A Canadian in Beijing: Summer Ice Skating

by Ember Swift on

Here it is the heat of summer in Beijing and I found myself on ice skates last night. I looked down at the ice rolling under my skate blades in the “You Yi Shopping City” mall ice rink last night and I laughed out loud. I was wearing a light shirt and jeans and the sweat was dripping down my back. Ice skating in the summertime? I don’t think this Canadian has ever been skating without mittens on her hands! China, I keep forgetting how inventive you are!

Last night, a group of us went to a local mall to strap on skates and make some circles around the rink. It was a standard ice rink just like the ones back home, but this one was in the middle of a huge shopping mall – one of the largest in Beijing – and it’s not the only ice rink found in a mall in this city. In fact, naïve me thought that only our famous “West Edmonton Mall” in Canada had ever thought of such a crazy idea. Turns out, thanks to a quick chat with my Quebecois friends who came along, that there’s one in a mall in Montreal too. So, I guess it’s not so rare after all . . .

When we arrived, we descended down giant escalators into a wide walkway and saw gallery style railings that looked down and into the ice rink. People leaned over these railings all evening, intermittently watching the skating from above. I did the same for a moment before going down yet another set of escalators into the skating area.

Choosing skates was the first adventure. I don’t use figure skates because I’m more comfortable in hockey skates. When I asked for hockey skates, the overwhelming response was “Are you sure? They’re dangerous!” I assured the staff and my Chinese friend that I was sure and was reluctantly handed the skates without picks on the blades. It seems as though this choice is more rare here in China, especially for a woman. I explained that I thought it was more dangerous for me to have the picks on the ends of the blades because I’m not used to them and they catch the ice and could tip me forward. It all depends on experience, I suppose.

We all sat down and strapped our skates on and I was excited. It’s not every day that I get to go skating and, even though I live one hour from the longest skating rink in the world (Ottawa’s Rideau Canal), I did not make it into Ottawa for a skating day this winter. I love to skate but I had to go to Beijing to find the time!

My skates were laced and done up long before anyone else’s. I took to the ice and took a few loops to gather back my comfort on blades. I love the feeling of ice beneath me. It’s such a powerful sound, too, that slick scrape of skate blades on frozen water. The very pitch of that sound is nostalgic. Then, when I get the rhythm under me, I feel like I’m flying on the ice the way flying sometimes feels in a dream state. It’s as though you’re being carried along and not actually generating the flight, like the way your hand will catch and ride the wind when you dangle it out your car window while driving.

Like surfing the air.

I suddenly realized that I was daydreaming and ignoring my friends then, and so I went back to check in on them to find out why they were taking so long. There were some size confusions with the skates and then lots of switching between hockey skates and figure skates going on. All of my friends that came with me are male, but all but one settled on figure skates in the end.

It’s very common for men to skate with figure skates here. It’s very unusual back home, in my experience, unless they are training to be figure skaters. In fact, in Canada, I’m ashamed to say that as kids we used to differentiate hockey skates and figure skates as boys’ skates and girls’ skates, respectively. I no longer see it this way, of course, knowing that many women (like me) prefer hockey skates and/or play ice sports and many men (of all sexual orientations!) are accomplished figure skaters. Still, I realized last night that these assumptions are still in me when I found myself marvelling at all the boys in figure skates being so beautiful and graceful with their turns and spins while I roughly cut and scraped the ice at top speed, racing between people and wishing I had a hockey stick and a puck to chase.

Stereotypes are meant to be broken.

When I looked up at the posters hanging from the upper railings around the rink, I saw a maple leaf almost immediately. A picture of a local hockey team showed the kids wearing hockey jerseys with various NHL team logos. One of the kids in the front row was sporting a Montreal Canadiens jersey. I definitely felt at home in that moment and quietly complimented the photographer on placing that kid in the front row. Of all the teams to feature, I’d say that was a good choice!

There were many little kids on the ice as well — some who looked no more than four years old — and several were being coached in certain techniques by professional skaters. The center of the ice was being used as training areas as were the corner circles, thus making it necessary to skate a bit slower in order to avoid collision with the little ones. Speed could be increased as it got later, though. By around nine o’clock, the rink was clearing out and we had the last half an hour with lots of free space to mess around and practise tricks and have some races.

I had a great time. It was an unusual outing, for sure, but I enjoyed the exercise and the challenge of trying to remember how to skate backwards in a circle. The skills we learn as kids stay in our limbs, I believe, and I found my body recalling the movements and finding the steadiness bit by bit. I’ll have to go back and keep practising!

When we left, it was closing time at 9:30. Some of my friends spent most of their time off the ice, but everyone tried to skate, at least, and we all put on our shoes again in a good mood.

With the piped in Muzak still ringing in our ears, we watched the rink staff rolling large silver coverings onto the ice not unlike those used in the windshields of cars in the summertime to protect one’s interior from overheating. No zamboni and so I imagine that this technique enables the rink to maintain its frozen state, like a cooler. Still, I wonder how they do smooth the surface again? Perhaps the zamboni comes out in the mornings? I have no idea.

I woke up this morning with sore muscles and a bit of homesickness for Canada. Next year, I’m not going to miss the canal. That’s a promise to myself.

And I’ll be sure not to forget my mittens.

Haiti Part 2: Kreyól Cuisine

by Adrienne Wilson on


One might imagine that food and its preparation between each Caribbean island couldn’t possibly vary drastically in taste, but then one would be wrong. I’ve learned now through an odd handful of islands visited; St. Lucia, Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and now Haiti, that the art and science of cooking and eating a good meal on each is an experience of its own. No where else have I been able to feast upon conch salad the way I had in the Bahamas or the doubles and roti found in T&T and in Haiti, Creole cabrit, picklise, and lambi. The islands are without a doubt full of flavors. I’m sure I did not come close to taste-testing every Haitian delight on the menu or even the grilled corn on the cob which I longed for from one of the street vendors, but what I have here is only a glance of what savory, mouth-watering dishes await the visitor hoping to dig into Kreyól Cuisine during a weekend, week or months stay in the country.

Pasta Nostra was not the first sit down restaurant I dined at, but it easily became my favorite. It possibly was the story behind the place alone that won my affection. As the story goes the breath-taking, beautiful mademoiselle pictured above had once been involved with an Italian man who taught her the art of cooking pasta and other Italian dishes. While the man in the story is somewhat of a ghost now, the beautiful chef can still be found preparing fresh seafood and pasta dishes across from the quiet beach of Ti Mouillage.

The establishment is cool, casual and comfortable like most situated next to the beach. Wooden chairs and tables sit atop of a small deck and small, bright, colorful artwork hangs from the wooden pools along the restaurant. Come before you feel you will absolutely faint of hunger because it is a one-woman operation in the kitchen and so it will be a moment before the food arrives. If you’ve come all the way to Haiti only to sample items typical to the country and wish not to have what I call ‘Italian fare remixed’ there is enough delicious fresh seafood to fill you right on up and if you weren’t aware – seafood is pretty typical for most islands.

On my plate: Grilled red snapper with plantains covered in a spicy red leafy sauce. The fish was cooked wonderfully and the sauce (I cannot remember the name – pictured below) had the right amount of kick. My companions all had the same with the exception of one who sampled the lobster and noted it was delicious. To wash it all down I sipped on cold cherry juice which I expressed some initial skepticism over as I’m not wild about cherry flavored foods/beverages in the States, yet the taste of cherry in Haiti is much different. The gelato featured on the desert menu was not available, so I skipped on having sweets afterwards. The rest of the bunch ordered crepes, which I took only a bite of found tasty as well. After you’ve refueled head across to the beach for a snooze underneath the island sun. ($$)

Pasta Nostra is located in Ti Mouillage, up the road from Jacmel. Ph. 509.453.3413

The restaurant at Hotel Cyvadier was the first I ate at and found the food appetizing. It wasn’t until we’d made the long three hour drive from Port-au-Prince and got all checked in did I finally rest my limbs and gobble down my first real meal. The restaurant as best described on the hotel website ‘seats up to 70 people and specializes in a diverse variety of fish, crawfish and lobster delivered daily from the local fishermen.’ The atmosphere is casual for breakfast and lunch which were the only two times I actually dined at the Cyvadier. Views of the hotel, swimming pool and the alluring Cyadier Plage (beach) can all be seen from the restaurant.

On my breakfast plate: I usually went the light way for breakfast having fruits (mango, banana, pineapple and/or melon) and bread with confiture (jelly or peanut butter). Simple and yummy! On the lunch plate: Spaghetti with ham and onions. If my memory serves me correctly I believe it may have been called Creole spaghetti, but I could also be wrong. For the first meal it wasn’t too bad. It was not mind-blowing, but highly satisfying. I would have liked to have explored other dishes on the menu, but didn’t want to stick exclusively to the hotel restaurant. ($$$)

Hotel Cyvadier Restaurant Plage is located in Jacmel off of Avenue Baranquilla in the direction towards Marigot. Ph. 509.288.3323

Ambiance was the dinner stop right before heading out to the second night of Festival Mizik Jakmel. It sits on the second floor above a business which I did not bother taking notice of and has a nice view of the activity taking place on the streets below. There isn’t a ton of ‘ambiance’ with the speeding motor ‘taxi’ bikes passing along, but once your meal is served you forget about all that is surrounding you including the screeching tires. The dishes took a while to prepare and by the time my Cabrit Creole (Creole goat) arrived I had lost the sense to take a photo of it and instead dug right in.

It was accompanied by a small field salad and a plate of red beans and rice far to large for me to tackle alone. The goat itself was very tasty and the meat was falling off the bone. Considering how different the taste was from the curry goat I’d had in T&T so many times and how easy it was to rip right into the meal I questioned whether I was truly having goat, but only for a short few seconds. I cannot recall what was on everyone else’s plate, but the overall reaction to the food was a good one. ($$)

Ambiance is located at Avenue Baranquilla, Jacmel, Haiti. Ph. 509.288.3067

There were a few things on my wish list that I still hadn’t eaten and I didn’t want to wait anymore. I had been told about how delicious the picklese and Creole lambi was in Haiti and I didn’t want to miss either and in the process I still managed to miss one. The last sit-down spot where I had the opportunity and sadly failed was at Le Lambi Beach Hotel near Carrefour.

Le Lambi is HUGE! It was by far the biggest place we’d been to and during the time of our visit one of the quietest. It was obvious the restaurant had been there for ages as it was decorated from every inch of the ceiling in colorful baskets and every inch of the walls in conch shells. When you walk in your attention is split between the dance floor to the right and the open floor in the center where one can look down into the sea beneath. Old kompa tunes hum from the stereo system calling music lovers to the dance floor on a packed night I’m sure, but for lunch every patron in the restaurant was either far too hungry or too relaxed. I was so thrilled that they had picklese (a chopped cabbage in an extra delectable vinegar dressing) that I made the mistake of ordering my lambi grille
d and not the typical way which is served in Creole sauces.

When my meal arrived I looked down at what seemed like an appetizer. My companions then confessed that they’d never eaten the lambi (conch) grilled before and always order it in Creole sauce. I thought to myself why they hadn’t shared that valuable information before I ordered and let it slide as they were probably only trying to provide me with a reason to come back. In the end the grilled lambi was ‘OK’ and the picklese amazing! In fact I had everyone else’s picklese too. They were more than happy to share. And yes, I must finish what I started and return to sample more. ($$)

Le Lambi Beach Hotel is located in/near Carrefour at Mariani Mer Frayyte, Haiti. Ph. 509.234.0272

Dollar Guide: ($) Under U.S. $10 ($$) Under U.S. $20 ($$$) Over U.S. $20. While some restaurants are pricey and there is much street food to devour there are cheap tasty items on most if not all menus. Menu prices are noted in Haitian dollars (which do not actually exist) and can be paid for in Gourdes or U.S. dollars. To get the price in Gourdes multiply the Haitian dollar amount by five. For the price in U.S. dollars divide the amount of Gourdes by the going exchange rate approx 35-37. After you’ve done all the math treat yourself to a cocktail.

Want to go cheaper and hit the streets! Go for it! Among most busy town roadsides you can find chicken, plantains, sugarcane, juices, you name it! Just be careful to always have bottled water.









Yesterday: A Country with a VERY Bad Reputation
Tomorrow: Hotel Cyvadier & Other Jacmel Hotels

Where on Earth (Week 10): Dalí Museum, Figueres, Spain

by Neil Woodburn on

Where on Earth indeed! Who else but Salvador Dalí could design such a bizarre building?

The eccentric Spanish artist personally dreamed up “the largest surrealistic object in the world” in Figueres, Spain to house his artwork after he died.

The Dalí Museum contains 4,000 works of art and is undoubtedly the largest such collection in the world.

When I was younger, I was a big fan of the artist’s surrealist landscapes and paintings and was therefore excited to learn about this museum just a two-hour train ride from Barcelona. It’s an easy day trip to what is one of the most unique museums in the world. The whole structure is in fact a Dalí creation and when I visited I felt as though I’d stepped right into one of his paintings.

But it’s not all paintings hanging on walls. As you can see from the photo above, Dalí focused on the three-dimensional aspects of his art in creating his museum; everywhere I turned while walking through it, I was confronted by so many bizarre sculptures, statues, eggs, and other surrealistic eye-candy that I was starting to wonder if I was actually on drugs instead of in Spain.

Congrats go out to Goran, Jim Rennie, and Rich for all nailing the location last Wednesday. Good work guys!

Iran Photo Project on Flickr

by Jamie Rhein on

There’s an interesting photo project going on at Flickr called the iRAN Project. I came across it a month or so ago and bookmarked for a later mention. It appears to have been set up by a Madhi Ayat as a way for photographers in Iran to show day- to-day life as they capture it with a their cameras. The latest photos were posted on May 19, 2007. This one is not Ayat’s, but in his pool of favorites. Elishka took this one of the Sardasht valley. I like it because it reminds me of the best travel moments.

Along with his photographs, the photo pools of other photographers’ work cover subjects that range from nature to architecture to portraits. There are discussion threads as well. Ayat has also included a link to Tehran24.com, another site dedicated to illuminating the daily life in Iran through photographs. Both collections are sort like coffee table books on-line.

Besides viewing the photographs for their artistic merit and interest, I find it fascinating just to see the variety of the subjects photographers pick as the ones worth noticing. The fact that Iran is the overarching theme is also intriguing. These are views of the world not often seen.

Culture Quiz

by Willy Volk on

Recently, we told you about Learning About Cultures’ cultural guides. On their website are a list of culture-related questions you can answer to see how well you think you know a destination. Here are 5 random questions from their site, so you can gauge for yourself if you’re a Culture King — or a Culture Dunce. Answers follow the questions.

South Africa: You, Mr. Smith, are introduced to Mm. Mbube, and she simply stands there with a demure smile, even though you clearly extended your hand to her. Is she intentionally being unfriendly?

Indonesia: You accidentally walk into your colleague’s office mid-day and observe he is praying. What should you do?

Greece: You are standing on the street corner in Athens and suddenly see your Greek friend across the street; you raise your hand in greeting, and he sees you, but instead of looking pleased, he looks angry, and turns and walks the other way. Did you do something wrong?

Costa Rica: You really don’t like the strong black coffee your Tico hosts have been serving, almost non-stop. But you are afraid of hurting their feelings if you refuse the next cup. What to do?

Russia: Your Russian colleague makes a toast in your honor, and you raise the glass of vodka to your lips. You glance down into the shot glass, and quickly gulp the fiery liquid down. You look up only to find your Russian hosts looking disapprovingly back at you. What did you do wrong?

Bonus…US: At your meeting in Dallas, your Texan associate grabs your hand forcefully, slaps you on the back, smiles broadly and calls you by your nickname. But you’ve only just met! How do you respond?
South Africa: Traditional South African women do not shake hands, or in any other way touch, men, even in business, especially in public. Simply continue your discussions with her.

Indonesia: If you accidentally interrupt a Muslim colleague during prayer time, just quietly excuse yourself. Be respectful of prayer times, and be flexible about allowing people their time to pray. It only takes a few minutes, and you may depend upon your Muslim colleagues to return from their “time out” soon. Many Western organizations in Indonesia provide for a prayer room for these purposes.

Greece: Raising your hand so that the open palm is facing outward in Greece is a very aggressive and negative gesture. Avoid it.

Costa Rica: Some consider Costa Rican coffee the finest in the world; certainly Costa Ricans do. It is impolite under any circumstances to refuse this hospitality. If you’ve had more than your share of caffeine for the day, allow your cup to be filled anyway, and raise it to your lips from time to time. You do not have to drink it.

Russia: When a toast is made, either by or to you, from the moment you lift your glass off the table to the moment you place it back down, you must never break eye contact with your Russian colleagues. To do so is insulting.

US: Americans can be especially informal. They are comfortable assuming familiarity, even when it may not, in fact, exist. They use first names quickly, and disdain demonstration of deference to positions and rank.