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I couldn't believe the kidney smuggler found my facebook! 

There was a happy family picture on his profile picture (OMG, he has a wife and a child!) I wasn't sure if I wanted to add him but my friend did. Therefore, I pressed accept as well. I soon got a message from the kidney smuggler. I replied to him on account of politeness. It was hard work for me to write a message in English. There were so many words that I didn't understand I had to use my all-purpose dictionary to check what those words meant. After that, I spent an hour to write my response, though I only wrote five sentences. And then, he kept sending me more messages but I was not supposed to reply to him, til he admired my dog that was on my facebook profile picture. I thought this guy might a nice person and got curious so I started to reply to him, even tough I had to do a lot of research before replying.

However he tried a few times to ask me out. The reason I hesitated to say yes was that I had no confidence to talk to him. I could even imagine if I went out with him, we wouldn't have a good communication as two people who speak the same language would normally have. One day, he said he had a friend who was from China and spoke Mandarin. He suggested that we should all go out together. I thought if there was a Mandarin speaker, we wouldn't get bored as much as if I only went out with him. Thus, I agreed.

Les Foufounes

Before coming to Montreal, I went to night clubs only twice in my life. The first time was for a concert, the second time was for my boss's birthday. I've been taught that night clubs and bar were dangerous places, and that many girls got very bad experiences there. The other reason I didn't go out was that I had to go to bed before 11pm (don't think it's ridiculous, I just wanted a healthy body).

I frequently saw my home stay mate with a stamp on her wrist in the morning. She was always eating breakfast with no energy because she went to the club and came home very late. I wondered how the nightlife in Montreal was, so when my friend asked me to go to a bar on Saturday night, I agreed. She found a few places on the Internet and we finally decided to go to Les Foufounes because they had a good deal for the beer only on Saturday night, and I also wanted to enjoy the music.

There were two floors. We paid the money at the 1st floor, then we took stairs to the 2nd floor. We bought a beer, found a seat to started our girl's talk. After a few sips of  beer, I went to the washroom. When I got back to my seat, I saw a guy who was talking to my friend so I had nothing to do at that moment. I just looked at the dance floor and enjoyed the music.

All of a sudden some guy walked towards me through the corner of my eye. I promptly turned my head back and silently screamed to myself  "God, I hope that guy is not going to sit next to me, please, please do not sit next to me and do not talk to me!" It seemed that God didn't hear my blessing, and that guy sat right next to me and talked to me! There was no expression on his face and he looked like a kidney smuggler who reminded me of the story about a guy who went to a bar, the day after, he woke up in a bathtub full of ice. And a note wrote "call 911 otherwise you will die." I was afraid of being in the same situation. I silently screamed to myself "why the heck do I have to talk to you!". I didn't understand English, therefore, I could only smile and answer a few words in English during the conversation. He asked me if I had a cell phone, I answered no, though I had one in my pocket. Fortunately, my friend interrupted our conversation because she had to catch the last metro to go home. In the end, the kidney smuggler asked our facebook. Luckily, my user name on facebook was very common so it was unlikely he would ever be able to find me.


Les Foufounes
87 Sainte-Catherine Street East Montreal, QC H2X 1K5, Canada
514-844-5539

The smoked meat

The most popular place for eating the smoked meat

The famous food of Montreal: the poutine, the bagels and... the smoked meat. If you came to Montreal but you have never tasted one of these, then don't even say you have been here. This might sound a bit extreme. For some people, food is just a food, they don't know what the difference is, and some even skip a meal or two in a day. For Taiwanese, food is extremely important. If you have Taiwanese guests, you could have them live in bad conditions or take them to boring places but if you starved them, it would be unacceptable. Since we were kids, we've been taught that "nothing is more important than meals for human." and that the sequence of human's essential  needs is: food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, entertainment. (except for Japanese, for whom it's clothing, food, housing, transportation, education, entertainment.)

Schwartz's is always packed

It was huge, though I ordered only half.

The smoked meat is one of the famous edible in Montreal. You could find it in many restaurants. Even though I'm not a professional gourmet, when I want to eat, I could find a really good place where to get delicious food, and if there was a line up, I would be willing to wait. Schwartz's is legend in Montreal. You can not only find it on your guide book, but also you can hear about it from every Montrealer. The restaurant gives you so much meat it seems like it doesn't have to pay for it. And the waiters are very friendly, lively and humorous.


I'd like to say thank you to an enthusiastic stranger who told me where the restaurant was when I nearly got lost. He was really nice. While he knew I was going to Schwartz's, he gave me a suggestion: "if you don't like fat, order medium fat. Otherwise, you won't get to finish it"

The cola tastes carbon dioxide more than it in Taiwan.

Overall experience rating: 5.5/5

Schwartz's

Address: 3895 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, Montreal, QC, H2W 1X9

Notre-Dame Basilica

A church is not such an atypical building for westerners but it is quite particular for an Asian girl like me. Of course we do have churches in Taiwan, but they are different from the churches which are so popular in this country. The Notre-Dame Basilica is a historic building where Celine Dion got married in 1994. Because of that, I paid an admission fee of CAD$5 to get inside the building. Inside it was surprisingly peaceful and quiet, and it didn't smell the same as in temples in Taiwan. A friend of mine even slept in the church, she said it was so comfortable that she couldn't help. Naturally she kept a praying position so that nobody would notice that she was sleeping.

A temple in Taiwan

The Jean-Talon market

One afternoon, my friends and I were supposed to join the daily school activity, which that day was the tour of Jean-Talon market. Unfortunately, while we were waiting in our school's common area, our guide left without our knowledge. Thus, we had to go there by ourselves. We took the metro to the Jean-Talon station and looked for the way to the market. Before we realized the market shouldn't have been that far, we had walked for about 30 minutes. We started asking passerby's at random. Despite the official language being French in Montreal, most people could speak English as well, so no problems for tourists coming here alone.

We finally found where the market was located. In fact, it was not as far as we previously thought. The market was quite large, and surprisingly clean. The reason I loved the place so much was that I could find a wide variety of cheap products as well as free samples of fruit, vegetables and cheese. There was no need to be shy, we could just try it before we paid.

Quebec city

My friends and I took a one day tour to Quebec city with a Chinese travel agency. On that day, the meeting time was at 7am. I had to get up around 5am because I lived far away from downtown, and there were only two buses per hour on weekend.

Montmorency falls

We took the tour bus for about three hours to Montmorency falls where we stayed for an hour and a half. We took the cable car to the top and looked around the beautiful falls. I liked the design of the park very much. If there was a park like this near my hometown, I'd certainly go there every weekend to exercise and to listen to the sound of the falls.

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac

In the afternoon, the tour bus took us to the old city. While I got off the bus, a huge building came into my view. It was breathtaking. I always wondered how many years it took to built these European style buildings. Before I came to Canada, I could only see these kinds of buildings on TV or I had to go to Tokyo Disney land. I felt I was really lucky to have seen these before I died.  After I took plenty of pictures of the street, I lingered away the whole afternoon in this amazing city (second only to Montreal ;).

The summer in Montreal

In spite of being from a tropical marine climate country, I felt the summer in Montreal was unspeakably hot. The outdoor temperature was occasionally up to more than 30 degrees and the sunlight was extremely strong as if I laid on the BBQ net. Likewise the indoor temperature was fierier than that, it always made me wonder if I was in an oven. Once, I tried to find the switch to turn on the air conditioner, and I found a button near the door of my room. Pressing it a few times, I thought it simply wasn't working, but it actually was the switch for the heat system. After that, I found out that there were neither an air conditioner nor a fan in the house. My mom told me that nobody stayed in the house in the summer because it was so hot that everybody was going out for a walk or to chat with the neighbors.

Even the metro stations, the metro cars and the buses had no air conditioner. Afterwards I understand why they don't. The summer is so short in Montreal, that it's not worth installing them.

People here grasped every chance to go out in the short summer. Girls dressed very sexy, with small vests and tight short pants being very common, and enjoyed to stay under the sun a lot to get a healthy suntan, whereas I put SPF 50 PA++ sun cream as much as I could to prevent my skin from becoming dark. In Taiwan, girls even carry the parasol (check the photo on the right) to avoid the sun shine. We have an idiom which says "A white complexion is powerful enough to hide three faults". The three faults include the face, the body shape and the bearing. Because of this idiom, you can find whitening ingredients added into most facial care products in Taiwan.

The Big O

Because of my stomachache I had to ground myself for a week. My friends were concerned about my sickness and kept sending messages to me. They wanted to know how serious my sickness was, so they brought white bread and came to visit me during that week. I was touched and I deeply appreciated their kindness. How lucky I was, I had no family in an unfamiliar place, but I had such good friends here.

When the weekend arrived, I asked my friends about their plans. I couldn't stand being prisoner of  my room anymore. Therefore, I joined them to the Olympic stadium, also nicknamed "The Big O".

I'm free!!!

My first visit to the doctor

At midnight, while I was sleeping, I was suddenly waken up by a strong discomfort in my stomach. Because of that I couldn't sleep at all. I waited until the sun came up. I looked into the student manual and found a hospital which was near my home stay. I took down some vocabulary words in English on a note, and grabbed my electronic dictionary and passport with me.

I couldn't put up with the pain in my stomach. Each step I took always made the pain worse, therefore I had to walk as slow as I could. After I filled out the form in the hospital, I finally saw a doctor. It was hard work for the doctor and for me as well. I couldn't understand the questions that the doctor asked and he couldn't determine what exactly my problem was. Luckily I had brought my electronic dictionary, so we used it to communicate. However, the doctor still was not sure what the problem was with my stomach. He told me to take an X-ray. I waited for three hours to do it. After that, I refused to do more medical checks because I had neither time nor money, so I asked the doctor to give me the pills and I paid a total of $270 in the end. 

For about a week, I've survived only on water and white bread, and the pain was so strong I couldn't stand straight...

No worries though, not my entire stay in Montreal was that bad!

Carlos & Pepes

We celebrated a friend's birthday at Carlos & Pepes. Ethnic cuisine is one of my favorite things. I ordered a shrimp combo and the restaurant offered me plenty of big shrimps, which made me extremely happy. There were four types of sauces. I couldn't help but to dip a shrimp in one of them, and it was quite juicy although a bit spicy at first. Overall, we were very pleased with the food, the ambiance and the service.

Back to school

My first day in school. Apparently I was assigned to the basic level class. It wasn't an easy job to teach at that level. Most of time students didn't understand what the teachers were saying, so the teachers had to be very patient and use the easiest vocabulary to teach the students as they would teach to three year old children. They sometimes needed to play games to cheer the students up, to prevent them from getting bored or falling asleep.

In the morning class, students were mostly from Latin America, and surprisingly young. Some of them were still minors. This was the first time I met Latin-Americans in real life. My first impression of them was that they're passionate and dare to express their own idea. Because of them, the class never got boring. My teacher was a Pakistani woman who had a little daughter. She knew how to deal with the students. If they begged the teacher not to give them homework, she would have her way to convince them to do it.

Compared with Latin-Americans, I was totally autistic. I was very quiet in class. In Taiwan, students are not encouraged to speak. I only remember that we were always asked to be quiet by teachers. If the break time was put off because of some students who had questions, the said students would be accused of trying to stand out and isolated by their classmates. So don't be too surprised by any quiet Taiwanese student: we were simply educated this way. Of course, teenagers have a better education today than they had in my time.

Therefore, my task as a reborn student was "to speak more in the class".       

學校生活第一天. 很明顯地,我被分到了基礎班. 對任教基礎班的老師來說,教這個程度的學生不是件簡單的工作.大部份的時間,學生都聽不懂老師在講甚麼,所以,老師們得發揮最大的耐心,用最簡單的字彙,把學生們當三歲小孩來教.有時候,老師們得玩些遊戲讓學生們振作起來,避免他們倦怠,打瞌睡.

上午的課是會話課,班上學生大部分來自拉丁美洲. 年紀都很輕,有的甚至還未成年. 這是我第一次在現實生活中接觸拉丁美洲人,對他們的第一印象是,熱情奔放.勇於表達. 也因為他們,上課都不會無聊; 老師是巴基斯坦人,有個年紀很小的女兒,所以很了怎麼應付學生們. 特別是學生在跟老師討價還價說不要有作業的時候,老師也有她的方式說服他們寫作業.

跟拉丁同學比起來,我根本就像個自閉兒,每次都被老師說我很安靜.畢竟在台灣,學生沒有被鼓勵在課堂上踴躍發言,只記得每次都被要求"安靜",若因學生問了問題,導致下課時間被拖延,那個學生會被其他同學說愛表現或是被排斥. 所以,當你們在課堂上看到一些不太發言的台灣學生,請不要感到驚訝,因為我們就是這樣被教育的.當然,我相信,8年級生所受的教育應該比我那個時候要好一點.

總之,重回學校第一個任務是"在課堂上要多講話".

Canadian coin

After I arrived in Montreal, I spent a whole week to recover from the jet lag. I started making new friends immediately. I met my first friend, Cindia, in school orientation. Although we had nearly the same age, she took care of me most of the time. She stayed in Vancouver for a while so she knew a bit about Canada. Initially, when I was shopping and I had to pay cash, she always helped me with the coins. At that time, I wasn't familiar with Canadian coin denominations, such as 1, 5, 10 and 25 cents and 1 and 2 dollars. The 1 and 10 cents are not only similar, but also the font is extremely small. I often had to ask the cashier for help before paying the bill. I ended up relying on the color to recognize the coin. We only have four coin denominations in Taiwan (1, 5, 10 and 50 dollars).

The school orientation

On the first day of school, every student had to get to school before 8 o'clock in the morning because we were going to do a qualification test which included reading, listening, writing and speaking. After the test, the school workers came to tell us about the policy of the school, and they also asked us to sign some papers that were all written in English. Of course I couldn't understand, but I signed.

In the afternoon, the school workers showed students around a few places near the school.

Basilique Notre-Dame 
(where Celine Dion got married!) 

Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel

Saint-Paul Street

Saint-Paul Street, Place Jacques-Cartier

Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History

Metro: Taipei vs. Montreal

 Metro card: Taipei vs. Montreal

The Taipei prepaid card is charged by the distance; The Montreal monthly card is charged by trip or on a monthly basis.

Metro network: Taipei vs. Montreal

TRTC: http://english.trtc.com.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1056373&CtNode=49780&mp=122032

STM:  http://www.stm.info/english/metro/a-mapmet.htm

  

Metro station: Taipei vs. Montreal

In Taipei, after you cross the yellow line to take the metro, you are not allowed to eat or drink. In Montreal, you can eat, drink or even pee if you feel like it. (not really)

The platform: Taipei vs. Montreal

Metro cars: Taipei vs. Montreal

The transportation in Montreal

Before starting school, my Spanish friend and home stay mate helped me get there by public transportation. We took the bus and transferred to the metro by using an OPUS card. A card costs around CAD$70 per month.

The transportation in Montreal is pretty convenient. However, there are a few things that I can't get used to. First of all, I learned that while I was taking the bus, I MUST keep awake to avoid missing the place where I need to get off because neither the marquee nor the announcer would let me know what the next stop is. The bus driver is only announcing when something happens, moreover he's only announcing in French. Furthermore, I was shocked when the metro, which had not reached a full stop at the station yet, opened its doors to let people out. It looked not only dangerous, but also quite unusual, even though it seemed it was business as usual for the locals. Finally, there is no washroom in any metro station. I always wondered what someone, especially someone drunk, should do if he was waiting for the metro and needed to unexpectedly liberate something in emergency. It explains a bit the smell of urine that we sometime find in the metro. (just kidding)

About the home stay

The home stay was arranged by my school (about which I'll tell you later). They asked me to fill a wish list, and they found a home stay that matched perfectly what I wanted:

 1. Whether they should have pets or kids? 

     No pet please. Not that I dislike them, but some are just uncontrollable.

 2. How far should the home stay be from the school? 

     Have to be less than 30 mins. Think about it, who would like to get up early in the winter?

 3. Do you have allergy to any food? 

     Spicy food and fish. I have a sensitive stomach and the fish... I'm too lazy to take the bone off. 
 4. Others?
     I hope the nationality of the home stay family would be Filipino or Vietnamese, so I can eat rice.

They found me a mom who doesn't like spicy food either, is Filipino, and has a husband and two kids. And it was taking exactly 30mins to get to school from my home stay.


My mom gave me a wide pink room (the largest in the house) with a huge closet. I noticed there were two single beds in the room, although she told me that I would be the only one to occupy it. While I was trying to unsuccessfully plug the cable line to connect the Internet, I suddenly felt something dark and heavy invading my heart. I couldn't even breathe. It made me depressed and homesick. When my mom told me to access the Internet with the Wi-Fi, my world became colorful immediately. Clearly I suffer from IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder).  

寄宿家庭是學校(關於這個，我之後會提)幫我找的。他們讓我填一張希望表，並幫我媒合到我想要的寄宿家庭。

1. 他們可否有寵物或小孩？

    請不要有寵物。並不是我不喜歡他們，而是有些寵物不受控制。

2. 從寄宿家庭到學校的通車時間？

    必須少於30分鐘。試想，誰喜歡在冬天早起的？

3. 對任何食物過敏？

    辣的食物和魚。 我的胃不好，不能吃辣，至於魚...我只是懶得挑刺而已 : p    

4. 其它？

    我希望寄宿家庭的國籍是菲律賓人或越南人。這樣我就可以吃到米飯。

學校幫我找到一個也不愛吃辣的菲律賓媽媽，有個老公跟兩個小孩，且車程還正剛好30分鐘可讓我抵達學校。

 轟媽給我一間很寬的粉紅色房間(最大間的)跟一個很大的衣櫃，我注意到這房間有兩張單人床，然而轟媽跟我說這房間只會有我一人使用。 當我試著插上網路線想上網卻無法成功，我突然感到一股黑暗且沉重感覺襲向我，我甚至無法呼吸， 這感覺讓讓我陷入低潮.想家。 那之後，轟媽叫我連上無線網路，我的世界立刻變成彩色的。 顯然我有"網路依存症"。

The first day in Montreal

 I was kept prisoner into a small box with a pair of wings and flew halfway around the earth for about 16 hours. After I watched uncountable movies and tried to sleep intermittently, I finally arrived in Canada. I was very nervous and feared that the border service officer would ask me many questions, which I probably wouldn't be able to answer. Fortunately they didn't. 


我被關在一對有翅膀的箱子裡,花了約16小時飛過半個地球. 看遍數不清的電影,睡睡醒醒了無數次,終於抵達了加拿大. 過海關時,我真是既緊張又害怕他們會問我很多問題,很明顯的我根本不可能有辦法回答任何問題,好家在他們也沒問甚麼.



When I arrived to my home stay, my mom gave me a hug. Wow! It was a bit out of my range because Taiwanese are not used to hug strangers, but I remained silent. Now being abroad, I knew I had to get accustomed to their culture. I was very exhausted by the 12 hours time difference with Taiwan. It took me a week to recover from the jet lag. Although I was dreaming about becoming a flight attendant, I don't think I'm qualified for that job anymore. 

抵達寄宿家庭時,轟媽給我了個大大的擁抱. 哇! 這有點超過我的範圍,在台灣,我們沒有跟陌生人擁抱的習慣,但我並沒說甚麼. 因為我現在在別人的土地,我必須去習慣他們的文化.
12小時的時差令我疲憊不堪,這還讓我花了一個星期才調好它. 虧我還夢想當空服員,但我不認為我有本錢做這個工作.