During spring semester I took a class at OSU on American Indian identity. And as I walked through the streets of Quebec, Canada, whether Montreal, Ottawa, or Quebec City, I saw many representations of Indians that might influence how Canadian Indians—the First Nations People—construct their own identities.

Most of the museums I visited had large exhibits dedicated to the First Nations People, although few of them contained displays dealing with contemporary Indians. The Canadian Museum of History, located in Gatineau right across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, had an enormous exhibit showing the diversity among Canada’s many indigenous cultures. The architecture of the Canadian Museum of History was designed by the same architect that designed the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and contains Indian beliefs and ideals in the design. The Centre d’histoire de Montreal had a section on Montreal’s original inhabitants and their initial contact with Europeans. And the McCord Museum, right next to McGill University, had an exhibit on Canadian Indian identity focusing on material culture, such as clothing and jewelry.

Even without going to museums it was almost impossible to walk through Montreal without seeing Indian imagery. I saw figures, artwork, and clothing with Native prints in gift shops and clothing stores. Some stores were selling items specifically made by First Nations People. Another sight reminded me of a controversial issue in the United States: the use of Indian Mascots. As I was walking through downtown Montreal I saw the bus for the Shawinigan Cataractes. They are an ice hockey team with the image of an angry Indian as their mascot. That type of mascot is harmful for Indians because it creates social pressure for Indians to change their identity based off of misrepresentations that have been accepted by the majority in their society.

When our class was taking a walking tour of Quebec City, we witnessed a protest by First Nations People who were opposed to underwater and underground oil lines cutting through their land. Land is an important issue for the First Nations People because it is sacred, and Indian identity is often connected with the land. While we were close to the protest, another group protesting the pipelines marched up the street with a police escort and joined the Indian protest in front of the Quebec parliament building.

The most unexpected thing I’ve learned about Montreal is that the city, at one time, had a wall that separated itself from the outside. Because I traveled to Berlin last December, images of the fragmented Berlin Wall were fresh in my mind. I couldn’t help wondering whether there were similarities between these two walls – both built to keep out the “Other”. During our walking tour of Old Montreal, we saw an area where their Wall once stood. Only rocks embedded in a structure roughly eighteen inches in height remains. This original foundation is capped with modern stone slabs with sleek lines; its previous purpose as well as its height seemingly truncated by more contemporary materials and ideas.

Montreal is a place full of acceptance. The people there are very kind and will take the time to listen to you–no matter what language you are speaking. I also found it interesting how accepting they were of the LGBT community! Unlike in the United States, gay rights and equality are openly spoken about. Talking about or cracking jokes regarding LGBT (in a positive light) is not a hushed thing. For example: I believe many of us were surprised when our walking tour guide made the bixi bike joke. He said that the bikes were called “bixi bikes” because they were bisexual…usually in the US you don’t hear someone say an object is bisexual, so I thought that was pretty cool!

Another thing to point out is St. Catherines street. This street is pride central. From the pink balls symbolizing their pride to the paintings of naked men displayed in the Sky Bar, this street is where it’s at. It doesn’t matter if you are straight, gay, lesbian, bi, or trans, everyone is welcome on this street, and it isn’t hard to start conversations with people and/or even make a new friend.

I don’t think there is any place I can compare this street to in Columbus. It blew my mind and made me so happy that everyone I met was a supporter. Hopefully soon Montreal will be Ohio’s influence to be as open and accepting of the LGBT community!

After being in Canada for two days now I have come to the conclusion of the very clear separations of personalities between the Montreal and the Ottawa citizens. My first impressions of Montreal, I think, were biased because of the things I heard others say about the people and the communications here. Aside from my biased view, I tried to remain hopeful, but realized that in general the interactions I have had here are not very well regarding social interactions. The only positive moment so far has been Stephanie & Max, two friends that I met at a dance club last night. They were immediately welcoming and set an example for what I wished all the others I have experienced could follow.

Upon spending a very long and tiring, but fun, day in Ottawa I fell in love with that city. It was beautiful. The experiences I had were “awesome” and the people were extremely friendly, apologetic (even when it wasn’t necessary), and humorous. I enjoyed the Bywater Market. It was a lot like New Orleans French Market, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. The street performers were everywhere, the fresh produce for sale was cool to see, including a scene where some woman shoved oranges down her top. The stores were really great as well. I bought two Gonesh figurines from a shop owner, and he and I talked about it and his travel to Nepal where he purchased them. The Bywater Market was very multicultural not just with its citizens, but with the tourists who came from all over the world. I heard some people talking about their journey from Turkey, Greece, USA, and India.

After a few days here, I was able to meet a few good people who were not frustrated at my presence (or so it seems). Jenilee, our “social tour guide” has helped us explore and learn about more of the cultural history and presence in Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec and Canada in general. Through Jenilee, we have met quite a few of her friends; and from my own personal experience it is this close-knit group of friends that I can see as the only pleasant, and friendly citizens.

During our trip to Quebec today, I was under the impression NO ONE would speak English and there would be NOTHING in English. This wasn’t the case. This negative stereotype placed upon this city and its citizens, businesses, and consumerism was rather confusing to me. All of the people that I met and talked with, especially our tour guide Roch (Rock), were kind, smiled and eager to carry a conversation with me. This is again a juxtaposed position from the entirely separate feeling of Montreal. I think someone informed me of the wrong city.

In any case, I had a wonderful time learning about the culture, meeting the people, seeing the sights, purchasing (way too many) things. It is this culmination of experiences that has made this study abroad trip a success for me.

We learned in class that Bonjour-Hi is just a way of Montrealers to greet people to give them the opportunity to choose the language they want to speak and how Frencophones do not want Hi to be part of the greeting anymore. As Americans we are not used to hearing such thing other than “Hey,” “hi,” and even “What’s up?” when we say hello to someone. That is why as soon as we landed in Montréal, I was shocked because the first thing I heard was “Bonjour-hi” when I had to hand in my passport to pass customs.

After being in the city for 5 days I have noticed that most of Montrealers use this expression all day long. When someone has greeted me with only “bonjour” and I have said “bonjour” back, they immediately start speaking French and because my eyes open wide trying to process the words the person speaking to me realizes immediately that I obviously don’t know how to speak French whatsoever. Thanks to this way of greeting people, I have truly come to really like the city and not feel like a total foreigner and tourist like I felt the first day. It has given me many opportunities to meet people and learn about the culture and the life of the Canadians, especially Montrealers. Therefore,  really hope the Hi in the expression is kept alive because it opens up the door to many experiences to tourists and people like us studying abroad.

Special thanks to our social tour guide,

Jenilee, for teaching all of us about Montréal and for a really unforgettable week!

You’ll always be the “I” in our OHIO.

  Of course while we were all in Ottawa we all saw the lovely Tulip flowers and such around the city I love flowers, they smell like Candles, which I also happen to love. I wish we had time to attend the actual Tulip festival so I could get a more colofrul array of the flowers but to the left is the picture of the tulips I took while we were at the museum in Ottawa, i took a good amount of pictures of them and decided to share my best one with you guys. So far, my favorite part of this trip has been the flowers and sights, not the excursions of museums or walking but more the parts of Montreal where you could sit and enjoy the view, like the Atwater market or the view from Margaret’s museum.

 Here on the left is a close up picture of some chinese greenery I shot while at the Botanical Gardens next to the biodome, i love this picture, and i especially loved the gardens when we sat down for a rest under a small asian inspired hut, i got to see alot of pretty flowers glowing in the sunlight, I guess i should’ve taken some pictures huh?

This is another pretty plant-ish, it’s one of the pink trees outside of the Museum in Ottawa, I snapped a shot of this beauty because i thought it looked like my all time favorite tree, the Sakura tree, or better known as a Cherry Blossom Tree, not something common to the Newark citizen unless you wanted to travel to Athens, Ohio or Cincinatti.

Hi everyone,00 Final Montreal Trip

I have attached the schedule we will follow in Montreal. Please take a look at this in preparation for the trip.

SNL Canadian Celebrity Scoop Click here to see how guest Zach Galifianakis and SNL cast members report hot celebrity gossip as Canadians. Ohhhhhh, they’re soooooo nice (and cold, and did you notice their producer)!

Canadian comedian, Rick Mercer, in “Talking to Americans- Part 1” Click here to watch Canadian comedian, Rick Mercer, making fun of Americans. Albeit, as a Canadian, this is probably not the meanest joke Mercer could have employed–response-baiting passersby’s into revealing their own stupidity–it does reflect quite badly on Americans as a whole. At the very least, could we as a nation agree to just admit it when we don’t know something?