April Flowers - April 2009

My first winter in Vancouver has finally come to an end! In truth, Vancouver doesn't really get much of a winter, at least not in the traditional sense of snow and sub-zero temperatures. Instead, the year began with three months of what you might think of as a long, early spring: no snow, no freezing, but still cold, dark, and wet enough to be unpleasant. But the end of March brought longer days, increased sunshine, and – the real herald of springtime – flowers! Maybe it's because I missed out on the experience in Hong Kong, but I'd forgotten what a thrill it is to see things growing again. Best of all were the cherry blossoms. At least, I assume they were cherry blossoms. They're pink, they grow on trees, and they were all over the place, making the air smell sweet and covering the ground like pink snowflakes! Do we have this many cherry trees in Ottawa? I don't remember them, but there are quite a few in Vancouver and Victoria.

In my fourth week of work, there was a party for the students. All the teachers were required to go, and to dress up according to the theme, which was "celebrities". I reprised my role from Hallowe'en, since I still had most of my costume, although I had to improvise the make-up a bit. (Here's a tip: unless you're really desperate, white-out is not a good substitute for hair paint!) As it turned out, I wasn't the only Johnny Depp there; someone else came as the character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Now I know what it's like to come to a party wearing the same dress as someone else! Costume mishaps aside, I had a lot of fun. I danced a lot, hung out with the students, and got hit on by a drunk Saudi Arabian.

Unfortunately, that was also my last week of work. They'd originally hired me for four weeks, and decided not to keep me on for longer. So as of the middle of April I was once again unemployed.

Around that time I also got a letter from the JET Programme telling me that I'd been selected as one of their "alternates". That means that I didn't make it onto their list of people they decided to hire, but I might still be offered a position if someone else drops out of the programme. I have pretty mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm glad that I still have a chance of getting in. On the other hand, I doubt many people would turn down an opportunity to go to Japan, so I don't expect many spots to open up. Also, if I do get offered a position, it might not happen for several weeks, or even months, and in the mean time, my future is still uncertain. Compared to that, I'd almost prefer a straight "no" from them. But I'm still trying to be optimistic. In the mean time, I've decided to stay in Vancouver for the summer. If I do get into the programme, it will still be my point of departure, and I think my chances of getting a summer job are better here than in Ottawa.

On the bright side, I've discovered something neat: did you know that if you're unemployed you can actually get free money from the government? Okay, it's called Employment Insurance, and I'm sure you did know that, but prior to this year it's something I've never thought about, let alone applied for. Fortunately, someone suggested I apply, and I'm glad I did, because I have actually gotten a little money out of it. I don't know how long it will last, but it's certainly better than getting no money at all. This experience makes me feel much more grown up than I did before. Perhaps it's because in the past I always relied on my parents to support me, whereas applying for E.I. really makes me feel like part of the working population.

I went to Victoria for the Easter weekend. The weather was finicky, but there was enough sunshine to get out of the house and enjoy a nature walk or two. I found an Anglican church in the city and went there for Easter Sunday. Then I celebrated the end of Lent with chocolate and non-vegetarian sushi.

For the second half of April I was back to having free time, and since I'd earned a little bit of money, I decided it was time to treat myself by doing some of that sight-seeing I'd never gotten around to. First, I went to the Vancouver Aquarium to see the belugas and other attractions. The baby beluga was cute, and they also had a bird show, dolphins, frogs, sharks, and – my personal favourite – jellyfish!

The Vancouver Art Gallery was pretty much a waste of money. They didn't have any special exhibits on when I went, and the permanent exhibit consisted of modern art and Canadian landscapes. The former included attractions such as a large purple plank, a pile of earth, and three throw-cushions stuck to an orange background. As for the latter, I've never been a fan of Canadian landscape painting, which always strikes me as flat and joyless – in contrast to actual Canadian landscapes, which are often quite lovely!

Science World was a lot more fun. It's mostly geared towards children, but hey, put me near anything science-y, and I can become very child-like. There was an entire room full of interactive science activities. It reminded me a lot of the Children's Museum in London, Ontario, where I used to go as a child. They were also running a special exhibit on Lego, with Lego models of different things.

If my old job doesn't take me back, I will have to start looking for work again in May. In the mean time, I'm heading back to Ottawa for a couple of weeks. I'm glad to be going home again, even if it's only for a short time. I've missed Ottawa a lot, and I'm looking forward to seeing people again.

In the news, Obama's first hundred days are over, and he still seems to be relatively popular. Recently he's been doing things like overturning the ban on photographing war dead, relaxing the U.S. position on Cuba, and calling for nuclear disarmament – the last of which seems like an especially laudable, if idealistic, goal. I also heard that Vermont has legalised same-sex marriage. I'm especially pleased about this because it's the first state to do so through and act of legislation, rather than a court ruling. I've always felt that courts who asserted same-sex marriage rights were acting outside of their jurisdiction, so I see this as a positive step both for gay rights and for democracy!

Movies I've seen this month:

Slumdog Millionaire – Entertaining film, but definitely not what I would have expected from a Best Picture Oscar-winner. It sort of combines the romanticism of a Bollywood musical with the harsh realism of a movie like Salaam Bombay. That made it different from any other film I'd seen about India, but still wasn't enough to really engage me. (Three stars)

Goodfellas – Pretty good mob film. The story could be the precursor to The Sopranos, and you can see how the show was influenced by the movie. However, it has neither the character depth of The Sopranos nor the emotional resonance of The Godfather, and as a result I wasn't quite as keen on it as other mob films. (Three and a half stars)

Doubt – Quite a good little movie, though obviously small in scope and based on a play. I was really impressed by how ambiguous the story was. Unlike most films, this one never gives away the answers, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions. We had quite a lively discussion about it – which, of course, is usually the best part of watching a movie! (Three and a half stars)

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

Torchwood (Season 2) – Once upon a time there were some T.V. fans who loved Buffy and really loved Angel. They loved it so much they wrote fan-fic about it – specifically, slash. One day they decided to take their Angel Slash and turn it into its own T.V. series. So they wouldn't get sued, they moved the setting from California to Wales, recast most of the characters (but not all), and renamed it Torchwood. Seriously. How else do you explain this show?

Anyway… Season 2 starts off a lot better than Season 1: better stories, sharper dialogue, and more well-rounded characters. It gets worse as it goes along, but thanks to a more cohesive cast it's still the better season over all. Highlights include James Marsters, who basically reprises his role as Spike from Buffy and Angel. It may be unoriginal, but hey, I like Spike! Rhys finally finds out Gwen's secret, and gets to prove he can be just as big a man as Jack Harkness. And then there's Owen, who was already the strongest character – even before he died! My biggest complaint is that Tosh doesn't get the development I thought she deserved. I'm also sad about the end of the season. I doubt that the next one will be as good, but I'm still looking forward to seeing it. Hope it airs soon!

Books I've read this month:

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende – One of those really fast-paced and engrossing novels that are hard to put down. I didn't care too much for the story at first, but I got really into it in the second half. Although I thought the book ended a bit suddenly, I still liked it over all.

Family Business - March 2009

At the beginning of the month one of my aunts came to Vancouver for a couple of days, and my sister and I met up with her for dinner. That was nice, since I don't often see members of my extended family. On a sadder note, one of my uncles died on the other side of the family. It was pretty unexpected, and I feel pretty bad for his family, although I wasn't very close to him personally.

Still on the subject of family, I was still unemployed at the beginning of March, but I did get a little bit of work when my sister asked me to do some copy-editing for her. It was pretty easy. All I had to do was to read her Master's Thesis (which I probably would have done anyway), and correct the grammar (which I probably would have done anyway). As my sister's got pretty good grammar, it was a lot easier than, say, trying to correct a student composition!

In the middle of the month I finally got a job at a language school. It's similar to the school I was working at in the fall. I'm teaching one low-level class of about twelve students, almost all of whom are Saudi Arabian men. I'm also doing private tutoring with a German student. I'm glad to be teaching again. I need the money, but I also enjoy the work. It's nice to feel useful, and it gives me a chance to practise the skills I learned in the TESL course in January. I'm also glad to be getting some practice with tutoring, which I've never done before.

I tried to attend the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, but the weather was lousy. Half-way through the afternoon, it actually started snowing! That's unusual for Vancouver; I don't think it snowed once in the month of February. And apparently this has been an unusually cold winter! The next week I went to see a presentation on homelessness at the library. They showed a documentary and tried to explain who the people on the street are and why they are there. I don't know a lot about the issue, but it's a major problem in Vancouver; there are homeless people everywhere.

I still don't have money to do much, but I've discovered one cheap form of entertainment. One of the churches here has started having movie nights on Fridays. They're working their way through some of the major Oscar contenders from last year, most of which I didn't get to see. They ask for a donation, but it's still cheaper than seeing a film in theatres, and they hold discussions afterward. I've also been getting T.V. shows free from the library.

In the news, actor Andy Hallett, who played Lorne on Angel, died this month. I didn't know much about him, but Lorne was my third favourite Angel character, so I'm sad. I'm also quite surprised, since he was one of the youngest actors on the series.

Movies I've seen this month:

Milk – A relatively well-made movie about a gay-rights activist in San Francisco. It was interesting, but I didn't get really into it. The characters could have been better developed (especially Dan White), and the style didn't grab me. (Three and a half stars)

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

Torchwood (Season 1) – I dig the heck out of the fact that the hero is a hot, manly bisexual, and the way all the characters defy sexual clichés. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I can say about this show. The premise, story, and atmosphere are all along the lines of Buffy, Angel, or The X-Files. The writing is mediocre and the character development leaves a lot to be desired. Like the shows of Joss Whedon, it tries to maintain a tension between cynicism and optimism, but its sappy moments feel trite and its attempts to be "dark" mostly come off as silly. Still, it does improve a bit in the last four episodes. Maybe Season 2 will be better.

Books I've read this month:

Heidi by Johanna Spyri – As an adult, this book didn't really grab me, but it's a good children's book, and I can see why I liked it as a child.

The Interview - February 2009

At the beginning of February I finished up the course I was taking, and then began job-hunting. So far, I haven't been successful. Language schools still don't seem to be doing much hiring, and although it's still early, some people think the industry - like other industries - can anticipate a slow year. Obviously being unemployed is a bit stressful and worrying. It's also boring! Not that I can't find ways to fill up the hours in my day, but I miss going to work. And although I have lots of free time, I don't have money to do anything, so I haven't gone sight-seeing or even been out dancing!

I have one big piece of news. I apparently made it through the first round of the JET application process, because I got called in for an interview in the middle of the month. The fact that I made it that far makes me feel pretty confident of my chances of being accepted, but the interview is still the deciding factor, and I'm really not sure how well I did. It was a half-hour process with three interviewers. I tried to prepare for it, but I couldn't anticipate all the questions they asked, and there were several I had difficulty answering. (ex. "How are you going to represent Canadian culture while you're in Japan?" Er, you mean besides being my lovable Canadian self?) I should find out by mid-April whether I've been accepted or not. I really don't know what to expect, but I'm trying not to worry about it. I did my best, and there's absolutely nothing I can do now that will affect the outcome. Except pray. Prayers are still appreciated!

I'm sufficiently optimistic still to be studying Japanese. I'm progressing very slowly but steadily. To help myself along, I've been borrowing DVDs of Azumanga Diaoh from the library. It's my favourite of the series we used to watch in the anime (Japanese animation) club. Although my Japanese skills are still very limited, it's fun to listen to the characters talk and try to pick out familiar words from their dialogue. A Japanese student was also nice enough to give me a copy of Tokyo Story, an old black and white Japanese movie, so I can practice my listening skills on that, too.

For St. Valentine's Day I went to an AVEN potluck. We ate cake and watched Doctor Who. For Mardi Gras there was a pancake dinner at church with bacon, maple syrup, strawberries, and even whipped cream! (Never had whipped cream on pancakes before.) The next day was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Last year I was in Hong Kong, where vegetarian eating is difficult, so I only gave up eating meat. This year I'm reverting to my usual practice of going completely vegan, meaning no meat, eggs, or milk. It hasn't been that difficult, except that I'm forced to cook pretty much all of my own food. That's cheaper than eating out, though, and healthier than some of the junk I've been eating this year.

Of course the most important day of the month was Sunday the 22nd: Oscar Day! As was the case last year, I hadn't seen any of the top contenders, and treated the ceremony as a preview of movies I should see. Top of the list is apparently Slumdog Millionaire, which I'd already heard good things about. Sean Penn won Best Actor for Milk, which got me thinking about the last time a lead actor got recognised for playing a gay character in a gay-themed movie: Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. That was fifteen years ago, and it feels like we've come a long way since then. Back then, the big issue was AIDS; this time it was same-sex marriage that everyone was talking about. Heath Ledger did indeed pick up the Best Supporting Actor trophy, as everyone'd been predicting for the last thirteen months. I haven't seen any of his competition, but having seen The Dark Knight I can say that he was good, and probably deserved it. Japan got the Best Foreign Language award for a film called Okuribito (Departures). I looked it up: this is the first time Japan's won an award in that category since its creation back in the 1950s. WALL-E, one of the only other films I saw last year, got the Best Animated Film award, which it richly deserves.

Best of the ceremony: I really liked how they handled the acting awards, where they had five previous winners in the category come up on stage and give individual shout-outs to each of the nominees. That was a welcome change for a ceremony that often doesn't give enough air-time to the winners, let alone the nominees! All the acceptance speeches were good; none ran on too long, and nobody got cut off (well, maybe one guy got cut off). Best acceptance speech goes to Dustin Lance Black, who won the Original Screenplay award for Milk. Best moment was Philippe Petit (the Man on Wire) balancing the Oscar on its head, on his chin.

Worst of the ceremony: Usually one of my favourite parts of the ceremony is the live performance of all five nominated songs in full, but this year there were only three nominated songs, so they worked them into a single medley. It wasn't nearly as much fun, although hearing "Down to Earth" mixed with "Jai Ho" was kind of cool. For some reason they didn't list the past achievements of the winners, which seemed like an odd decision to make. The film montages were pretty lame, although it wasn't as bad as three years ago when they practically took over the show! Oh, and someone needs to teach Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black how to say, "La Maison en petits cubes".

In Memoriam: Last year we lost Roy Scheider (actor), Paul Scofield (actor), Sydney Pollack (director, actor), Charlton Heston (actor, N.R.A. president), Paul Newman (actor, salad dressing maker), and Michael Crichton (writer). We also lost Majel Barrett (Mrs Gene Roddenberry), but she got left out of the montage. I was kind of surprised; I know she was mostly famous for her T.V. work, but she was in movies too, right?

Movies I've seen this month:

Tokyo Story - A painfully slow-moving art film of the kind we used to watch in university. I was mostly bored by it, but I did find it beautiful to look at, and I got the point in the end. I also appreciated that, as in old American movies, the characters speak slowly and clearly, making the dialogue easier to understand. (Three stars)

Soup Noodles and Kraft Dinner - January 2009

I don't have much to tell this month. It's the slow season for ESL, and I gather there isn't much work available. That being the case, I decided to take a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course. Although I already had TESOL training and more than a year of experience, I didn't have an "officially recognised" certificate, which is apparently necessary for a lot of the jobs in this city. So I enrolled in a month-long programme, and thereafter my days were mostly taken up with classes, and my spare time with homework.

Even though my primary reason for taking the course was necessity, I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. I had a fun teacher and nice classmates (both of them; it was a small class!). Although I've had a lot of teaching practice recently, it's been a while since I actually got any teacher training. Being back in school gave me a chance to learn about different methodologies, collect some new lesson ideas, and get feedback on my teaching style. The most important thing I learned is that I still have a long way to go to become a really good teacher, but at least I have some good ideas of what to work on. Hopefully I can get back to work soon, so I can start putting those ideas into practice.

Obviously my other reason for wanting to be back at work is so I can earn money. As long as I'm unemployed, I can't afford to do much of anything interesting. Things were especially tight at the beginning of the month, when I was trying to make up for over-spending at Christmas time. There were a couple of weeks where I was basically living on soup noodles and Kraft Dinner. Nutritionally disgraceful, I know, but brilliant financially!

The big news event of the month was the presidential inauguration of Barak Obama. In the week that followed, he and his family must have appeared on the cover of every single magazine in the country. After one day I was already sick of seeing them smile at me. Doesn't he ever get tired of having his picture taken? He was also Time's Person of the Year, and appeared on the cover of the Economist seven times in the last twelve months - I counted. Of course, despite all the P.R., the really issue is what he does now that he's been sworn in. So far he's already signed an order to close the Guantánamo Bay prison within a year, but he seemed a bit slow off the mark on the war in Gaza. He also has some kind of "stimulus package" to help prop up the U.S. economy, but I'm no good at talking about financial matters.

In related news, we got our government back here in Canada. Michael Ignatieff is the new leader of the Liberal Party, and so far he's not so keen on his predecessor's coalition plan, so it looks like our current government is sticking around for the foreseeable future.

Chinese New Year came at the end of the month. Obviously it isn't as big an event here as it is in Hong Kong, and I didn't do much to celebrate, but I did go out and see the parade in old Chinatown. It was pretty good, and I had a much better view of it than I had of the Hong Kong parade, so I enjoyed it a lot. The only crummy thing was the weather, which was cold and rainy.

Okay, I haven't seen any movies, or read any books (well, I've been reading books, but I haven't finished any), or been out to any performances, so there really isn't anything else to say.

Interesting Times - December 2008

In the middle of October, Canada had an election in which not much changed and almost half of the electorate failed to vote. The impression this gave was of a Canadian population that didn't really care much about politics. Seven weeks later, the opposition parties apparently decided that they were gonna make us care, darn it! Having slept through one of the least inspiring elections in their history, Canadians woke up to find themselves facing what could be the biggest constitutional crisis in eighty years. We were suddenly living in interesting times - with all the good and the bad that implies!

The story is fascinating. It brings back memories of university, and makes me wish I was back there studying Political Science again. The short version (you don't need me to tell you what's going on in the news) is that the Liberals, N.D.P., and Bloc Québécois decided to get together and form a coalition to oust Stephen Harper's Conservative minority government. But before they had a chance to do this, Harper went to the Governor General and convinced her to suspend parliament until the end of January. I honestly can't say how I feel about this decision, except that it was a tough call to make, and I don't know what I would have done in Michaëlle Jean's position. On the one hand, a coalition has every right to form a government if it commands the support of a majority of the house. On the other hand, the parties involved are so disparate that it's hard to imagine them governing effectively.

When I first heard about the coalition, I was rather annoyed, because it seemed like a desperate power grab by the opposition parties. But when it comes to being obnoxious, there's plenty of blame to go around. If Dion was obnoxiously ambitious, putting his own desire for power ahead of our need for a stable government, then Harper was equally obnoxious in the way he clung to power, even with only 38% of the popular vote. Moreover, he made some infuriatingly insulting comments about the Bloc, in which he implied that sovereigntists aren't real Canadians. (You can't say secessionists aren't Canadians while denying them the right to secede. Make up your mind, okay!) The Bloc, of course, is obnoxiously separatist; the Greens are obnoxiously impotent; and Jack Layton is just obnoxious. Period.

The upshot of all this is that we get to be without a government for a month and a half. (Watch us get along just as well without them!) Fortunately Canada's supposedly weathering the financial crisis fairly well so far, but it still seems like the result of all this intrigue has been similar to the result of the last election: nobody has really won, least of all the Canadian people.

At the beginning of December I moved into a new apartment. I was sad to leave the hostel, but I still go back and visit. I'm now living in the basement of a house. It's in east Vancouver, but very close to the SkyTrain (Vancouver's metro/el-train system) station, and only a ten-minute train ride from downtown. There are several other tenants, but they're rarely around, so I usually get the communal kitchen and dining area to myself. My room is small, but it's private, and contains everything I need, including wireless internet. I even have my own television with full cable! Initially, I saw that as an unnecessary perk. I haven't had proper T.V. since I left university. At home we don't have cable; in Hong Kong we had only four stations, two of which were in Cantonese; and at the hostel the T.V. was shared. So I'd gotten used to life without television, and didn't expect to use mine much. But it turns out that on dark, cold, rainy nights, when you're stuck at home with nothing to do and no one to talk to, T.V. becomes very inviting. So on my first night I turned it on and, being fairly out of touch with the hot, popular shows of today, sought out the comfortable and familiar - syndicated re-runs of shows I used to watch when I was in high school. Since then I've been spending most of my evenings with the brothers Crane and the crew of Starfleet. I think I may need a life.

In December I got my first taste of what work in Japan might be like. A group of Japanese high school students came to our school for a week, and I was one of the teachers assigned to teach them. I was quite nervous about it before hand. Japanese students have a reputation for being well-behaved, but they're also notoriously weak in English, and I was afraid that if I had a bad experience with my students it would put me off going to Japan. As it turned out, they were quite wonderful. Their level of English was low, but we ended up teaching very basic language and playing a lot of games, which was fun for everyone. One day I accompanied the kids (who wore a lot of plaid, by the way; who knew?!) to a Canadian primary school. We got a tour of the school, and then the Japanese students showed some Grade 1s origami, calligraphy, and other Japanese games. The best part was hearing the Japanese girls squeal, "kawaii desu!"* in response to the little Canadian students. Heh, don't they know they're plenty cute themselves? At the end of the week we let them try waffles with maple syrup and gave them all dream catchers. Overall, it was a very positive experience, and now I'm looking forward to Japan all the more.

Since then, my work hours have been cut down quite a lot, due to a drop in the number of students. I'm not sure when it may start to rise again, but it seems unlikely that I'll be able to keep working there in the new year, so I will probably have to look for another job.

December started off much like November: cold, wet, and rainy. The temperature hovered steadily at around 10ºC, about the same as the winter low in Hong Kong, but felt much colder with the humidity. I'd been told that that was about standard for a Vancouver winter, and was all prepared for a wet, green Christmas. But something unexpected happened in the middle of the month: one morning the temperature dropped below zero, and it started to snow! The snow only stayed around for about ten minutes, but the next day it started snowing in earnest, and pretty soon the ground was covered in a thick blanket of the soft, fluffy, white stuff. The reaction from the locals was largely surprise and complaining, both of which I had trouble understanding. I mean, there were only about four inches on the ground, and people were acting like they'd never seen the stuff before. (What, snow? In Canada?! In the winter time?! Naaaw!) This may explain why the streets took so long to get ploughed, and why the sidewalks were perpetually slushy. I had to laugh at them (wish winters in Ottawa were like this!) and also to feel a bit annoyed at the ingratitude. I mean, really. After a month and a half of rain, we finally got some nice weather! The skies cleared and the humidity dropped. The snow - as it does, paradoxically - made everything feel warmer, and - even better - made everything brighter, which was a relief after weeks of unyielding darkness. For a week we got crystal blue skies, pristine white snow, and temperatures just cold enough to put a spring in your step without being physically painful. Seriously, could you ask for better weather? As someone who grew up with harsh Ottawa winters, and endured a snow-free Christmas in Hong Kong, I for one was thrilled.

I'll admit, the snow did start to get too much, after a while, though. The week of Christmas it snowed again, and then it snowed the next day, and then snowed some more. The snow made walking a wet business, driving dangerous, and commuting slow. My sister and I had a painful experience on Christmas Eve. We were trying to get from downtown to my place, but after half an hour waiting for the train, two hours on the train waiting for someone to clear away a fallen tree (you wouldn't think it would take two hours plus to cut up a tree, but I guess that assumes you can actually find a chainsaw somewhere in the city of Vancouver...) and another half-hour waiting for a bus, we finally gave up and ended up spending Christmas Eve in a Chinese diner eating eggs and toast! Fortunately we were able to make it home in the end. Christmas Day was a lot better. We had Christmas dinner with some relatives who live in Vancouver. By that time the snow had gotten so deep that those foolhardy enough to drive literally had to dig their cars out. That was about the time I decided we'd had enough snow for a while.

To celebrate Christmas I also went to see the Santa Clause Parade, my first ever - or at least the first one I can remember! I saw the Christmas lights in different parts of downtown. I went to the Christmas pageant at church. And I saw some really cool gingerbread houses in the lobby of a hotel! I spent New Year's in Victoria.

The only other thing I want to mention is that I'm continuing my guitar-playing. My co-workers very kindly suggested that I take the guitar from work home over the holiday, so that's what I did. I've played it every day I've been here. I thought it might be difficult to get motivated (I was never that industrious in my piano-practice), but it turns out the guitar is addictive! Most of the time I only end up stopping when the pain in my fingers becomes unbearable! Unfortunately, I'll have to give it back in the new year. I could look into buying one of my own, but they're generally expensive, and I'm not planning on being here that long, so it probably wouldn't be worth it.

Movies I've seen this month:

A History of Violence - I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie, but I was very disappointed in it. It was surprisingly short, and I didn't really understand what its point was supposed to be. (Two stars)

No Country for Old Men - A slow, moody picture that combines atmosphere, brutal violence, and the subtlest touch of humour. I liked it a lot, and I think Anton Chigurh deserves to go on my list of great movie villains. (Three and a half stars)

T.V. shows I've seen this month:

The Sopranos - Crazy Italian Mobsters and the Women Who Love Them: a year and a half after it aired, I finally got to see the final season of this show. It was a rather disappointing ending, but The Sopranos was still a great series, and that's how I'll always remember it. Tony, Carmela, Meadow, A.J., Jennifer, Christopher, Pussy, Paulie, Silvio, Bobby, Livia, Junior, Janice, and Adriana: I will miss you all. Most of you were obnoxious, and many of you were despicable, but I'm glad I got to share in your weird family hijinks. R.I.P., those of you who didn't make it. Things I learned from The Sopranos: 1) Don't be a mobster. 2) Don't marry a mobster. 3) Never do business with a mobster. 4) Never borrow money from a mobster. 5) Never act as a mobster's shrink, priest, doctor, or A.A. sponsor. And finally... 6) Never ever EVER play cards with a mobster! Salut.

* Japanese for, "So cute!"