're probably not as interesting to you as they are to us ;)
( on to the fluffyness )
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| Quebec & Mr Nobody |
[26 Feb 2008|10:01pm] |
Somehow it is reading week already. This means we've passed the halfway-mark of our McGill studies. Reading week means: no classes. All of our roommates have gone away for the week, so the house is nice and quiet (and clean!) Mattel is also gone for the week and possibly forever (she might have found a home). We are a bit less fortunate, in the sense that we can't afford to go away for a whole week since we have a bunch of essays to write and the last of our midterms, all due right after. However, this coming weekend we'll finally be going on the dog sleigh-tour.
Furthermore, a little over a week ago, we had the MISN-trip to Quebec City for the Winter Carnaval. First we stopped at the ice hotel, somewhere in between Montreal and Quebec. It was magnificent. What some people can do with a bit of frozen water is amazing. And every year their hard work dies slowly during the summer, so they have to start all over again next winter.
( pictures )
Then, onwards to Quebec city! We were much later than planned (we were supposed to arrive between 12:30 and 13:00, but we arrived somewhere around 15:00), so most of the activities were over, unfortunately. Plus, it was cold. Really cold. The weather report said it would be about -13 degrees. Well we've done -13. We've even done -23. But apparently, -13 is a lot colder in Quebec City than it is in Montreal. We came prepared, or so we thought, but it seems that at a certain moment it doesn't really matter how many extra layers of clothing you wear, you will be cold. We walked around a bit (Quebec city is beautiful!), when we found a tent where they had food and warm drinks. Although, warm drinks was very overrated. The chocolate milk was lukewarm at best and after about 5 sips, was as cold as chocolate milk from a fridge. Weren't we glad we didn't order coffee. The temperature in the tent was much more do-able than the temperature outside and we stumbled upon some people Brenda had met at her ski-trip in January. There was a sound check going on and the music seemed interesting, so we decided to stay to watch them play. After about 2,5 hours of sound checking and still no real performance, Brenda and I decided to go outside. There wasn't much going on in the tent and we were there for the festival after all. About two minutes after stepping outside the cold got to us again and we decided to find a real restaurant where you can sit in a warm building with real hot food. Obviously about 90% of the people visiting the festival had the same idea (it was about 18:00 after all), but we lucked out, because the restaurant we ended up in had one small 2 persons table left, so we could cut ahead of the line. Weren't we glad the boys from in the tent decided not to go with us (one of them wasn't properly informed by his friend that Quebec is cold. And he was wearing ultra thin hip sport shoes. He couldn't feel his feet, which was why they went to the tent in the first place. Around the time Brenda and I left, he started to feel his (very painful, I can imagine) feet again.
Anyway, after dinner we went to see the Parade. It is apparently world famous and super magnificent and all that jazz and was supposed to have begun already. After about an hour and a half of waiting in the cold and jumping up and down (my feet were so cold! Nevermind the fact that I was wearing two pairs of socks AND ski socks) the parade finally started. It begun really, well, cute. It seemed really unprofessional and precocious. But we had judged to soon, because after the first two wagons (maybe made by children?) the rest of the parade came by and they were absolutely stunning. It was so cold that I didn't take any pictures the whole day, except for 2 pictures of the view when we had just arrived. Brenda was braver than I am and took some pictures of the parade ( so hurray for Brenda )
After the parade we went back to the tent and tried to warm up. Unfortunately, all the tents closed at 23:00, and we were left to roam the (cold, cold) streets in search of a warm place. We finally found a restaurant/bar where we killed some time at the bar (with tea :') ), because the buses didn't leave until 01:30.
When we arrived in Montreal, very, very early in the morning, we noticed that the street was filled with exotic cars. We had been notified earlier that week that they would be filming some scenes for Mr. Nobody (starring Jared Leo) in our street. When I woke up somewhere in the afternoon, they were filming right outside my window. It was fun to watch. They had a NYC taxi that had to drive down the street (and when he stopped underneath my window, another car drove up the street etc), so I guess that the movie itself plays in New York :')
Anyway, I took some pictures of all the happenings from my window ( here )
Also, we went up the mountain to look at the lunar eclipse. It was coooold, but there were lots of people hanging out, having fun etc
( .. )
p.s. Suus notified me of the fact that people without a livejournal couldn't comment on my entries. I fixed the settings, so now everybody can comment (when you don't have an account, just select anonymous)
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| Montreal by night |
[15 Feb 2008|11:14pm] |
It was nice and warm inside, we were hanging around in the livingroom after just having filled our stomachs with a quick pasta. The carbs slowly made their way into our system when we decided that we should do something with our new found energy. And so we started yet another Mount Royal expedition - by night.
( kodak moments )
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| new roommate |
[13 Feb 2008|02:32pm] |
The last weeks we have done nothing but work on assignments and learn for midterms. Aside from going to the movies now and then, and wondering about what it means that we get free Baileys at a certain restaurant now, nothing worth mentioning has happened. This weekend, however, we will be going to the Quebec Winter Festival. Finally, good times!
Furthermore, I finally got round to taking some pictures of my room, which some of you had been asking about. ( room )
We also have a new roommate since two days. ( look )
How's it going over there?
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| weather report |
[01 Feb 2008|04:07pm] |
First of all: I am severely behind on replying (lengthier) emails. All will come in due time. For now we are extremely busy with uni-stuff. Exams, assignments, you name it. Ergo, not much to report on. Except for the weather. The weather is extremely crazy. And I mean, really really crazy.
Here are some weather forecasts I've saved in the last week er so:
It started with the following:
From -2 to -16, and back to 0 degrees, all in one week. That's quite some difference in the temperatures, but it's getting worse:
Today it's -5 (and feels like -13!) and it's not just snowing, no, it's ice-pelleting!
Here is the forecast for the upcoming week:
Apparantly, there will be a temperature drop of 21 degrees in one day! From plus 14, to minus 7!
And here is the graph for the 14 day forecast:
that's some crazy weather! Warm, cold, do-able, freezing.
Oh well, at least we're enjoying ourselves:
So, how's the weather over there? :')
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| Mont Royal expeditie |
[13 Jan 2008|04:30pm] |
Vandaag besloten we dat het tijd was om de Mont Royal eens te beklimmen. Het ding staat niet voor niets zowat in onze voortuin en het was echt prachtig weer, veel te mooi om binnen te zitten.
( fotooos )
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| It's man devouring man, my dear, and who are we to deny it in here? |
[13 Jan 2008|11:35am] |
We hebben nu al 2 dagen achter elkaar zelf gekookt. Volgens mij is dat een nieuw record voor ons. Verder zijn we gister naar de bioscoop gegaan (Sweeney Todd! Fans van Tim Burton: gaat hem zien! hij is echt heel gaaf imho) en dat was ook leuk. De mensen zijn hier echt heel braaf en stil tijdens de film en je kan het gewoon zien, want zelfs al zit er iemand van 2.10 voor je, dan ligt zijn stoel zo ver naar beneden dat je er alsnog overheen kijkt.
Verder ben ik hard bezig met bij te werken voor school. Van vakken wisselen brengt toch wel een berg extra werk met zich mee. Maar ik ben nu bijna helemaal bij met computational psychology en het is zo leuk als je het snapt. Ik kan nu een palindroom-checker coden in Lisp, dus ik ben natuurlijk heel erg stoer (ook al is het eigenlijk heel erg simpel. Makkelijker nog dan change last element. Kijk maar:
(defun palindrome-p (woord) (equal woord (reverse woord) ))
versus:
(defun replace-last (woord lijst)
(reverse (cons woord (rest (reverse lijst)))) )
wat die dan doet is, je hebt een lijst bv (I LOVE DOGS)
dan draait hij die lijst om (DOGS LOVE I)
Dan neemt ie de rest van de lijst, zonder het eerste woord (LOVE I)
Dan const ie een woord dat je opgeeft aan de lijst (CATS LOVE I)
Dan draait hij de lijst weer om (I LOVE CATS)
Nou is het niet geweldig? Nu kunnen jullie het ook :D
Dat ik dit type laat wel zien dat er momenteel niet erg veel gebeurt hier. En blijkbaar vind ik programmeren leuk, who would've thunk it?
Zo, vertel mij eens wat er gebeurt in jullie leven momenteel? Het kan hier (add a comment) of via de mail: katie@tegendemuur.nl; laat iets van je horen als je dit leest, want dat vind ik leuk.
xox
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| :') |
[12 Jan 2008|04:50am] |
Het is aardig moeilijk om hier gezond te eten. Tenminste, wil je niet een kapitaal uitgeven. Met groente valt het op zich nog mee, maar fruit is echt gigantisch duur. Je kan wel alles krijgen, van drakenvrucht en granaatappel tot framboos en meloen, maar het is niet goedkoop. Daar kwamen we achter toen we voor 8 dingetjes 34 dollar moesten betalen. Aan de koffie, melk, filterzakes, 86% pure chocolade reep etc kon het niet liggen, toch?
Nee.
Het waren de druiven. $8,89 betaald voor een zak druiven. Een moot zalm van 600 gram is ongeveer de helft van die prijs. Dan weet je wel weer waar je bent, zeg :')
We kregen wel een hele tas vol Activia Danone Super Bifidus Essensis Yoghurtcultuur drankjesdingen. Die zijn ze hier net aan het introduceren en gaven ze gratis weg. "Wilt u deze proberen?" "Eh, ja is goed" "Misschien wil je er nog een paar? Of nog een paar om weg te geven? Heb je nog vrienden of huisgenoten die willen?" Echt ze bleef maar die dingen in mn handen drukken. Toen ik er een stuk of 6 had besloot ik dat het handig was om ze maar in mn tas te stoppen. Ik had mn tas nog niet open of ze riep "hier neem de rest ook maar" en daar ging een hele doos Activia drankjes mijn tas in. Ach ja, in Nederland betaal je zowat 1 euro per stuk voor die dingen ofzo en nu hebben we gratis een koelkast vol :')
Overigens, de vakken die ik uiteindelijk ga volgen: Computational Psychology, Behavioural Neuroscience II, Memory and Brain & Psychology of Bilingualism.
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| intermezzo |
[08 Jan 2008|09:34pm] |
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Ze hebben hier Le Petit Écolier van Lu (scholiertjes). Maar niet de gewone melk of puur, nee, met 70% cacao chocolade. Mon dieu wat zijn die lekker. Het is maar goed dat die niet in Nederland te verkrijgen zijn :')
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| weather report |
[08 Jan 2008|05:03pm] |
The weather is absolutely crazy here. As it is everywhere in the world. The last two days it has been raining. Yes, RAINING. Rain. In Canada. In January. It was 9 degrees today and people are walking around in a tshirt and a sweater. Apparantly if it's not -20 the local people think it's summertime or something.
Hopefully the cold and snow will come back soon, because this is not why I came here, obviously ;)
Anywho, I might have to drop my Cell biology class, because of an abundance of not-very-clear reasons, but then I'll take Physiology and Biochemistry Endocrine Systems instead. So tomorrow I'll be going to that class instead of the cell biology course, since the cell biology course is recorded anyway so I can always watch it online afterwards. Conclusion: add and drop period: not just a positive thing (because if you have to switch around, you've missed some classes and have to catch up and aaaaargh. oh well)
The course description of the endocrine systems course seems veeery interesting, so that's a definite plus: The course provides a basic knowledge of endocrine systems encompassing biosynthesis, metabolism and physiological actions of hormones. Specific topics covered are hormones of the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenals, thyroids, parathyroids, pancreas, gut and the gonads. The role of hormones and growth factors in pregnancy and fetal development are also discussed.
I also had my first classes in Memory and Brain (yay! interesting!) and computational psychology today (yay! learning how to program neural networks!) and both were courses I want to stick with. For computational psychology we use a program called LISP (which might be interesting information for all the computernerds reading my mumblings :) )
Also went to the McGill bookstore this afternoon and bought some of the materials I need for my classes. I might go back there again to buy more books because there are sooo many interesting ones. I already bought one I don't need for my courses, but it just seemed so interesting that I had to have it. It's called "this is your brain on music":
In this unprecedented meeting of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin explores the connection between music-its performances, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it- and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, and U2 to Schoenberg, Metallica and "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" Levitin reveals:
- how composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world
- why we emotionally attach to music we listen to as teenagers
- why 10.000 hours of practice -not talent- makes virtuosos
- how insidious jingles (aka ear worms) get stuck in our heads
Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This is your brain on music is an ear-opening, mind-blowing investigation into an obsession at the center of human nature.
Now, who would not want to read that?*
If only I didn't have so many course material to read....
*send me 18,50CAD+delivery costs and I'll get you a copy ;p
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| Squirrels! |
[06 Jan 2008|11:13am] |
Yesterday we walked around the plateau. It's the opposite direction from where McGill / St Catherine's is (st catherine's is a big shopping street, a little south from McGill (from our point of view)). The Plateau is sooo much nicer than St. Catherines. It has lots of restaurants and the houses are just too cute. I absolutely love the houses here. I've already found the house I want to live in (jeej! bloemetjes)! It faces a small park where we saw a squirrel. And another one. And another one. And five more. It was soooo cute!
(People here probably think they're annoying little rat-like creatures, and we got quite a lot of weird looks when they saw us taking pictures etc, oh well, we had fun :')
( pictures )
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[05 Jan 2008|12:01pm] |
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Overigens ik ben heeeel zielig want ik heb onwijze keelpijn en nergens in Montreal zijn muntdropjes van Klene (! Klene!; ja dit is een hint) of honingdropjes te vinden :(
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| School's in! |
[05 Jan 2008|10:18am] |
And so school life has started...
The interesting thing is that we still don't know which classes we will be following this semester. Here they have a so called Add and Drop period, which means that you can register for as many courses as you like and try them out for a week, before deciding which courses you will stick with. So far I have tried three classes, Brain evolution and Psychiatry, Cell biology and metabolism and psychology of Bilingualism. I am going to stick with the last two, but I'm not so sure about the brain evolution course.
It seems very interesting. And I mean interesting in all its facets. There were only six students there and the professor, who apparantly is Argentinan (although his name is Dubrovsky and he looks very European), is a bit scattered in his thinking and acting. He tells a lot of stories, which are interesting, but he jumps from one to another and another and another and then suddenly remembers what he was actually talking about and finishes the initial one. In a way it seems like an interesting course, subject wise. I am also quite curious as to how the course will develop, but I'm afraid it might turn out like Media Culture and History.
Then there is the fact that two other subjects I am interested in (Hormones and Behaviour, and Computational Psychology) are given at the same time. I havent been to computational psychology yet and I haven't been able to register for Hormones and Behaviour yet (if a class is full you obviously can't register for it and I have been on position 65 of the waiting list since the 5th of December) so I still have some options open. Computational Psychology seemed like a really interesting subject (by just reading the course description), but I glanced over the lecture notes of the first lecture (which we missed) and it seems that it focuses mainly on programming neural networks and not comparing real life to artificial intelligence etc etc as the course description promises. Either way, it could be very handy if I really do want to pursue a career in research. Though I'd rather just get in to Hormones and Behaviour.
As a fourth and final course (I am allowed to do five, but I'd rather have some more free time to explore and do things than bury myself in study work) I'm taking Memory and Brain. First class will be on tuesday and I am very curious about it. I hope it isn't just more of things we've learned 20 times already. Oh well, we have until the 13th of January to finalize our courses and in the meantime we'll just shop around a bit more.
Sorry for the long and boring update for those of you who aren't interested in this stuff, but for those of you who asked me about telling a bit more about my subjects etc, I hope I've answered all your questions.
By the way, for the people new to livejournal: you can comment on my posts by clicking the post comment link at the bottom of each post, somewhere..
So, how's life in Holland? I heard you had snow!!
xox
Katie
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