T1bet...
There's been a lot of coverage of the events happening in T1bet at the moment. I don't feel that I can contribute anything significant, especially since I wasn't able to make it there myself before leaving China. Instead, I thought I'd give links to some sites that I've found interesting in the past few days.

T1bet Through Chinese Eyes
An article about the "Chinese development missionaries" and how they view the situation in T1bet, and how T1betans view them.

Foreign nations voice support for China's handling of Lh@sa riot
Official Chinese newspaper touts support from Mauritania, Vietnam, Lesotho, and other foreign governments, regarding their good handling of the current situation.

More musings on T1bet propaganda drive
An article by an expat in China focusing on the Chinese governments propaganda and "thought liberation" drive withing the country. Includes an interesting quote by a internationally educated Chinese marketing manager, “I know the government cuts all the negative information and we can not see the true story. But it has to do this. Most Chinese are poor and not well educated. They are not capable of independent thought or making their own judgements. They need to be guided by the government.”

T1bet crushes conspiracies by D@lai L@ma clique
According to this article, T1bet has been working hard to crush conspiracies by the D@lai clique over the past five years.

China's tough line in T1bet...
An International Herald Tribune article including the quote "The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need," Zhang said last year. He later added: "The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."

Hu on Time list of 'influentials'
One of my favourite articles from when I was in China. "Hu [Jintao, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and former Communist Party Chief in the TAR] explains plans for a 'peaceful rise' in seeking a benign external environment". "Hu's vision has been to build a 'harmonious society'".
Hopefully Hu Jintao can maintain a "Harmonious Society" through the use of tanks, troops, and the chasing of monks. (OK, that comment was a little biased.)

At Shuttered Gateway to T1bet...
A look at the situation, by the New York Times, from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, one of the main gateways into T1bet. There's a short video that accompanying the article. It's interesting that the article mentions Wuhousi and the T1betan area surrounding the temple, which I visited just over a year ago.

Canada T1bet Committee
A group representing T1betans in Canada.

The New Colonialists
An Economist article about China and their need for raw resources, and how it affects their policy.

Sugar Bush!
I learned for the first time in January what a "sugar bush" is. Some Canadian I am from the Westcoast! Though another friend from BC also didn't know what a sugar bush was, looked it up on google, and found the Rhus ovata (a plant from California).

So I finally went to my first sugar bush at "Wheelers Maple Syrup Camp & Pancake House" with some friends from uni. Amazing! We had a huge brunch with pancakes, sausages, and tonnes of maple syrup (of course).
Next we took a short horse drawn sleigh ride through some of the maple forest, which you can see part of below.

They have the world's largest maple syrup making museum, which was informative.
We looked around the room where they would boil the sap down into syrup, and ended up talking with the owner/operator of the farm who said that we could borrow some snow shoes to go through the forest. They've got a lot of trails that are packed down, but we thought it would be cool to walk over some of the snow (which was at least 4 feet deep). So we went snowshoeing! It's amazing how spreading out your weight a little bit makes it possible to walk on snow that you would normally sink into. It was interesting too to see how they tap the trees, and the way that they collect the sap through lines that go into a pump room, instead of collecting buckets like they used to.

Just before we returned from snowshoeing, they started the first sap-boil of the year since the sap was just starting to flow. So we go to see part of the process of making maple syrup.

Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis
I just heard about a great new movie called "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" (Welcome to the Land of the Ch'tis), a French comedy that takes place in the North of France. Apparently it's doing really well at the box office.
I've written a bit about Ch'ti before, the "patois"/language spoken in the North of France. It's spoken in the North of France, where I was living and teaching a few years ago. When I watched the promo video I almost literally died laughing. There were so many stereotypes and memories. For example, when the guy from Paris drives up North he passes a sign welcoming him to the North and right away the skies open up and it pours with rain (it did rain almost the entire time I was there, including last summer when I went back for a day). They also tease the language, and there's a great line where the Parisian asks "Is there something wrong with your jaw? You're talking funny?! Does everyone here talk like that?". The Ch'ti welcome the Parisian, and at one point teach him how to talk like them. So at a restaurant he tries to order in Ch'ti and the waiter says "I'm sorry sir, I'm from Paris and don't understand what you've said" at which point the whole table breaks out into cheers because he's one of them.

Winterlude 2008...

The first few weeks of February in Ottawa brings along Winterlude, which is like a scaled down version of Carnival in Quebec. The canal opens for skating, there are free concerts, ice carving competitions, and all sorts of outdoor activities in the freezing cold Ottawa winter.

Ever since I was little I wanted to go skating on the Rideau Canal, which until this year was the longest outdoor skating rink in the world (the title now belongs to Winnipeg). They let several kilometres of the canal freeze, including Dows Lake, and they open it up for skating. There are a few places along the canal to rent skates, buy Beaver Tails (fried dough and sugar), hot chocolate, coffee, and other snacks.
There's also an ice carving competition, with people from around the world who do some amazing things with blocks of ice. Really amazing stuff.
This sculpture was done by somebody from Thailand.







And this one represents the landing of Jacques Cartier in Quebec City 400 years ago (this year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City).

Montreal...
I just got back to Ottawa after a few days in Montreal. At law school, we have a January term which lasts three weeks, then a week break, then a winter term from February to April. So I went to Montreal for a few days with a friend at the end of the break.
On Friday we met up with a friend of mine that I worked with at Parliament a few years back, and she took us for lunch at Les 3 Brasseurs (for poutine and beer!), then to a cool tea shop on Rue St-Denis. The tea shop had nice couches and pillows, with Moroccan and Asian decor, and really good mint tea. We wandered along St-Denis a bit, then headed to her place for dinner.
Saturday we had lunch at the famous Schwartz's, where they've got the best Montreal smoked meat sandwiches. It wasn't too busy, so we only had to line up for a few minutes outside before getting a table to share with four other people. The sandwiches were about 6cm (2inches) thick with smoked meat, and a light spread of mustard. Mmmmmm...
Then we headed to the Biodome, which is near the Olympic Stadium for the 1976 Summer Olympics. The Biodome houses four distinct climates (tropical, Laurentian forest, Laurentian maritime, and polar), each with plants and animals from the region that you can walk through (including the two porcupines in the tree below). We did some second hand book shopping (lots of great places for cheap, used French books all over Montreal -I bought some Baudelaire and Verlaine), then walked along Ste-Catherine. We had dinner at a cool little Tibetan place that did great momos and lentil soup.
Sunday we had a late breakfast and a bit more shopping before leaving Montreal in the early afternoon to head back to Ottawa.

Sentenced...
I just found out last night that the guy who broke into our place back in September was sentenced to three years on the various charges. None of them related to the specific break in here, but due to other charges (i.e. breach of parole) and other break ins.

Back...
I'm back home for Christmas, after spending 12 hours in transit with three delayed flights and 3 bags of pretzels (WestJet is getting cheaper with their 'food' I guess). But it's nice to be home and have lots of good food around to eat. It has been strange though not seeing snow everywhere and not being freezing cold, literally, outside.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

One to go...
They say that law school exams are like a marathon. If that's the case (and it certainly feels like it), then I'm almost at the end. My last exam is Thursday, Criminal Law, before I head home for two weeks over the holidays. It'll be nice to take a bit of a break from all the studying -eat lots of holiday food, see old friends, and read a book for fun.

Countdown...

I've got my first exam (Constitutional Law) out of the way, the biggest one, and it feels great. Not that I think I aced the exam, but that I did well enough given the time constraints.
Last night I took a break from studying and went to the official Holiday Lighting ceremony at the university with a few friends. It was actually really cool -they had free hot chocolate and cookies, carolers, and there was a bit of snow falling. Perfect evening for it to. So that's what the two photos are from.

Vote for Latin..
An interesting article from the New York Times about Latin. It's really a shame that more people don't study Latin, though I'll admit that I'm not about to rush into a Latin classroom (I've got enough to study right now). But who knew that Williamus Clintonus studied Latin for four years, or that even Georgius W Bushus studied a bit of Latin.

Here's part of it:
Primum, duces nostros linguam Latinam non iam studere triste non videtur. Sed reipublicae artem - quae principes iuvenes educationem praeparationem pro curriculo considerare excitat — cum rhetorica exigua, moribus infirmis, grammatica inepta et rationis historicae metu congruissse fors non est; aeterna de quibus Romani nos multum docere possunt. Romani ipsi dicunt,

Roma urbs aeterna; Latina lingua aeterna.

Nemo principes candidati praefecti Latinae languae periti sunt. Hillaria Clintona scientiae politicae Wellesleiae studuit; Barackus Obamus Columbiae. Rudius Giulianus linguam per quattuor annos theologiae ad Episcopi Loughlin Memorem Scholam Altam Brooklyni attigit, quando se pontificem futurum esse consideravit. Sed tum quod studuit? Scientiae politicae.

Quam res post Patres Fundantes mutaverunt! Ex VII libris in Thomae Jeffersoni bibliotecha in Monticello, soli XXIV domi manent. Posteri alteros vendiderunt, Bibliotecha Concilii emptos. Lectissimus liber, iam in pluteo vitreo in Jeffersoni bibliotecha, Aeneis a Virgilio est.

Jeffersonus, novem annos natus, linguas Latinam et Graecam ad scholam in Virginia pontifice Caledonio administratam docere coepit. Liber grammaticus Graecus iuxta eum ad Conlegium Williami Mariaeque Williamiburgi semper erat. Tacitus Homerusque carissimi erant.

Jeffersonus optimam scholae altae educationem lingua in Latina, Graeca et Gallica, cum grammaticis thematibus lectionibusque, libris translatis in linguam Anglicam, et recordatione locorum famosorum esse consideravit.

For the rest in Latin, and for the article in English.

Average Student Today...
I came across this interesting video on Motion to Recess. It's about the life of an 'average' student, though I think it would be interesting to find out about the life of an average law student (especially the part about sleep and reading).

And with that, it's now less than a week until law school exams officially start. My first exam is Constitutional Law, worth 100% of the course. Fun times to be had on s.7 today!