Up in the Air

I accompanied Lainy to the Albany Airport to pick up a friend of hers from her time in grad school in Boston. I had the day off and had met this friend before so I was happy to go along. We hear that the plane has been delayed so we take our time.

We arrive with plenty of time to spare so we grab some coffees and check out the art gallery. Since I'm usually the one getting picked up, I've never had the time to browse this; I never even knew there was a gallery in Albany International. I liked the calmness of it all, however the fact there were nearby offices turned me off a bit. Who wants to think about work when they are perusing artwork?

We head back downstairs to wait for Lainy's friend to arrive.

I'm one of those types that really enjoy being in airports. Usually, this is associated with the fact that I will be traveling to some far off destination and I feel completely excited because of this, but I also like being there as a non-traveler. It fills me with the urge to travel, to jump on a plane heading anywhere and escape for a bit. But I'm content now. I don't want to escape.

Sitting in the waiting area, I see all the non-travelers excitedly waiting for some significant person to stroll through the gate. Respectively, the expressions of the travelers are intriguing as well . Their eyes dart back and forth looking for whoever is supposed to meet them. Their eyes light up and they smile as if they're the only ones in the room. In a sense they are for that moment; everyone else vanishes. Even the lone travelers who know that no one is there to meet them glance around for familiar faces, wanting for someone to be on the other side of that gate. I know I've been there.

Lainy's friend arrives and we excitedly greet her. After the first few moments it's back to normal as if time hasn't passed between the two friends. I like that; that time is irrelevant.

New, Old Bike!

Yesterday I finally put the effort in to purchasing a new bicycle. It's a beautiful, blue vintage bike that is quite striking if I do say so myself. I have been wanting to get one since I moved to Albany, but just haven't dedicated the time to do so.
I took the advice of others who told me to look on Craigslist. There weren't loads of bikes available under 100 bucks, so luckily the one I found was perfect for me. It's definitely vintage, with a denim seat cover and handlebar covers. It's in wonderful condition for an older bike and has a lot of power to it. I took it for a spin yesterday around the park and it rides like a charm.

Now I can finally bike to the food co-op and around the park. Hooray to my nouvelle bicyclette!

La Belle Montréal

Finally having some time to take off since I've finished working on the ESL programs, I decided to take a trip to La Belle Montréal. A couple friends and I were supposed to go on Thursday after work. A conversation in a bar about French and being abroad led to this spontaneous decision. Unfortunately, the plans fell through for them after being told that it wasn't possible to take Friday off. After wrestling with the idea, I decided that I would go regardless. I was looking forward to this all week. So, I went alone.

This wasn't the first time that I took a trip by myself (that would be Mexico earlier this summer) and I wasn't really alone as I was meeting up with some friends who live in Montreal. I planned to meet up with a friend from home, Bob, who I haven't seen in a few years and just finished up his degree in Montreal. Another friend, let's call her Mon Amie, who I met a year ago through my new favorite activity (some may call obsession) called CouchSurfing, invited me to crash at her apartment.

After briefly catching up with Mon Amie before she went to work, I took a brisk walk to the nearest Metro station. I eagerly approached the local gas station employee to ask for directions in French. Ok well, we spoke in English but I did ask if she spoke English in French. It's a start. I realized I had no Canadian currency, or Monopoly Money as my mother always referred to it growing up, and had to find an ATM. This led to my first encounter with non-English speaking Quebecois! After throwing in a few words in French, and a myriad hand signals, I got some cash and bought my 3 day Metro pass.

Mon Amie worked until midnight and Bob and his band were shooting a music video on a boat somewhere until 9 so I had a few hours to explore. I walked around aimlessly for awhile, bought a map since I couldn't find the tourist center and gave the rest of the fries that I couldn't eat to some friendly vagabonds from Vancouver. I was quite tired so I grabbed une biere at my favorite poutine place, Frite Alor.

Bob invited me to a book debut of a friend of his who just published a book of short stories. It was held in someone's apartment downtown and it turned out to be quite interesting. We listened to the author read some of his stories, drank some Tecates, and listened to his friends' band play a few songs.

Thanks to the great Metro and bus system, I managed to make it back right on time to meet Mon Amie to go to a party that she invited me to. We drove through the rich "English" section of town, far from her own neighborhood that she referred to as "Proletariat." This was a good introduction as I got to meet several self-proclaimed anti-capitalists, social democrats, anarchists and Québec separatists. Clearly, to say that I was excited would be an understatement. I learned some interesting things about Quebec politics and their relationship with the rest of Canada, which to many of these folks is another country.

The following day Mon Amie introduced me to perhaps my favorite Quebecois novelty; Bixi bikes. These are bikes that you rent for five bucks that you can use for up to 24 hours. You can only use them for 30 minutes at a time in order to allow everyone a chance at riding them. There are tons of pick-up/drop-off stations throughout the city so if your time is running up, you just have to drop off the bike and pick up a new one...simplicity. We went all around the city in these bikes, stopping in between to walk around the old section, grab a bite to eat and watch the fireworks at night.

The last day we visited the Mont Royal Park. There was a massive jumbai drumming session that takes place every Sunday over the summer. I was a little out of it after two nights of the Montreal night life so this relaxation was much appreciated.

Throughout much of the weekend I caught myself daydreaming about living in this ville magnifique. Maybe some day...

Je t'aime Montréal

Bureaucracy in Action

As much as I believe, or want to believe, that in an ideal world, the State can provide services as efficiently as the private sector, I found out that this day has yet to arrive in Albany.

I came to this dreaded conclusion after spending a mere two hours at the UAlbany campus. Thanks to Siena, I am able to study towards obtaining a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at UAlbany. I figured that I would get my feet wet by applying as a non-degree seeking student and just take one class this upcoming semester to see how I can balance work and school. Pretty straight forward enough I thought.

After the initial excitement of getting accepted waned, I was informed that I need to contact my adviser who holds a certain PIN needed for the registration process. After two months of unsuccessful attempts to contact this professor and the department by telephone and email (which I had to search for online as it was not provided) I was almost tempted to facebook the prof as he showed up somehow one day when I was looking through gmail contacts. Desperate times...

Alas, I decided to go to the campus and get some answers. In my acceptance letter, I was given an information sheet about obtaining my SUNY Card, getting a parking pass, using the gym etc. Easy enough, I thought. Let's get my SUNY Card.

I make my way to the office and inquire about this card. "You have to be registered for your classes first. And, oh, I think you need an AVN (this is the PIN)." Luckily the Registrar's is right behind me. After explaining that I know I need my AVN but haven't heard back from my adviser, I'm told, "You need your AVN to register for classes and only he can give you that." They point me in the direction of the department's office. I head over there feeling more and more anxious that I'm not going to get any answers.

Sure enough, all of the offices of the department had the lights shut off and the doors locked. No office hours listed. No signs that would indicate that their offices were simply closed or that they were gone for the summer. I return to the previous two offices I visited and explain the urgency of my situation. Deadlines are coming up, I want to get into the system and be ready for this upcoming semester and I have a full time job so I can't continue to take time off to keep coming here, paying the five bucks for parking and not knowing if I will get this number which has impeded every single process to becoming a student at the University. I'm told that someone may be able to get me my AVN at the office of General Advisement. The buck has been passed.

I find my way to this office thanks to the guidance of an older security guard. I speak with a PhD student who informs me that they can't help me out because my adviser is the only one on campus who holds this secret information. After explaining that I was only looking to take one class, the student asks who the professor is. "Oh yeah, I think he's on vacation now." Surprise. "Talk to the folks over at General Studies, they might be able to help you." Are we starting to see a pattern?

Office number four, here we go. "Is this the office for non-degree seeking students?" I inquire, "Yes it is." Finally, success! After showing them my paperwork, I am told that they only advise undergrad students, not graduate students. I start to reach a melting point, almost converting me into an ardent free trade market capitalist who's only desire is to privatize everything to avoid this bureaucratic nonsense...well that's not true, but I was immensely frustrated to say the least. But fortunately for me, and for all parties involved, this was the only office who made phone calls to the department, looked up some information on the website and found out that the department is closed until Monday. At Siena, this would have been step one and I would have saved myself a couple hours and a near ideological meltdown.

For kicks and giggles, I head over to the office of Transport and Parking to inquire about registering my vehicle. I fill out the paperwork and when I'm called in line, I'm told, "This should be no problem as long as you have your AVN and are registered for classes."

I smile and walk away.

Summer in Albany

It's remarkable that it has been only two months since I moved into my apartment/new home in Albany. I just finished coordinating and running two back-to-back summer ESL sessions and finally I have a clear moment to reflect. The busy nature of these ESL sessions has somewhat impeded me from getting more involved in the Albany community as I ideally hoped for. Which is fine now that I will have some more free time.

It's been exciting, stressful, and fun, so there are no complaints from my end. However, it is bizarre to think that only 3 months ago, I was working non-stop for the study abroad provider and living and traveling around in Mexico. My life has changed dramatically; but I think the change can benefit me. As content as I am at this moment, I do have the sudden urge to zip off to another country; France was the recent daydream after watching a French film but Brazil also continues to creep in my thoughts.

Daydreaming aside, I do feel that this summer has been progressing along well. I joined a wonderful organic food co-op, I am in full force now with Couchsurfing, I bought a small car that's good on gas, I did some hiking and swimming, I went to my first wedding of a friend, I'm getting more serious about the guitar and I met up with friends from home, university and made some new ones along the way. I still have some big ideas though to make this Albany experience that much better. I'm creating a language exchange which will hopefully take off towards the end of the month, I need to buy a bike and I need to take some weekend trips (Montreal, Toronto, Cape Cod).

All in all, it's been a good couple of months...