The World, Engineered

James McGill still going strong…and holding onto his hat for dear life…

The snow covered streets on campus…

Zzzzz…when will the snow end? I feel like spring is not even here and summer is supposed to be ard the corner…looking at the snow all around now, i can’t imagine temperatures hitting the high 30s here…haha…

2 wks till the end of exams…

Well i was hoping for snow and now it’s snowing really heavily. Don’t know if it is considered a blizzard yet though coz I haven’t experienced one before. But to me, it really is one of the heaviest snowfalls i’ve experienced here. When I turn in the direction of where the wind is blowing from, I immediately get a faceful of snow. Time to take out my waterproof snow boots.

I’ve still not gotten used to the fact that I have to check the weather forecast before going out so that i’ll know what temperature the day will be like, coz in Singapore there wasn’t much of a need to. But over here, more then once i had to come back home to wear an additional layer or leave on layer at home. Probably I’ll be able to judge better as time goes by.

I also have to get used to taking of a layer or two of clothing whenever i go indoors just because it’s so warm inside. So like whenever I enter a classroom or lecture hall, I’ll be busy removing my jacket and trying to get the big fat jacket to behave.

Also, condensation on my glasses happens to other way round as compared to Singapore! Back in Singapore, I get condensation on my glasses when I leave an air-conditioned building. But over here, my glasses fog up everytime i step into a building.

Basically that’s just some of the things I have to get used to due to the changes in the weather between here and back in Singapore. There’s still tonnes of other stuff that i have to adjust to, especially like that cultural differences and such. But that would probably belong to another post at some other time.

I’m accessing the internet from Starbucks using my laptop now as I have no internet access from my room yet.

Anyway, i got m first glimpse of snow on Boxing Day, on my way over from Toronto. The temperature’s been steadily dropping now and is currently past -10 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast now will seem foreign to any Singaporean accustomed to only two modes of weather, “rain” or “shine”. There’s terms like “snow flurries”, “freezing rain”, “wind chill”, etc. Each of which sounds just as cold as the other. After the snow started on Boxing Day, weather forecasters have been saying that “the snow is finally here!”.

However, the evidence of climate change is undeniable now. Two days back, there was this report about a big ice shelf that broke off in the north of Canada near the North Pole due to global climate change.

On a happier note, I’ve been wandering around downtown Montreal checking out the area and getting familiar with the city, finding out places to buy stuff and to eat. The only problem is that it’s very troublesome to take photos now that it’s so cold. My gloved fingers are simply too clumsy to operate the camera and not using gloves will cause my fingers to start feeling numb in about half a minute.

I also went to visit Ottawa, the state capital of Canada, as well as Quebec City, further up north of Montreal. I’ll try to post some photos of my visit as soon as possible on my photoblog.

As I don’t know when’s the next time i’ll be coming online again, I’ll just like to wish everyone reading a Happy New Year! May all your new year resolutions come true! Haha…