The Intriguing World of TV Spies

Recently I've watched a few different TV shows about spies and have been thinking quite a bit about the things that go along with being one. My aunt, uncle and I went to the Spy museum in DC back in the fall of 2006. It is a really cool museum. Unfortunately I don't remember that many details of our visit but I do remember reading a story about this couple (it's all a bit hazy so I can't remember everything) where the man was a Russian spy and his wife didn't find out until after he died! It must have been just so crazy to find something like that out after your husband dies. The next time I go to DC (and I do really want to go visit L. there) I will for sure go to the spy museum again.

D. and I started watching the show Homeland this past fall (we watched both season 1 which had aired the previous fall and season 2 which aired this past fall) and I am really into it! It has really sparked my interest in the CIA. I added some books about the history of the CIA to my Amazon wishlist and I look forward to reading them at some point. Claire Danes' character is an analyst - not a spy - as are most of the people she works with; so even though they are not spies I still think it works to talk about that show here. D. and I watched half (to be honest the movie was a bit slow and we just never went back and finished the whole thing) of the movie Fair Game which is based on that CIA spy Valerie Plame who Dick Cheney outed as a spy. Both Plame and her husband wrote memoirs about the incident (both of which are on my Amazon wishlist as well) which I am curious to read. Plame, unlike Carrie (Claire Danes' character on Homeland) was a spy, and thus could not tell her friends or family (including her husband and kids) about her assignments, where she was going, etc. Her friends didn't even know she was a spy or worked for the CIA. Spies had always seemed glamourous to me. (I imagined tall attractive people in trenchcoats walking down dark rainy streets.) The idea of continually getting to try different personas and be someone you're not at first seemed appealing. But when I think about it, not being able to tell people who you really are and what you really do seem like really acute downsides.

I imagined spies wearing trench coats like this.

Another show I've just begun to watch in the past few months is The Americans. I have long been fascinated with Russia/the Soviet Union and the Cold War and this show is all about that! It takes place during the early 1980s in Washington DC and is about a seemingly all-American couple named Elizabeth and Phillip who are actually secret KGB spies. Elizabeth is played by Keri Russell who I have loved ever since she played Chloe on Malibu Shores way back in the day. (Side note: the movie Salt with Angelina Jolie also deals with Russian spies in the USA and it is a really good movie!) The show is really interesting. In addition to all their spy work (which involves wicked disguises. Elizabeth and Phillip are constantly trying out different wigs, glasses, etc. each episode) the show raises a lot of interesting questions. Elizabeth and Phillip have two kids - Paige and Henry - who don't know their parents are really Russian. Elizabeth and Phillip are pretty different. Phillip seems to like living in the US a lot, while Elizabeth is completely devoted to Russia and her job as a KGB agent. Despite her hatred of all things American, Elizabeth convincingly plays the role of perfect American wife and mom. It's fascinating. She also doesn't seem to get stressed (or at least show her stress) by living under false pretences all the time. While she seems to genuinely care about her kids, it's clear that the KGB and Russia come first which is really interesting. Neither Elizabeth nor Phillip seem to give much thought to how their kids would feel if they were ever to discover that their parents were actually Russian spies which to me is crazy. Their poor kids would have their lives totally upturned if their parents' real identities were ever discovered!

Some of Elizabeth's various disguises. 

Keri Russell on Malibu Shores!

Two other interesting things I've noticed from The Americans: 1. KGB spies are trained really well and are amazing at hand to hand combat! It's always really interesting to watch how good Elizabeth and Phillip are when physically fighting others. 2. The show gives viewers lots to think about in relation to the role of women in early 1980s society, and in traditional male spheres like the FBI. Women are subjected to sexual violence - or feel the need to use sex in order to get information - on a regular basis. I'd like to think things have changed in the 30 plus years since then but the answer is probably that they have not changed enough. 


D. and I have also been watching this funny TV show called Archer recently. It takes place during the 1970s (except they have cell phones and the internet) and involves a spy agency called ISIS. The show is a comedy though, and is also animated. It is very funny. I always used to hear D. watching it and wondered what he was watching and laughing at. So I watched a few episodes with him and thought the show was actually really funny. We started at the beginning and are now in season 3 (there are four seasons and it's still going) and it's actually a really funny show. I love that they're spies/secret agents but my favourite character is the HR person at ISIS, Pam. (It's hard to pick a favourite though - all of the characters are pretty funny!) Mallory Archer, the head of ISIS, also  has been having a secret, many years on-going affair with the head of the KGB which is really funny too. Watch it! It is a light-hearted and fun spy show.

Here's Pam!

So far from my previous view of spies as alluring, attractive people in stylish clothes who jet set around the globe, these shows have shown me that the life of a spy can be difficult, amusing and at times seemingly mundane. Regardless, all of these shows reinforce the fact that shows about spies in any form are still a lot of fun to watch.

Simply Smoothies

When I was a teenager, one thing I liked about visiting the US was getting to go to this smoothie chain called Jamba Juice. When I would occasionally get them I thought they were really good. I love berries so much and since berries seem to be a key ingredient for smoothies have also always liked smoothies. There is a Jamba Juice (or at least there used to be) in Berkeley on Bancroft right across from the main entrance to UC Berkeley and sometimes during my first year I would go there for a smoothie. I started to think after a while, however, that Jamba Juice's smoothies had a somewhat generic and manufactured taste. They tasted kind of like the ingredients were not all that natural. They tasted (to me anyway) like they sugar in them instead of just letting the berries sweeten the drink.

During our first year at Berkeley, S. discovered Brewed Awakening (primarily a coffee shop) and its fabulous smoothies. We used to go there regularly for smoothies. I can't remember which flavours I liked best anymore but I know I always got the berry ones. Brewed Awakening's smoothies tasted "homemade" and were made with natural ingredients right in front of you. S. and I always had a lot of fun going to get smoothies and then going for a walk around north side.

When I spent five lovely days in Aix-en-Provence in early July 2008 doing research, I found this little stand that made juices/smoothies. It is sometimes hard to know the difference between a juice and a smoothie. Are smoothies supposed to have milk or yogurt in them? Maybe. If they are, this place made juices then because there was no dairy in their products. I really liked the drink I got there (and I went almost every day of my visit) and observed the recipe closely so I could make it on my own. They made the juice like this: ice, an entire banana, strawberries (cut up) and/or raspberries, a glass of water, and the juice of an entire lemon (this part I especially liked because I love using a lemon squeezer). I loved the juice so much that that whole following year in Austin I would make that exact juice almost every day.

My brother A. makes smoothies with almond butter. I can't remember what else he put in the smoothie but I think blueberries and maybe yogurt? I should ask him. In any event, almond butter seemed like such a unique and delicious option for smoothies. Almond products seem like a good addition to smoothies in general. Since moving to Montreal, I have fallen in love with this smoothie place called  Liquid Nutrition. In my opinion, it is the best "chain" smoothie place ever. I am super excited because I just went to their website and discovered they now have two locations in Toronto. They are both way downtown (so not near where I normally go) but still so cool! I'm happy! I think the company started in Montreal and now is trying to expand. In any event, they have a location on the McGill campus and I go there all the time. Their smoothies are delicious and never taste manufactured or fake. They taste like they are made with real ingredients. My favourite smoothie is called "Douceur" (it's called Sweetness in English but I always - even if ordering in English - just ask for the Douceur because they only have their menu up on the board in French). It used to be called La Vie en Rose which is a better name, but they changed the name (but not the smoothie) maybe a year and a half ago. I once tried another smoothie there which was also good but I can't remember what that one was called. I probably only had it 3 times whereas I've had Douceur so so many times. Douceur is made with banana, strawberries, raspberries, (maybe blueberries too?) honey, ice and almond milk. Typing this is making me want one so badly right now. Liquid Nutrition also sells a lot of supplements and things like that. I've never tried any of those things. I had had their muffins a few times - which were just okay - and a sandwich there once - which was also not amazing but fine. They are primarily a smoothie place and it shows. Anyway, I just love the Douceur smoothie and I really recommend going there if you have the chance.

Secret ingredient

When I moved back to Toronto in the summer of 2009, I had to get a new blender (I had left my previous one in Austin) and I didn't like it as much as my old one. Maybe this was all just in my head but I felt that same drink I used to make in Austin just did not taste as good at all. After trying a few more times, I stopped making it and haven't made them on my own since. I could easily make the Douceur at home but I don't. It probably wouldn't taste as good as the Liquid Nutrition one but still. I should try! I really should get a blender and get back into making them. First, because I am positive there will be no Liquid Nutrition where I live next year and so if I want a Douceur I'll have no choice but to make it; and second, because as almond butter or almond milk attests, there are so many possibilities for smoothies I need to explore!

Thoughts on Texts & more importantly Emojis!

My favourites are all in the first row: the two with blushing cheeks, the winking one and the blowing a kiss

I've never been - and am still not - that big a fan of text messaging. I prefer sending emails to texts because I can type on a computer keyboard much faster than I can "type" on a phone. I have gotten used to them now and I understand their utility but I still don't love them. So many people I know love texting though and send texts all the time! Maybe one of the reasons I've never wholeheartedly embraced texts is that my phone plan didn't have a texting option when texts first caught on. I think the first text I ever received was from A. back when we were both at Berkeley and I was so confused to see a written message from him on my phone :) Wait, it just occurred to me that I would occasionally text in Santiago. So A.'s text wasn't the first I ever received. Texting was pretty popular in Chile. I remember L. remarking once that texting was way more popular in other parts of the world than in North America (that has changed I believe!). So correction: the first text I received in North America was from A. Regardless, as that last year at Berkeley continued on, more friends started to send me texts and it was frustrating to be unable to text them back!!

When I lived in Paris in 2007, my cell phone came with a text option (texting - called either "textos" or SMS -  was really popular in France) and I got more used to sending texts. My British friends C. and S. texted a lot and would always end their texts with an "x" which I really liked. When I came back to North America, and then ended up in Austin, I made sure to get a cell phone with a texting option. I didn't send a ton of texts but I definitely sent them fairly regularly as it caught on more and more. What was super frustrating about that plan though (my carrier was Verizon) was that for some reason whenever I went back to Toronto, my phone refused to send texts. E. had the same plan as me (she lived in NYC at the time) and when she came back to Toronto she could send texts. No fair :) I even called Verizon and they weren't particularly helpful just telling me that they weren't sure why some people could send texts when in Canada and others couldn't.

My pre-iphone phone looked like this. Texting is hard on one of these!

When I moved back to Toronto and got a cell phone with Koodo, I was happy to see that texting was included with all their plans. However, I soon learned, much to my annoyance, that I could not make smiley faces like this :) on my phone. So annoying! Those smiley faces are much more useful than I initially knew they would be. I feel like they could change the whole tone of a message (tone in general can be so difficult to convey over text) in an important way. I can think of countless times when I wanted to put in a smiley face but couldn't and was frustrated!

Finally, at the beginning of last November, so five months ago, I got an iphone. Besides it being great that I can now check my email from anywhere (I especially like checking from bed when my laptop is in the other room) and that I have cool apps like a flashlight app and UNO (which D. and I play a lot!), and that  texting is much easier now that I have a keypad vs. having to type everything with my thumbs on a regular number pad like on my old phone, the hands down main reason I love my iphone is because of the emojis. They are so much fun! Emojis are Japanese which is so unsurprising to me because the Japanese are just so great at things I like like stationery and stickers and clothes and cool kitchen supplies and loving French culture and so of course they'd be great at emojis. I now try to use emojis as much as possible. D. and my mom also love them and so I can use as many emojis as I want when sending them texts. Emojis just add so much to a text. They make them cuter and more fun and sweet. And easier! Why type "I feel like a glass of wine" when you could replace "glass of wine" with an emoji of a glass of wine? My very favourites (and most used) are the blushing ones, the one blowing a kiss, and the one with the sunglasses but I seriously love all the emojis. I love the hearts and the lips & all the random ones. I hope you can use emojis too, and if you can't just enjoy looking at all these pictures. And, be sure to click on this link which features drawings of all the emojis. Super cool!

Here is a screenshot from my very own phone! You can see all the emojis I recently used. You can also see that I asked D. if I could post this on my blog and he obligingly said "Of course"  :)

One of my most used

So this is another screenshot from my phone. See the bubble with the dots, it means D. is writing something and is about to send me a text! In my recently used, you can see more of my favourites like the bathtub, the pink heart with the bow (I think that's my mom's favourite one) and the sunglasses one! 

I included this one to show all the variety: there are animals, flowers, foods, fruits, etc. etc. 

Bathtub Bliss

This looks relaxing to me except I never put my leg up like that :)

In the debate over bathtub v. shower (is there a real debate or did I just make that up? regardless...) I am hands down on the bathtub side. I do enjoy showers (and even though I sometimes (more like rarely) will wash my hair in the bath it's not particularly efficient and I always end up with way too much water in my ears) and believe they are better for washing  hair. Showers are also much quicker than baths, which can be a good thing depending on the time of day, the reason for wanting to clean yourself, etc. Sometimes necessity also forces me to take showers as for examples the two apartments I have lived in in Montreal both had showers in a bathtub but the bathtubs looked utterly unappealing (and are also small) when I moved in and so I never (or have never) took (taken) a bath in either one. But overall there are just so many positives for baths. A bath at the end of the day (or in late afternoon, or even in the morning) is the epitome of relaxation for me. Sometimes I like to lie in the bath and read; sometimes I like to just lie there and think. I can easily spend 45 minutes in a bathtub only realizing that much time has passed because my fingers are pruned.

I like this bathtub a lot because of its position in a corner with windows on both sides

My absolute favourite bathtub in the world is my bathtub in the second floor bathroom in my house in Toronto. It does not have claw feet but the rest of it is like an old-fashioned bath tub as it is very deep, quite long and has the sides that curve over - perfect for resting my head. It is just the most comforting and comfortable and relaxing bath tub in the world. Whenever I am home I crave taking baths, and sometimes take two a day, just so I can lie there and luxuriate. I like reading in that tub but there's also a window (fairly small but good enough size) facing it and so I also sometimes like to just lie there and look out at the sky. The bathroom on the third floor of our house has a bathtub too and it's decent. It's long and fairly deep - the two key criteria. I've taken a few baths there but mostly just to try it out. Given my love for the second floor bathtub, it doesn't make sense to take baths anywhere else. 

Out of all the apartments I've lived in which did have usable bath tubs (the number is 3) the bathtub in the Hilgard apt in Berkeley sticks out the most. I don't remember it being particularly long but it was fairly deep and I would often take bubble baths there. Oh! I should mention quickly that I am a big fan of bubble baths but I am just as content to take a non-bubble bath. If I have some in my house, I will usually put it in but if I'm out my enjoyment of the bath won't be diminished. Back to Hilgard: the good thing was that the bath had this really good drain which meant the bath could never overflow. I was so bad too many nights for the environment and would let the water flow and flow while I got distracted on the internet or doing something else. Amazingly, the hot water seemed to never run out there. I used to take baths at Hilgard almost every night and they were always a highlight of my day. I rarely read in that tub, preferring to just lie there and think. In addition to all my great memories of that apartment, the bathtub is another one.

As far as other bathtubs I've used a fair bit and enjoyed go, the condo at Mont Tremblant has two bathrooms both with quite good bath tubs. They are long and quite deep and generally quite comfortable. It's been great I've been able to go up to Tremblant quite a bit while living in Montreal because I always make sure to take baths to make up for my lack of them in my Montreal apartments.
One other very positive bath experience I want to write about took place at those friends of ours - A. and her son S. (although he lives in Paris now) - apartment just outside Paris (from whose balcony you have an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower). I stayed there my first week in Paris in January 2007 and on the Thursday night (I was moving to my lovely Batignolles apartment on the Friday) A. said I could take a bath in her big bathtub. It was so nice and so relaxing. I also got to use all her nice smelling soaps and it felt so relaxing. I was nervous about moving the next day, but also excited and that bath helped put me in the right frame of mind.

I have also taken baths in some really crappy (mostly hotel) bathtubs. The number one complaint I have with most hotel bathtubs is that they are far too shallow. They are also usually never long enough. The shallowness is the worst part though. One of the best parts of taking baths is to be submerged in water and so it's very unpleasant to sit in a tub with water barely covering my stomach. Sometimes my need to take a bath was so great that I'd still take one, even in a crappy tub. I've stopped doing that though as I've finally realized that taking showers in those situations is just a better option.

I have spent lots of time imagining my dream bathtub. Ideally I would like a bathroom with a claw foot old fashioned tub and directly above it I would like a skylight. This way I could take baths in the moonlight on nights when the moon is full or giving off a lot of light. I also like seeing the sky so if I took a bath during the day time I could lie back in the tub and stare up at the sky. I love natural light and I love bathtubs and I think they go great together. No matter where I end up eventually living more permanently, I will one day ensure that I get my dream bathtub.

I like the skylight but I'm not a huge fan of the marble.

This is the bathtub I'd like in the picture above. 

Beloved Birkenstocks

Birkenstocks are my absolute favourite brand of shoes in the world. I got my first pair of Birkenstocks (they were sandals) the summer of 1997 when I was 13. My mom had been wearing them for as long as I can remember so I'm not sure why I waited until I was 13 to get my first pair but I fell in love then and haven't looked back. I've gone through so many different pairs of sandals. Last spring, I went to buy some new ones and decided to try out a new style.

This is the new style

I'm so glad I did as I love these new ones and I received tons of compliments on them :) My old ones (of which I had several pairs) looked like this

 

 and while these ones are great, I prefer the new style. It was funny because when my mom and I went to buy them (we go to this shoe store called Dorfer Shoes on Dupont St in Toronto which is owned by a mom and daughter (I think) and which has very odd opening and closing hours. The daughter especially likes to talk but she's very nice) we asked her if it was a new style. The woman (the daughter) told us that people kept asking that but no they had been around for a long time. Odd, because I had never noticed them before in all my years of buying Birks.

My biggest problem with Birkenstocks is that I wear out the soles (despite the fact that I love walking, I sometimes drag my heels when I walk which causes me to wear down the heel part of whichever shoes I happen to be wearing), which are made of cork. I wear them out so badly I get holes in the cork and then they are unwearable. It's possible to get your shoes re-soled but you have to time it exactly right. There comes a moment when it's impossible to re-sole them and then you have to wait for the holes to happen and then you have to go buy another pair.

My very favourite kind of Birkenstocks (although it's really really hard to have a favourite as a I love them all) are the clogs. On my fifteenth birthday, way back in January 1999, my mom gave me my very first pair of navy blue suede clogs and I practically lived in them for the rest of high school. Navy blue is my favourite colour. And I love slip on shoes. And they just look great with everything. I went through 2 other pairs until age 26.  Then, much to my dismay, I discovered sometime around age 24 or 25 that Birkenstock (the company) had stopped manufacturing navy blue clogs. You could get them in brown and black and even red I think (and various shades of brown as well) but no more navy blue. I was crushed. I contemplated getting a different colour but my heart wasn't in it and so for a while I was clogless. Then, in May 2010, I went to Japan on a trip with my parents. Near the beginning of our trip we went to Hiroshima and we came across a Birkenstock store. We went in, and much to my delight they had navy blue clogs! I was so glad I hadn't decided to buy a different colour pair. These ones aren't exactly the same as the pairs I had before because the soles are white, not brown. I don't really know why they're white, and I don't know if navy blue is popular in Japan and that's why Birkenstock Japan decided to keep making navy blue ones. And the salespeople didn't speak English and I don't speak Japanese so I wasn't able to ask these questions. I was just so grateful and happy to find the shoes I wanted. I think the sales people could tell. I was smiling so hard and they seemed happy for me.

Here they are! Japanese Birkenstock Navy Blue Clogs

Here is their white sole

My second biggest problem with Birkenstocks is the way the selection in Canada is way worse than in the US. Dorfer Shoes gets the catalogues for both Canada and the US and the US gets so many more Birkenstock varieties. Dorfer often orders the shoes directly from Germany but it's annoying sometimes to have to go through the store and wait for the shoes to come from Germany when if I were in the US I could just order them directly from the Birkenstock USA website. The woman from the store says the US gets more varieties because it is just a bigger country but it's still annoying. I also hate the way Birkenstock has discontinued two of my favourite pairs (the navy blue clogs and see below for the other discontinued line). I don't get why! Navy blue is such a classic colour and I don't get why they would discontinue it. Even though I was thrilled to buy the navy clogs in Hiroshima, I haven't been able to enjoy them as much as I would have liked. I am scared to wear them for fear of wearing them out and missing that magical window of re-soling. I know that's silly but I can't help it. In the almost three years since I've bought them, I've probably only worn them outside a handful of times and instead have worn them as inside winter shoes the past few years. But even then I don't wear them that often. It's sad. They are my favourite shoes (although I have to admit I prefer the non-white sole) and I really should wear them more!

Sometime in 2009, my mom bought a pair of these Birkenstocks.

I liked them so much I decided to buy a pair myself in the spring of 2010. I love them!! I think of them as my Birkenstock running shoes. They look good with a variety of things, are super comfortable and are really practical - and normally I hate tying shoe laces! But I love these shoes. Unfortunately, I found out last spring that Birkenstock discontinued the line. So I just hope I never wear them out. They have a rubber sole as opposed to a cork one like other Birkenstock shoes so that's a bonus for not wearing them out.

 Then there are my black "London" (that's their official name - all Birkenstock shoes have names (I think) many named after cities but the only name I can remember is "London") Birks. Although I actually don't have a pair right now. My last pair was so worn out and old I threw it out in the fall and have yet to buy a new pair. I love these shoes though!!!! And I will definitely buy a new pair maybe over the summer so that I'll be all ready to wear them in the fall. The first few months I was in Paris in 2007 I didn't have any with me because I was between pairs. My parents came to visit in April and I asked my mom to bring me a new pair. I was so happy she did and proceeded to wear them almost every day. I'd been wearing an assortment of other shoes (and some boots) in Paris until then - which were mostly good but sometimes hurt my feet - and I was so happy to be back in my wonderful black Birks. I have two other stories surrounding these shoes: the History graduate department advisor/coordinator at UT Austin, M., complimented me on these very shoes multiple times and I always encouraged her to get her own pair. Finally, I saw her one day and she was wearing her own pair! Yay! Another time, several years ago now, my mom had a party at our house for someone from her work. It was quite crowded at our house and everyone's shoes were strewn around the front hallway. My dad actually had to leave early to go his own work event and I was driving him downtown. I put on these very shoes and a guest at the party came up to me and said "I think you're wearing my shoes." I told him I didn't think so but then we discovered that he had actually worn the exact same shoes to the party. I was wearing my own pair (we located his) but it was funny.

The London

This guy I knew in grad school, G., once spoke sort of disparagingly about this prof who I TAed for (and really really liked) commenting on how he always showed up to teach in jeans and birkenstocks. That comment made me think of this US political ad I saw once (made by a Republican of course) attacking Birkenstock wearing liberals in Vermont. I always find comments like that very funny because a) I'd be happy to be considered a Birkenstock wearing liberal professor :) and b) because I don't really understand how Birkenstocks became a dirty word for right wing people.

While google-imaging around for pictures for this post, I found this:

It's funny but it also makes me think that Birks are way less non-mainstream these days. I remember feeling so cool when I was 15 because I was the only person I knew with those navy blue blogs, but then more and more people from my high school started wearing Birks (luckily no one picked navy blue :) ) and I didn't like it. And sure enough I see them all over now. I also no longer (happily I have matured) feel annoyed that others wear them. In fact, I really like seeing fellow Birkenstock wearers around. I know their feet must be so comfortable.  I am pretty much 100% sure they will always be my favourite type of shoe and I look forward to many more pairs to come. 

Where life's a mountain not a beach

When I was a little kid, my brother went on a ski trip with his school to Kimberley and Fernie in BC and he brought me back this t-shirt with a picture of a mountain and it said "Where life's a mountain not a beach." Ever since I was a kid and we used to go to out west to Whistler or Lake Louise over March break I have always loved ski towns. I liked skiing all morning, sometimes into early afternoon and then coming in for lunch. My dad would make toasted peanut butter sandwiches, or toasted ham and cheese sandwiches (always on whole wheat bread) or we'd have soup. Somehow all those things always tasted better when we ate them on ski trips. I like how ski towns are called villages (or at least at Whistler and Mont Tremblant they are) and how they are full of people who are on vacation and usually seem very happy. There's a familiarity and a similarity to these types of places that I've noticed not just at Whistler and Tremblant but in Moab, Utah and Lake Tahoe too. I always wonder what it would be like to live in one of those places year round. To have this vacation land be your every day land. Every time I've been on an island/beach vacation I've wondered that too. I know normal life exists on those places but I think I'd find it difficult to go about my normal life when the beach and all that it promises - swimming, reading, relaxing, tanning - is so close.

Since 1997 when my parents got their condo in Mont Tremblant I have been there countless times, and I absolutely always love going there. Even though I haven't skied in over 10 years, I still love going to Tremblant in the winter. It's very pretty with all the snow, I like seeing all the skiiers, you can go skating and walking in the snow is fun. Best of all, I love the feeling of being warm inside and seeing all the snow outside. I always feel really safe and happy. I also love going to Tremblant in the summer - it's green and warm. I like looking at the lake and I always feel so relaxed.

This is the outside of the condo complex 

For all the happiness I've felt in ski towns, there is something very sad about a ski/vacation town with no one in it. A large part of those feelings of safety and happiness, I'm realizing, must come from feeling like other people are there feeling the exact same positive things as I am. I've been to Tremblant twice around the end of the first week of May (so around the 8/9/10th of May) and it's a really depressing time there! Don't go! S. and I went there for two nights in May 2010 and it rained - really hard - the whole time. Aside from going to the nearly deserted village to eat at Catherine's Crepes, we stayed inside and watched movies all day. That part was fun but being there when no one else was wasn't.  C. and I went last May in the middle of the week - a Wednesday - to benefit from this spa deal that the Scandinavian Spa was having on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during May and June. The Tremblant village was absolutely dead. Weirdly, many of the restaurants had 'closed for renovations' signs in their windows but there was no sign of renovations actually taking place. It was like this village wide joke that we didn't get. We ate at the one place that was open  - this Mexican restaurant - and we were the only ones in the restaurant.

Evidently the period between when the ski season ends and Victoria Day weekend when the summer season starts is the off season when Tremblant pretty much shuts down and there are very few tourists. D., his brother A., sister-in-law V., their daughter C., and I went to Tremblant the last weekend of October this past year and it was also a weird in-between time as the Fall season ends on Thanksgiving weekend and the ski season doesn't start until American thanksgiving. Almost all of the leaves had fallen too so we didn't get to enjoy the fall foliage. There were still a fair number of tourists around though, definitely better than May, and there were other people staying at the condo complex so it felt much better than going in early May. 

Another downside of ski towns is that food (and probably clothes and other things people shop for) are often ridiculously overpriced/expensive. However, the food is often really good in those places so people, like me, still go out to eat. Or at least the food is really good at Tremblant. I love Catherine's Crepes and this Italian place that I know the location of but not the name. And of course Tremblant has beaver tails! Beaver tails are the best! I always get Killaloe Sunrise which is a beaver tail with the usual cinnamon sugar mix plus lemon juice. So delicious! Even though you can get beaver tails in other places now (like the Toronto Zoo!), I like them the best in Mont Tremblant.

A Beavertail

Another highlight of Tremblant which I promised I'd talk about in my last blog post is the amazing swimming pool there called Aqua Club La Source. It is a very fun swimming pool which is big and has lots of balls and noodles you can play with/on. There is also a tarzan rope and one deep area you can jump into. The rest of the pool doesn't have a real deep end though - it goes to maybe 5'4 or so because I can stand there - which isn't good. But I just love that swimming pool! I've gone so many times and I always have a fun time. The last few times with D. have been especially fun because we've played catch and swum around and done more actual swimming.  La Source also has an outdoor hot tub and a steam room. I could write another post about steam rooms. They are amazing. This one is very very hot. It feels amazing. If you go to Tremblant, go to this pool! It's very fun!

So many windows! It's great!

Finally, I need to end this post by talking about one of my favourite things about Tremblant - the Cabriolet!! (Another reason Tremblant is sad in the off season (and the October off-season too): the Cabriolet doesn't run.) The Cabriolet is this gondola that goes really fast and is meant to transport skiiers from the bottom of the village up to where they get the chairlifts and big gondolas to the top of the mountain to ski. It's free and so much fun to ride! When I used to go to Tremblant with A., E. and L. back when I was 14 and 15 we used to ride the Cabriolet up and down multiple times. So fun!

The fabulous Cabriolet!

In closing, ski towns are lots of fun! I like going only so often though because then I appreciate them all the more. Going back to the title of this post though, it's so hard for me to say whether life's a mountain or a beach. For longer vacations (5 days or more, ideally a week or 8 days) I would undoubtedly choose a beach vacation. But I prefer ski towns for weekends just because you can pop in, relax, and pop out and feel great. With beach holidays, I always want to be there longer but with ski town weekends, though I would also like to stay longer a weekend is enough.

Outdoor hot tub at the Scandinavian Spa...so relaxing!

Swimming Studies

 

I recently finished the book Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton (on (and lent to me by) R.'s recommendation). I recommend it to you as well. It's mostly a memoir, but I say mostly because it is quite different from other memoirs I have read. It's much more a series of vignettes about Shapton's time as a competitive swimmer (she twice made it to the Canadian Olympic Trials (1988 and 1992) but never to the Olympics) and some on her life post-swimming. There is no clear chronological narrative and sometimes she would give only a few details about something that I really wish she had written pages about, like her relationship with her husband and why she was living in London for several months, and more about her mom and this comment her mom made at her wedding. That said, one of my favourite parts of the book is the section where she includes photographs of her bathing suits and writes little blurbs about them like she where she wore it, where she got it, etc. Shapton is primarily a visual artist - she paints, is an illustrator, and used to be the art director for various newspapers - and that came out in her book too, especially in her section near the end where she included paintings/sketches of many swimming pools she has swum in. It made me think of all the swimming pools I've swum in. So for the rest of this post, I am going to use Swimming Studies as my inspiration and talk about my own favourite pools, and bathing suits.

Last June, A. came to visit me in Montreal. His visit was short but we had a fabulous Friday evening and all day Saturday together. On Saturday morning we hiked up to the top of the mountain. In the afternoon, A. kindly invited D., K. and I to spend the afternoon at the rooftop pool of his hotel. It was probably my favourite day of the summer and one of my most favourite days ever. We all had such a great time just tanning and swimming. It was so sunny and hot and the view from the rooftop was really nice. The pool was just a normal rectangle shape but very blue and I just felt super happy and super relaxed. Hmmm I guess this is less about that pool being my favourite pool and more about that day being my favourite day. But it did involve a pool so I thought it fit here. Here is a picture. It doesn't do the pool justice but it gives the general idea.

I've been in countless other hotel pools but most of them blur together for me. I was impressed with Shapton's memory when it comes to hotel pools. She describes in detail the art deco swimming pool in the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa and now I really want to swim in it!! Next time I go to Ottawa I'll either have to stay at the Chateau Laurier or try to sneak into the pool :)

Chateau Laurier in Ottawa Swimming Pool

Berkeley had nice swimming pools, which I wish now I had taken more advantage of. L. and I went swimming a few times in the Strawberry Canyon (I love that name!) pool. The few times I was there it was just about fun swimming - no one was doing lengths and it was really packed. It's located in Strawberry Canyon which is this green canyon behind the stadium and has a really nice green lawn where you can lie out both before and after swimming. Right on campus is the Hearst Pool, which is gorgeous. It has tiles and statues and looks more like some ancient Greek or Roman pool. It's grand and fancy. (See picture below). I only went swimming there once but in retrospect, I should have taken advantage of the year round nice weather and gone swimming outside more.

Hearst Pool, UC Berkelely

So much of Shapton's book was about her relationship to swimming and swimming has always been a sport with which I had a particular relationship. I learned to swim really young and was on the swim team at my elementary school, placing either first or second in the 25 metres breaststroke at the city finals in grades 4, 5 and 6. I was fast at swimming and I loved it. But then I got older, went through puberty and wasn't as fast. In elementary school I had always been distinguished for my speed in breaststroke but in high school, I was friends with 3 other girls on the team (which, by the way, anyone could join... no try outs) L., H. and L. Funnily enough, H., L. and I all had the same best stroke: breaststroke and we seemed to go back and forth in terms of who was fastest. But it wasn't like when I was 10, 11 and 12 and was always the fastest at my school. Even in high school, while on some level I must have liked swim team, I don't remember liking it that much and I think I barely went in to practice or meets in my last year. When I left Toronto for Berkelely, I rarely went swimming. I could probably count on my two hands the number of times I went swimming while in Berkelely (even though the pools were so nice & memorable). It wasn't until the summer of 2008 that all that changed.

I decided then, to take up swimming. For two weeks during August 2008, I would swim 100 "lengths" (more like widths because the pool is small) in my backyard pool. When I got back to Austin, I was determined to swim on a regular basis. And I did! For the next 8 months I swam 2-3 times per week, in the early morning usually getting into the pool around 7 or 7:15 am. There were never that many people there at that time and quite often I would have a lane to myself. I got really into it and really enjoyed going. I was steadily increasing the number of lengths I could do and I really enjoyed being in the water. I mostly swam in the indoor pool, and I'll always love it just because I was happy swimming there. The UT Austin gym also had a really nice outdoor pool which I would swim in sometimes too. But almost always it was the indoor pool. I'd always have such a sense of accomplishment on my walk home from the pool. Sadly, I didn't really continue swimming once I left Austin. I tried to go a few times at the pool at Hart House in Toronto but it was always so crowded and I didn't get a good feeling from the pool. So I stopped. In Montreal I never started - not sure why. Partly because the thought of going outside in the winter with wet hair is so unappealing and partly because I am into step more and only have so much time. But I do hope to take up swimming again eventually. I just need to find the right pool. 

I have also always loved backyard pools. Something about having a swimming pool in your own backyard is so cool. I love the pool in my backyard and which I had a picture to put on this post. I like how it has a slope to the deep end and doesn't just quickly drop off. I have lots of great memories of swimming in it, especially with A., E. and L. in high school. I need to swim in it more though! Reading Shapton's book I wish I had more favourite pool memories or that I could clearly point to a specific pool and describe so many of its features and say this is my favourite pool. (Although one of my very favourite swimming pools is in Mont Tremblant, but since my next post is going to be about Tremblant I'll mention the pool there.)  I've swum in hundreds of pools probably starting with my swimming lessons as a little kid, and I wish I could remember some of them more.

Now moving on to bathing suits. All of my bathing suits (except the one Speedo I have for "serious" (ie. lengths) swimming) are from J Crew. I got my first J Crew Bathing Suit in the summer of 2004 (a pink with white polka dots one piece that ties at the neck) which I still wear today. I most distinctly remember wearing it on the beach in Vina del Mar in Chile when L. and I took the bus there from Santiago one Sunday in February 2005. Whenever I wear it now, I feel like I could be one of those vintage pin-up girls. If I were in a calendar, I'd want to be the month of either January or April or May or June or July. Unfortunately, that bathing suit is at my house in Toronto so I don't have a picture of it. About two years ago, I got another one piece from J Crew. This one has a paisley print and makes me feel a bit like Marilyn Monroe. It can either be worn strapless or with a thin band that goes around the neck. I really like it and have gotten lots of compliments. I wore it last June at A.'s hotel's rooftop pool.

I have three J Crew bikinis. The first is a simple black one I ordered in February 2005 and which my mom delivered to me when she came to visit me in Santiago in May of that year. I wanted a black bikini because I think black is a classic colour and because I think black bikinis look good. There is a picture of my mom standing on a beach in Barbados when she was about 30 or 31 wearing a black bikini which I first saw as a little kid. I would sometimes try on that bikini and always thought black was the way to go. I've worn this black one so much it's starting to get thin and I'm probably going to have to stop wearing it soon but I just love it.

My next J Crew bikini purchase was a bright blue bandeau that can be worn with or without thin strap that goes around neck. I liked this one a lot more when I first bought it in 2009 than I do now, but it's still very nice and I should wear it more.

Finally, in 2010 I bought a purple bikini that also ties at the neck and which I really like. I love the colour. My most memorable time wearing it is in the pool and steam room at the La Source Aqua Club in Mont Tremblant. I love steam rooms and it was funny to leave the steam room and see that my purple bikini top looked as if I had been swimming but really it was just wet from the steam. 

In writing this I realize I do have quite the bathing suit collection. I am sorry the bathing suit pictures aren't better - Shapton had hers on a model which looked better. But alas, this was fun to write and put together and I hope you enjoyed reading/looking at it.

From Swimming Studies