First two days in Montréal

The flight: Air Canada is a lovely airline. My flight was scheduled for departure at 8.20am, and by my watch, we pulled away at 8.25am. Not too shabby if you ask me. I had a window seat, and come time we were pulling away from the gate at SFO, no one had sat in the two seats to the right of me. So I had a row to myself the entire way to Montréal :) Two movies later, and I landed in the heatwave that is Montreal right now. Normally you might think of an airport as air conditioned....well apparently not in Montréal. It was significantly cooler inside the plane than on the gangplank, the customs hall, etc....Speaking of the customs hall, I had some kind of a disastrous customs experience, but long story short, 1 hr 45 mins later, I was in my friend Gabrielle's car, on the autoroute heading into Montréal. Few minutes later, I was at the Résidences, in my apartment!!! I'll have photos up soon....its nothing fancy but I like it all the same...its close to my classes, I have my own room, its big but not too big, small but not too small. Just big enough to fit all my stuff :)

Well, after dropping off my suitcases, Gabrielle and I headed to her house where she made a lovely dinner for us and one of her friends. After a lovely conversation and a lovely glass of champagne, we went out for la FIERTÉ GAI! We got to the club, Parking, at around 1am...and we were right on time. The club was in the basement, and it was so hot inside that the floor was soaking from sweat, and the ceiling was literally DRIPPING with the stuff. Also, I can't leave out the fact that about 90% of the crowd was male, and about 90% of them were shirtless ;) We danced for a while, then we went up onto the outside terrace on the roof. It was still very hot outside, and we hung up there for a long time, enjoying the experience. Around 2.30am, we went back inside and danced some more in the basement. I was walked back to my house, and just after 3am local time, I crashed onto my bed and fell asleep immediately.


10:00am Montréal time.
Woke up. Finally unpacked, and put all my stuff away. That actually took me quite a while, but I finished sometime around noon, and went out on my way for some errands. First, I went to Walmart, which is odd in itself because its the same, just completely in FRENCH!!! After that, I went and paid for my health insurance, handed in copies of my immigration documents to the régistrariat, then went about my way to get a Carte Opus, otherwise known as a métro pass. Step One: Proof of identity. Two: Proof of status at university. Three: proof of résidence sur l'Île de Montréal. Once you have that, and have a completed application, off you to to SPEQ at Métro McGill to get your Carte. Another queue later, and I had my card in hand. Feeling truly Montrealer, I went and bought a cell phone! Between that and my Carte, all I have left to do is to open a bank account then I have all my logistical things done and I can start being touristique!

Well today was a BUSY day, but well worth it. With the humidity index well about 100F, Vive l'été à Montréal! I already love this city, and cant wait for the coming year!!