New York

As those who have been to New York know, it's impossible describe the city. Too many superlatives are needed! It is exciting; it is busy; it is dirty; it is smelly; it is expensive; but it has character; it has quaint scenes; it has so many people; it has so many options; it has culture; it has amazing shops; it has buildings like nothing else. So much to love!

I have tried endlessly - like all day - trying to put a slide show into this blog, but I can't. I do feel like a technological dufus, but I'm giving up! (All my computer menus and instructions are in French - try as we might, we haven't been able to translate into English). There will be a long line to photos at the end - the challenge got too much for me.  I'm assuming most people are familiar with the sights of New York so I don't need to explain them.

The adventure started in a mad rush. While I was sitting at the hairdresser last Wednesday, I received a text from the airline, advising that our Thursday flight had been cancelled and we were bumped back to Thursday night, due to a predicted snow storm. With our time in NY limited, and knowing that the predicted snow storm could actually push our flight out to Friday, we got worried. I contacted Tony, who rang the airline, asking if we could go earlier. At one stage, Tony was on-line booking a hotel room; on hold on the phone to the airline and on viber to be at the hairdresser. Luckily, we were able to get a flight on Wednesday afternoon. The children were quickly pulled out of school, I rushed through the hairdresser and packed in a matter of minutes and we were off!

The snow storm arrived and all flights were affected - many at the hotel in NY couldn't get home as flights were cancelled. We didn't want the snow to affect us, but it was unavoidable. Public transport was slow, the streets were slushy and the snow was falling right in our face. We headed indoors!

We covered all the big sites and sights of New York. Some of the things we did:

• climbed the Empire State Building;
• shopped on 5th Avenue (some of us) 
• visited to  the Museum of Natural History (the rest of us);
• gaped and marvelled in Times Square;
• ate pretzels from the street stalls;
• loved the places that offer kids audio tours;
• experienced culture from Museum of Modern Art (our find of New York);
• rode the free ferry to Staten Island to view the Statue of Liberty and admire the Manhattan skyline (that took two attempts as it was snowing when we arrived and there was no visibility;
• walked around Central Park to see it covered in snow;
• celebrated Valentines Day with three children at the table;
• admired the Empire State Building coloured pink for Valentines Day;
• photographed many famous sights, rarely doing justice;
• spent Christmas money at FAO Schwartz, a huge toy store on 5th Ave;
• attempted to not let the snow affect us (failed somewhat);
• saw the Lego movie, which is fantastic;
• fell asleep on a very crowded bus (Sophie);
• rode the subway a lot; we watched ice skaters at Rockefeller Centre; and the big one...
• saw Matilda the Musical, based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, just off Broadway.

The children were in awe of the buildings, the traffic, the people they saw on the subway ... everything. Most things worked smoothly and Tony and I only lost each other once, due to a miscommunication. We stayed right on the edge of Newport, New Jersey and took a 20 minute train to mid-town each day. That made our accommodation cost about one half of the cost of staying on Manhattan Island and worked really well.

The weather was cold, but not as cold as Montreal so we we didn't find it too bad. I only needed one pair of gloves, so it was mild by the glove thermometre! We didn't need beanies all the time which was nice. The temps hovered around -8 to 2 degrees. The snow turned to slush very quickly and we laughed at how the city coped with the clearing of snow. As they don't get this much snow very often, their clean up procedures (compared to Montreal) were rather ineffective.

Our find of New York had to be MoMA. We wanted to show the children some art museums, saying that it was one of the things that you do in New York! Tony and I have been confused about MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and the Met (Metropolitian Museum of Art). MoMA had a great children's program, so we decided to go there. It was much better than we expected! The program was free, guided by an art educator and with only three families. It lasted an hour and we looked at three art works on the theme of movement. It was interactive and an appropriate level for the children. And best of all, it was free! We were happy with that and would have left the museum very satisfied. But there was more ... we were able to wander around the museum for the rest of the day, free of charge. Entry to the museum was $25 per adult, so at this stage we are happy with this bargain! Then ... we were handed a free entry pass for another visit! So generous and happy to focus on children. The cafe was fantastic, with  decent children's menu (no hot chips) and the food that Tony and I ate was the best we had in NY. The audio headset tour was free, with a specific children's audio tour, so after refuelling, we set the kids up with their head sets. We also did this at the Empire State Building and it kept them so focused. Great inventions and kept the kids interested. We strongly recommend MoMA as a great way to introduce art to your children!

We left on Monday and took a train home. The train from New York to Montreal is called the Adirondack Train and is said to be one of the top 10 train trips in the world. It was long (11 hours) but it was beautiful and restful. The train went directly north from Manhattan Island, following the Hudson River for many kilometres. The scenery changed regularly and the snow increased the further north we headed. The train was fabulous and the children were able to snooze, read, play cards, walk around, eat, meet other passengers, so didn't get bored. We stopped at the border for over an hour, partly because we actually had some visa issues, but other than that, a lovely way to end a holiday.

 

 

Views from the Empire State Building

 

Grabbing a quick snooze on a very crowded bus!

 

 Our gallery experience. Love seeing a print in real life and we love the headsets with a specific kids tour.

 Times Square during the day and at night - much busier at night.

 

 

 

The (free) Staten Island ferry- best view of the Statue, when its not snowing! 

 



The snow doesn't melt ...

One of the goals of this year was to experience life in another city as a resident; rather than be a tourist in a city. It brings up things that we've never thought of in our comfortable lives in Canberra.

This week's realisation is that the snow doesn't melt and therefore, it doesn't go away. More just keeps on coming. I'd never thought of that before. At Perisher, it warms to temperatures above zero enough days to melt the snow. We've been here nealy four weeks and the temps haven't risen about zero yet. So that snow freezes hard, then more snow comes, and it freezes hard ... and so on! It becomes a problem and somehow, the snow needs to be removed.

Snow clearers come along to clear the snow so that you can drive, park and walk. There are very strick parking regulations on the roads, to allow the snow clearers to come along about every second night and clear the sides of the roads. In carparks, several parking places are lost to the huge, and growing, piles of snow that are pushed into the corner. These piles are huge, which I've tried to show in the photos. This photo on the left shows how big the pile is, in comparison to the cars. It is huge!

We've been told this snow lasts until May! In the photo on the right, the exposed areas are not rock or dirt: it is pure, solid ice. The fresh, powder snow has been blown off so that it is just the ice exposed now.


 This photo shows the gap left for the foot path. Huge mounds of snow on each side, with a gap left for pedestrians.

 This photo shows how the carpark is clear of snow, as a result of heating from cars and pedestrians melting it away. But an area where cars don't directly travel over, such as the base of the stop sign, doesn't melt at all.

Imagine the big trucks that deliver mulch or soil in Australia. They are big, open-topped tip-trucks which have a volume of several tonnes. Well, the same trucks are used here, albeit for a difference purpose. They follow the snow clearers around. With the help of small diggers, the snow piled by the snow clearer is scooped up and collected by the diggers, then dumped into the tip-trucks. It is taken to some place around town that obviously fills up with snow. This amazes us! Tony wants the job of driving the small diggers around. He thinks it would be warm sitting in the cabins and he would get his fix of tractor driving at the same time! Now to polish up on that French ..

I had never thought about snow being such an issue. I had never imagined that it could stay around so long that it was a hazard. But with temps being below zero since the Christmas, its not going anywhere fast; in reality, with every dump, the amount of snow is increasing.

The things you learn!

Winter Festivals

We didn't go skiing this weekend as there were several snow festivals on around the city. We wanted to get out and see what was happening. Our overall reaction is that it is too cold for outdoor festivals!

Some pics from the weekend.

Friday night was ice-skating on the local rink. There are rinks everywhere and they are free. You need to bring your own skates. This one was lit up with music as well. We have been able to borrow skates for the family except me ...so at these neighbourhood do's, I am chief supporter and photographer (mental note: how many photos do we really need?!).

They have these frames that you can see the girls using, to help learners get their balance. It is amazing how good all the local children are: Canadians really do learn to ice-skate as they learn to walk. There are little kids flying past us all the time! Lach and Olivia were actually sharing skates on this occasion. Lach didn't mind at all because he still loves just being IN the snow! We have since resolved that and found skates for all three of them.

It was pretty cold though!

 

 

 On Saturday, we headed into the city where they were having a festival of snow. Again, the temps prevented us from really enjoying it. There were lots of new things for the kids to try. Lach proved to be pretty good at curling. Shame its a boring sport!

 

The kids all got to dress like ice hockey players, but it was just for a ball throwing game. They looked fierce though!

We saw some ice sculptures. Unfortunately we didn't see the sculpturer in progress: we would love to see how they do it!

 

Lach did some rope climbing; the girls went on a luge track but just slid on bottoms. Too cold for me to do that!

 

It was freezing. Note the photo here and I'm in jeans: I went back to the car soon afterwards and put my snow pants on over the top. Too cold for just one layer on the legs.

 

There was a lunch and hot chocolate stop, then more ice-skating. I was able to hire skates here, so I joined in.

 

Sunday was a festival in our local suburb. Very similar things once again. You will notice we are all in the same clothes ... we do change the 6 million underneath layers regularly! 

 First stop was at the sugar shack. Yep, sugar shack. And you just eat maple syrup off the stick! Once spring comes, you eat the freshly tapped maple syrup from the tree. Here, boiling maple syrup was poured into troughs of ice. You use a stick to scoop it up and eat it. It was pretty yummy!

 Another aerial climbing activity. This was a challenge for the kids but they did well. Sophie is rather high in the air in this photo. The back ground is a dull sky: not white snow!

 Hot chocolates again. Its the only way you survive being outside. Liv found an easy way to cool hers. Try drinking from a cup wearing a woollen pair of gloves with big thick mittens over the top!There was ice-skating also, which our kids did: third time this weekend. No photos this time. But they are improving!

We decided that the longest we can be outside is about 90mins. The temps were around -10 and below, so if you stand still for too long, the coldness from the snow permeates into your feet and its so hard to warm up. In these photos, we are all wearing two layers on our legs and pairs of gloves (except Lach ... who knows why he had bare hands!),plus scarves, beanies that cover the ears and neckies. The extremties just get so cold and its hard to warm up again. Even when we go skiing, we really only last about the same length of time before you need to go into a hut and warm up.

I'm enjoying the challenge of living in this environment but I don't want to do it forever!

And now its Sunday night: things are the same as in Australia. Making lunches, following up homework (of which there is heaps - much more than Aust), making sure the uniforms are ready ... and watching Canada do well at the Sochi Olympics!

 

Our pride and joy ....

We hear that my mother likes the photos on this blog, so we thought it was time to update. Sorry to the rest of the readers who may not be interested!

 

 

These three children have been pushed so far beyond their comfort zones in the last month. To their credit, they have responded with resilience, respect and openness to everything. So proud of them!

 

So yes Mum, we are all healthy, happy and enjoying the oppotunities!

The city of Montreal

After a few days of having both Olivia and Sophie sick, Tony and I finally made it into the city this week to explore. We have had a couple of trips to the city with the children but the cold and snow made it hard to explore much. We thought on our own we would be able to explore and find the essence of the city

Montreal has an "old city" which is near the port on the St Laurent River. There are cobbled streets and very old architecture in the area. Slightly further away from the old city is "Downtown Montreal" which is the modern business and shopping centre.  This area is dominated by the underground city that Montreal is famous for: we now know why! Its too damn cold on the streets, so everyone stays underground. The underground city, known as RESO, is a network of corridors and tunnels that continues for several kilometres. All of the metro stations in the downtown area are connected to the RESO and it is completely possiblyto not step into fresh air all day. There is a ridiculous number of shopping centres that merge into each other, intercepted with office blocks along the way. There are food courts dotted around everywhere, really eliminating the need to go outside. One benefit of the RESO is that you don't need to go to the effort of putting on outdoor shoes and coats at lunch time, so you do see smarter dress people!

We are a little saddened to admit that we are feeling underwhelmed by Montreal. We can't see the beauty in the city at this stage, which is more likely due to the snow! I'm missing colour. Everything is white and while that is beautiful in one sense, it doesn't give any contrast or variation in the streetscape. One thing we do like is the effort that the city goes to brighten the landscape. Trees have lights in them & shops/restaurants include lights in their displays.

We've been told that the city change so much as spring comes and it's like a different country when the temps warm up.  All the promotional photos of Montreal show the city during summer; or in perfect fresh snow with lots of lights, which is not how it appears on a regular day.

One thing we like, but is not working to its potential currently, is the number of green spaces around the city. There are many parks, often small, but dotted around where you can sit and relax to soak up the sun. Obviously not so much at this time of year, but it is these spaces that make us understand how the city will transform once the snow disappears. This photo here shows one of these small parks. A few bench seats, a statue of someone special and .... persumably grass underneath? No-one has enjoyed this space today!

The other aspect where there is little colour is in the cars. Crazy: but there are hardly any brightly coloured cars. A little aside here: salt and grit is spread on roads almost daily, to prevent cars sliding on the black ice. The grit then gets crushed by the cars and becomes dust. It settles on cars, as does the salt residue, meaning that cars always look dirty and dusty. Garages are rare, so cars are continually exposed to the elements. But ... they always look dirty! All cars have this dull, grey look to them. The clean, white cars stand out & we wonder how they can be so clean!

The photos show off some of the city. I think they show the lack of colour and light. We did laugh at the bike: obviously a cyclist just gave up!


And yes, it was snowing on the day we were in the city. We spent the afternoon exploring the RESO, but decided it was really just shops. We were after the character of a city, not shops! We look forward to watching the city transform once the snow melts and the colour returns.