Illness and Québécois seperatists, most likely not related.

Sorry about the lack of posts for the past few days. I have been rather occupied for the better part of the past week by a weak-yet-long-lasting cold. After Ottawa, I felt slightly ill, runny-nose, cough, and what not. So Thursday-Sunday did not include any overly exciting events. I hung out with Bonnie, and got Japanese Udon soup! YAY! Sunday night was quite pleasant. I went out with Guillaume and his girlfriend, Geneviève. Dinner in Chinatown first, followed by a FREE film for the Film Du Monde cinéma film festival. The film was a québécois film about the québécois band Les Colocs, filled with québécois seperatists en plus! Yet again without the aide of subtitles, I was able to follow the story quite decently, and it was a very good film overall. The soundtrack was filled with songs by the band, from odd rap to swing. Quite the pleasant evening.
Monday: Jour d'intégration pour la faculté de science politique, or science po, as its commonly known here. It was actually kind of a waste of my time as the hour was spent being introduced to heads of silly departments with even sillier speeches. In the end, the only useful thing was receiving my student ID. Followed by a nap in the afternoon, then dinner with Leah at her place in Côte-des-Neiges. Summary: finally starting to feel established in Montréal!

The Bilingual Capital, Poutine, and the occasional cross-provincial journey

So its been a few days since my last update. I have certainly been much busier this week than the previous, what with meeting people, shopping, sightseeing, and my trip to Ottawa. I've been going out a bit too much though I think. Yesterday was a new experience all together though. To start, I went out with Gabrielle and met her and some of her friends at a bar called St. Sulpice. Confused at first due to a largely vacant interior, I walked through the building and saw the prettiest bar I have ever seen. All outside, trees mingling with tables and chairs, vine-covered fences, and to top it all off, a fountain in the building. Between my drink and the garden lights, nothing could have been prettier. I also tried POUTINE at this same place. Poutine is fries, with a brown gravy, and cheese curds. It sounds kind of disgusting, but its oddly tasty. I have yet to meet a Québécois who dislikes it! Its soo gooooood! And I guess there is one restaurant that I should try where you can have poutine with chicken, sausage, peppers, lots of other ingredients too! Will keep you informed of all the recipes :) After this delicacy, we walked around the corner to the Cinéma Québécois du Quatier Latin, I think that was its name anyway. We saw a film about sky-diving, very much québécois and very much sans subtitles. I managed surprisingly well, and there was really only two points where I asked Gabrielle for a quick translation. Also, this movie was main stream in Québec, the adverts for it are all over the métro stops. That being given, imagine my surprise to find not only the normal, rather melodramatic heterosexual love triangle story, but also, A GAY LOVE STORY TOO! And not the kind of gay where its mentioned and you don't see any action, they went all out. And the cinéma was full of males and females alike, none of whom reacted negatively to gay making out in front of them. God I love Canada :)

Next topic! Ontario, Bus Rides, and the Capital, Ottawa!!
Up at 5.30am, bus at 8.00am. The Greyhound bus is surprisingly comfy, and the driver said internet was free on the bus too! Great for longer journeys I imagine. We left Montréal at 8am, and my entire group of 8 fell asleep almost immediately. Luckily though, the first hour was just traffic because of construction anyway. I suppose that its inevitable because they can only do road work 6 months of the year, and in a city of 3 million, you have to do lots of road work. Anyway, the drive through the countryside was gorgeous! Rolling hills and forests do not lack in this part of North America. Honestly, it looked just like Europe, but better because its CANADA! I might have started to tear up a bit. shhhhhhhhh
Anyway, so around 10.30 we pulled into Ottawa, which all of a sudden APPEARED. The autoroute, AKA highway, was in the middle of a dense forest, then all of a sudden, high rise building and you can see the parliament building. Canadians flags everywhere, which stirs pride even in non-Canadians. We walked through the downtown portion for a bit, seeing Scottish street names everwhere. Good sign, I think? We reached Parliament Hill, and then walked around a little bit. Up the Peace Tower we go. Its the tower that is part of the Parliament building, and the British influence is incredible. The view from the top is worth the price of the ticket, free! No I would have paid as the view is 360 degrees around, and you can see all the city and the landmarks from the top. After our lofty tour in the sky, we went down the lift with our bilingual tour guide lady, a symbol of Canada. Everything in Ottawa is in French and English, which I must say is rather entertaining. You can use either languge, and just about everyone will respond in your language of choice. We went for a wee walk, down the ByWard Market. Cheap restaurants are right next to cheap stalls, and cute streets are filled with buildings that remind you that, once again, Canada was so heavily influenced by British people. The houses are big, with a strong Victorian air about them. Next stop was a Cathedral, once again gorgeous with stained glass windows. Then, a quick 1km walk across the bridge (Kilometers) to the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. Two fantastic and very informative exhibits later, and we are on our way back to la Ville de Montréal. Long day ended, a lot learned, and overall, YAY CANADA

Brie à la Wasp

Yes, I know, another "short" blog update. Today I went to the Cuban Jazz Festival, which ended up being more of a short one-band concert than a festival but it was fun nonetheless. We each brought something for the picnic, and we had some lovely soda, bread, brie cheese, crackers, and various fruits for lunch.....perfect lunch for a gang of wasps too! They planned their attack, and formed lines of infantry! But nevertheless, the lunch was enjoyable, the conversation plentiful, and the music, pleasant. Me, Joanna, the german girl, and a new Danish friend, Esther, all went back to the Plateau and found a lovely café for dinner, quiche and soup :) Dinner was followed by yet another métro ride, and the DOLLAR CINÉMA! We watched De Père en Flic, a québécois film. It was really quite funny, and I tried my best to watch it without the subtitles running below. Ended the day with a walk on the wet ground, thanks to yet another summer storm. Vive Montréal!

Germans, Americans, and French, oh my!

So once again, I return late to my résidence. Just a quick update on the past two days, including several cultural discoveries. The first being that Old Montreal, AKA Vieux-Montréal, is highly tourist-filled due to its historic nature. While having been here for one week, I am still a tourist of sorts, and I enjoy my promenade through the Old City, including looking at the cathedral built in the 1650's! Beat that California! haha Another discovery of mine was that banks require that you make appointments, apparently a week in advance. I have an appointment at la Caisse Desjardins next friday, precisely one week at my first attempt to open an account. Oh well, eventually I went have a carte de débit canadien; this being particularly convenient so I can stop paying those pesky international usage fees.

In happier news, today was quite fun. I went walking around Mile-End near le Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood today while Bonnie was looking for apartments. I would love to live either in the Plateau or Mile-End as a permanent residence! Most of the building are two or three levels, with most apartments. They all have tree-lined streets out-front, along with slightly overgrown gardens in both the front and back. I wish I had had camera with me at the time, but I am CERTAIN that I will return to both neighbourhoods to take plenty of photos for your enjoyment. After our marathon, we hoped on l'autobus for a ride back to my house to hang out for a wee bit, check email etc. We then went on a spur of the moment trip on the métro to Walmart, which unfortunately ended in a slight failure, as said Walmart was closed for the evening.....at 7pm.....how odd.....o well. So then we hoped back on the métro, and half an hour later, we met up with some people at the Plateau Mont-Royal. Our very transatlantic group included two americans, myself and Bonnie, two Germans, and a french couple. O and did I mention that we ate at a Greek restaurant? Quite the experience, as either fireworks or thunder was passing by overhead. I still think it was thunder, but who knows in the humid summer climate. After a dinner filled with a menu of words neither french nor english, we went to a rather hippy-ish bar, or lounge, or more a mix of the two. Drums thumping away in the background, conversations from religion in the United States vs. France, to apple-tasting ciders vs. beer ensued. And now, here I am, writing this winded blog. Anyway, I'm up tomorrow to by some supplies for our picnic at the Cuban Jazz Festival! Goodnight all!

Markets, Rain, and Irish Music

Just a quick post tonight, or I guess I should say this morning. Today was rather enjoyable. Rather than the heat that has been pestering Montréal all week, today is RAINED! and POURED! It was quite a pleasant change, and the temperature is much more agreable. Oh but before that, I went to two markets. One, a local one called Marché Jean-Talon, was fantastic and I got all my fruits and veggies for under $15!! Then I went to the supermarket and got pastas, sauces, etc for far too much money. I am pretty sure that although IGA (the supermarket) is right down the street, I could save major dollars by hoping onto the métro to Jean-Talon. Lessons learned.

This evening was also very fun! I met up with a friend from California, and she brought along a German girl that she had met in her hostel. We all went to an Irish pub, and had a pint of cider each. Although the drink was expensive, it was soon revealed as being well worth the price, and a very good Irish-Canadian band struck up a tune. And so they played for over an hour, and then we left as we were getting tired. 20 mins later, I was back in my not-as-hot apartment. All in all, a very good Thursday :)

Mont Saint-Hilaire

Yesterday, 8/18/2009, Gabrielle, Fauve, and I went to Mont Saint-Hilaire, maybe half an hour from Montréal. I took some pictures of the trip, as well as a few on the hike and at the top of the hill. It was awfully humid, but definately cooler than in Montréal. Enjoy :)

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!!