Tag Archives: Quebec

Last day à Montréal

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(A word about the image above…I walked by this pile of snow each day when I went to UQAM. I thought it was so pretty that I just had to share it…haha. I remember such piles from my years growing up in Iowa!)

Last night, I enjoyed watching the Montréal Canadiens defeat the Ottawa Sénateurs in the first round of Stanley Cup play-offs. The Canadiens won 4-3 with 6 of the 7 goals being scored in the second period! It was quite exciting to watch, even though I know very little about hockey. I’m thinking that all hockey games aren’t that rocambolesque (i.e., incredible), but who am I to say? I think the Montrealers had a bit more bounce in their collective step today.

I headed to the office mid-morning and worked through some literature for awhile before giving gifts and saying goodbyes. Bob and Ariane were so welcoming this week, and I feel very fortunate to have made these connections. Between the student strike and Bob leaving for Australia Monday (goodness, that has got to be a long flight from Quebec!), my timing could have been better. Nonetheless, it was a beneficial collaboration, and Bob has invited me to stay in touch, do online surveys at UQAM, and even incorporate his theory on passion into my work. I hope our paths cross again one day.

After lunching in my hotel room and checking in for my flights (yay!), I set out on foot to return to my favorite part of this city: Vieux Montréal , where Reed and I went Saturday. Today was much warmer and I knew the way, so it was a very enjoyable two hours of site-seeing and walking. I again saw the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, strolled down Rue St Paul, and I even walked through China Town (that’s for you, Abbie!). Also, I ducked into La Baie, which is the Hudson Bay Company, Canada’s iconic department store.

When I returned to the hotel, it was warm enough that I could sit on the balcony and read for awhile, so that was a treat (especially with my west-facing view). I am so excited to return to my family tomorrow, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my week, and I have learned so much. Even though the culture here is somewhat familiar, it still holds many opportunities for increased awareness about cross-cultural considerations. I will file away this experience in my sabbatical folder, but I will return to it often for further contemplation.

Mes recherches à Montréal est terminée!

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Yesterday the vote was to continue the student strike (i.e., grève), so that’s not good news for the UQAM campus. The photo below briefly describes this…I took it from this morning’s paper (it even focuses on the 5000 social sciences’ students). The mood on campus was somber when I arrived today. I haven’t observed any protests, and I have heard that they have been well controlled, but is isn’t good news for the community. I hope both sides can work out their differences and find common ground soon. I guess there was a similar strike in 2012 that lasted 8 months!

I ventured out to complete my remaining surveys after working in the office awhile. It was good to touch base with Bob, Ariane, and two of the students (both named Jérémie). They all asked how my data collection was going, and they were so pleased by my report. I think us research nerds are the same around the world – super excited for data-gathering success!

I struck out at Desjardins…it was overwhelming during lunchtime. Imagine the Lloyd Mall food court packed full of people conversing at small tables. I did a couple of laps and chickened out…I almost approached a table of three women until I saw that they were conversing via sign language! So, I went back over to the campus food court…familiar territory. It was about 1:30 by this point, so most had finished lunch. However, there were two tables of non-students (my target audience) who were willing to help. Three who started surveys discontinued midway through, so that was kind of a bummer, but I was pleased to have a few responses from people outside of the 18- to 22-year-old range.

I stopped at the market on my way back “home” for a few last provisions to cover the next two days (I don’t like eating out alone, and I have a fridge, toaster, etc. in my room). It feels good to have finished my research here in Montréal and to have made some new connections in academia. Tomorrow I will go to campus one last time to be among my new “colleagues.” I will have some time for site-seeing in the warm sunshine as well. It should be a nice way to wrap up sabbatical research trip #2!

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Research ups & downs (but mostly ups)

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Yesterday I met the researcher at the Université Québec à Montréal (UQAM) I had contacted last fall. His name is Robert Vallerand, and he has been studying motivation, passion, and other constructs related to positive psychology and social behaviors for about 30 years. I ran across some of his articles when working on my literature review for my study. He very generously agreed to collaborate and share his expertise with me. You can read more about his research lab here.

Bob’s assistant, Ariane, also has been very gracious, even getting me keys for office space and wifi access. Today, I got to sit in on a lab meeting for Bob’s research team. I was greeted via email this morning with the following meeting reminder: “Bonjour à tous, Un petit rappel pour le lab meeting aujourd’hui à 11h30. À tantôt!” I think I like appointment reminders better when they’re in French. 

The team members, consisting of a couple of undergrad students and about four grad students, plus Bob and Ariane, shared their research projects, all of which relate to passion. We had fruitful discussions of how harmonious and obsessive passion connect with meaning in life (my topic), and it was a great experience to exchange ideas. Bob encouraged me to look into presenting my research at the next European Network for Positive Psychology conference, which will be in Angers, France, in 2016. (This was before he knew I was there last month, or that we are contemplating how to get there with students in 2016, so I was blown away by the connection!)

Anyway, the people here have been wonderful – part of the “ups” of doing research in another country. My timing, however, is part of the “downs” as there is a student strike now at UQAM. Needless to say, this makes finding research participants a challenge. Not all sections of this large university (~40,000 students) are striking, and I don’t know the details (Google them), but many students are participating, including most psychology students. Therefore, I cannot go into a couple of classes and get my surveys done efficiently.

The research team helped me brainstorm about alternatives, and today I was successful in getting 22 student surveys at a food court on campus! (My goal at each site is 30, though this likely will not be possible in Haiti…I’ll worry about that next month.) I’d like to have some adults outside the 18-22 age range too, so tomorrow I will go to Place des Arts and Complexes Desjardins, a cultural and shopping area, complete with more food courts. It pushes me outside my comfort zone to approach people in French to ask them about completing my surveys, but I figure the worst they can do is say “no” (and think I’m a bit strange).

After my research day was done, I walked about 1.5 miles to the more “French” part of the city, hoping to be reminded of Paris un petit peu. Mais non…pas aujourd’hui. I did find a Starbucks and Gap though (please read the sarcasm in that statement). The French language is more prevalent here than I expected, but the French influence in other ways is not as present as I had hoped. Still, I’m so glad to be here and am learning a lot. It’s such a good experience to go to new cultures as many lessons await.

 

Weekend escape to Montreal…week of research ahead

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Reed and I had a little get-away to Montreal, Quebec, this weekend. I’ll be doing some research here this week as part of my sabbatical project, and it was real bonus to get to kick it off with my husband as my travel buddy. We were quite delayed out of Portland Thursday night, but thankfully, we made our connection in Newark and arrived in Montreal Friday morning. It was rainy, windy, and cold to start, but the skies have cleared and I am looking forward to a few warm, sunny days here. There is a lot of evidence around of a brutal winter here, so I think the québécois people are ready for spring!

Friday we got to know our neighborhood; we are staying downtown, not far from the University of Quebec where I’ll be working (we are also very close to McGill College, so there are lots of students around). We found some crêpes for a late lunch, and I enjoyed chocolate fondu for dessert. We got a few groceries, rested a bit, and made our plan for the weekend. In the evening, we walked to Benelux, a brewery that got high marks online, even from Portlanders. It did not disappoint, and we went back Saturday for another pint of “American IPA,” which doesn’t really even make sense. Anyway…

Saturday we ventured out via bus and metro to Vieux Montreal (i.e., the old part of the city). We first visited the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal, which is basically a smaller version of the one in Paris. It also contains Chapelle Notre-Dame du Sacré Cœur, which is a smaller chapel behind the main altar…this is where Celine Dion was married, if there are any fans out there. We hit a few souvenir shops…no big purchases as we are good on hockey and winter gear. Well, and Reed is repulsed by all of the maple flavored sweets.

We walked to Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, which in Montreal‘s oldest chapel, dating back to 1771. It is also known as the Sailors’ Church and has model ships hanging from the ceiling, which I was quite fond of. We walked to the port, and we were still searching for what people like so much about Montreal. So far, it was a bit less than impressive. Then we wandered onto St. Paul Street. This was what we were looking for. It is a quaint, old cobblestone street with lots of cafés and shops. We settled into a little French-inspired café and had some quiche for lunch. It was delightful.

We sojourned on to the other side of the city to see Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal. This huge shrine on a big hill is where pilgrims flock in hopes of miraculous cures. Brother Andre, a humble cleric, attributed his curative powers to Joseph, and Andre petitioned for donations to build the oratory. It is the second largest dome in the world, after St. Peter’s in Rome. It was finished in 1967, 30 years after Andre’s death. He was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict in 2010, as the two posthumous miracles required by the Catholic Church occurred in 1958 (cured cancer victim) & 1999 (boy emerged from a coma). At the oratory, you see discarded crutches, canes, and wheelchairs, supposed evidence of healing. We took in a mass while we were there, which was good of course, and we checked out all of the Oratory’s features, from the crypt church to the votive chapel and the dome, of course…even Brother Andre’s heart is on display! It was an interesting experience…you’ll have to ask Reed for his take on it all!

Today we enjoyed lunch at an English pub with a large selection of Scotch. The Manchester United vs. Manchester City match was on, so it was quite a boisterous crowd. Reed packed up and I left him at the bus stop, headed to the airport…definitely the low point of the weekend. I walked to the Musée des Beaux-Arts (art museum) and strolled through the many exhibitions for a couple of hours to take my mind off his departure. I enjoyed seeing works from Degas, Monet, Renoir, Matisse, Rembrandt, Rodin, Picasso, and Dali. I walked back to the hotel in the warm sunshine, so that helped me feel a bit better too. I’m just not the same person without Reed by my side!

I am so thankful for our weekend escape and the new memories that were made. Now it’s time to get to work on my research so I can jet back home on Friday! Here’s hoping for a productive, and quick week…