Our last Beer Bay before the holidays

Cheers!

À peine débarqués de l'avion: shopping and eating...

Mes parents et mon frère sont arrivés! (ENFIN!) 

Après un bon dim sum, direction Mong Kok. En 2 heures, mon frère, le grand dépensier, avait déjà amassé deux paires de souliers, un suit, une chemise et un noeud papillon. 

Ma mère aime beaucoup trop son fils. 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

Voici des personnes qui figuraient sur CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.

Ces gens sont incroyables et m'inspirent pour la nouvelle année. 

Aki Ra

Anuradha Koirala

Harmon Parker

J'aime bien surfer sur divers travel blogs et sites de voyage.

28 thing I wish I'd known before I started travelling 

26. Be prepared to represent your country, whether you care about politics or not. For better or worse, many people will expect you to know a lot about politics in your home country and how governmental decisions in one country affect the lives of people thousands of miles away. Don’t say you’re from Canada unless you really are.

Praise the Lord, I'm Canadian! I won't have to lie...

28. No matter whom you are talking to, never say anything negative about the government of the country you are in. Many rogue states, from Zimbabwe to Iran to North Korea, employ English-speaking spies who will deliberately try to incite foreign visitors into saying something incriminating. (I’m not making this up. In Guinea I was followed by the Secret Service everywhere I went. A friend of mine went to North Korea and found an extensive tape recording system in his hotel room.)

Comme dans les films d'action américains...

This morning, my family missed the flight from Montreal to HK 

Seems I'll only get to see them on the 28th
2 days before the wedding
ZOMG

While I'm starting to forget even the mere concept of shovelling, 

I get a pinch of disappointment when I try to explain winter to my kids.

Snowman? Santa Claus? Snow? Igloo? Snowball? 

They just don't understand why there are 4 seasons : It feels like it's summer all year long!

Maybe because there's no snow (18°C)

or because it's the first Christmas I'm not spending at home with mom, dad, bro, 

Maxou, Cristina and co... 

           

But it doesn't feel like Christmas at all.  

Guangzhou

Math and Simon took the train to Guangzhou around noon while I had to wait around supper time because of 2 tutorials. After a ferry ride + a taxi ride + a train ride + a subway ride and a short walk (good thing I only had my purse, passport and Anna Gavalda book), I finally arrived at the hostel late in the evening.

And this is way too sad but I have no pictures of the AWESOME street food we had that night. Oysters, a whole fish, corn, chicken and lamb skewers, roasted eggplants, fresh coconut juice (just like in Brazil) and fresh sugarcane juice. 

so cheap...

We basically ordered from a street vendor, took a seat while they were cooking, ate, paid and moved on to the next stall.

The next morning on the ferry

The ferry was so cheap we didn't understand at first. We were like: "What? 50 cents yuan? Is that like 7 Canadian cents?" Good thing I kept some spare change from our last trip to China.

This lady was adorable. She had the sweetest smile and sold steamed corns for 2 yuans. That's like  -euuuh-  30 cents. I felt so cold, I wanted to buy her whole stock.

At famous Pan Xi Restaurant (since 1947)

Rabbit-shaped shrimp dumplings, rabbit-shaped dessert (not sure what was in it), piggy or ram-shaped taro dessert ?!?

I think it looked better than it tasted.

Otherwise, we also went to eat wild dog meat stew which was good.

For supper, we went for shark fin soup (probably fake), sea cucumber entrée, steamed turtle, eggplant casserole, sweet and sour pork and double-layer milk pudding. 

sea cucumber :)

I didn't really like turtle. It was sticky and skinny.

We also went shopping + visiting the Chen Clan Academy and Five Rams Statue in between meals. (Fun but the food is much more interesting.)

Overall, Guangzhou was über nice! Except the fact that it was freaking cold and raining all day, I could have spent more time eating and shopping :)

During my French lesson with Serena and Yvonne...

P: Okay, so here it says..."Si j'ai de l'argent, j'achète..."

S: Cartier!

P: Wowww, perfect pronunciation Serena!

S: See? This is proof I was listening during all these hours. 

Y: Yeah, I think it would be more effective if we learn brand names... 

So now I'm starting a list: 

L'Oréal 

Christian Dior 

L'Occitane 

Chanel

Toblerone

Lanvin

Yves Saint-Laurent

Jean-Paul Gautier

Christian Lacroix

Étienne's girlfriend is in town so we decided to go eat. (Any reason is good actually.)

Poor girl, she lost her luggage with Air Canada and expects to get it back at some point in time.

However, after Natalia's experience with the same airline when we went to Brazil, I wouldn't have much hope... 

Let's pray she didn't bring her all-time favorites in that suitcase.

As usual, I was too busy eating so I forgot to take pictures of our wonderful meal. It was hotpot for 7, with side dishes of spicy frog legs and spicy chicken-running-on-the-floor?!?, and a few bottles of Harbin beer.

At some very popular dessert place Cedric brought us to:

5 yummy Chinese desserts

It's funny because we always get this kind of dessert after a meal in Chinatown. But I never enjoyed them because they rarely taste really good. Hence, I've always associated Chinese desserts with cheapness. Now, I know better.

This guy in the bus was sound asleep and blocking the whole alley with his big head which was at a 

90° angle from his body. He sure is flexible! 

Absolutely needed to share this moment with you. Especially when a 4-year-old girl (at this age, they start to develop attitude as I have experienced lately...) woke him by yelling: Hey mister, I need to get off NOW! 

h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s

I know it's -10 and snowing in Montreal while in Hong Kong, it's merely 11 °C with no chance of building a snowman whatsoever. But I can't shake off the feeling that it's winter since I'm literally freezing my ass off here.

Math and I went with Simon to Guangzhou (just 2 hours of train up north) for 2 nights and darn it, I caught a bad cold and was feverish (I dreamt of Hell's Kitchen, no kidding).

Back home, my auntie gave us an extra plush blanket which is quite heavy and warm (I like the feeling of being crushed under a blanket). Plus, a small heater. But the wind is still coming through the 2 air con and the bathroom fan.

Just to think I was still wearing a t-shirt last week drives me crazy...

PS. (While I was sick and stayed in for a day in Guangzhou, the hostel was playing the whole first season of Prison Break. It may be old news for you, but it's certainly fresh news to me: Micheal is SOOOOO cute/The show is worth watching. MUST MUST MUST watch it after I'm done with Amazing Race 17.)

Things here are often cheaply made or hastily sewed. Good thing I brought some needles, threads, scissors and extra buttons.

Miam miam! Hailey and Tova's parents gave me a box of yummy cookies as a Christmas gift. It took a lot of restraint to not polish them off in a day. They sure treat their tutors well here :)

2nd episode: Venus strikes again


V: Pat, are you rich? 
P: No, why? Do I look rich? 
V: Yes, you are fat. Fat people have many many money.


She's 4 years old and about to get spanked. 

This morning with my little Venus... 


V: Pat, you are very naughty!
P: Why? 
V: Because you eat candy but you are fat. 


O_o


Wow, good thing I'm not toooooo self-conscious. Otherwise, I would have broke down and cry. 


La vérité sort de la bouche des enfants. 

It was my cousin Carmen and her boyfriend Ivan's marriage registration day. Although the ceremony was supposed to include a small number of people, 30+ guests attended the event. 

Chinese people taking pictures of the couple while they said their vows and sign official papers. 

At some point during the ceremony, I was laughing so bad with my auntie (she REALLY reminds of my mom. Like duhhh, she's my mom's younger sister) that I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Another auntie thought I was being emotional about the whole marriage/wedding thing.

Taking pictures outside the government office

Carmen's wedding gown consisted of layers of lace topped with a fur since it's December, hence "winter". She had white flowers in her hair and a long veil which went all the way down to the floor. 

Carmen absolutely adores her bouquet and refused to throw it. Sorry unmarried ladies! No one will get to be the next bride... Not that my dear cousin cares :) 

The moment we got off the boat from Hong Kong to Macau, we thought it was summer all over again. Darn it, how can a place not even an hour away can be so much hotter? Definitely regretted not wearing a nice dress or some shorts. 

Ruins of St Paul's 

The Venetian

There wasn't much to do except walking around and spotting some tourist attractions. Casinos were pretty much the same after we have visited a few. And since the one we have in Montreal is already a nice one, I wasn't much impressed and got bored quickly. However, we did abuse of the free drinks they offer hehehe... même si ma tante a peté ma bulle par la suite en m'informant qu'ils offraient aussi des snacks si on avait gardé l'oeil ouvert...

autre facette de Macau

Taipa village

our crew

roasted chestnuts

The greatest disappointment was Macau's famous eggtarts. I thought it would taste like Portuguese eggtarts (since Macau used to be a Portuguese colony) but it was more like the regular-oh-so-boring Chinese eggtarts but with a burnt look.

Pastéis de nata

On the other hand, I enjoyed very much several local dishes including pato de cabidela (un ragoût au sang de poulet et herbes), caldo verde (soupe aux patates, chou et saucisses) et Galinha à africana (poulet dans une sauce épicée). 

pato de cabidela

caldo verde

Galinha à africana

Oh noes, was that considered another post related to food again???

"Ah, je pensais que les masques lavaient la face en décollant les saletés."