Whoa!! Ryan, a fast tracker with me, got a summer job at the Star Phoenix, the daily paper in Saskatoon, his home town. That is soooOOOOooo cool!

Whoa!!! Ryan, un confrère du fast track, vient d'avoir une job d'été au Star Phoenix, le quotidien de Saskatoon, sa ville natale. C'est trop coooOOOOool!

De Québec, je me suis ennuyé :
De la beauté des Québécoises
Du resto Le Subtil
Des après-midi passés au Second Cup avec un Mokachino crême fouetté
Du quartier St-Roch
De la tranquillité de mon condo
De la végétation. Je ne m'étais jamais rendu compte à quel point il y avait beaucoup d'arbres à Québec avant de vivre 7 semaines en Ontario.
De ma piscine dont je n'ai pas encore pu profiter cet été.
Des vagues du fleuve St-Laurent. Le lac Ontario est bien joli, mais il est très calme!

De Québec, je ne m'étais surtout pas ennuyé :
des routes pleines de trous
des conversations sur la météo dans les ascenseurs
des radios québécoises
De la façon de conduire « à la québécoise »
De la circulation à Montréal et à Québec
Des maisons avec un revêtement « cheap »
De la chicane Québec Vs Montréal.
Des sempiternels débats sur la souveraineté.

De Belleville, je m'ennuierai :
De Picton et Bloomfield, deux petits villages loyalistes d'une beauté absolument superbe avec leurs énormes manoirs en briques rouges et leur beau petit centre-ville
Des innombrables journaux. Même Picton, une contrée de 4000 âmes, à son bisemestriel. Il doit bien y avoir 8 quotidiens dans un rayon de 40 minutes, pour un total de 250000 habitants. Par comparaison, Québec a deux quotidiens pour 700000 habitants.
De l'ouverture des gens. Se faire dire « good morning » par un inconnu sur le trottoir, ça surprend son québécois la première fois!
De son petit centre-ville et de son superbe hôtel de ville
De la proximité de Toronto
Du son des grenouilles le long de Wallbridge-Loyalist Road. De ma chambre des résidences, je les entendais faire leur concert à 300 mètres de là!

De Belleville, je ne m'ennuierai pas :
De la taille de la ville. On en fait rapidement le tour
De North Front Street. Un affreux boulevard de banlieue avec toutes les franchises imaginables en format boîte carré et stationnement à l'avant. Beurk!

Well, I’m about to leave folks! Cette nuit est ma dernière nuit à Belleville until next september. Ce soir, we are suppose to go to the first bar we went at the beginning of the fast track program. This should be fun!

C’est sûr que cela fera un peu de bien de retrouvé ma tranquilité and some privacy, but at the same time, I will miss our evening chatting about photography, or being 5 or 6 of us in the living room, each behind our laptop and working on our daily photography for the next day course.

Dès lundi, je retourne a mon travail de webmaster pour l’été. Il me semble que cela fait si longtemps que je n’ai pas mis les pieds au bureau. Je suis totalement déconnecté de mon « ancienne » vie. And actualy, je suis totalement déconnecté du Québec. Je crois que je suis plus effrayé de retourner a Québec que je ne l’étais de venir à Belleville. But at the same time, some people miss me, and I miss some people so I look forward to see them again.

Remember my broken lens? It’s still not back from Canon. J’ai bien sûr dû remettre la lentille emprunté de l’école, ce qui veux dire que je suis out of a wide lens for I don’t know how long. That sucks big time.

We sadly learned that Victoria is not coming back in September. She can’t handle to be fare away from home and her boyfriend. And since she is more into journalism that photojournalism, elle a decidé de retourné à l’université dans le programme qu’elle avait commençé à Edmonton avant de venir ici. L’accent y est plus mis sur l’écris que sur la photographie . I’l miss her.

Also, Alexandra is not confident enough in her photography skill, so elle a decidé de continuer le cours, mais en reprenant la première année. Good idea.

Endless wheel at Quinte humane society

527 Avonlough Rd., Belleville.

Population: 140 cats, 45 dogs, three birds, and a lizard.

Welcome to the Quinte Humane Society.

The place is pretty busy. While SPCA agent Tex Rudder is on the phone, Bill McQuaid, an another agent, gently tries to calm down a panicked cat he just brought in. And while some volunteers help a family to choose a new cat for their home, Cheryl Belfall has to force feed a small sick kitten. “This is a quiet day,” Belfall sighs.

Animals are everywhere. Most are in cages, but many of them wander around freely. If you want to use the photocopier, you might have to move Mike, a humongous caramel cat. You should not forget to flush the toilet after you use it, because the next in might be a feline who wants to drinks the fresh water that lies in the bowl. On the couch, on the TV, under the microwave-oven, in the closet, on the chairs; there is no place in the shelter that seems to be reserved for humans. Gram might be an old dog barely able to walk, but he has yet to loses his sense of smell. Rudder could not resist the supplicant eyes of the big boy and gave him a part of his A&W burger. Animals are everywhere, even when you try to eat.

To work at the shelter is not easy job, and it does not necessarily end when your shift is over. Recently, a puppy was hurt by his mother. A scare on his torso runs from his throat to her belly. He had to be separated from her. He needs to eat every two hours. Even at night. A schedule was made and everyone add to bring the small plush-looking dog home for a night. Just like a mother who breast feeds her baby, they had to wake up several times to nourish him. Without a bonus on the paycheque.

Beatrice Erennen will be there for a couple hours. She volunteers to pets the cats. Although she is mute – and deaf – you can read on her lips. “This one and this one are best friends,” she says. “And this one is sick,” she adds. “Those four are my preferred. Here is some pictures I took”.  Her love for these hairy creatures is easily noticeable. She can sit for minutes with one cat on her lap and doing nothing but stroke him.

This Friday, the shelter’s minivan was about to leave with two cats for adoption. Ironically, Amanda Hugh and Kevin Cook had to first unload the vehicle of two garbage bags full of bodies of dead cats. A veterinarian put them to sleep early on and they will be kept in a freezer at the shelter until a company will pick them up to cremate them. No one would be surprised to hear Amanda says that it’s the part of the job she hates the most.

This kind of give and take is dealt with on a daily basis. On their last adopt-a-thon, held at a local pet store on May 28, five dogs where adopted. However, during the same day, four new dogs arrived at the shelter. “It’s kind of a hit and miss”, says Marja Smith, manager of the Quinte humane society.

Cats in, cats out. Dogs in, dogs out. The Quinte humane society seems to be part of the mechanism of a gigantic endless wheel.

Désolé pour les lecteurs francophone. Je me rend compte que si je prend le temps de tout traduire, je ne mettrai jamais a jour mon carnet.

I know, there is not enough update on this blog. Maybe because the burden of translating everything was too much. I then decided to write this post in English only.

I can’t believe I’m 5 days away of coming back to Quebec city. I really feel at home here, and I am a bit sad to think that I have to leave this place. People are really friendly in Belleville.

I had an interview for a job this week. They where really sad that I was not back until September. They did not said it on those words, but I think they would have hired my for the next day on a full time job if I where staying in Belleville for the summer. I was exactly what they where looking for: a computer literate person, with a pleasant voice, that know how to explain things in a simple way, that knows how to handle angry people on the phone, and that can work on a bilingual position. I think I have a job this September! It will just be weird to switch from a 30$/hour to a 10$/hour job. Well, I don’t know the exact salary here, but I doubt it is more than 15$/h!

Last Thursday, I went to Alexandra’s cottage with Natalie, Ryan and Victoria. Well… I say cottage, but it is actually bigger than my parent’s house. We had a crazy party, and I had a lot fun. And I really mean. The cottage is in Coe Valley, an hour and a half north of Belleville. It is actually in the middle of no where. In Quebec, when we take an isolated road to go to an isolated place, we are use to look for dears. Between Madoc and Coe Valley, things are a bit different. You have to look for turtles. Yes, turtles. North of Madoc, a 30-50 cm turtle can be regularly seen crossing the street or laying eggs on the side of the road. Around 10 was seen on our way up, and 3 on our way back. This is really amazing and exotic!

I went to Toronto yesterday. God I love this city! I really laugh at ethnocentric French Canadian – Mostly from Montreal, I should add -  who say that TO is a dead cultureless city. Only people who have never been there can say that! Toronto is a colourful ethnic bustling city. The Chinatown is amazingly alive, Kensington market is a formidable place to hang on, Queen street is fabulous with all the street artists who sell their things, and the street hot dog are the best in the world! God bless Polish sausages!

I primarily went to Toronto to pay Henry a visit. No, Henry is not a buddy of mine. It is the biggest camera store in the country. I bought a new tripod, and a photojournalist belt and harness. I kind of look weird wearing that, but it is really handy. I also bought 2 umbrella kits, Unfortunately, my 550ex flash cannot remotely trigger my 420 on manual mode. I guess I will have to buy a new 550 or a 580 if I want to use a 2 umbrella set up. Oh! I also still need a flash/light meter. For those of you who are not familiar with camera stuff: I apologise for the lingo.

I am giving the last touch on 2 big assignments. One of them is a photo essay for the “photojournalism” classes, the other one is a feature story for “writing for newspaper”. Thanks to fast track, teachers asked to do both assignment on the same subject due to time pressure. For those assignments, I spent a couples of hours at the Quinte human Society - It’s like the SPCA in the rest of the country - to document life in a animal shelter. I promise to show you that when I’m done. Ironically, I’m happier with the text that with the pictures. I spent a lot of time beefing it up, and I think it is pretty good. Draft is due tomorrow.