The macdonald campus....my abode for this summer

It has been about a fortnight since I arrived in the Macdonald campus of Mcgill university but I am still captivated by the amazing natural beauty of this place.The location of this place is at the tip of west island.Actually Montreal and its suburbs which form the southern part of the Canadian state Quebec,lie on a cluster of islands on the river St.Lawrence.Let me show some pics of this picturusqe place.

This is the Laird Hall where I stay.

This is the view outside my room window:-

This is John Abutt college...this is like a pre-university.

These are the fields used as playgrounds as well as venues for outdoor functions like convocations etc. during the summer because in winter with the mercury dipping as low as -30 deg C everything is white here.

This is the main building of the department with green houses in front of it.

As soon as one leaves the campus and walks down the lake shore road the lush green bank of St.Lawrence greets you.The river meets the bay a few miles south of montreal and is very wide and calm here, so it appears as a lake and hence the name lake shore.Montreal port is also on this river which forms its estuary in southern quebec.

This is the lakeshore road.

On the banks of St.Lawrence:-

As one walks further down the lakeshore road you will reach the bridge connecting west island to another island.This place has been developed into a beautiful park.Boating facilities and cruises are available at this place.

Thats a dead end...water water every where after this point.

Now isn't this place beautiful?

Some pics of downtown montreal

At the lake on mount royal:-

Downtown Montreal

Yes the first weekend arrived and we were going to visit Montreal city which is about 4o kms away from this place(Ste Anne de bellevue) which a municipality or suburb of Montreal.We had been given the map of the city and the routes of the metro by Satya,an Indian chap who is a Phd student here and the in-charge of us for almost every thing.We had marked the places to visit and the trains to be caught.

Let me first tell u about the strange system of tickets followed in Montreal.The local transport network here is of a private company named STM which includes a network of buses and underground metros.One can get tickets which are common for buses and metros in any departmental store nearby.You can travel with the same ticket as long as you keep going in the same direction.You get a transfer from the bus when you give your ticket,this transfer allows you to board any bus or metro continuing in the same direction.The moment you change the direction of your travel you need a new ticket.Strange is this system ...it will take some time for me to understand and extract the maximum benefits from it.

We got into a bus from Lake shore to Lionel grois(i m not sure about the spelling).From there we took a green metro to Mcgill station.If u r wondering what a green metro is let me tell u that in montreal there are four set of lines on which metros run....green,orange,blue and yellow.These four lines cover all the important parts of the city.Mcgill was our first destinaton.As soon as we got out of the metro station we were facing the skyscrapers.....Montreal is like any other modern north american city(I have not been to any before but have seen them in movies).But people here speak french as their first language.It is the biggest french speaking city outside France.But most of the people speak english fluently.So knowing french may be more helpful but even without it one can manage.

We went to the Mcgill university's downtown campus....This place is about 185 years old.Its beautiful...as it was a weekend many students were roaming around the campus.....some of them were playing rugby...it was a great experience going around the campus and seeing various departments.The mcgill campus is located at the foot of mount royal hill and some of the buildings are on the hillside as well...the view of the city from here is really scenic.

They have got a huge library.So after roaming within the campus for an hour or so we walked towards the famous St.Catherine street which is the most posh and colourful street of Montreal renowned for its clubs,malls and shopping centres.....Really it was more colourful than I had expected.As it was a sunny saturday afternoon a crowd of people were on the streets...The fact that Canada is a place where people of all colours,creed and countries live was visible....people of different colors,ethinicity and sporting unique attires can be seen on this street.

There are numerous resturants,pubs and bars on this street.Just walking down this street and looking at the bevy of gorgeous french girls was a visual delight.

So after having quite a lot of visual delight...we went into the Montreal museum of arts....Its not a great place and seemed boring to me as most museums are but the building looks impressive.

We were tired and hungry after all this roaming around so we walked into a Macdonalds....I observed that for vegetarians eating out is a great problem here as anything and everything available here is non-veg stuff...I don't have a problem with that as I am a hard core non-vegi.

After recharging our batteries we started the uphill walk towards the mount royal park,which is situated atop mount royal(the hill after which Montreal is named).It was a nice walk through the woods all around.The view from the top is amazing.The whole city can be seen from the top.The view is worth the painstaking walk up the hill....after spending some time over there we walked to a lake near by.....then when its started getting dark we caught a bus to mount royal park metro station.We boarded an metro on the orange line to lionel grais.Finally we caught a bus back to lake shore and we were back in the macdonald campus.So thus our first visit downtown montreal was over....It was really fun but a lot more remains unexplored in the vibrant city of montreal.That will be done next weekend hopefully.

Day one...I arrive

I arrived at the Dorval international airport in the evening of 16th May....The first thing that striked me was the neatness and orderliness of the airport...when I went into the Chennai international airport I thought atleast Indian airports are decent but after seeing the Dorval airport Chennai airport seemed like a bus-stand.Well may be I am exaggerating as we always try to find fault in the system of our country but really the ambience and the maintainance of th Montreal airport was striking.As soon as we came out of the airport a chilly weather greeted us.The temperature was around 2 deg C.This is the summer of montreal...in winter things get really bad here...the mercury dips as low as -40 deg C as I was informed by Arun one of the research associates who came to pick us up.The journey from the airport to the Macdonald campus of Mcgill university was of about half an hour....cabs here are really big and the right hand drive is also new to us Indian.

The macdonald campus is an extension of the Mcgill University outside the city.The downtown campus is much bigger and more happening.But surrounded by nature at its best the macdonald campus is really serene,calm and has the perfect tranquiity needed for research work.I fell in love with the campus from th moment I saw it....Greeney all around located on the banks of St.Lawrence river nature here is at its best....and add to it the red stone biuldings which are about a century old .The macdonald campus is celebrating its centennial this year.

We arrived at the Laird Hall,which is a three storied co-educational hostel for the students.It appeared as a maze to me and I am sure i will be lost in it quite a few times before I learn my ways in and out of this place.I had been alloted a room on the second floor.We five guys from IITs are room neighbours and share the same wing.On the same floor there are four other people.One girl from France doing her MS,one mexican female,a greek nerd and one fellow indian Sunil.We have a kitchen cum dining room,a laundry room with huge wired looking washing machines and a big bathroom.So this was the place were I will spend my summer.

The room was slightly bigger than our rooms at IIT but with few more facilities.Here all the buildings are centrally heated because its a mandatory requirement.The windows are huge glass paned and the view outside the window is really cool.

So far so good.Will slowly explore this part of the world during the non-work hours.

My first flying experience

Like every other human being being onboard a plane and flying high in the sky had always been one of my dreams.Well for one reason or the other that opportunity never came until on 16th of May when I embarked upon the British Airways flight no BA1036 going to Heathrow London from Chennai airport.I was leaving my motherland for 9 weeks for an internship at Mcgill university in Montreal.Its ironic that as my solo flight i was catching an international flight.I was slightly nervous and was mentally preparing myself for the take off.Finally the moment arrived and i was in my seat double checking my seat belt.The plane was set to take off.It started slowly moving on the run way and within few seconds was running at a great speed...I could feel the acceleration....and whoosh we were in air..that was a great experience.Really I will never forget that moment when I saw outside the window and every thing looked so small..a bird's eye view of the Chennai city.You may think that what's the big deal in it...people fl;y all the time...but it was a special moment for me....that first flight...that fulfilment of a childhood desire was really special.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Some things in life are priceless.One of them is the happiness that one feels when the last examination of the semester is over.Really after a long and painful semester,coming out of CRC 202 after writing my Economics paper I felt a bliss which I can't explain in words.Life at IIT suddenly comes to a halt once the semester is over.No more running to classes,no more labs,no more of those crazy nite outs...sitting at your room and surfing internet,watching movies is all what you do.The stroll to Himalaya for having grub seems like a painful thing because of the scorching and pricking heat.

I have about two weeks to go for my internship and till then I am enjoying the post end-semester bliss in the tranquility of my room.The wing is getting empty slowly with my friends either going home or heading to their interns.I love these vetti days when I can sleep to my heart's desire and do what ever I want for I have all the time I need...Basically I am enjoying these jobless days.

One of my favorite past times in such halcyon days is watching movies. I enjoy watching movies a lot...movies of all genres.This enthu for watching movies has caused a serious trouble for me,I have ran out of almost all the good movies available on LAN.Now i have to search in movie databases like imdb to look for any hitherto unseen decent movie.Yesterday I was doing the same when I came across this movie named " The pursuit of Happyness".I wondered why have they spelled happiness with a 'y' in it.I quickly downloaded the movie from DC++ and started watching it.

The movie turned out to be awesome.I am wondering how did I miss such a great movie.It is based on the true story of a self made millionaire named Chris Gardener.Will Smith has portrayed the real life character very artistically.It is a story of a common man and his dreams and how he crosses the numerous hurdles that life and society presents in achieving his dream.It is also about a father's love for his son and how he nurtures him and tries to provide him the best he can even in the most trying conditions.The movie has some of the most touching dialogues I have heard in recent past.The moral is : Through out our life we never get happiness, all we do is to pursue happiness.And the journey of our life is nothing but a pursuit of happiness.

I suggest that this is a movie to be watched and enjoyed.The sort of emotional drama which leaves one thinking...the sort of movie which I love the most.And yes you do get to know why in the title happyness is with a 'y' and not an 'i'.