Saskia Wodarczak – Page 2

Before you can enjoy the company of someone else wholeheartedly, you need to learn to be by yourself.

I absolutely adore my own company. I had roommates the first semester of my first year of university, and by the second semester, I’d moved out on my own.

I guess that’s what comes with growing up as an only child.

While some people recharge their batteries with big social events, I recharge with a cup of Murchie’s tea (specifically) and at least a 48-hour hiatus, no matter how long my last social interaction was. Those 48 hours are my time to simply exist and plan. Plot, if you will. Over my 20 years of living, my coveted time alone has led to a significant amount of personal growth.

For only children, it’s much easier to spend time alone because we are accustomed to being self-sufficient. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves and not feel lonely when we were by ourselves. We were our own best friend.

For those who aren’t used to being on their own, it can be scary. There is no one to entertain you, no one to talk to face to face. It’s a tough situation to be in, especially during short and dreary winter days.

The first step to conquering this is to learn how to enjoy your own company. It is not something that can be taught, but it is something to learn. I am very proud to have determined how best to spend my time alone and, in the spirit of it getting dark at 4:30 p.m., how to use those same tactics to battle the winter blues.

Make your favourite beverage, and try a new recipe: aside from a good London Fog tea, my favourite thing is a teapot of cambric tea. With a new homemade baked good or the result of that new dinner recipe I found (who knows where), this is a favourite pastime.

Listen to a podcast (not music): Especially if you grew up with siblings, having background chatter will help you feel less isolated. I love listening to Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café—though I know how every story ends, I always find the endings hilarious, especially if it involves the questionable decisions of the main character, Dave. No one ever said that you have to actively listen to a podcast…

Explore: Go to a new metro station and explore the general vicinity to get your however-many thousand steps in. Who knows, you might find your favourite new café. This is truly a two-birds-one-stone situation.

Go for a drive: Sing along to some music, put together that great comeback you should’ve said when you had the chance, or drive to your favourite haunt outside of the city. Just make sure you don’t turn left at a red light.

Clean: Maybe it’s just me, but cleaning is therapeutic and a great way to kill time. I genuinely look forward to Sundays because, though a bit unorthodox, it is my apartment deep clean day.

Reset: Tying into the above, when the space around you is clean, your mind is too – doing a weekly reset, whether that’s to clean, go work out, or do your favourite thing around the city– to jump into Monday in full swing is a great way to take your mind off of that lonely feeling.

Write: Sure, I’m an English Lit Major so this is a given, but how else do you think this article got written? (For context, I’m currently on my 48-hour hiatus).

The results of self-growth from spending time alone are the foundations of being an adult. Like any habit or routine, it will take some time getting used to being comfortable spending time alone. However, getting to know yourself in a solitary setting and being okay with being alone is a pretty big (and sought after) achievement. It allows you to protect your peace. So, just take a deep breath, and see where the day takes you.

Montréal might not be Salem…but we’ve got spooky history too!

If you’re from North America, you probably associate Halloween with Salem, Massachusetts, right? That checks out—the Salem Witch Trials are something we learn about in high school. Personally, I knew of the trials long before we began studying The Crucible in twelfth grade.

Growing up, my mum told me about all the ghoulish things she had experienced over the years—seeing ghosts, spirits, and visiting Salem in 1997. She told me about a re-enactment of a witch trial: “Actors would shout, ‘Hang the witches!’ and children would cry because it would be one of their moms. Then if it was a girl born into that family she would automatically be assumed to be a witch as well.” Is that not the coolest?

Salem, established 1626, had experienced two decades of eerie events before Montréal was established in 1642. The settlers of New France and New England were new to the land, new to the power that comes with imposing their beliefs, and new to the resulting threats—all of which naturally aroused a suspicious and ominous atmosphere. Rumours and paranoia contributed to the beginnings of the Salem Witch Trials in the spring of 1692. From today’s perspective, the backwards legacy of the trials makes for great Halloween lore and makes Salem, as my mum can attest, an enthralling tourist attraction.

So, did Montréal have witches? Honestly, who knows—and if we did, their fate would not have been similar to that of those in New England. At most, they’d have been banished. The closest we got were a few trials, notably that of Anne Lamarque who allegedly owned a book of magic and spells, but due to popular indifference, wasn’t convicted.

The story surrounding Barbe Hallé is also popular, and one that Concordia history majors may have learned about in their lectures. While Hallé was not tried for being a witch, she did experience some pretty freaky stuff, such as demonic visions and paranoia, which led her to move to l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, run under a French canoness named Catherine de Saint-Augustin. Under the care of religious figures, many episodes and supposedly an exorcism later, Hallé eventually returned to normal, and that was the end of that. So I guess you could say that Montréal, and New France overall, did not succumb to the witch paranoia that New England did. We had our own problems.

I think we’ve all taken a nightly stroll around old Montréal, especially Rue Saint Paul, the oldest street in the city. It’s said that many apparitions come to life on Rue Saint Paul, notably the ghost of an enslaved woman, Marie-Joseph Angélique, who was accused of arson with the burning of 45 houses and a hospital along Rue Saint Paul, tortured and hanged in 1734. Many say that her ghostly figure roams the street, seeking revenge for her execution.

If you’ve braved the set of stairs up and over the old Champ de Mars military parade ground to get to Old Montréal, you’ve definitely walked through Place Vauquelin. Trapped beneath that beauty, is something a bit darker: the first Montréal Prison, which housed some pretty atrocious prisoners who were publicly executed. Now, all that remains are old cells beneath the square. City workers avoid the old dungeon because of a sense of claustrophobia, fear, and dread. Cold spots, muffled sounds, and disembodied voices are reported frequently. Though it is hard to identify who may be haunting the ruins, the cold spots could be the pleads of John Collins, a drifter who froze to death in 1835. Disembodied voices could be remnants of Adolphus Dewey’s prayers: Dewey murdered his wife by slashing her wrists and throat with a razor, while his own death was prolonged because his neck didn’t snap when he was hanged.

I could not do this article justice without mentioning our mountain overlooking Montréal: the enchanting Mont Royal which is home to two cemeteries, Mount Royal and Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. One thing is certain, nothing is more haunting than a cemetery. In terms of the former, it has been reported that just after sunset, shadowy figures begin roaming the graveyard and lingering on its bluffs. Strange noises and paranormal activity are frequent, and ghostly images are often captured by ghost hunters. Our “main character” ghost? Supposedly an Algonquin warrior who frequently looks, with sorrowful and vengeful eyes, out over the cliffs to the city below.

It’s interesting how places that are considered touristy and beautiful may have such a dark history. And I sincerely hope that you, the reader, learned an eerie thing or two from this piece. Maybe you’ll think of what’s really beneath Place Vauquelin the next time you hike up those steps.