I hear crickets.

It's been awfully quiet around here. I'm currently visiting friends and family and counting down the days until my flight back to Slovenia. I am very excited.

I have some Slovenia-related stories wanting to come out and say hello. Maybe over the weekend? Let's hope.

Slovenia and comics.

Now that my comic book love is made public (well, that's not really big news - I tend to write about comics in my "home blog") I should take the opportunity to mention that I'm very interested in Balkan comics (Slavic comics?) as well. I'm aware of Stripburger and I just bumped into Tonci Zonjic's blog, so obviously there's much more out there.

My first foray into European comics, much like many other North Americans, was TinTin and Asterix. I wouldn't really count the Smurfs: I found them irritating and I didn't even know they were based on a European comic: Belgian, I believe. I was heavily invested in Heavy Metal, which introduced me to French, Spanish and Italian artists.

Anyway, about a couple of years ago I finally got around to reading more bande dessinée and presently I'm hunting for more. The techniques used in European comics are markedly different from their North American counterparts, such as pacing, line work (I find European artists aim for cleaner lines, I could be proven wrong if someone showed me an example) and overall format.

I'm still on the lookout for anything relevant - feel free to post suggestions or recommendations!

Death sentence lifted!

The Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor in Libya have had their death sentence commuted to life in prison. They were accused of intentionally giving children HIV, despite the lack of scientific proof of the supposed crime. The hospital they worked at had a long history of atrocious sanitation, but Libyan authorities pinned the blame on these foreign workers and extracted confessions through torture and rape.

This week, blood money has been paid to the parents of the children and now negotiations are under way to transfer them to Bulgaria. When we were in Sofia, everywhere we went there were ribbons in support of the nurses, on taxis, in windows, on government buildings and on most people's lapels.

7 more things.

I've been meaning to join in here, so I'll add my seven random facts to Jay's:

1. Jay and I met in a Sikh temple. We've been together almost 9 years (this August) from that day.

2. You may have guessed it already since I've alluded to it: I'm French Canadian and learnt both French and English as a wee child. I don't have an accent when I speak English though, so I can pass incognito in anglophone groups. This had led to hearing English Canadians speak about my people as "scum" and wishing that we'd "just fucking separate from Canada already". Good times.

3. I've had the fortune to share a stage with three Nobel Peace Price winners: the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi.

4. I'm a language nerd. I decided to learn Japanese at the age of eight, after meeting a Japanese girl at camp one summer. Her dad was a diplomat in town for a few months, and Akiko and I became friends despite not sharing a common language. I wanted to write to her in Japanese, so I started taking courses. Since then I've also studied Russian (1 year) and a West Coast Aboriginal language (2 years). I don't speak these languages that well (though I understand a fair amount and can write/read Japanese and Russian scripts), but I really loved studying them. I'm hoping to gain some conversational fluency in Slovene this year (right now my language level is that of a small child).

5. I also used to be a punk (part of how Jay and I met). I had a mohawk and then a shaved head for many years.

6. When I'm not in Slovenia, I work as an organic farmer in a small town an hour from Vancouver. I've been doing that for 5 years. I also teach, and am trying to make a go of my freelance writing work.

7. I'm good with money. I have to be considering #6: none of my jobs are known for being well (or even adequately) paid.

Well, that's it. Now you know me a little bit better, eh? Sorry it took me a while to get to this, P.

Both Jay and I are really busy working, going to school and getting ready to go back to Slovenia, so we won't be posting more than once a week, most likely. Check back Mondays, that's when we will have new postings up, if any.

Seven Random Things About Jay

Awhile back Pengovsky tagged us for a meme. Allow me to elaborate:

1. I like 80's New Wave. If you knew me, you would find that hilarious.

2. I'm a comic book geek. Seriously, I've been reading them since I was six years old. I haven't been able to purchase funny books for five and a half months, and now I face another eleven months of withdrawal symptoms.

3. I'm trying to learn French and I suck at learning French.

4. I was a punk. Mohawk, leather jacket with spikes and studs, bad hygiene - I was a walking cliche.

5. I'm bad with money.

6. I eat condiments straight from the jar. It's awesome.

7. I still get scared when I get a writing gig.

Seven days, a train strike, a carload of cranky Barcelonans, a hellish security lineup at CDG airport, and some turbulence later, we are back in Vancouver. And just in time for Canada Day. How does one celebrate Canada's 140 years of being a country? Glad you asked. Put on an outfit like this:And then drink until you can't stand, eh? I'm not one for festive headgear (maple leaf tuque? so not fierce), so I spent my Canada Day on a ferry headed for Vancouver Island to see Jay's family in Victoria. The day was pretty quiet, with the occasional "happy Canada Day, eh?" bellowed across the street. Our national celebration ended as it usually does: with the police hammering on our door at 2:30 in the morning. Seems someone else in the building had a little too much Canada Day cheer and they wanted a key to the apartment to "check whether the guy is dead or something". Turns out he wasn't dead, he had just gotten drunk, cranked his music and then left the apartment in the middle of the night, to the eternal gratitude of his neighbours.

I'll let you in on a little secret that no one outside of Canada knows. We have a reputation globally as a nation of boy scouts and cuddly do-gooders. The Ned Flanders of the international community, if you will. We've got that charming accent, we tend to look pretty peaceful compared to our neighbours to the south, our national animal is the beaver, and an elderly lady with a predilection for Corgies is our figurehead. And generally, we are a pretty peaceful, easy-going bunch. Until we've had a two-four of Kokanee (or our hockey team loses the play-offs), that is. Our most frequently occuring crime is common assault, and Canada Day is a pretty good illustration of the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of Canadian temperament. Put a drink in us and we turn into brawlers. In Victoria, a quiet place that has been called the city of the "newlywed and nearly dead", thirty three transit buses pulled in to police road checkpoints for help with drunken, fighting Canadians on board. And yet, only 30 people were arrested in BC's capital on Sunday. Maybe our reputation lives on because we manage to escape arrest most of the time? In any case, all is back to normal, and everyone is mild-mannered, relaxed and tending to their igloos again. In some ways it is indeed good to be home again.

Just a quick update.

We made it to Venice in time to catch our train, and we're now in Paris, staying with friends in Plessy-Robinson (the last stop on the RER line). We'll put a proper post up tomorrow, but for now I wanted to wish my fellow Québecois a "bonne Saint-Jean"! For non-Québecois readers: "la fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste" is the national holiday of Canada's francophone province, originally celebrated in honour of Quebec's patron saint.