I bought a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off open top bus ride today, and hopped on, intending to take one whole round without hopping off. However, traffic was extremely, painfully slow, and so I got off at Chinatown to have lunch… fishball noodles! I had it at one of the HK-style cafes there, and it was actually more like instant noodles with fish balls. Well, still it was a decent meal at just $3.50 in NYC, can’t complain much I guess. At least they gave me 11 fish balls…

Then I went to the subway station intending to take the tube to meet my friend at Columbia University. Being totally new to the NYC subway I was totally taken aback by the complicated network of routes… so I asked the ticket vendor what train I should take. That was a Chinese guy, and he looked at me as though I was a moron and yelled an indecipherable answer at me. I asked how much the ticket cost and he yelled $2, grabbed the money from me, and practically threw the card through the hole in the window.

I asked a passer-by for directions instead.

Later when I was getting back from Columbia U to Times Square, the ticket I bought had a problem and I couldn’t get through the turnstile, so I asked the ticket vendor for assistance… and got yelled at again. Seems like he couldn’t understand English or just couldn’t be bothered to listen - I told him the ticket had a problem and he just asked me to try again. So I went to the turnstile to try again… couldn’t work. I looked at him, and he was motioning furiously at me to try again. So I did so again and again. Couldn’t work still. Then I walked back to the counter, looked at him, and he again had that “you are a moron” look and told me to go through the manual gate instead. Dammit. What’s the problem with these people.

When I got back to my room, I realised that someone took my towel. Gee. Of all things, someone stole my towel, a used one too. Now I got to buy a new towel before I can shower =( Better lock all my stuff tomorrow before I go out.

I took the road less traveled today by taking the Amtrak train from Montreal to NYC. I chose this mode of transport because having experienced the excellent service on Amtrak’s service between Vancouver and Seattle I thought it’d be just as good.

However, this time round the train kind of suck (poor ventilation, and less comfortable than the Vancouver one), and the food service was bad… while there were gourmet sandwiches on the Vancouver service, this one had just hot dogs and hamburgers… and there was no hot water for the entire ride, thus no coffee or tea.

Nevertheless, it was a very scenic route and I enjoyed it… pretty grueling ride at about 11 hrs though. Reached NYC at about 9pm, and headed out to get some dinner after checking in at the hostel… there are street side food vendors here, just like in Bangkok! But much cleaner of course… and I got myself some delicious, authentic tasting Indian food for just 5 bucks.

I spent the entire day walking around Montreal today, following the suggested itinerary from Frommer’s travel guide. Took lots of photos, of which a selection can be found below.

For lunch I had Chinese food in Montreal’s Chinatown. This is totally different from the Chinese food in Vancouver. Apparently here the clientele is mainly westerners since there are fewer Asians in this part of Canada. Not like in Vancouver where we make up a formidable number. So obviously the food tasted less authentic and yes, the meal ended with a fortune cookie.

Guess what my fortune for the day is (pic below)? Quite hilarious, because I know for a fact that the fortune cookie is an American invention and I am pretty sure many Americans believe that they really do come from China. The same for things like “General Tao’s” chicken. In all my life eating Chinese food I’ve never heard of things like these.

And as an afternote, I did not manage to finish what I wanted to undertake today (against what the fortune cookie predicted) - I didn’t go to Mont Royal because I was too tired. Darn fortune cookie!

Tonight is my last night in Montreal… and then I’m saying goodbye to Canada (with the exception of my half day layover in Vancouver at the end of my trip).

Today I went for a day trip to Quebec City. The shuttle bus arrived to pick me up at 7.30 am, bringing me to the office to check-in for the tour and then boarding the tour bus there (troublesome eh?). That began a 4 hour or so ride to Quebec City, with a breakfast stop along the way where I paid a steep $3.60 for a miserable muffin and coffee. Tour buses always seem to stop at places with expensive and lousy food.

Shortly before noon we pulled into Quebec City… a small, quaint little town (yea, more like a town than a city) that the tour guide described as similar to Brittany in France. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and will be celebrating its 400th birthday later this year. What a shame, I think there will be some very grand celebrations lined up for it, judging from all the construction taking place now.

There were lots of stories and interesting bits of history narrated by the guide throughout the tour, but well… I’m one of those who can’t seem to keep these things in my head for long. The only interesting bit that I recall now is how the guide/driver explained why there were some many places named “Saint *****” in Quebec. He said it was because in earlier days, people turned to the village priests to name their villages, and the priests would then name them after the Catholic saint of the day (quite sketchy about this part). If it happened that there was already a village in the area with the same name, then the priest would just flip open the Bible randomly and then choose the name of the first saint mentioned on the page.

The guide also mentioned that many Hollywood movies supposedly filmed in a French setting are actually filmed in Quebec City - because that would save the producers much money than actually going to France. The movie Catch Me If You Can was actually filmed in QC (the scene where Leonardo di Caprio was printing fake cheques or banknotes in a church in France - the actual building is in the last photo below).

I like the feel of Quebec City very much… it seems like a nice place to settle down in for retirement (as is evident from the growing number of retirees moving there)… however, the weather there is really extreme - it can go as low as minus 40 degrees centigrade in the winter and as high as 35 degrees in summer. Also, everyone speaks French as the first language so it can be frustrating for non French speakers.. even for a day!

What I realized after just 1 day in Montreal and 1 day in QC, is that some French speaking people here can be quite snobbish - I don’t think they totally don’t understand English - just that they refuse to communicate in English even though they do understand - I’ve heard such stories from most people I know who ever been to France and now I know what they meant.

Anyway, the scenery and architecture were awesome.

Article at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/343445/1/.html

That’s quite sad, eh? Singaporeans actually have to look to the government to allocate them a ‘family day out’ so that they can spend more time with their family. I understand the premise is to ‘encourage’ Singaporeans to spend more time with family, however, I believe this is not addressing the root of the problem.

Who in this world don’t long for family connection? Even those with dysfunctional families often long for the day when they can have a happy, fulfilling family life. This is human nature. There must be some extenuating factors in order for a society to move away from the fundamental value of family cohesiveness… in Singapore’s case I suspect it is the bread and butter issue.

Many of my friends who have now been working for a couple of years feedback to me that they are required to work overtime to meet deadlines and the whims of their superiors… many of whom are in the civil/public service… but it is largely the same for private entities as well. I’ve never heard of any friend who works in a place where employees are encouraged to go home on time to spend time with their families. No, this is certainly not the Singaporean way. While I am sure there are companies with such policies, I do not believe this is anywhere near common. What we have are just superficial, unrealistic ‘initiatives’ set up by upper management and top government officials that try to simplify the problem into a simple 1 + 1 = 2 type… essentially looking to work on the tip of the iceberg without bothering about the root causes.

Look at it this way. Say today is Friday, a designated day to go home early to dine with one’s family - but the over-zealous superior of yours wants you to finish a particular report that she just assigned to you this morning before you knock off work… what can you do? Can you tell her, “Sorry, this is Friday and I’m going home early to have dinner with my wife and kids”?

Who gives a hoot about you and your family? Maybe top management and government officials, but there is no realistic blueprint on how to actually balance everything nicely - it’s a domino effect - Superior 1 rushes Superior 1.1 for the report to be submitted on Wednesday, who, wanting to impress the boss by handing it in before schedule, in turns rushes Superior 1.1.1 who believes that things should be done more ‘efficiently’ and thus sets a Friday evening deadline for poor you.

The problem with Singapore is that in our pursuit for efficiency and effectiveness in a meritocratic society, people feel compelled to give all they’ve got for their employers - whether they choose to do it (i.e. motivate themselves) or not (i.e. forced/pressurized by superiors). While this is not a bad thing to have, it certainly takes a toll on the employees’ private and family lives - some may argue that this should be a matter of inadequate work/life balance by the employees themselves, but I see the problem as a bigger one - the government and employers often seem more interested to squeeze whatever energy left in employees to make sure that they are ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ and give the most bang for buck.

Overtime, even the best and most motivated worker can become disillusioned with it - when signs of wear and cracks in family and private lives start to show. Of course for everything there are exceptional cases - ‘model’ families who are able to stick together despite difficulties - but that’s a small minority.

We often hear friends complain about how in Singapore one person does the work of two because their employees want better efficiency. Nothing wrong with wanting to be efficient, but… with the means to achieve it - through exploiting employees to their last burst of energy and morale.

To obtain a long term solution, the government must first be able to accept that a paradigm shift is required in the society - to change the mindsets of people and organisations to look more at overall happiness in life rather than just material achievements. But perhaps, the government is already aware of this problem but is not keen to solve it for the aforementioned reasons (effectiveness, efficiency). Perhaps, it can even be hypothesized that this is the way the government wants Singapore to be, so that we can continue to be ‘first’ and ‘best’ in everything.

This then brings us to the problem of an overly competition driven society where people and organisations are encouraged to constantly compete with one another so that one can emerge as the ‘winner’ and the ‘first’, ‘best’ , whatever. The problems of a meritocracy.

In everything there are pros and cons, but are we better off embracing the pros of a meritocracy and bringing along with us the problems that we will eventually pass on to our future generations?

I only planned for a half day layover in Toronto, and I’m glad I planned it that way - there’s nothing much to do in Toronto - not much sightseeing besides the CN Tower (another one of those tourist traps where you pay $20+ to take an elevator up, wow at the view from the top for a couple minutes and that’s it). Needless to say I didn’t go for it. Too much to pay for 2 minutes of city view when they are more or less the same everywhere else and no less magnificent for example at the Pearl tower in Shanghai, OUB Plaza in Singapore, etc.

There are actually lots to do in Toronto for people who love the arts… and comedy - Canada is like the comedy capital of the world with lots of shows in Toronto. I didn’t go for them again as I’m on a budget and don’t really want to spend like $30 to watch a comedian for a couple of hours when I can watch on TV.

I took the morning before my departure for Montreal to do a walking tour of downtown Toronto as recommended by Frommer’s, and had a supposedly famous “peabody style pork bun” in St Lawrence market - it was absolutely disgusting, with many pieces of salty and greasy pork cutlet slices wedged between a bun and nothing else, not even a slice of lettuce! Man, I got to stop believing in those marketing efforts put up by these eating establishments - rows and rows of newspaper and magazine reviews on how good that expensive bun is… it was so bad I couldn’t finish eating it!

I don’t like the feel of Toronto - it’s too fast faced, much like Singapore… (but still slower than the latter). And oh the temperature here these couple of days was a comfortable ~20 degrees celcius - quite unexpected given that its still less than 10 degrees in Vancouver - I came here expecting worse, which is typical of weather in East Canada… hmm… global warming effects changing the typicity of weather?

I took a grueling 7 hour bus ride to Montreal from Toronto. The only reason why I chose bus over a flight or train was because of the price … I bought it at a steep discount for early purchase… no complains for the price and the relatively OK bus ride since I had two seats to myself.

Along the way… there was mostly … nothingness. The countryside in Canada is such a vast landscape of emptiness… grass and trees, the occasional farm and small town, and nothing else. I wonder how people who live hours away from a major city (i.e. those in the agricultural industry) survive in this age. It must be quite boring. And oh I had Tim Horton’s for dinner again. Darn. It was the only choice available at the rest stop.

The bus pulled into Montreal shortly after 10.15pm, and I was surprised at how well-developed the city is - seems much, much better than Toronto. At least, first impressions was good - the subway is a more pleasant experience than in Toronto and there are few homeless people on the streets - I felt quite safe walking late at night in the empty streets looking for the hotel I’m booked into for the next few nights - very comfortable room (check out the pic! - I’ll upload tomorrow). I’m glad I got a good rate for this stay.

My last day in Vancouver was spent doing last minute packing for the stuff I’ll be bringing along on my trip… then went for a Macdonald’s dinner with a roommate… returned my keys and said goodbye to the roommates. Then went on my way to the airport.

I was booked on a WestJet flight to Toronto. The security procedures were rather strict – I even had my laptop swiped with a swab and tested on the spot for explosive particles. The flight was delayed slightly as for some reason a passenger had to be ‘removed’ from it.

The way I see it, flight crew were not very professional (compared to Asian carriers’ crew), and were very casual… chatting loudly amongst themselves during the flight. Also, they weren’t doing things very efficiently – they could have sped up the boarding process if they followed some boarding sequences (i.e. allowing passengers sitting at the back of the plane to board first… thus reducing bottlenecks). Hmm. No wonder North American airlines have been losing money.

The flight was 4.5 hours long and very uncomfortable. The seat was hard and narrow… even for an average sized Asian guy like me… I was so relieved to get off the flight finally at 6.30am Toronto time! Then I took public transit to the hostel I am staying at for the night. Toronto’s subway system is quite aged and its showing… the trains and stations were quite dirty and dimly lit. Quite different compared to Vancouver. And here on the streets they’ve got very short and narrow ‘streetcars’ which were essentially just trams.

After a long flight, I was hungry and tired so the first thing I did after depositing my heavy bags at the hostel was to look for something to eat. I ended up, where else but at Tim Horton’s (it’s all over the place here in Toronto, compared to Vancouver where Starbucks is the de facto coffee place).

And… I ended up eating Tim Horton’s sandwiches for all 3 meals today because it was the most reasonably priced food I could find. And to be honest they were all pretty good. Vancouver’s Tim Horton’s serves fake cappuccino (at least the UBC branch does that – of the few times I ordered it, they served me French Vanilla flavoured coffee – not at all like cappuccino, and doesn’t even have frothed milk). The Tim Horton’s cappuccino I had for breakfast this morning in Toronto is the real deal, though I do find it a tad less aromatic than Starbucks – but I guess for the price its good enough.

Shortly after 9.30am I got on the tour bus for a day tour to Niagara falls… well, when we finally got there I was quite disappointed – although the falls was certainly really large and amazing, but there’s nothing much else besides that… and one would get tired of looking at it after a few minutes. I would prefer something like the Grand Canyon where every direction you turn there’s amazing scenery. I also paid about $10 to take an elevator down ‘behind’ the falls… it was quite disappointing as you can see from the pictures below - nothing more than a wall dug out of the rock to show that we are behind it. But the sheer quantity of water and the speed can really make one feel intimidated.

Before the falls we stopped at a boutique winery for some free wine tastings. The wine were all so-so… and I had a chance to taste red icewine as well (Cabernet Franc – erm, not very nice actually). Actually after a few tastings the novelty of icewine wears off – I find late harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling much more palatable, and many times cheaper.

And after the tour we got back to Toronto at 6pm. I tipped the driver/guide (who incidentally can probably qualify to be Toronto’s tallest person at 208cm tall) and went for dinner, yes, at Tim Horton’s.

I swear I’m not gonna touch Tim Horton’s again in the next 2 days at least. Sinful stuff.

Exams are finally over! With this my stint at UBC is over.

Yesterday night I went partying with my roommates… the first time all four of us went out together, and definitely the last time since I won’t be here anymore. It was fun, thoughm and especially memorable since it snowed – yes, in mid-Spring! I think its quite rare to have snow in Vancouver (compared to the rest of Canada), and this year we’ve apparently got plenty and even twice in spring!

It’s the exam season, so all the drinking establishments on campus were rather empty… and all closing early – wouldn’t serve us more than a pitcher of beer… luckily we had some before going out…

I’ve been packing up my stuff since I’ll be leaving in a couple days’ time… my room is like a pig sty and I always suck at tidying up and packing stuff… without the SO helping me I felt kind of lost (she’s the one who always gets my luggage in order whenever I’m going somewhere).

I did manage to clear up everything by the last minute, out of desperation more than anything else! We (me and a couple of friends who will be taking the same flight back to Singapore with me) rented a car this morning, drove to the public storage place where we rented a storage space and left our luggage there. Now my room’s quite empty except for the stuff I’ll be bringing with me on my month-long trip alone. I’m sure traveling alone will give me fresh perspectives that I wouldn’t get from traveling in groups.

Later in the day I went to the Nitobe Garden (in UBC) and Wreck Beach for some phototaking.

I feel pretty sad about leaving Vancouver, my home for the past 4 months. It’s a really beautiful place with lots of greenery, clean and fresh air, pleasant (and surprising) weather, a melting pot of world cultures (not like Singapore where its more like a melting pot of South Asian cultures)… I’ve met people from more places around the world during these few months than in all my years in Singapore – my airport taxi driver was an Afgan, My roommates were from the US, Canada and Palestine (his family now lives in Jordan), I had classmates from all over the world (compare to NUS!), and I went on a trip to the Canadian Rockies on a bus tour with people of 13 nationalities!

I hope one day I’ll be able to come back to this city again to work and live here for good.

And here are some photos:

[gallery]

Ok… I am not going for a PhD anymore… after reading these:

http://www.nigels.com/jokes/phd1.pdf (I think the first few reasons seem very legitimate and are probably quite true for many PhD candidates who eventually drop out)

http://www.nigels.com/jokes/phd2.pdf (The part on the 2nd (unofficial) field is so true! “Internet studies”… haha!)

http://www.nigels.com/jokes/phd3.pdf (Again, highlights the realities in the academic world)

Those articles might seem to be jokes, but I believe there are some elements of truth in there - very often people have an idealized view of what they will achieve in their PhD studies, only to find out that reality is not so kind.

Also, I read an article about the high attrition rates of PhD candidates in the US - 50% dropout rate. That’s pretty scary, and I’m not getting any younger to risk that.

It’s been a real struggle trying to determine what career’s good for myself versus what I am good at. On one hand I have not much problems academically, but I wonder if I have the ability to go further up. Afterall, being able to do well at a bachelor’s degree doesn’t necessary mean one would do well in graduate studies.

On the other hand, I wonder what kind of environment is suitable for me ultimately - a stable academic one, or a dynamic, exciting corporate career with limitless (depending on one’s own capabilities - and I wonder how much I’ve got) possibilities in terms of advancement?

Plus, going for a PhD means tying myself down to the life of an academic for good - whether I’ll like it or not. Sigh. Such a tough decision to make. I think I’ll know whether I like this stuff or not when I start work on my honors project. In any case I’ve already made contact with a potential supervisor who is renowned in my area of interest… the next thing is to embark on the next step if I really want to.

I finished 1 out of my 2 exams already… tomorrow will be my 2nd and last paper, and in three days’ time I will be out of here, beginning my month-long trip.

Here are some photos from last week.