Boston Revisited

I got back to Boston a few days ago...it's a really beautiful city. While it's been nice to have some time off of classes and studying, I've been missing my friends lately...they've all gone home too...except one international student staying on campus for the break. After four months of spending all my time less than a minute away from my best friends to being 920 kilometres away from anybody but family it was a little tough.

As I said before...I've only lived in Boston for about a week before I got back. It's a great city...but it felt a little strange...like I was just a tourist. (Side note: Locals will know you're not from Boston if you follow the cross-walk signals.)

Today I had the chance to walk around the city a bit and took some pictures...some of them re-makes of earlier ones plus a little snow. Despite all of the noise and lack of working cross-walk signals it was really nice. I'm getting a bit more used to the idea of spending the summer here. It'll be yet another opportunity to start over in a new city with new people and then move on.

I got around to finishing my holiday (come get me Bill O'Reilly) shopping and applied for my passport, which is required to cross into the US land border crossings starting this summer.

Assuming all goes as planned I'll be posting a lot more about Boston in about four months. Once I get all of my grades back I'll be writing a little retrospective about my first semester classes. But for now take a look at a few pictures of Boston:

Visiting Mount Allison

As it gets closer and closer to the new year I'm reminded of when I first visited Mount Allison in February. I know I've talked about it before...but as it's getting closer and closer to admissions deadlines...if you've given any thought to Mount Allison and you're not sure about it, you can schedule a visit very easily. When I visited we got caught in a blizzard..and it was freezing cold the entire time...and most people were smart enough to stay indoors...but walking around campus it was really worth it. To be able to see where I might be living was great...and really reassured me I'd be happy there.

And again, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them by clicking on the comments link below.

Ghost Bees at Struts

In my last few days in Sackville before I came back to Boston for Christmas I went to a small performance at the Struts (Sackville's Artist-Run Art Gallery) and saw the interesting artwork they have up followed by a few warm up artists (part-time garage band type groups) followed by a duo that more than made up for the earlier acts. Ghost Bees was an amazing end to the night. (There a lot of great bands from Canada...and I'll be posting about some of my favourites soon. For now there is the playlist to the right.) From CBC Radio 3:

Ghost Bees’ are twin sisters Romy and Sari Lightman, and Amber Phelps Bonderoff. Over antique mandolin, guitar, and violist accompaniment, Ghost Bees’ weave delicate harmonies, dispensing dramatic tales and sorrowful lament like a two headed balladeer
In the formative stages of thier career, Ghost Bees have already embarked upon two cross-Canada tours, as well as performances in New York, New Orleans, LA, San Francisco, and various cities throughout the California Coast. In November 2006, Ghost Bees released a self titled EP, selling nearly 1000 hand-made copies of the album at live performances.

In April 2008, the band will release their debut album, Tasseomancy. Recorded and produced by YouthClub Records coordinator, Andy March (Museum Pieces), Tasseomancy is a collection of songs imparting tales of past empires and great great ancestry; fabled figures and forgotten woe, with vocals appendage together like bones. The sisters’ literary tales emit a sense of mesmerizing fantasy and nostalgia, resurrecting the experience of their birth in Sinai and the terror of the Pol Pot Regime in Tear Tassle Ogre Heart. The whimsical melody in Vampires of the West Coast illustrates the sisters’ ability to erect dark inventive landscapes within the mundane. Ghost Bees’ lyrics address the perils of the bleak and frightening and create delicate and chimerical songs that are overwrought with intensity and intuitive harmonies that are eerily unusual and equally as captivating. Ghost Bees create their music within the majestic hearth of Halifax, Nova Scotia

"As duo Ghost Bees, twin sisters Romy and Sari Lightman make music snuggled between slumber and waking state - a still, peaceful, little disorienting and slightly strange place". - the coast

Sinai was their opening song:

The Canadian Invasion

Speaking of border crossing and national security. I just stumbled
acrossa couple pretty funny videos parodying the Department of
Homeland Security's over-zealousness...along with a few jabs at Canada:






To be serious for a minute there are also new border crossing
requirements that Canadians and Americans should be aware of:

The Department of State recommends that travelers apply now
for travel documents that will be required at all land or sea border
entry points as of June 1, 2009. On that date, under the Western
Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) U.S. citizens will be required
to present a government-approved document that denotes both
citizenship and identity when entering the United States.

With few exceptions, Canadians and Americans will need a
passport or enhanceddriver's license to cross the border
beginning June 1, 2009. The State Department even set
up a flash website devoted to clearly explaining the new changes:
http://www.getyouhome.gov/

"Homeland Security"

A few weeks ago, as I was checking out what the
other Mount Allison Bloggers were writing about,
I came across a little snippet about Jerilea Zempel.
Apparently over the summer she created an 'artistic
exhibit'consisting of a black SUV covered in yarn on
the University's Swan Pond.

It was originally described as an exhibit transforming "an oversized, macho, gas-guzzling vehicle into a technological ghost by shrouding it a white, fuzzy cover, reminiscent of women’s handwork from another time, another place."

However, after being stopped at the border she was pulled aside and her car was searched and she was questioned, and she was finally welcomed to the US, she responded “US..SR,” under her breath, and "At that moment the car cozy in Sackville took on a new absurd and infuriating meaning: it was my Homeland Security Blanket."

Somehow the Colbert Report picked up n the "story" and had a short segment about it. Because of a recent deal between CTV owned-Comedy Network and Comedy Central, you can't access videos from the Comedy Central website from Canada or access Comedy Network website from the US. So here is the link to the video in Canada (which doesn't offer an embed option) and below is the video for people in the US:

The Colbert Report

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Her story is a bit more about overzealous border guards
than "Homeland Security" It's certainly not as alarming
as stories detailing new, expanded authority given to
border guards allowing them to "copy books, documents,
and the data on laptops and other electronic devices
without suspecting a traveler of wrongdoing" and to stop,
search, and detain anybody they want without probable
cause within 100 miles of the border. There have been a
lot of measures that intrude on personal privacy and the
Constitution...but this one seems to cross the leap cross
over the line bit too far.

I understand how it is important to be able to set up
checkpoints past the physical border, but in practice
is far too widespread to be limited to legitimate
national security concerns, as internal security is not
the job of the border guards.

"Third Culture Kid": Being Canadian-American and not having a home

The other day I was talking to someone about how excited they were to go home...and somewhat out of the blue she said something along the lines of "well at least I have a home where people know me" and it sort of got to me a bit. (I actually don't have any friends in Boston I've only actually been there a week...and most of my old friends lived around Vancouver and Chicago and have since spread across North America) When explaining to people where I'm from it often took a while...with the end result being one or both of us concluding that I'm homeless. I've talked about my travels a bit in earlier posts, but right now I'm going to detail it and talk about being what Ruth Hill Useem coined a "Third Culture Kid" means to me.

First off...to give you an idea of my life so far...

I was born in Quebec...moved to a Chicago suburb at age four... Moved around the suburbs a few times...living part-time in Chicago. Then living part-time near Chicago and part-time just outside St. Louis. I then received US citizenship and later moved to British Columbia for a year, moved back to a Chicago suburb for a year, and then to Boston a week before I moved here. I tried counting the number of 'homes' I've lived in and I came up with over a dozen.

Now to being a 'third culture kid'. As the U.S. State Department puts it:

Third-culture kids are those who have spent some of their growing up years in a foreign country and experience a sense of not belonging to their passport country when they return to it. In adapting to life in a 'foreign' country they have also missed learning ways of their homeland and feel most at home in the 'third-culture' which they have created.

I don't think there are any two countries as similar to each other as the U.S. and Canada...and in fact the original study on Third Culture Kids was on North American children living in India, but I've also had the feeling of not having a real home. It's hard to fully tell someone where I'm from in less than thirty words. To Canadians it's usually something like this: Well I was born in Quebec but I've moved around a bit. I moved to the States for a while, around Chicago. I moved up to BC for a while, back to Chicago, and then to Boston and then here.
Then I might go on to say: To be honest I probably liked my time in BC the best...but I went to a better school outside of Chicago...but I don't think I'd move back there.
Do you see how it might be a little complicated?

There are websites dedicated to people in similar situations (albeit most of them have much more varied backgrounds)...and they have a list of answers to the question "Where are you from?" I've probably used ten of them and some of my own:

“Somewhere out there”

Do you want the long version or the short version?

Pick a country—any country!

Are you asking where I was born, where I grew up, where my parents are from, or what kind of passport I have?

When I find out I’ll let you know.

Please don’t ask.

Um, it’s kind of hard to explain…

Do you have enough time for this?

Technically, I’m from…but my parents are from…but I grew up…and I do/don’t speak…but I like living…but technically I’m from…

Are you sure you want to know?

That’s a tough question.

You know, I wish I knew.

Um, it depends.

I don’t know.

Well, all over the world really. Where are you from?

Just a sampling of the situations so far that I've felt somewhat out of place, in the (very small) minority, defensive, out of the loop, upset, or confused:
Political Science: Which system is better, presidential or parliamentary?;
Canadian History: Everything, especially when hearing what Canadians say about the American Revolution (the British stopped fighting because they were too busy in Europe) and the War of 1812 (the Americans really didn't win);
Watching Canadian News: especially the most recent political news...I thought Canadian government was democratic;
Being asked if I identify as American or Canadian (I answered "Umm...I dunno...both?);
Any political discussion...especially about Canadian politics...or American politics;
Constant America-bashing...it's pretty well deserved...but it gets old sometimes;
Telling people I'm renewing my passports;
Price gouging especially in this small town, hours from any major city (There aren't any in New Brunswick...unless you count Moncton)

It has been a bit of an adjustment, not only to living at University, but to living back in Canada. I've been reconciling being told (somewhat jokingly, I hope) that I'm not a real Canadian for various reasons (including because I sometimes mock Canadian government, politics, and culture in favor of the US) and feeling a bit distant from some mainstream Canadian perceptions (especially of the U.S.) ...with my past nostalgia...seeing Canada as the pristine country of my birth.