Martin In Europe

June 17th -Video

2007-06-16T17:04:00.001-07:00

Alright.... enjoy.... the quality is not great on the internet....

Paris - April 30th

2007-04-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

Our second day in Paris started with the cleaning lady kicking us out of our rooms at Noon so she can do her work. ... *Correction, Nick never woke up. Like a man in a coma we left him there by fear of losing precious hours in Paris.

So John and I, found a really good coffee shop and savored ever last drop of it. We then made our way to la Basilique Sacre-Coeur to soak in the panoramic view of Paris. It's the second time I went, since last time I was in Paris I visited the Basilique too. This time though there was about 10 times more tourists... (Not only at the basilique, but every tourist attraction) I can't believe how many tourists there are...

John and I walk around the little streets of Monmarthe having a Grand time and sat down on the steps of the Basilique to enjoy the view for a good half hour. By the time we got back to the Hotel, Nick was taking his shower (5pm). Talk about a wasted day for him... too bad... thats what you get for blacking out.

We went to the market across the street and and bought a little something to eat and then took the metro to Champs Elysees, where we then walked towards the Louvre. The scenery is 20 times more beautiful then when I went in the winter! Truly stunning! We walked on les champs elysees to the Gardens leading up to the Louvre and then to the front of the Louvre. We didn't go in the Louvre, since they already spent a day there and I'm saving it for another time, where I'll be able to spend a good 2-3 days just for le Louvre.
Jesus isn't the only one who can walk on water.

After that we took a 5 minute walk to the gardens of the royal palace and then I unfortunately had to take my train back to Lyon. I slept most of the way back, leaving from la gare de Lyon at 10pm and arriving in Lyon at midnight. I'm exhausted, and tomorow I'm going to relax, and maybe go see Spider-man 3!!

Paris - April 29th

2007-04-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

So you guys are probably wondering why I'm back in Paris eh? Well John and his little brother Nick just landed this week in Paris to debut their 2 and a half month EuroTrip, and I figured I'd be the one to give them a proper welcome. Plus, I've got unfinished business in Paris, Last time I was only there for 2 days so I figured I'd to another 2 with some close friends.

So I bought my train tickets for Paris 50$ total... pretty awesome eh? and thats for the Round Trip. I left Lyon at 11am and arrived in Paris at 1pm. After a little confusion with the rendez-vous spot, I met up with John and Nick. It makes for automatic smiles, 2 friends from west-island finding each other in Paris.

So the first thing we did was start walking towards the Notre-Dame, since they hadn't seen it yet. Always amazing to see!! After that I suggested we go visit les Catacombes which I heard was amazing. We took the metro there and barely made it in before closing time. Les Catacombes, are extremely impressive.... It's basically a mass grave under Paris that runs for Kilometers.... bones bones and more bones, strategically placed... and can easily be debated as Art. These remains are from a multitude of events, mostly the black plague..

After les catacombes, we made our way to their hotel where I was hoping there would still be place for me. They did , great! It's about a 10 minute walk from Moulin Rouge.

So Evening came along, and out came the bottles of wine... naturally. There was a lightning storm for a little while so we stayed inside until it cleared up, and then we took the metro to the Eiffel tower. Now I will be honest with you guys, I'm telling not you what went on that night, because this is a G rated blog eh! No but seriously, there's so much that happened that night (including missing the last metro), that it became one of those nights you will never ever forget. Lets just say we checked into the hotel around 6am.

Nyons - April 22nd

2007-04-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Aujourd'hui, nous nous sommes réveillés vers midi. On c'est posé au soleil du sud en discutant avant d'aller au élections. J'étais curieux à voir comment les Français font pour voter... En fait, c'est la même procédure que chez nous. Depuis que je suis arrivé en France j'entends parler des élections. Ils sont fortement axé sur la politique ici, et c'est beau à voir. Les Français ont une fierté pour leur patrie et tout ce que ça représente et ils on voté à un taux incroyable. Près de 86% de la population on participé aux élections. et les 2 vainqueurs du premier tour sont Sarkozy et Royale.

Nous avons fait un BBQ en après-midi et ensuite nous sommes dirigés vers Nyons... Une petite ville de toute beauté sur la route de vins. Nous nous sommes posé près de la rivière dans un soleil à 35 Degrés Celcius pour un après-midi tranquille.

Mon weekend était vraiment agréable! Un gros Merci à Laurent et sa famille pour tout!

Avignon - April 21st

2007-04-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

After visiting Orange, we made our way to Avignon. The city is surrounded with fortified walls dating back to the roman empire. The first impression that I got when I walked in the city was that this place would be absolutely perfect for a student. Not too big of a city, friendly, warm weather... ideal is the word really.

So we walked around at first, and we quickly stumbled onto Le Palais des Papes, which was the Popes residence in the 14th Century... absolutely gigantic and beautiful too. So we spent the evening relaxing, drinking a couple beers and ordering a pizza before crossing the city to reach the Pont d'Avignon, ... Famous bridge that was never completed and eventually became a tourist attraction and also the object of that song we all know and loved as a child. So we stayed there for half an hour before making our way back to Valréas for the night.

My after-thoughts on Avignon are axed on itès historical richness... kindof reminds me of the same ambiance you can find in old Quebec City.... but European.

Valréas / Orange - April 21st

2007-04-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Bonjour,

Je vous signale que je suis toujours vivant, que j'ai reçu ma lettre d'acceptation pour Concordia, et que le stage va toujours bien. J'espère pouvoir finir le MVC cette semaine.

Cette fin de semaine j'ai décidé de descendre dans le sud, question de prendre un peu de soleil et reposer mon cerveau informatique. Il annonçait super chaud pour le weekend! J'ai descendu avec Laurent en auto vers midi, et à 14h nous sommes arrivés à sa ville, Valréas. J'ai rencontré sa famille bien sympa et nous avons mangé déjeuner! Le sud est de toute beauté, jusqu'à date j'avais seulement vu Marseille et la cote d'azur mais je n'avais pas encore vu la vrai France du sud. Et laissez-moi vous dire que c'est de toute beauté. Des caves à vin tout partout, des champs de vignes, d'oliviers, d'abricots... et toujours de belle grande montagnes dans la distance.

En face de la maison à Laurent

Nous sommes partis en après-midi pour la ville d'Orange... Il faisait déjà une chaleur insupportable... Les shorts et les T-Shirts étaient au rendez-vous. La ville d'Orange, ou Laurent a fait sont lycée est une ville de taille moyennes typique du Sud avec des vestiges de l'époque romaine. Parmi ces vestiges est un genre de théâtre qu'on peu faire des visites payantes. Par Contre, Laurent connaissait une place sur la colline juste en face qui nous permettrait d'avoir encore une meilleure vue ... et qui nous couterait rien.

Nous sommes ensuite descendu vers Avignon!

Martin

Lyon - April 2nd

2007-04-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, ACTi = Class!!

I don't recall describing ACTi's work environment so here it is: We are a staff of 12 Employees, 1 president, 1 chief of projects, 3 project managers, 4 graphic artists, and 4 developers (including me). Aside from the president, we all work together in the main room... It's a modern approach to "team work" I'm quite fond of. We're positioned in a circle and constantly help each other out. Everyone has a dual processor pc with Dual 20" widescreen monitors.... CLASS.

Today was my first day in the company. I arrived at 8 and at 9 we had our weekly meeting where we discussed progress on our approximately 40 ongoing web projects. Surprisingly, the meeting is in English so everyone can practice they're English since a certain percentage of our clients only speak English. Let me tell you, If It wasn't my first day at the job I would have laughed out loud. I applaud the concept and the effort, but hearing them talk in English for over an hour is hilarious... Before lunch I was briefed on what my role will be for the upcoming weeks, and let me tell you... it's a doozy. 1 of the big projects they're just starting is for the TCL here in Lyon (Equivalent to the STCUM in montreal)... so needless to say it's a huge contract and involves lots of people.

/** Caution **/ /** Geek Section **/
Without getting into any of the client's specs, they will be keeping their current servers and certain modules from their current site... we will be forced to mostly write this site in ASP (Not .NET) ... I'm not too familiar with the language but then again to my knowledge, VBScript is about as easy as it gets. I will not be writing any of the content or html whatsoever. My job is to write the framework for an MVC (Model View Controller). Talk about diving head first into uncharted territory.. Unlike J2EE where MVCs are integrated in the language and PHP where many MVCs are of great quality and often times open source, there are very few MVCs out there for ASP (Not .Net) and since they are extremely expensive and not exactly what we are looking for, ACTi decided it would be best to develop our own.
/** End of Geek Section**/

JON I know you did some JSPs this semester, did you guys touch MVCs? if you did, send me an e-mail with whatever you can. Furthermore if you can ask Mr. Simonelis and Mr. Fogel to maybe send me an e-mail with tips and pointers on how to go about this, it would be greatly appreciated!

Needless to say I'm really excited about being given such a crucial piece of the puzzle so early on. Not only will this be great experience wise, it will also be impressive in web dev portfolio.

Well aside from the stage, everything is good. Friday I had a bunch of friends over at my place and we did "l'apero" before going to a show with Laurent and Thomas, 2 good friends. We saw "Les Cameleons" kind of like a "Catch 22" over here. I also learned that The Mad Caddies, Suicidal Tendencies and The Exploited will be playing a show here this month... a must see!

Saturday I went out with Thomas and Laurent to a bar and also watched OL lose to Bordeaux...
Thomas in the middle and Laurent on the right.

Martin

Lyon - March 29th

2007-03-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

O yes it's been a while since my last blog. I got all wrapped up in the 2 last weeks of school. It's official, no more school!! I had my last exam today Prog Sys.... we'll talk about that one later...

I start my stage on Monday in a company called ACTi, it's web developpement mostly B2B (Business to Business) in all web languages... you name it they do it. PHP, JSP, ASP, AJAX... etc. So it should be quite interesting. I had my interview last week and it went quite well, I don't know what it is with me and interviews but I always feel comfortable.

So here's a summary of how my 7 classes went this semester:

Java: A real joke, however the exam wasn't all that easy although I did good on it.

Expression: Not a problem there, had an oral last week on humor, and it went well.

Preparation Stage: Not Marked... just how to handle yourself in the professional industry.

Network Administration: Not too easy, but somehow I thought I did really well on the exam

Datacom (In C): Interesting... I had a good teacher and he helped me with C a lot more than Mr. Ratard did in my other C class. There was no final exam... only a final project.

UML Application synthese(IN JAVA): UML part was hard for me. but programming in java was where I picked up all my points.

System Programming(IN C): COMPLETELY OUT OF MY LEAGUE... I learned a lot on my own since the teacher is quite possibly the worst I've ever had. However the final exam went horribly...
/** GEEK SECTION**/
We had 3 hours to write a program that reads a black & white image into RAM and then reads each pixel directly from memory , calculates the average grayscale (0 to 255), and then creates a new image with each pixel adjusted to a calculation based on the average... OH AND THAT'S NOT ALL... instead of making it somewhat doable by allowing us to write 1 file... we had to write it in 3 separate files which had to communicate with each other using THREADS, MUTEX, SHARED MEMORY SEGMENTS, SEMAPHORES AND CHILD PROCESSES... needless to say 1 student out of 70 managed to finish the programs... I just managed 400 lines which when executed displayed a bunch of errors... O and i forgot to mention, all this without documentation and using VI in UNIX... fun...
/** END OF GEEK SECTION**/

Anyways , it was one of those exams that aren't even worth getting upset about... I walked out of there and laughed in disbelief.

Overall, the way the grading system works here is different then in America. Grades are on 20 and NO ONE EVER GETS OVER 18. They just don't give 19's and 20's EVER. So we have to consider an 18 as 100%, furthermore in order to pass you need to have an average of 10 overall... So even if I get a bad note in Prog Sys, the other classes will more than make up for it.

In other news, 2 of my good friends here in Lyon are leaving for England where they will have their stage. Kinda sucks for me but, I still got some very good friends that are staying in the city.

This week I'm going to work on a video for you guys ... kinda give you a tour of Lyon and my daily routines...

This weekend I'm thinking of going to Grenoble for a day, a get a taste of the Alpes. I heard it's beautiful.

I've also been following our beloved Habs from over here.... I'ts going to be tight... Good thing they woke up in the past 7 or 8 games. I guess we need to win at least 3 more games and with a little luck we'll be in the playoffs. Don't forget that we have more wins than the other teams bellow us... So even if we Tie in the 8th place we'll be the team to move on to the playoffs... YOU GOTTA BELIEVE.

Anyways leave me some comments so I know whats going on back home
love you guys.

Martin

Lyon - March 14th

2007-03-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've been back in Lyon for a couple days now, no news yet on the stage... I think i'm going to give it a couple more days before sending out some more CVs.

Sunday I went to my first ever European soccer game!! Kevin invited me to the game with Pierre, Antoine, Manu, Margo and Lambert. His dad gets free tickets through the amateur soccer team he manages, so of course I couldn't refuse.

It was l'Olympique de Lyon vs l'Olympique de Marseille, or like they say here (l'OL contre l'OM). Two teams that are considered to be big rivals here in France, like Montreal / Toronto back at home. The ambiance was amazing! All the fans sing.... and trust me there's a lot of fans in the stadium... it's huge. There's about a dozen songs or chants that are rotated throughout the game, and I managed to learn about half... some of them are quite complicated... One of the chants that really grabbed my attention was :"Qui ne saute pas n'est pas Lyonais" where you must jump up and down at the same time which results in quite an effect in the stadium. I happened to take a video of it when it they started chanting... sorry for the poor quality but my camera is a digital antique...

Compared to American sports where fans from both teams are seated together... Here, the opposing team's fans have a specific section, to prevent any escalations... We were seated right next to them, so you can imagine the trash talk that was going on between our side and the Marseillais' side..

Lyon opened the score early in the first half only to have a goal scored on them in the dying minutes of the game... The final score was 1-1... An exciting match, but the ambiance was what impressed me the most.

Furthermore, I totally forgot to mention that last week I visited the Musee d'art contemporain in one of my classes. The museum is about a 15 minute walk from the campus and is one of the biggest contemporary art museums in the world. I don't know if any of you have ever seen contemporary art, well... it's special to say the least. Basically when they don't know where to classify the art, they just say it's contemporary art. The most known piece of contemporary art is the toilet by Marcel Duchamp... Very controversial as to weather it should be considered art at all...

Anyways one of the expositions impressed me... basically you walk into someone life room by room represents something in the artists life... What was so awesome about it was that it was quite disturbing. Blood red walls, Pitch black walls, Devils, Gods, Iconic figures... here are some pictures:

Martin

Valsonne - March 10th

2007-03-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

Donc aujourd'hui j'avais un cours à 10h du matin et ensuite j'ai fait le ménage dans ma chambre avant de partir pour Valsonne avec Kevin, Antoine et Margo.

Valsonne est toujours de toute beauté!! Le paysage me fascine à chaque fois. Nous sommes arrivés vers 16h et après le souper nous avons regardé un film français appelé Les 11 Commandements. C'est un peu comme une version française du Jackass. Nous avons ensuite terminé la soirée chez un ami.
Le chien à Kevin est trop cute... Quand tu te rapproches, il se met sur son dos pour que tu lui flattes son ventre... comme Jazz

Le lendemain nous nous somme réveillés vers midi et j'ai étudié jusqu'à 16h avant de faire l'apéro. Ce soir il y a une Dance à Valsonne pour célébrer les Classes. C'est le Bal des Classes... Comme je l'avais déjà mentioné, les classes est une fête pour célébrer tout ceux qui ont 20, 30, 40,50 ans...En autant qu'il y un 0 à la fin de ton âge. Nous avons beaucoup bu ce soir et nous avons dansé jusqu'à 3h - 4h du matin. Je me suis bien amusé mais il était temps que je rentre vers la fin.

Antoine

Martin

Lyon - March 9th

2007-03-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

Well it's official, my laziness got the best of the blog... AND my Internet at the residence has been ON and OFF this past week.. It's been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote, and yet it seems like yesterday I was in Monaco... Time flies!

I believe the reason why I haven't written in so long is because since I got back from Marseille and Monaco, I made it my number 1 priority to get my head back into my studies... So I've been hard at work on catching up with programming in 'C'. I've made quite a lot of progress in understanding the language since I had my first class here in early February. The language is so basic, so close to the hardware that I can't help but wonder why we didn't do any at Dawson... It seems almost essential to truly understanding computers. Furthermore, I now think I understand why I've been having so much trouble thinking in 'C'. Although I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me I now believe that it's the fact that 'C' is NOT an Object Oriented language... You see, at Dawson we've been taught to think in an Object Oriented fashion... Going back to procedural programming seems so limiting and frustrating.

Anyways, I had a final exam in Network Administration this week and I think it went really well!! The last 3 weeks I will have a new class in it's place :"Network Programming in C"

While I'm still on the subject of School, I applied to Concordia in Software Systems for next semester. At first I was honestly thinking Software Engineering, but then I thought of all the UML and paperwork behind it and voted against it...

The nights out this week consisted of the Coco Pago lounge, and the Wallace pub, followed by a ska concert at the Transbordeur (Equivilent of the Metropolis or Medley).

Last night I went to the ska concert with a bunch of friends (Laurent, Tom, Thomas). The main group was called N&SK and it was honestly quite good although I didn't know any of the songs and lyrics... I managed to stay in the pit for the entirety of the show... something I rarely do anymore. As Andrew says :"We're too old for that now" haha.. I think the last time I felt that tired was at the Bullet for my Valentine show at the Vans Warped Tour. Well it brought back some great memories of a time where ska was at it's peak :(Planet Smashers, Reel Big Fish, Catch 22) I know some of you remember those summers...

As for my stage... well CVs have been sent out to a little under 10 companies and I'm currently waiting for a reply. They're mostly programming stages and web development positions.

This week-end I'm heading back to Valsonne to relax with Kevin, Antoine & Tom.... it's supposed to be gorgeous this week-end. I'm crossing my fingers because this past week has been a little gloomy and rainy.

Sorry for the lack of pictures... but a picture of me studying probably isn't very exciting...

Martin.

Monaco - February 23rd

2007-02-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

Donc aujourd'hui est ma dernière journée à Monaco. Je dois prendre le train à 17:26 pour me rendre à Lyon.

Nous nous sommes donc levé tard... Monaco est petit et je crois que nous avons visité tout les points les plus importants hier. Nous avons donc quitté l'hôtel vers 11h, mangé le petit déjeuner, et réglé quelques détails à la gare de Monaco.

Pour lunch nous avons mangé des croques monsieurs sur le port avec des martinis... Pas loin, il y avait une patinoire extérieur ou des jeunes patinaient... c'était rigolo. Il aurait juste fallu quelques bâtons de hockey et une puck....

(Non, on ne se touche pas les fesses)

Aujourd'hui je n'ai que vu 4 Ferraris et quelques Porsche et Bentley dans l'espace de 3 heures... La vie est belle!

Dave et Christianne on pri le train vers 4h30 pour se rendrent à Nice et ensuite prendre un vol pour Bruxelles... Alors que moi, j'ai pris un train de 6 heures jusqu'a Lyon...

Le voyage était long et j'ai pris la liberté de m'assoir dans la section de 1ere classe... haha... malin.

Arrivé à Lyon j'ai pris mon Skate jusqu'à la résidence et ensuite je me suis endormi trop facilement.

Martin est épuisé

Monaco - February 22nd

2007-02-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and packed up my stuff before slowly making my way to the train station... Today I'm going to live a dream!!!! I'm going to Monaco!!

So I got to the train station bought some breakfast for everyone and waited for Dave and Christiane... I think it's time to tell you guys a little story from my point of view (I hope Dave tells it from his point of view too):

*--------------------*
So I waited.... and waited.... and waited.... The train was leaving at exactly 6:29, no exceptions.... 6:10.... 6:20... 6:25... I decide to call Dave.... No answer.... 6:27... I start panicking (The next train is in 6 hours)... 6:28 I call Dave ,and Christiane picks up:

*Ring... Ring
- Where are you guys?
- **Hughfff.... Pant.....*** Wer'e in the stairs ** Pant**
- Well you have 1 minute to get us ass up here
*Beep

By now I'm about to have a serious heart attack and throw myself in the middle of the tracks in order to delay the train, even if it gets me arrested...

Who might be to blame for this lateness?? Christiane?... of course not.
Dave? probably took 30 minutes to fix his hair...
HAHA sorry Dave it's Cliche..

The train marshal blows his whistle (meaning the conductor can start going) I see the 2 lovers walking in an exhausted fashion from the corner of my eye...

At the top of my lungs (Although I've been trying hard not to use expressions from Quebec here in France... my true colors came out....Attracting all the French stares):
- DAVE AWAIYE ESTI!!! - GROUILLE TABARNAC!!!!!!!!!!

I think we hopped on the train as it started moving.... Talk about cutting it close.
*------/End of Story /---------*

And so we're off to Monaco! Along the way the country-side was breathtaking, I WANT TO LIVE HERE... It took 3 hours to get to Monaco as we stopped in Nice to transfer trains.

First thing we did when we arrived in Monaco was find our Hotel... Turns out it was at the other end of the Country... haha don't worry it was only 1 km or so away. We dropped our things at the hotel and made our way down to the shore. Today was another magnificent day from mother nature... 20 Degrees and Sunny.

As we were walking down the streets, I recognized part of the F1 circuit and had no other choice than to drag Dave and Christiane to the famous turn right before the cars go into the tunnel. It was like walking into my TV... whether it was watching the F1 Monaco race on RDS or playing F1 on Playstation 2 HAHA... I never set foot in the city before , however, I knew exactly where I was...Notice the Red and White Shutters along the turn... permanently set into the road...

Anyways, we walked through the tunnel which gives right onto the old port. By then we were pretty hungry so we sat down on the old port and ordered lunch, with some pretty bizarre drink in evenly bizarre glasses.

As we ate, we admired the boats along the port.... Can anyone say MILLIONS & MILLIONS of $$$$$? These boats are GIGANTIC and probably go faster than any of our military boats in Canada... haha.

As I'm writing this blog I'm trying desperately to find the words to describe this city... but it truly is indescribable. The views that this city has to offer are so charming, so delicate, so..... perfect. The city is like a half bowl containing apartments and villas flowing down to the old port. Behind the buildings are Huge Mountains adding to the experience and eye candy...
(By the way, the pictures posted in NO WAY do justice to the beauty of Monaco)

So we walked around the old port and made our way up to the Prince's Palace on top of the hill. The palace didn't really impress me although the view is quite stunning. We stayed for half and hour and went on our next journey :"The Exotic Gardens"

The walk was long and demanding but we eventually made it to the top of the city. (Now that I think of it, we probably should have taken a bus).. The Garden was beautiful, and was home to a wide variety of cactus like plants... Now if you thought I was in heaven with the views the Palace had to offer, multiply that by 10... The gardens offer views worthy of some sort of IMAX documentry haha.

At the bottom of the gardens was a cave that was discovered about 50 years ago and goes 300 stairs and 40 meters down into the mountain. We took the tour which lasted about 30 minutes and then made our way back to the hotel... by then it was around 5pm so we took a little nap until 7...

at 730 we did l'apero in a bar not to far from the hotel... Good times... 8:30 we decided to eat in a restaurent called Stars & Bars.... AN AMERICAN RESTAURENT... at first I was slightly against the idea of eating american food in France but I figured after eating a strict french regime for the past month it would be a delicacy haha!! So I went all out AMERICAN: Bacon Cheeseburger with fries and Patatoe Salad...... Delicious.... I can honestly say that I ate really well this Trip, even in Marseille...

On our way back up we passed by the Monte-Carlo Casino... We never thought we would be able to get in... since we were in running shoes, jeans and t-shirt... but in a spur of the moment action... I asked the valet if we were dressed well enough to get it... He said Yes!!!!

So we paid the 10 Euros to get in and I witnessed the surprise of the day.... First of all, the casino is tiny... By tiny, I mean 3 rooms maybe 30 tables and 150 slot machines. However, just because it's tiny doesn't mean it's bad... The rooms were sooo rich, 1 is probably worth more than the Montreal Casino entirely.... So we walked around and we quickly noticed how the ambiance differs from Montreal Casino... TOTAL OPPOSITE ... It's quiet, it's serious, it's grand. I wouldn't dare raise my voice in such a place.. I watched one Blackjack table with a minimum of 1000 Euro bet for a little while, at some points there was easily 20 000 Euros on the table. Now lets keep in mind that these are the rooms open to the public, we're not talking about the private rooms here...

We eventually decided to play some slot machines, so we all chiped in for a total of 20 Euros and had a great 5 minutes... haha ... I wish I could've said we won... but no such luck.

After our experience in the Casino we made our way back to the hotel for a good night's rest. Tomorow i'm going back to Lyon.

OOOOOOOO I forgot to mention one of the most important aspects of Monaco.... THE CARS... -Sorry Raymond, you're white Mustang is a "shit box on wheels" down here
-Sorry Uncle Michael, your Z3 is considered a little cheap too...

Today I saw 2 Ferraris, a dozen Porcshes, 1 Bugatti, 1 Maseratti, 3 or 4 Bentleys, and countless high end jaguars & mercedes... Not bad eh?

Marseille - February 21st

2007-02-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Aujourd'hui, je me suis fait réveillé par une belle fille qui cognait à ma porte de chambre... c'était le petit déjeuner... Je n'étais même pas au courant que le petit déjeuner était servi à mon hotel... Tant mieux!! 2 Croissant, 1 Brioche et 1 café... parfait!

J'ai ensuite rencontré Christianne et Dave à leur chambre d'hotel vers 10h, nous avons ensuite marché sur le vieux port avant de nous renseigner sur les tours guidés offerts en autobus... Le premier bus commençait à midi donc j'ai introduit Dave et Christianne au ''Tim Hortons'' de la France :''La Brioche Dorée''

Ils ont mangé leur petit déjeuner et nous nous sommes ensuite dirigé vers la gare pour acheter un billet entre Marseille et Monaco pour le lendemain. À la suite, nous avons pris le métro pour retourner au Vieux Port ou le tour guidé partait... Nous l'avons quasiment raté... mais la chance semble être de notre coté ce voyage.

Le tour a pas mal tout couvert Marseille, du vieux port, au palais de Napoléon III, à la Basilique Notre-Dame, ainsi que le stade de foot de l'Olympique de Marseille. Nous étions sur le 2e étage du bus à toit ouvert, et malheureusement vers la moitié du chemin il a commencé à pleuvoir... Voici ma réaction:

Ce qui m'a marqué sur l'autobus était la vue superbe de la mer!! À coupé le souffle.... Ainsi que le talent du chauffeur, il y avait des fois ou j'en était convaincu qu'on était pour araché un ou deux poteaux.

Après le tour nous avons mangé le déjeuner (lunch) et ensuite on avait planifié de visité le palais de Napoléon III... Malheureusement, pour une raison que j'ignore, le palais était fermé pour la journée... Tant pi... Nous sommes donc engagé dans une promenade jusqu'à l'autre coté du vieux port ou nous avons trouvé un batiment dédié à la 2e guerre mondiale... Nous sommes resté une demi-heure avant de monté le fort St-Jean situé juste à coté. Le haut de la tour du fort offre ce qui est surement cosidéré la meilleur vue de Marseille... Les photos disent tout....

Il était donc l'heure de l'apéro... Nous sommes arrêtés sur une terrasse pas loin de l'hotel à Christianne et Dave pour boire un verre de Ricard (La pastis), ce qui est caractéristique du sud de la France. À ce moment, le soleil nous a fait un petit coucou et j'ai vécu un moment inoubliable. Vous savez, quand vous partez en vacance et à votre retour il y a une image d'un moment imprimé dans votre mémoire? et bien la voila l'image:

Après l'apéritif, je suis retourné à l'hotel pour un petit sommeil avant de manger souper dans un restaurent sportif. J'ai mangé une bonne pizza à la française, et ensuite nous sommes tous retrouvé dans ma chambre pour regarder la partit de foot entre Lyon et Rome!! Une partie entre 2 des meilleurs équipes en europe.... Le score final: 0 - 0 ... Considéré comme une victoire pour Lyon.

Demain nous partons pour Monaco à 6h29, une ville dont j'ai toujours rêvé de visiter.

Voici d'autre photos:

Marseille - February 20th

2007-02-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today was a very exciting day for me, I left a gloomy Lyon from "La Gare Part-Dieu" at 8am via TGV and arrived in a Sunny, Warm Marseille at 10am. Along the way I spoke to, apparently a well known, British radio anouncer (which I forget the name). Quite an interesting conversation about how music is selected to be played on the airwaves and what factors come under consideration when rating top 10 songs of the week... etc ... etc...

Anyways, the first sight you see when exiting the train station in Marseille is a descent of about 75 stairs to street level... you can't help but think that's going to be fun to march back up later...(Eh Dave? Don't worry folks that story will be in the next blog...)

So the first thing I did was make my way to the hotel which is about a 5 minute walk from the train station and about 10 minute walk from the old port... ideal location and good price. The room wasn't ready yet so I left my backpack at the reception and went skateboarding around Marseille! The streets aren't as good as Lyon for skateboarding, especially the Main street, which was under heavy construction... I guess that's what you get when you go in the winter...

I eventually made my way to the old port and observed the fish market in action... Marseille is known to be a Port city. The old port holds so many boats that the poles holding up the sails almost form a solid wall when trying to look to the other side of the port. Futhermore, the old port seems to be the touristic center of Marseille, so needless to say how beautiful my surrounding were.

Around 1pm I sat on a bench and bathed in a cloudless sky. It was easily 20Celsius if not more in the afternoon. Really, perferct weather! Although I've made the following observation countless times, I don't recall writing it on the blog; Imagine It's 20Celcius, I'm in a T-Shirt and people around me are in fur coats and scarfs... You can imagine how I stand out sometimes... I seriously don't understand how they can be so cold in 20Celsius... I guess it's Canadian Blood...

Around 3pm I went back to the hotel and took a nap... I think the fact that I hardly slept the previous night allowed the sun to drain the little energy that I had left... SO around 7pm I went to a terrasse not too far from the hotel and did l'Apero until 7pm.

Now I would like to welcome 2 star guests to this Blog!! I met Dave and Christianne, arriving from Paris, at the train station around 8pm and we made our way to their hotel. It was great to meet up with friends from Montreal, becase although i've made great friends in the 5 weeks i've been in France, nothing beats the friends you've known for years. Along the way Christianne told me quite a funny story about their quest to making the TGV on time in Paris (I'll let Dave explain in his blog)...

Dave and Christianne's hotel was right on the old port, even better location than mine.. They had a superb view outside their balcony.... truly stunning. We eventually went to eat super at a little cozy restaurent which served pretty much everything... I had a great meal for 12 Euros... A Bargan really... And of course we had a bottle of wine... "Cote de Provence 2006" not bad.

So we talked and talked in English (refreshing), laughed and had ourselves a memorable little night. After the meal we went back to our respective hotels with plans to meet up tomorow morning, and really start visiting the city.

Lyon - February 18th

2007-02-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Les dernières journées étaient très très chargés...

Jeudi soir, c'était l'Open Vodka night... Avant de m'y rendre je suis allé rejoindre Manu et Antoine au centre-ville ou nous sommes dirigés vers l'Entre-Cote (Un restaurent sur l'avenue de la République). Nous avons mangé leur spécialité, des tranches de contre-filet saignantes parés avec sa farveuse sauce. J'ai bien aimé mais la viande était un peu trop saignante à mon goût.

L'open vodka était comme prévu un ressemblement informatique (fort masculin) haha, je me suis bien amusé quand même. Alcohol à volonté reste néamoins un danger quand il y a des gars qui croient être invulnérables... Je suis parti vers 2h du matin et le club était bien dégeulas. Il ne fallait surtout pas faire un tour à la salle de bain infesté de vomit. Pauvres élèves de 1ere années esseyaient de ce prouver à les élèves de 2e année... ils ont tous tombés comme des mouches. Les Geeks ne savent pas boire et ça parrait à part les amis que j'ai fait... normal... ce sont les seuls qui peuvent encore parler après quelques verres.

En tout cas cette soirée je me suis tapé une marche d'au moins 1h et demie (peut-être 2 heures) avec Nicolas ce qui m'a fortement influencé à m'acheter un skate le lendemain. Comme ça il n'y aura plus de souci quand je sort en ville... vu que ma carte de crédit n'est pas reconnu par la machine pour les Vélos... Je ne suis tout de même pas pour retourné à 2 sur 1 vélo à chaque sortie.

Vendredi il faisait facilement 20Celcius, j'en ai profité pour marché sur la presqu'île toute l'après-midi... La ville était tellement belle, on dirait que j'ai redécouvert la beauté de Lyon sous les rayons du soleil... Vers 17h j'ai rencontré Jade et Eve à la Place Bellecour, ou ce situe une grande roue qui permet de voir toute la ville. Nous sommes ensuite dirigé vers la rue de la république pour prendre un verre et faire l'apéro. J'étais bien content de retrouver 2 belles québecoise... Le fait de parler en québecois sans penser aux expressions françaises était comme une bouffer d'air frais. Nous avons partagé nos expériences depuis notre arrivé en France toute la soirée et je leur ai montré un peu des artères principales à Lyon. Pour souper nous avons mangé des pates avec une bonne bouteille de vin dans un restaurent Italien sur l'avenue de la République.

Nous avons terminé la soirée au Smoking Dog avec Nicolas et quelques amis à Eve (certains d'entre eux, des québecois). J'ai rencontré Sebastien qui vien de Québec, un gars bien sympa que je vais surement appeler pour les prochains concerts. Avant de faire mon chemin pour la résidence je me suis assuré que Jade et Eve ce sont bien rendu à leur Auberge en haut de la Fourvière, et puis je me suis tapé 40 minutes de skate trop amusant! Le skate à Lyon est idéal!! À montréal on évite le troitoire à cause des craques à chaque mètres, mais ici les trotoires sont un bloc solide et super lisse... Ça Roule bien avec le iPod!!

Samedi je me suis réveillé dans l'après-midi pour rejoindre les filles au musée lumière de Lyon. Simon t'aurais adoré si tu y étais, le musée lumière offre un parcours esthétique, scientifique et historique sur l'histoire de l'invention du Cinématographe par Louis Lumière en 1895. Nous avons également apris que Clint Eastwood serait en face du musé le soir même pour la première de son nouveau film ''Letters from Iwo Jima''.

En tout cas, nous sommes retourné à la place Bellecour sans Nicolas pour récupérer mon sac à dos que j'avais laissé chez Laurent l'autre soir. Laurent c'est joint à nous pour grignoté un petit quelquechose avant l'heure de l'apéro. Nous avons ensuite fait un petit tour à l'épicerie pour faire à souper dans l'auberge de Jade et Eve. Nous avons préparé un mélange de nouilles, poulet, tomates, olives, zuchinis et fromage. Sans oublier le Vin bien sur. En soirée nous avons fait un tour sur la grande roue qui n'est rien de plus qu'une belle vue... mais au moins je pourrai dire que je l'ai fait. C'est alors que ma soirée avec Jade et Eve s'est terminé, ils sont retourné à l'auberge et je me suis présenté à la Crémaillaire de l'apparte à Johan (Un ami à l'IUT). Je suis arrivé tard donc rien ne ce passait de trop excitant mais j'ai jasé avec Laurent pour une heure ou deux avant de retourner à la résidence.

Dimanche je me suis fais réveillé par les filles qui devaient apporter leurs valises chez moi car ils devaient dégager la chambre avant 10h à l'auberge. Je me suis aussitot re-couché... hahaha je suis vraiment fatigué... je ne crois pas qu'il y a une journée dans la dernière semaine ou je me suis couché avant 3h du matin... vous pouvez bien imaginez que je vais prendre aujourd'hui et demain pour bien me reposer (étudier) avant de rejoindre Dave et Christianne à Marseille.

C'est tout!... c'est assé aussi...

On m'a informé qu'il va avoir des élections provinciales du Québec bientot?

Martin

Lyon - February15th

2007-02-15T06:40:00.000-08:00

So i've been back in Lyon for a while now, Monday was a regular day at school... Prog Sys is still extremely hard for me to follow, i'm going to have to put some major time into studying C over the Vacation. Tuesday I went over to Antoines appartment and we did a LAN party... haha I may be in Europe but computer science is geek territory, we played Couter Strike and Quake for hours.... Julian you would have pwnd them at CS. Before the LAN party Pierre invited me to his place and he made an amazing super! Confi de Canard and noodles.... delicious.

Wednesday was St-Valentines, Laurent brought me to this bar called l'abreuvoir. It was quite the experience, the place was packed and was tiny to begin with... To get in you need to know the bouncer which turned out to be a midget haha. Anyways the music was ska/punk/rock and the ambiance was amazing... everyone was partying quite hard. For Valentine, the 2 bartenders did a fake wedding ... it was hilarious. We stayed till closing but that's ok since I'm on vacation for the next week as of tomorow.

Today there is a big night organized by the student association: "Open Vodka Night" dangerous... Tomorow Jade and Eve arrive in Lyon for the Week-end so i'm going to spend some time with them and then next week I leave for Marseille!!

Papa: Je suis maintenant en mesure de retirer de l'argent...merci

Valsonne - February 11th

2007-02-12T04:01:00.000-08:00

Bonjour,

Ce Dimanche je me suis réveillé vers midi et nous avons mangé de la lasagne pour déjeuner, ensuite je me suis étandu et j'ai lu un peu de mon livre avant de me rendre au terrain de Foot ou l'équipe de Valsonne jouait contre un autre village.

J'ai retrouvé Manu dans les gradins et nous avons regardé Antoine et Kevin joué. Le résultat final était de 1 à 1. L'arbitre c'est fait engeulé par les joueurs et les spectateurs.... Pour une partie de foot mineur, les arbitres devraient mériter un bon salaire.

En tout cas, comme j'ai déjà dis, les Dimanche ici sont fait pour ce reposer. Donc nous avons fait l'apéro avant de manger et ensuite nous sommes rendu chez Antoine pour avoir un lift à Lyon.

C'est tout.
Martin

Valsonne - February 10th

2007-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up in Valsonne, they like to call it "Valsonne Beach ", although there is no beach anywhere near here. We ate the leftover Pan Cakes from last night and then we watched some french comedians which I more or less understood so then I had no choice but to introduce them to les tetes a claques... They said that they could only understand half of the words..

After noon Kevin, Pierre, and I went out for a walk. We walked into Antoine along the way who was selling pastries for some sort of Party they have in the region of Rhone where everyone who has a 0 at the end of their age is celebrated... so 10, 20, 30, etc... It's like a special birthday every decade.

The village is so cute, everyone knows everyone, there's horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, you name it.... and it's also the maker of a type of wine called, "Beaujolais". Apparently it's at it's best when it's young. We walked up a mountain and relaxed on a rock with a superb view of the village. I think I had one of those surreal moments where you really appreciate all your surroundings.

Anyways we ate this amazing lunch, Scalloped Patatoes, Steak, Cheese, Wine and bread. Now I understand why they eat so late at night, they have huge lunches.

We then brought Pierre to the Train Station in Tarare so he can take the train home (he lives in the next village), the road to get there is amazing... Give me a sports car and a full tank of gas, and I'll have myself quite some fun. There's twists and turns as we climb up and down the valley. You really have to be careful. If i remember tomorow, I'll take a video of the road and post it on Youtube...

Tonight there's a game between Lyon & Lorient. Since we religiously watch foot here, it's a safe bet that we won't miss a minute of the game.

So I leave you with some pictures I took today:

The View From Kevin's Porch

Kevin's House

Kevin
Pierre

Martin

Valsonne - February 9th

2007-02-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Bonjour,
j'ai eu une belle surprise aujourd'hui! Après un méchant cours de Prog Sys, Kevin m'a invité à passer la fin de semaine dans leur village, Valsonne. J'ai bien sûr accepté. Nous avons quitté Lyon vers 18h et nous sommes arrivés à Valsonne vers 19h. C'est un tout petit village bien anchré dans une vallée. Je ne croix pas qu'il y a plus campagne que ça en France. Valsonne se situe au nord ouest de Lyon et au Nord de la petite ville de Tarare.

J'ai rencontré les parents à Kevin, Christian et Michelle, et ils m'ont accueillis comme un roi. Non mais vraiment! Après avoir ramassé Pierre à la station de Train de banlieu, nous avons mangé des des bonne crêpes sans sirop d'érable... haha je crois bien que c'est la première fois que je mange des crêpes sans sirop d'érable... Je leur ai promis dans faire venir du Québec! Nous avons passé une soirée bien tranquil avec Antoine et un autre gars nommé Anthony.

Je n'ai pas pu bien visité la ville vu qu'il fait déjà noir ici... mais demain je vous promets des photos. Pour l'instant voici une photo de la ville que j'ai trouvé sur google. Kevin habite dans une belle petite villa en arrière de l'église.
Demain on faire une petite promenade dans la ville et Kevin va me montrer leur terrain de foot. Son père est le président de l'association de foot du village. Apparament qu'ils ont une bonne petite équipe ici.

Martin.

Lyon - February 8th

2007-02-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night I found a concert not too far from the campus where I met Laurent, one of the guys from my class. It was a small punk show by a band called nobodycare... and haha no there's no 's' at the end... The band was alright, nothing professional but fun nonetheless... if all the punk bands are like that in France I can honestly say that they don't take themselves too seriously. I left at midnight and got home 5 minutes later... the place was quite close to the residence. In fact it's considered to be on the Engeneering Campus... Pretty funny that they have a bar at the Ground floor of an Educational bulding. The students can have a beer at lunch with the teachers...

Thursday I didn't have any classes so I did the long awaited 'wash'. I spent the afternoon in front of the washer and dryer and read a book called "Speaker of the Dead", the sequal to my favorite book :"Ender's Game". At Night I did some studying and watched a movie..."Talledega Nights"... Not a very exciting day but I got the little things out of the way for a while.

Lyon - February 7th

2007-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Alors pour répondre à la question des byciclettes, ça marche à la carte... donc tu rentre ta carte de crédit dans la machine posté à chaque rack et ensuite tu mets 1 Euro pour la louer. Si jamais la byciclette n'est pas de retour dans un rack dans les 24 prochaines heures, ils ont ton numéro de carte de crédit et te chargent 150 Euros pour la perte. Voilà, c'est tout informatisé...

Pour Simon, je poste d'autre photo typique de Lyon... Les grands escaliers dans le coin du vieux Lyon sont typiquement utilisés par les résidents de la Fourvière (Une des deux collines à Lyon).

Ça d'lair que je vais me retrouver à Marseille le 20 Février pour rejoindre Dave et Christianne, nous allons y rester quelques jour et puis ensuite nous allons visiter Monaco, Monte Carlos. Je crois peut-être partir de Lyon avant le 20 car à partir du 15 Février je n'ai plus d'école jusqu'au 26 Février. Peut-être Grenoble, Nice, ou Cannes... On verra..

Hier nous sommes allés dans un bar à shisha pas mal sympa et ensuite dans un bar Irelandais ou je croix bien avoir gouté à la meilleur bière rousse de ma vie... haha.. elle s'appelle la Beamish. Dave si tu es capable d'en trouver dans ton coin je la conseille fortement. En tout cas, nous ne sommes pas resté longtemps. On est en mode récupération d'énergie après les longues soirée la semaine dernière donc nous avons pris le dernier Tram pour atteindre la résidence.

Mon cour de Réseau ce matin était vraiment intéressant. Je ne me suis jamais vraiment intéressé à la réseautique à Dawson, et je pense en savoir la raison maintenant que je suis à l'IUT... À Dawson nous avons que fait de la théorie, et ça peut être dur imaginer le réseau physique mais ici à l'IUT, c'est :' Hands ON' . Il y a un labo spécialement conçu pour les réseau, Aujourd'hui nous avons joué avec les Routers, Hubs, et Switch d'industrie moderne. En tout cas j'ai bien aimé.

De plus, j'aimerais prendre l'occasion de vous dire comment chanceux je suis d'avoir été placé dans le groupe 3 (il n'y a que 3 groupe en 2e année informatique à l' IUT). Nicolas, l'autre québecois, a eu le malaise de tomber dans le groupe 1... Un groupe qui ne sort jamais. J'ai rencontré vraiment du bon monde, Kevin et Pierre deviennent de vraies amis... Des amis qui ressemble drôlement à mes amis à montreal. Du monde, qui on su accueillir un Québecois, comme nous avons accueilli Pierre-Michel un été.

Ce Soir je suis en mission!! je vais me trouver un concert en quelque part, si je suis chanceux il y a peut-etre du metal ou du punk en ville ce soir. Je vous donnerai les nouvelles dans le prochain blog.

Pour conclure, je suis en manque de hockey... Hier soir je me suis retrouvé sui youTube pour trouver la sequence ou Koivu s'est fait frappé et Surray s'est fait expulsé... Je la comprend pas trop celle la... Pourtant Armstrong a laissé tombé s'est gants aussi...

Melissa: How's Jazz?
Papa: je vais surement esseyer de retirer en fin de semaine, je t'en donnerai les nouvelles.
Mom: send me some mashed patatoes....
Mart: Trivium is going to play across the street form my residence in May... YES

Martin

Lyon - February 5th

2007-02-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

The week-end was calm, nothing out of the ordinary. Saturday I woke up at 12 ate breakfast and called home. Then I did the groceries and worked on a website project Jon and I had in mind before leaving for Europe. I found myself going to bed really late that night... time flies when you're into something.

Sunday afternoon I finished little projects due for Monday and Tuesday Morning as well as study some tutorials on C++... I'm starting to understand some of the things the teacher was talking about in Prog Sys... but i'm still far from the level the students are at in C.

In the evening I went to Antoines appartment (about a 20 minute walk) and watched the Super Bowl! I was sooo happy to watch the Super Bowl, I thought I was going to miss it here in France. It's the only American Football game they show all year on regular cable. The game started at midnght here and ended in the wee hours of the morning... Before the game there was an in depth 30 minute summary of the rules so that the French can understand haha. Then there was the game... WOW turnover after turnover amazing... one of the best Super Bowls I can remember. Of course we didn't have the luxury of seing the american commercials but we did get to see Prince and the half time show!! I want his guitar... We were rooting for the Bears but their defence couldn't handle it.... This time I brought my camera to take a picture of my friends but the camera is acting weird.... I hope it'll solve itself... haha

Anyways, needless to say I didn't sleep that night... By the time I got home on a sobering walk I had class 2 hours later... Good thing it was Java! I took it easy... although I still code faster than them... My afternoon class was cancelled so I slept ate speghetti and now here I am.

Papa - J'ai esseyé de retirer de l'argent du guichet aujourd'hui mais sa dit qu'il n'y a pas assé de fonds... Je pense qu'il esseye de retirer du compte Savings... Pour l'instant j'ai retirer de ma carte Visa, mais il va surement falloir transferrer l'argent du Chequing au Savings. Je vais t'appeller demain pour t'en parler.

Lyon - February 2nd

2007-02-03T06:31:00.000-08:00

Salut,

Je sais que j'ai négligé d'écrir le blog récemment, mais la routine commence à s'installer donc ça se peut que je n'écrive qu'à les 2 jours.

Donc Jeudi j'avais une journée de congé, j'en ai profité pour me lever tard surtout après avoir rentré à 4h30 du matin la veille. En après-midi j'ai rejoint Kevin au Tram et nous sommes aller en ville pour me faire visiter les rue importantes. Ça c'est addonné que cette journée en France c'est la première journée d'une solde de boutiques qu'ils ont à chaques années. Car le mois prochain, les nouvelles collection seront disponible...

En tout cas plus tard, nous sommes retrouvés à l'appartement d'Antoine. Nous avons regardé la semi-final de Handball mondial entre la France et l'Allemagne... WOW vraiment un bon match, c'était la première fois que j'ai regardé du HandBall et j'ai adoré... Le match était tellement serré, elle s'est joué dans les dernières secondes de la deuxième périod de prolongation. L'Allemagne a gagné.

En tout cas je me suis couché tôt cette journée... Je pense que la fatigue de ma première semaine en France commence à me rattraper.

Vendredi, j'avais un cours le matin, ensuite quasiment tout le monde parte en campagne dans leur village pour la fin de semaine. Donc sa va me donner la chance de me reposer et de faire mes études.

La soirée a été tranquille, j'ai étudié.

Martin

Lyon - January 31st

2007-02-01T04:15:00.000-08:00

A Good night and great news!

Today was a full day at school. Network Administration in the morning with a course of Expression, which prepares us for the report we're going to need to submit after the Stage.... The report is really scary. It's minimum 40 pages long not counting the annexe's, all in French of course, and spelling counts... In the afternoon I had a UML course, nothing special..

As for the Stage, I'm going to have to fix my CV this week-end with the French standards before applying at various companies... I already have a list of companies that took someone for a stage here in the past 2 years.

The great news is that I got confirmation that the Math course is optional for me, since it doesn't fit in the graduation profile at Dawson. So that means I have Thursdays off!! Also, my Network administration class will be seperated in 2 starting next week, 1 group on Wednesday mornings and the other half on Friday Mornings. I will be on Wednesday mornings and since I don't have to take English... that means I also have Friday's off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that means I have school from Monday to Wednesday from 8 to 6 and then I have 4 days off to study, relax, and have a good time here.

That being said, in the evening I watched the Lyon vs Marseille game with Kevin and Manu at Manu's appartment. Lyon was winning 1 - 0 and Marseille Tied the game with 10 minutes to go and then scored the go ahead goal with 5 minutes... Pretty crappy for Lyon fans. They are like us when we watch the Canadiens... screaming at the TV and not agreeing with the commentators.

After the game, a bunch of people from the University joined us at the appartment and we made our way down to a student organized party on Sainte-Catherines. The place was called L'Ayers Rock, http://www.ayersrockcafe.com , an australian night club, with bartenders doing crazzzzzzzzyyyyyyy things with the bottles. The music was far from what I listen to but I DUG DEEP WITHIN MY " JUST DO IT" MENTALITY and hhhh.... gasp*** Danced..... Haha, House, Dance, Techno, a bit of Rock. I felt pretty good after looking around and realizing no one is really any good anyways, and I think I fared quite well. It's just a bunch of people moving to the rythem since it was so packed anyways. I got burnt a couple times by drunks with cigarettes (It's still legal to smoke inside here... something that seems like a decade ago in Quebec). The club closed at 3am, and I don't mean last call... litteraly shut the music off and sends everyone out into the street...weird.

Anways, I had a really good time, I wish I brought the camera but it would have been a halse to hold onto in the club... O Ya, they don't call them clubs here... they call them :" des boites de nuits".

We took a bike home and I went to bed at 4am, but its OK I don't have school tomorrow. I think some of the guys wanted to take a walk around the island tomorrow, so I might do that.

So in case you were wondering. The group of friends I'm hanging out with is Kevin, Manu, Pierre, Jerome, Georges... People in Computer Science here aren't HUGE nerds, they're quite outgoing... something I wasn't expecting.

I leave you with a picture of our Soccer team's (L'Olympique de Lyon) stadium... 98 000 seatsMartin

Lyon - January 30th

2007-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

Salut les mecs,

Mon nouveau mot préféré:'Mecs'

En tout cas, J'ai eu une belle petite journée aujourd'hui. Le matin était rough à cause d'hier soir mais ça va. Mon cours de Java à 8 heure était une vrai joke... Je me suis rendu compte qu'on est pas mal avancé en Java à Dawson. Le prof me demandait même des question sur Java! haha, On a eu à faire un petit Bloc-Note à la Notepad.... Le prof est très sympa je suis content après le cours d'hier.

Ce sont des cours de 4 heures avec un pause dans le milieu suivi d'un déjeuner de 2 heures, car ici les Français aiment bien prendre leur temps pour le déjeuner. C'est toujours au moin 1h30 de lunch.

Après le déjeuner j'avais un cours d'option... j'ai donc pris Expression et Communication car l'option Anglais doit être une vrai joke ici. C'était bien comme cours, ce sont des Présentation Orale sur le domaine professionel. En tout cas on a parlé pendant 2 heures en cercle... un peu bizarre comme concept.

Ce soir j'ai pris ça relax, j'ai terminé la soirée avec Gilles mon voisin. Il m'a raconté des histoires de son vécu et je lui ai montré des bonnes bagarres des Canadiens de Montreal sur Youtube... Il n'arrive pas à croire que c'est permis de ce battre au hockey. Au Foot ici ils revoke leur liscence professionel quand ça arrive. En tout cas il doit avoir une drole d'image des quebecois maintenant.

Demain j'ai 3 cours, Administration Réseau, Expression 2, et UML.... journée un peu chargée... Ensuite la soirée je sort avec une gagne à L'IUT... mon école.. à un pub en ville. La rue des pub adonne qu'elle s'appelle Sainte-Catherine ici. Donc on dit qu'on va descendre sur Sainte-Catherine.

Il faut aussi que je m'informe pour mon stage demain....
Je vais esseyer de prendre des photos interessante et moin touriste pour vous.
Bonsoir,

Martin

Lyon - January 29th

2007-01-30T07:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone

Today I finally got WIFI in my room so I feel a little more connected to home. I talked with Dave on MSN from Brussel. And then he called me on my cell through the use of SKYPE. It was really cool to talk with Dave. He seems to be having a good time in Brussels too. Here's the link to his blog: http://davearoundtheworld.blogspot.com/
I have a week off in Mid February so I think I'm meeting Dave in Marseille and then head to Monaco... we'll see.

So, I had my first class today. It's Called Prog Systems. I walked in class a little nervous not knowing what to expect over here. Sure enough the teacher walks in, hands out a paper with specs on Unix shells and says :"Code this in C++"..... 101 on how to make an exchange student bad trip. First of all I don't know anyone in class, second of all i've hardly ever touched C++ let alone integrate it on a unix console.

Luckily 1 of the students named Kevin asked me if I wanted to sit with him and do the lab together. Thank God he was there, because I was soooo lost, especialy in French. A lot of the terms are the same in English but they pronounced them in french so sometimes even though I should know what he's talking about I have no Idea what he just said... Anyways the teacher seems like a real dick and I can only hope the rest wont be like him. Total opposite Student/Teacher relation here in France, not approachable and even less willing to repeat himself.

After class Kevin asked me if I wanted to go over to Pierre's appartment and drink a bit. I couldn't say no, especially after being so nice to the new kid... besides I would get to meet some people from around here. So after super I met Kevin at the Tram station and we went down about 5 stops to Pierre's appartment. He has a really cool appartment, everything is in 1 room besides the bathroom. I had a really good night we talked and drank for about 3 hours and 2 other of their friends joined us , Manu and Antoine.

By the time we left, the trams were no longer in service so we took a bike back to the residences. The bike service is provided by the city itself, You put 1 euro in the machine and a bike unlocks itself from the rack. The only thing thats a little tricky is knowing where the closest rack is to your destination because you obviously need to return it. So we took 1 bike... haha 1 person peddled and the other sat on the seat, we alternated along the way. I couldn't help thinking :" I'm sitting on a bike in Europe with a guy I met this afternoon, I never saw this one coming"

Anyways I have a Java course tomorow morning at 8... Should be ridicuously easy.

MOM:
- Yes i'm getting used to the dialect here. There are a lot of words that they use that I'm trying to use in my vocabulary but it's hard... And people don't always understand me, I really have to slow down and try to avoid the Quebec accent although they think it's quite funny. The really weird thing here is that it seems to be a student thing to say certain words backwords.... they call it "Le Verlan" backwards for l'envers... aparently it's not only here in Lyon but throughout France. So for example when they say :" C'est chom..." they really mean "C'est Moche" which means "C'est poche" here in Quebec.

- I will try to get my address tomorow and post it on the next blog

Melissa:
keep sending some funny Jazz stories they really make my laugh

Papa:
J'ai sorti de l'argent de l'interac hier mais la machine ne m'a pas demander de quelle compte le retirer... Peut tu verifier que ca n'a pas pris du compte pour la char.

Dorval Crew:
Keep me updated on life!

Martin

Lyon - January 28th

2007-01-29T01:47:00.000-08:00

Alors, le week-end a été assé calme içi. Samedi j'ai reçu ma schedule de cours. J'ai des cours chaque journée de la semaine dans la matiné et souvant les après-midi off. J'ai acheté un cellullaire avec Virgin Mobile Prépayé. Ça coûte quasiment rien ici les cellullaire! C'est vraiment pratique...

Samedi soir j'ai sorti avec Nicolas au Vieux Lyon pour prendre une bierre dans un pub. Il y avait une game de 'foot' ce soir donc c'était très animé comme ambiance! La ville est très belle la soirée, toute les structures importantes sont illuminé, ça donne un effet vraiment Eurpoéen.

Dimanche j'avais rien de prévu, après le déjeuner j'ai pris une marche dans la direction du parc qui se situ à 10 minutes de marche de ma résidence. Le Parc est vraiment immense il y a un gros lac dans le milieu et même un vélodrome. Je crois y avoir marché pendant 1h30 sans passer deux fois à la même place. Je me sentait comme au mont-royal jusqu'à j'ai vu une Giraffe.... OUI... une Giraffe... dans le milieu du parc il y a un ZOO africain ouvert au public.... Des Giraffes, des Éléphants, des singes...... en tout cas ... pas mal bizarre.

Les Dimanche ici sont vraiment mort, on dirait une ville abandonné. Tout les magasins sont fermés et le monde on l'air à ce reposer.

Demain je commence mes cours.
Martin

Lyon - January 26th

2007-01-27T02:29:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to visit a bit of the city before having to meet up with one of the faculty members of the computer science department. I took the Tramway and then the Metro to get to the center of the city. It sounds far, but it's really only 10 minutes away since tramways pass every 2-3 minutes here.

I got off the metro in the middle of the city, kind of looked around, and picked a direction... I really didn't know where I was going. All I knew was that I would eventually see a river since there are 2 rivers that surround the center of the city. La Saoune & La Rhone.

I ended up meeting La saoune about 5 minutes into my walk, and in the distance I spotted a huge church up on the mountain... Like a miniature version of Mount-Royal, so I decided to climb it. The achitechture is very midevil here... The streets twist and turn in a confusing fashion and are sometimes no wider than 2 people.

Once at the top the church was surrounded in really nice gardens (even in the winter here) and the church is so big you can't take a good picture of it because you run out of perspective at the top of the mountain... Anyways, at the top I met 2 girls with whom I talked to for a bit. They are from Lyon and said that the best view of the city was here.

The people here seem to be facinated by people from Quebec.. they're always so willing to help you out and answer your questions. They are a lot more welcoming than when you say you are from Canada.

Anyways, the view of the city was quite gorgeous... You could even see the Alpes in the far distance.... too bad it didn't turn out on the pictures.

Once back on campus I was given my schedule which apparently changes each week. I'm looking forward to starting classes now... The residence is quite dead. either people are gone on vacation or they just stay in their rooms...

Anyways I now have 2 days off until I start school on Monday. I don't have any plans yet, take it easy and discover a bit more of the city maybe.

Martin

Lyon - January 25th

2007-01-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

Salut à tous,

Aujourdhui, j'ai rencontré Monsieur Chapuis vers 10h et il m'a fait visiter le campus informatique. C'est très bien comme campus, de nouveaux ordinateurs dans chaque classe.

Nicolas et moi sommes ensuite descendu en ville pour faire une épicerie plus complète. Nous avons trouvé un genre de centre commercial immense qui contient plus de 250 boutiques et magasins. A l'intérieur du centre d'achat il y a une épicerie nommé Carefour. Ce n'est pas juste une épicerie, il y a aussi toute sortes de choses... un peu comme un Wallmart. J'ai donc aussi acheté 2 assiettes, 2 verres, un poêle et des ustensiles cheap pour mon séjour.

A 7 heures je suis retourné à l'école pour obtenir ce qu'on appelle un badge... pour rentrer dans le batiments hors des heures de classe.. j'en ai donc profité pour utiliser l'internet ici, car le WIFI ne sera disponible dans ma chambre qu'au début du prochain mois.

J'ai terminé la soirée en rencontrant mon voisin. Il se nomme Gilles, très sympa comme gars. Il a cogné à ma porte avec 2 bouteilles de Guinness, je lui ai offert du vin et nous avons discuter du Québec et de la France pour près d'une heure.

Demain je vais visiter le centre de Lyon, car depuis mon arrivé à Lyon je n'ai pas pu faire le tourist, mon secteur est plutot monderne mais il parrait que c'est très médieval comme ville.

Pis il faut que je dise :"Ostid' Crisse d'Clavier Français", Ils ont tout changé les lettres de place, je suis forcé d'apprendre comment taper à nouveau...

Bon il y a l'air d'avoir ben des questions sur Jade. Du calme, vous me connaissez bien. Elle a fait son chemin à Aix-en-province, une ville étudiante pas loin de Marseille.

Lyon - January 24th

2007-01-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

So today I'm leaving Paris for Lyon. My train is scheduled to leave at 11am. I woke up to eat breakfast at 730, and i'm starting to surrender to the idea that there is no toast or milk here. Cheese and bred seems to be the way to go. I must admit that the cheese is quite good here.
At 9 Nicolas and I left for the train station which is about 12 metro stops away... I was quite exhausted once I got to the train station. Raymonds lugage has the crappiest wheels in the world so i'm forced to carry it like a briefcase. Once at the station, I retrieved the tickets I had previously ordered online through a teller and then we waited for the train to announce boarding.

A lot of trains were delayed today because of some snow we received between Lyon and Paris. Luckily our train was on time. I boarded at 11 and we left 5 minutes later. The TGV's here are so fast it's rediculous... It took 2 hours to reach Lyon at 300km/h. Once arrived, we took the tramway to the University campus which is about 15 minutes away from what is considered to be the heart of the city.

The campus is huge, wayyyyyy bigger than McGill. Apparently over 20,000 students study at Lyon 1, not to mention there is also a Lyon 2 and Lyon 3 in other parts of the city. We arrived at the campus terminus and made our way to the Computer Science building where someone was waiting for our arrival.

Monsieur Chapuis brought us to our residence where we had to fill out a bunch of papers. I'm located on the second floor in the F building of the residences (but really it's the third, since they consider the first floor as 0). The residence community consists of 6 or 7 buildings with at least 4 floors each and maybe 15 to 20 rooms/floor. Between the buildings are little parks which i'm sure are quite animated in the summer.

Anyways, my room is great. Pretty much what I expected, a mini-fridge, 1 bathroom with a shower a small bed. Lots of shelving which helps out a lot with the limited space issue. The best part about the room is the BIG window and Big desk. I guess they really want us to study.
Anyways now i'm going to go to go do a bit of groceries so I can eat tonight and tomorow morning. and then i'm going to bed because my muscles are really sore from dragging the luggage around.

I now live in Lyon.

Martin

Paris - January 23rd

2007-01-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

Je vais donc écrire ce blog une journée en Anglais, une journée en Français pour être juste avec mes lecteurs au Québec.

Aujourd'hui était ma 2e et dernière journée à Paris. Je me suis levé vers 8ham pour prendre le petit déjeuner avec Jade et Nicolas. Nous sommes ensuite dirigé vers la Tour Eiffel. Il faisait beaucoup plus froid aujourd'hui... environ 0 Celcius avec un bon vent. La tour était exactement comme je l'avait imaginé. Nous avons pris quelques belles photos avant de ce diriger vers l'arc de triomphe et les champs élysées. Le rond-point qui fait le tour de l'arc de triomphe est ce qui m'a le plus impressioné... Aucune voie d'indication sur le pavé et pas plus d'une douzaine d'entrées et de sorties en fait un vrai danger.

Nous sommes ensuite présenté au Louvre pour apprendre qu'il est tourjours fermé les Mardi... on s'est donc dirigé vers la basilique Sacré Coeur où nous avons admiré une très belle vue de la ville et visité l'intérieure de l'église. À mon avis ce genre de visite serait plus agréable une journée d'été. On a continuer notre chemin vers Le Moulin Rouge pour prendre quelques photos... Malheureusement les billets pour le spectacle (repas inclus) sont beaucoup trop cher pour les étudiants.

Nous sommes ensuite arrété pour manger dans une Brasserie Spécialisé en Bière (Guys you would have been impressed) où il y avait un chois de plus de 150 bières venant du monde entier. J'ai manger un Calzone aux oeufs et au jambon avec une bonne bière Belge. Àprès avoir jasé avec quelques Parisiens dans la brasserie l'idée de visité le Cimetière Père Lachaise nous a été lancer. Le cimetière est immense et contient le tombeau de Jim Morrison... rien de spectaculaire vraiment..

De retour aux Champs Élisées, J'ai visité l'écurie Renault où il y avait une F1 en exposition. À force de prendre le métro toute la journée et de marcher à chaque destination nous étions très fatigué, on a donc arrêter dans un petit café pour un apéro de Vin. Nous y avons resté pour quasiment une heure avant de retourné une dernière fois à la tour eiffel pour observer le spetacle de lumière qui est offert les 10 premières minutes de chaque heure le soir.
Je suis ensuite retourné à l'auberge pour m'étendre pendant que le groupe dinnait. J'ai terminé la soirée en promenade avec Jade au alentour de l'auberge.

Demain je part pour Lyon en TGV avec Nicolas...

'Aye Po'Pa tu peux m'écrire en Français ... haha'

Paris - January 22nd

2007-01-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

What a first day!! I'm so exhausted right now it's ridiculous...
The plane ride was smooth, I slept maybe 2 hours before landing at Charles de Gaulle airport at 8am local time.. Someone from the OFQJ was waiting for me at the airport and drove me to the hostel in the South East of Paris where I ate croissants and cheese for breakfast... haha...

After setting up in my room, I made my way down to the lobby where I met other students from the exchange going to various places in France (Marseille, Reims, Grenoble...etc) One of the guys is actually going to Lyon, at my school, in my program, and quite possibly in the same residence... crazy... I also met a cute girl named Jade (pronouced in french).... but thats a story for another time.

Anyways we all decided to start visiting Paris together as a small group, So we took the metro (which is so amazing over here) to Opera Station which we were told was a good place to start. We visited the National Music Academy which is just gorgeous, walked through the streets to the royal court followed by The Entrance of the Louvre and finally we visited Notre Dame.

Already exhausted we stopped at a local grocery store where we bought some bread cheese and wine for dinner and made our way back to the hostel. At this point we'd been up for over 28 hours and some people decided to call it a night whereas I tagged along with a girl named Evelynn who had a friend living in Paris come pick us up to go eat at a nice restaurant.... The city is even more stunning at night!!

When I got back to the hostel, I tried calling the family with that stupid card but for some reason it's not working... maybe i'm just too tired... Anyways I managed to hijack a wireless signal from my room, so this is me saying:"I'm OK and in 1 piece"

Tomorow I plan on visiting the Eiffel Tower and hopefully the Catacombs
I'll try calling again tomorow mom don't worry HAHA.

O yeah.... it's 15Celcius over here

Martin