Chapter 10: Location x

Location, Location, Location

I’ve never been to the Montreal International Game Summit before this year, so MIGS was an all-new experience for me this year.

For those of you who may be wondering, MIGS is just what its name implies: influential people from the electronic game industry from all over the world come to Montreal to attend keynote speeches, round table discussions, and other kinds of conferences all about game art, design, programming, marketing, and the industry in general. The big names like Ubisoft, Eidos, Artificial Mind and Movement, Adobe, Autodesk, Wacom, and many others congregate at MIGS to pitch, teach, and network.

Students, also, attend MIGS in large numbers, as do tech schools that offer game-design programs. It’s a good place for graduating students to potentially make some important connections and get up-to-date on what companies and employers are looking for in their new employees. What’s more, students get a discounted rate for attendance, and it just so happens that every year Champlain College offers an even MORE discounted rate, which includes a hotel room.

This year, Champlain boasted a whopping 130 students at MIGS, which is considerable if you note that the total attendance for MIGS was 1,300. Yes, we were one tenth of MIGS. Go us. There is also the option to be a volunteer at the convention, which means you help out with the event half the day, and then you’re free to attend meetings, etc, the other half of the day. So, that’s what I did!

This is a Champlain Blog, though, and not a MIGS blog, so I’ll focus it in a little. Last year, MIGS was much closer to the Residence hall, but it’s under new management this year, so they had a new location. The new place was a little bit farther from the Res, but still perfectly within walking distance. It was fun to reconnect with all the Champlain students that I hadn’t seen since last spring, which is one of the huge pluses of Montreal: Burlington is just a couple-hour drive away! It made me sort of nostalgic…

MIGS only lasts two days, but it was packed with events. I’m afraid I can’t provide any photos for now because the only person in the whole place taking photos was the official photographer, and I don’t know when or where her photos will go up. I’m interested in returning to MIGS next year, but I think I’ll pay my way in 2010, since I want to be able to attend more sessions. It’ll only be a short distance to travel, I’ll already know the city, and I’m hoping it will be extra helpful to me as a Senior in the game design major.

Chapter 9: Ottawaahaa!

Chapter 9

This past weekend, the 6^th to the 8^th, was the Ottawa City trip! Fewer of us went along for the ride this time for a number of reasons, but having a smaller group made it possible to do different kinds of activities. While having a big group last time was a lot of fun, this smaller group was a lot of fun, too!

We left Friday morning at 10:00 for the bus station and arrived in Ottawa around 1:30. The ride to Ottawa was actually about an hour shorter than the one to Quebec city. We checked into the Novotel and after a brief rest we went to the Royal Canadian Mint, which was just down the road from the hotel. At the Mint we took a short tour of the facility, where all the machines and workers were behind thick glass. They were in the process of making Investment Coins when we arrived, and we learned that the RCM of Ottawa hold the Guinness World Record for the largest gold coin, 220 pounds, 7 ounces, and a foot and a half across.

Our first evening, the capital city was a little chilly, but that didn’t stop us from frolicking around a giant, modern-style spider sculpture and running up to look-out points just in time for a fantastic sun set. The city has several nice parks as well as monuments and statues representing historic Canadian figures, events, and its roots with the British royal family. We eventually found our way to the Hard Rock Café of Ottawa for dinner, and later that evening we got to jump in the hotel’s pool and revel in the glory of the jacuzzi hot tub.

The next two days we had fantastic weather, sunny and without a breeze, probably in the mid to high fifties. Saturday morning we had a buffet breakfast in the hotel, then took two taxis to the Museum of Science and Technology. It was a both fun and interesting place, with three of the largest steam train engines I’ve ever seen, and exhibits on everything from the Canadian space program to the Titanic to the history of transportation as explained by LEGOs.

After that, we scooped up lunch and made our way to Parliament, where we had a reserved tour all to ourselves. I still don’t completely understand how the Canadian government works, but I did learn that their senate is comprised not of politicians but of people from all different professions, which sounds like a cool concept to me!

We had some time to ourselves to explore the city after Parliament, and later we went to the Cornerstone Bar & Grill for dinner. It was probably the most chic and trendy ‘bar or grill’ I’d ever seen, and it had great food! That night we had another reserved spot, this time at the comedy club ‘Yuk Yuks’, where we enjoyed a couple hours of professional stand up.

Finally, on Sunday we had our morning buffet once more and were sad to check out of rooms with the fantastically comfortable beds. Our final activity was the trip to the Museum of Civilization, which houses a massive collection of First Nations totem poles and objects. I could probably write a whole blog just on that one Museum! A must-see for any trip to Ottawa.

Alas, our trip came to an end after we went for lunch and retuned to the bus station. The ride home went smoothly and we all had a great time. I would absolutely recommend both the Quebec and Ottawa city trips to all future Champlain Montrealers.

Special Thanks To: Dan for all his awesome and thorough photos

and

Stefi, for two great trips across Canada!! Thank you Stefi!

Chapter 8: HalloWIN

Halloweeny Fun

In my PERSONAL opinion, Halloween is just about the best holiday of there is. Sure it has its downsides, but no one’s perfect, right? Some people are in it for the candy, some people for the parties, but I’m in it for the costumes. I love Halloween for the chance to make a REALLY COOL costume and walk around in public wearing it. Yes, I’m one of ‘those people’ who puts a lot of work into her costume months, sometimes years, in advance and shows up feeling almost overdressed. Which is what I did this year, too.

I’ve gathered that Halloween is pretty popular in Montreal, what with all the availability of night clubs for the partiers and ghost tours for others. What’s interesting in the UQAM dorm is that many of the students, at least the ones I knew, had never had a Halloween. According to my roommates, in France it’s looked down upon as a silly holiday for American children. Well, after the 31^st, maybe some of these students will bring Halloween back to Europe and spread the popularity.

While it’s not popular in France, this French-speaking residence still had a costume party on the night of the 30^th. I went to check it out and got unknowingly pulled into a costume/dance competition. Literally, I walked in with my costume on, they asked me my name (in French) and then we were all given some instructions which I didn’t realize were basically: “This is a costume contest and a dance off. Go for it!”

It was good in the end, though, because I won a gift card. I’m assuming it was for the costume and not my dancing skills (or lack thereof…). I’ve never associated Halloween with dance contests before, but then again it made for a new and fun combination.

Along with the Halloween party, Champlain took its students to the ‘Extreme Halloween Labyrinth’, which I actually didn’t get to go to because I was in the costume/dance contest. I’ll have to get a report about he labyrinth to post because it sounded like a good time. I just couldn’t be in two places at once.

All in all, Halloween was a good time here. I carved a pumpkin for my roommates and some of their friends from France, a process I don’t think they’d ever seen before, and after I baked the seeds with salt and cinnamon. Within about 12 hours they’d eaten all the seeds, which made me proud. I put up a “Happy Halloween” banner on the wall and some of those fake cobwebs. We bought candy and I brought various costume pieces for them, since I knew they didn’t have any of their own. There were some parties around the dorm, and I went to the one with the other Champlain students, who were sporting X-Men, Firefly, Secret Agent, and what I call ‘novelty’ costumes (i.e. one guy dressed up just like his roommate). It was a fun time!

Chapter 7: Midway Point

Mini Journal

I haven’t written a mini journal in a little while. To review, I write these ‘Mini Journals’ when I have little tidbits of information to share but couldn’t fit them into the main ‘chapter’.

Last week we got a tour of the EA Games and Bioware headquarters here in Montreal. It was very interesting and even a little bit fun, but I can’t tell you what I saw in there! The reasoning behind the secrecy is basically that these companies exert a lot of time and money into their ideas, so a very idea becomes a commodity, and if a competing company learns about their inner workings, all sorts of copyright infringement battles could go down and it wouldn’t be pretty. So, I can’t say what games I saw in progress, but I can say we were assured that the game industry in Montreal is doing well right now.

Also, last night I went to “Sunday Night Improv” (free for the Champlain group) and enjoyed an evening of hilarious made-up stuff! I also learned that any one can join their practices, for free, and partake in their improve workshops every Sunday night. Why did no one tell me this earlier? I love improv! I want to go now… In other words, if you’re interested in Theatre, here’s a spot for you!

Chapter 7

Midterms

I can’t believe we’re already at midterms! This always seems to happen; school starts and then the next day you’re taking your first midterm!

Actually, midterms haven’t quite begun yet. We’re just starting to study and/or prepare for them in my Earth Sci and Canadian Culture classes, and we don’t exactly have an actual ‘midterm’ in the 3D Animation class. In Concept Painting, we’ve been working on our midterm since last week- it’s one finished illustration of a scene of our choosing.

Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised by the arrival of midterms. I am on blog number 7 after all, and if there are 15 weeks in the semester then as a matter of math we are almost halfway through the Fall. We’ve had a lot of work so far, but we’ve had a lot of fun, too.

In fact, just this weekend, we went to the botanical gardens for the Chinese lantern festival. We went at night so it was a tad nippy but the garden was all lit up with colorful lanterns shaped like zodiac creatures or dancing people. The insectarium was open, too, but I didn’t go in there.

Spiders and I… we don’t get along. I did hear exciting stories about said spiders, however, from my friend Dan (who often donates his photos to this blog). Apparently, one of displays had ‘these GIANT tarantulas’ in it which were up against the glass, and as people leaned down to look at nearby Black Widows, they didn’t even notice the tarantulas! He said they also had a display with those spiders that wait under ‘trap doors’ for prey to wander by, and the class bisected the spider’s den so you could see it waiting for a nearby cricket. Actually, I’m sorta glad I didn’t go…

Anyway, there were a lot of people at the garden that night, but I guess the lantern display was coming to an end soon, so the last-minute folks were coming to see it. There’s a pumpkin carving show or display of some kind coming up, too, on account of Halloween, which might be fun to go see, too.

Speaking of Halloween, the UQAM res hall is officially decked out as of last night. They put up paper skeletons and everything orange, black, and cob-webby all over the lobby, so it feels much more festive around here these days. I have my costume all ready, personally, and several of my friends are getting theirs together. I’m really looking forward to Halloween up here, so I hope it’s fun!

Then again, so far pretty much everything we’ve done up here has been fun, so I think I needn’t worry much. I guess I’m taking this blog to reflect on the past seven weeks (which have FLOWN by like a jet) as is often customary of events with both a midpoint and narrator. I’m looking forward to the remainder of my stay here, but I don’t want to even think about the end of it yet. Our next big excursion is the Ottawa City trip, so I’ll certainly have a lot to write then. For now, the leaves are changing and the weather’s getting colder and I have plenty of work to keep me busy.