day tripper

Today was a hearty Canadian tribute to the end of the year.

After nourishing breakfast and waiting around to get the new keys to the condo we are renting (the locks were changed to the unsuspecting property owners of the complex) we trekked up Mont Royal. We wound our way up the mountain and stomped through much unnecessary snow, when we couldn't find the path. We ice skated / learnt to ice skate on lac du Castor (lake of the beaver / beaver lake) which is a charming lake near the top of the mountain. This was much fun. The little children proved to be a danger, they have wild movements, and are prone to sudden falls. I was quite worried one would take me out, but with impressive dodging skills I survived.


As the sun was beginning to set, we decided we should climb down the mountain. After making it down, we stopped in at Horto's for a warming hot chocolate and cookies. We then waited 45 minutes in a line that started around the block to get into the SAQ to buy delicious sparkling and still ice cidre. We had to seedly carry this home as the store was out of bags.

We had some sushi, drank Quebec cidre and watched quality Canadian T.V in the wait for New Years. Later we are going to head down to the old Port to watch the new year firework show...

go you good thing, go and go and go!

Today was cold enough to warrant the thermals! They say it felt like -26...

This morning we caught the metro to the Olympic Stadium. It was so glorious all covered in snow. We took the funicular to the viewing podium. The man operating the funicular asked where we were from and when we responded Australia he gave us a pamphlet all about how the building stays upright thanks to gravity! It must be something Australians take a special interest in...
The views were lovely - we were quite lucky to get a clear day.

After doing a few laps of the tower, we went over to the biodome. It was AMAZING! All the animals we saw sat next to their signs, which was both perplexing and helpful. We saw a beavers. They swam and frolicked around, and even did a flip under water. The people watching were going mental. They were a very appreciatory crowd, "ohhh-ing", "aaaaaa-ing" and general cheering loudly. We also saw penguins! We stopped at the penguin exhibit for ages, they were so cool. The children getting photos with the penguins thought they were very cool too, and would not pose in photos their parents were trying to force them into. The children clearly did not want to look at the camera - they wanted to look at the penguins! Finally we saw the crowning glory of the biodome - the sloth!!!! This was the first time it had been spotted in a week! It was too exciting, sloths move so slowly that moss grows on them. It was just chillin in the high, high tree tops.

We posed on the podium and metro-ed to berri UQAM, one of the French universities of Montreal. We saw the bibliotheque et archives nationale du quebec, which is an acclaimed architectural glory (to some). We wandered inside to warm up and plan our route home. We stopped by the palais des congres, which was almost a disappointment, as we couldn't find the right side to look, but then after walking around the 3 other sides became a joy as we saw the pretty coloured windows the building is famed for. We also saw the place d'youville obelisk before drinking cherry beer (at 4:30) in the old port!

29th Dec

The temperature took a turn for the worse today - it plummeted down to -15 with a wind chill of -26! So after a brisk walk in the morning the majority of the rest of the day was spent indoors. We packed up my room into two suitcases! It took hours and hours, but my room is now ready to be inhabited by someone else.

We took a break, did some window shopping, laughed at spoon busker and stopped in at a chocolatier. The shop was filled with clocks, which were all set to different times, so would chime while you were sitting or browsing the shop. I know this sounds like an annoying concept, but the chimes were not obnoxious, they were merry and enjoyable. At the chocolatiers you could get a hot chocolate in a variety of novel flavours. Sophie had a toblerone hot chocolate, mum had orange chocolate and I had coconut-white. It was SO good! Sophie also spied some Absinthe chocolate she would like for later...

28th Dec

Today we tramped around the Old Port for hours - we were making the most of the 0 degree weather!

We started by trying to get into the Bank of Montreal, which had instead called a bank holiday!
Many places also had this stance, and had prohibited from entering them, due to the nature of the day (a Monday) and its proximity to Christmas. We enjoyed the moat and snowy surrounds of the Champs de Mars and adjoining metro station art (which was un-adjoiningly appreciated by Sophie). I smelt the rich mahogany of the Chateau Ramezay and shook my fist at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours as I was turned away at the door (what sort of Church gives itself a day off!). Instead we took in the Bonsecours marche and did a round walking tour of Old Montreal. Starting with Place d'Arms and ending 2.5km later with Place d'Arms.


In the afternoon we went to the Biosphere! This is a water wonderland, teaching all about the joys of proper water and environment management and the majestic fleuve St. Lawerence. Sophie and I splashed about in the kiddy play section (as we did lie and pretend to be child age so we could get in for free). When asking for two children tickets, Mum was asked: "Do you have proof their underage?" mum's response: "no". This was good enough for them, and in strutted Sophie and I! We got to walk on water like a certain Jesus. We had races but I think because I shrieked WWJD about 20 times, I lost. There was the most amazing viewing tower in the biosphere. We could see out over all of Montreal, as the sun was picturesquely setting. What a sight! We also rode the glass elevator (with equally nice sights) about 5 or 6 times to take in the view in style.
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We then aged rapidly and went to the CASINO! Woo - Sophie's first gamble! We had cocktails on the top level. We had a great view of the mini horsey track, and of the bright lights of the casino. We even managed a gamble - on the fun machines where you get to pull the lever. No wins to report. It was a little bit sad, as the casino was PACKED, and it was only a Monday night!!!

on the third day of christmas...

Today I baked pancakes for breakfast and ate them with pure Maple Syrup!

Mum, Sophette and I cultured ourselves and visited the Museum of Fine Arts. They managed to cram a lot of fine arts into a small museum, we felt torn between too many art subjects and focuses. There were some nice paintings of Quebec which I could relate to, which was mildly exciting.

We had poutine for lunch. Mum and Soph enjoyed their first taste of Montreal's finest cuisine. We even splashed out and had a crazy flavor (with mushrooms, peppers, onion and NO bacon).
bon appétit!

We then explored the Plateau, wee galleries, and generally slushed around in the snow. We tried to get into Schwartz's Deli (the most glorious meat shack in the land) but could not, as people were queing up out the door to shove their gobs with unholy amounts of smoked meat, and our need to oogle at meat did not strike us that die hardly. The temperature was above zero, which was a shame as all the snow started to melt. Making the grounds both slippy and sloshy! When Sophies feet got too cold from stomping snow we took shelter in a warm cafe and planned our trip to Redpath Museum. We were most undelighted to find it CLOSED! Bastards! We then had to come up with a makeshift plan of Ville Marie (the start of underground city) and we poked our heads into a service of the Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde.

We retreated home in the wind-chill to glorious, warming eggnog and pumpkin pie.

World Cup Fever

I might go so far as to say my life is now officially complete. Bright and early Saturday morning (7:00am) we meet at the greyhound bus station. Only, at 7:00 there is just me and one other boy (who isn’t even playing – he is the papa of the team). So we stand around, in anticipiation of the teams arrival. Lucky the bus didn’t leave until 8:45. Good planning to make us arrive (or not arrive) almost two hours early. So gradually the team assembles. There are a few fallen. One of my fellow girl chasers was violently ill the night before – so can’t make it. And one beater (thankfully with car) sleeps through his alarm, so also does not make it onto the bus. The official capes are distributed among the team and mine manages a dual purpose of a blanket. We have a stop at the American border. Where the U.S guards (or whatever they are) are highly amused that about half the passengers on the bus are going to play quidditch. I get grilled about what position I play, and what position Harry Potter plays. Clearly more important questions than why I’m entering the country, and equally important when I am going to leave. I pass the test, and can enter the US. Reid (papa) I think mildly manages to aggravate the US guards, when asked if we play on a field – replied no a pitch. Ha ha! The team make it through boarder security with only one bag search! The journey continues to the town of Burlington. This is where we need to make our connection to Middlebury. Burlington is hosting a Halloween street fair and a farmers market. These events are glorious – but not for FIVE hours. At 11:30 we find out the next bus that will transit us to Middlebury is at 5:00. So we make some purchases from the farmers, wander the Halloween fair and sit in the rain. We play some drama improv games, which attract us even more attention than we were getting before. Some locals even come and join in the festivities. We manage to play drama games for about an hour before we decide to go see a movie. It was only $5 – yay. It was where the wild things are – not so yay. This movie did not keep us out of the rain for long enough, and I had already seen it I think a couple of days beforehand. I might have napped a little bit in the theater - but so did my entire row. We went and got some ice-cream before standing in the competitive line for the bus to Middlebury. The 5:00 bus is the last bus to Middlebury, and I got the feeling there was no bus to Middlebury on the Sunday. So people were manically pushing on and looking generally worried and fearful when it arrived. The bus left at maximum capacity. There were two poor (local?) people that were almost denied passage, but the surly bus driver checked the maximum allowed people sign, and decided that they could after all go to Middlebury with the squished masses.

We arrive at Middlebury University at about 6:00, at which point it is dark. We look lost for a little while, and finally meet our designated greeters. They show us to the food hall – YAY! The food hall is glorious. All you can eat buffet – with actual good food, amazing chocolate milk, AND a 24-hour soft serve machine! Oh my god! No wonder there is an obesity epidemic! It is hard to express self restraint. After tea, we are shown to our sleeping quarters. i.e the couches and floor of someone’s dorm room. There are two 5-bedroom apartment types, which each have two living rooms, ONE bathroom and a kitchen. So we are able to make our selves comfortable in the living rooms. Reid and Ben go to a quidditch brief about the code and conduct of the game. The rest of us sit around and play apples to apples – a mildly amusing board game. At 10 the meeting is over, and we decide to have a late night quidditch practice. Practice includes learning chants for the next day. We cleaned up the McGill once chant. It now goes:

McGill once, McGill twice,
Canadians are really nice,
Wham, bam, alakazam, son of a witch, BOOM,
Three cheers for McGill – ole, ole, ole,
Three cheers for quidditch – McGill, McGill, McGill!

(ha ha)
We bury some loonies in the centre of the two of the fields and all touch it for luck. At night, a few decided to go to what is known as a kegger, while the rest of us crash in the living rooms and tell some scary stories. What a wild night! I succeeded in forgetting my sleeping bag on this journey. So I shared ONE in blanket format with the female keeper and one of the chasers (not Eric). Me and the other chaser are both tiny, and in no way should have agreed to share the sleeping bag with the larger keeper who managed to hog the blanket all night. The room was so ridiculously cold and I spent a large portion of my time huddled in fetal position. I couldn’t even find my jumper (someone had been sleeping on it) and so at one point so desperate for warmth, I groped around and found some random jumper to wear. The next morning could be analogous to Christmas morning! We had some tasty breakfast buffet and put on our ‘uniforms’ and participated in the opening ceremony parade! Eek! We sung the Candaian national anthem, our McGill chant (I think I recall we stuck to the dirty one) and two French chants. I didn’t ever quite learn the words to one, but it implied something about McGill and America, and the other one was a classic - Où est le Fromage? X about twelve.
Then we all filed in around a quidditch pitch, and listened to a speech that we would hear again at the finals. The first draws were announced and the games begun!

Our first game was a real confidence boost. We beat St. Lawrence University 100 – 30, and they only scored 30 as they caught the snitch. We then played University of Vermont in some what of an upset match. We had only been playing for what seemed like 10 mintues and the snitch came back to the field. It was caught by Vermont which brought the game to a tie: 40-40. We then had to enter sudden death! Aaa! I was terrified when I was subbed back onto the field. Anyway our seeker caught the snitch illegally or something, and then the other teams seeker caught it properally! And game over. Our last game in our pool reminded me of the Harry Potter movies. The score was 0-0 McGill: Green Mountain College. But then the snitch made an appearance on the filed, and our seeker got him! Oh, it was too glorious, we all rushed onto the field, cheered and lifted up the seeker in victory. In practices I don’t really pay attention to the seekers or the snitch, but here it is such a big deal, as the games are really short. So I could then appreciate why people think Harry is the greatest in the books. The seeker is pretty much the most important person on the team. We had two, so the less good one would do all the hard yards running around and getting tired, and then when the snitch came back to the field, he would sub out for the good one! We finished in a good position in our division, and so progressed to the quarterfinals against Vermont - The grudge match. The tension was tangible. But we won, I don’t remember the score, but we caught the snitch, and generally felt pleased with ourselves. We then went on to play Middlebury (the host team of the cup) in the semifinals! This was carnage. 60-10. But they were about twice the size of us, and had capes with actual pleats in them. This school practices inter hall quidditch, and so had the cream of the crop. The game was pretty intense. And the crowd was wild, one of our beaters was physically picked up and thrown off a Middlebury beater by one of the Middlebury supporters. He was trying to rectify some rule in his mind… I guess.

So our quidditch cup dreams were ended. We tried to organize a scrimmage match against Harvard, but not enough Harvard players showed. We scrimmaged against two other teams though – for the love of quidditch (ha ha). We watched some other matches. Middlebury really put a lot of effort into this cup. In one match people in garbage bags stormed onto the field in a dementor like fashion! And in another they released all the snitches onto the field, so that there was mass annoyance and confusion. The snitches had access all the buildings and could run around and go crazy in them. Our snitch threw some chairs in a caff in the way of some seekers. Some snitches splashed mud into the eyes of their opposing seekers. One even rode around on a bike. They were generally allowed to cause a lot of mayhem.

We watched the final match against Middlebury and Emerson. Needless to say it was a pretty rough match. They had an opening ceremony to this final, where we heard the same speech we had heard in the morning, Emerson burst through some banners in a similar fashion to that of an banner bursting in an ALF final, and Middlebury brought out a man playing the bagpipes on a unicycle! I ended up rooting (hee hee) for Middlebury, as I felt there was more pride in being pulverized by the ultimate champions, than to second place. When Middlebury won, they started the most hideous chant: “mid-quid, mid-quid”. BOO. We retired for dinner and soft serve ice cream machine, before packing up our belongings and getting on a real yellow school bus (very exciting).

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Championship

Boston

Lafayette

Boston

Louisiana State

Villanova

Villanova

Boston

Vermont

Middlebury

McGill

McGill

Middlebury

Middlebury

60

Emerson

Emerson

10

Syracuse

Emerson

Vassar

Green Mountain

Emerson

Texas A&M

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Third place

Chestnut Hill

Boston

There were problems at the boarder. One girl, did not have her study visa stapled into her passport, and so was held up at the boarder. They were about to ship her back to her home in the states, when somehow they found her study visa online. There had been some mishap with the labeling of her gender that prevented them from finding it online. She had been listed as a guy! We made it back to Montreal at about 11:00 or something. I caught the metro home and collapsed into bed.

Here is an article some random girl from Carlton that came along with us posted!

http://www.charlatan.ca/content/taking-quidditch-air-field

I want a bicyce race

Monday 19 – Was so lovely, the minimum was 3! THREE! This is what is known as the Indian summer – woo – I think. Anyway I strutted off to school in a dress, tights and a jumper! No thermals, or coat for me! I had history where another essay was dished out. I can already foresee how baldy this is going to go down in terms of procrastination. I had some chemistry and some environmental systems. As I was leaving class to heat up my lunch I got a message from Annabel that she had been granted the afternoon off, and wanted to know if I was available to hang. Why yes - yes I was (if I skipped my chemistry tutorial). It was such a lovely day, it could have even reached 13 degrees or something! I went home had some lunch, and then we went out to rent some bixi bikes!
They were surprisingly easy to master. It was so much fun, we rode down some not too busy streets as Annabel was terrified, and found ourselves at the Old Port on the loveable bike path. We rode around for a while until it was time to dock our bikes without excess fees! We walked around the Old Port and enjoyed some ice-cream.
We wandered up into the city, and discovered more of St. Catherine Street east (I think), it was around near UQAM (university of Quebec and Montreal). We caught the metro home. I did a huge grocery shop with Lucy – I picked up a lot of staple food: like rice, coffee, couscous, beans, chickpeas, cereal, bagels and all that sort of good stuff. We shopped at this supermarket on Du Fort (which is apparently cheaper and fresher than Provigo and the small grocers across the road (not surprisingly)). I went to my gym class with Sara, Sarah and Catherine, which was tiring as my legs were a bit sore from much bike riding. I made a really good risotto with Lucy for dinner. Later that night the cleaner came around, rubbed off Tim’s offensive message and delivered the MUCH needed toilet paper! Tim and Lucy were so angry that they had been ducking over to Concordia to use the loos every time they needed to go. Ha ha!

All the leaves are brown...

Saturday 17 – was quite a good day. In the morning there was still a lack of toilet paper; and Annabel and I climbed up Mont Royal. The sun was shining (relatively speaking) and the weather had improved dramatically (no negative numbers). We frolicked in the fall leaves!

We walked by Saint. Lawrence and got some brunch (or maybe it was just breakfast as it was still pretty early) at a nice bakery. Had some warming coffee, and caught the metro to Peel Street for haircuts! Amanda and Lucy had both got their haircuts there and had recommended this place to us. Lucy even booked us in for the Saturday. We went up the escalator on Amanda’s directions and arrived at a fancy day spa. This must be wrong we thought to ourselves. But no, it had the name on the window and everything. We were both really scared that instead of $40 Lucy and Amanda had really meant $140 or something for this haircut. They took our coats from us, and sat us on a fancy lounge sweet while we waited. I flicked through their booklet to my horror as I discovered the $200 - $300 facials and massages you could get. The lady taking me couldn’t pronounce my name; she called out Rate (this was also with a Quebecois accent - so was doubly hard to interpret). I finally figured out she meant me, and away I went. I got my hair shampooed, and described that I would like to keep some of my length, all the time hoping she was somehow understanding what I was saying. Particularly horrifying was the moment she took out a men’s shaver to cut some of the back of my hair! (I did not ask for this!) Somehow I managed to trust her, and my hair(I would say) looks pretty good. She even styled and straightened my hair. I was rather disappointed I had to go to quidditch and go through the effort of messing it up, and then having to wash the dirt and sweat from it. We went home – very pleased with ourselves, cooked some lunch, and then it was time to head off for quidditch. We had an intense 3-hour practise, and we even had a quick game against what I think was a frat party. They were each dressed in costumes (one was a cow, one was a baby, one was an Indian etc, but all the girls just wore red jumpsuits). They saw our game and wanted a go. They went down pretty quick, despite being much bigger than all of us. We caught the snitch in about 10 minutes. After cleaning myself up and having to wash out my once so pretty hair, I met up with Eric. We went to see where the wild things are. A movie in which I feel lacked some elements of morals and conclusions, but v. cute nonetheless. We went to dinner at a tasty but slow Indian place near my house before heading out to the Quidditch 'One Year of being a Team' Anniversary party. This was good fun, I feel so integrated with the team!

Sunday 18 – slept in! Lounged around, did some washing and in the afternoon I went bike riding around the city with Eric. I borrowed his flatmates bike, and we rode through the city (quite scary riding next to cars, and even more scary having to pass cars doing reverse parallel parks) and down to the Old Port (much less scary as there was a nice bike path, for only people on bikes). I wore a helmet I was so worried. It was so nice - it was a really good day (above 0), infact good enough for me not to have to wear thermals, and I simply rode around in jeans, a tank top and a jumper. We rode all along the canals and then up into the old town, where we got some poutine. This I am sure negated all of the good riding work we had just put in. We added up the mileage on a map, and I think we did just over 20km! Woo! I came home and bopped around with Annabel and Lucy, we cooked some tea, and went over to starbucks for faithful hot chocolates. I went to bed pretty early – all that fresh air, exercise and lack of toilet paper can take it out of you.

the Gloaming (softly open our mouths in the cold)

Tuesday 6 – I had the MOST HECTIC geochemisty assignment due. It involved pages and pages of integration calculations. The tricky part was the mistakes made if you even messed up just one number in this lengthy calculation. So I had spent the better part of my Monday night working on this assignment, I work up early on Tuesday to churn it out. I thought I was done - but no. I really shouldn’t have chosen to discuss my results with my fellow class-mates. Everyone had a different answer. I didn’t think I cared that much, but it turns out I did. After class, I sat with a friend in the geology lounge and tried working some mistakes out! Oh god! The problems just kept appearing, and then other people would walk in and give their input, which would conflict with what we thought and make us rethink our approaches. Anyway after an hour and a half she had a class, and I was set to meet my friend Nick for a study date in the library. He is not in any of my classes, but it is always nice to hang with someone in the library, even if they can’t give you the answers to your geochem assignment. I worked on this assignment more-so, for about two hours, until my lack of graphical calculator and the internets lack of easy to use graphical calculator drove me to Burnside. This is the geography building with a computer lab down the bottom. It is the home of the science student. It has the science student lounge, has a general dingy science-y feel that I have come to appreciate after being down there. By simply flaunting the fact that I am a science student I get free printing (on computers that I have since found out don’t have Microsoft word, so when I want to print my documents, the computer doesn’t recognise the format and won’t print it out). I met up with Eric and borrowed his graphical calculator and managed to meet a lot of people down in this Burnside basement, it truly seems like the place to hang. The best person I met was Harry Potter boy! Oh, the glory, he helped me through the last question of the assignment in a mere five minutes and then showed me the glory of the Burnside tunnel!!! I could of died of happiness. This tunnel connects my chemistry, geology and geography building. I won’t have to surface for hours on end. I am ecstatic! Thank you Harry Potter boy – whose name in pronounced Cereal by Anglophone Canadians and something much better by the Francophone community, I don’t even know how I would pronounce it I am too afraid to say it if people can’t even understand me when I attempt my own name. Any way we hung out until it was time for the geochem lab, where I could finally rid myself of this assignment for good. Geology is really feeling good at the moment, the class has really bonded, and we can all talk to each other and get along in general. I am quite happy! Coffee and cookies were really good today too, there were brownies and I think I had about 5! I couldn’t stop myself! Oh geez. I am glad I don’t do more geology classes that run through 3 o’clock otherwise I would put on some serious weight. The lab finished dead on 5:30 so I raced home and back for quidditch. It was a pretty good practise, though the nights are getting so cold, so it is bad when you are subbed out. After quidditch Eric and I got some crepes and hung out a bit - eek!

Wednesday 7 – had too many activities in the afternoon to even be able to attend. I had my usual history, chemistry and geography line up, and then I needed to do a bit of shopping. I bought some football boots, or cleets as they are known here. I tried to get advice from the shop assistant. Were the boots I was buying appropriate for the type of sport I was doing? The shop assistant didn’t seem to understand when I tried to explain the glory that was quidditch, which might require boots like rugby boots? Well she was no help what so ever. But I bought some using my better judgement. I had my gym class with Sara, Sarah and Catherine, then I had an exchange student hang at Gertz. Gertz is the university bar and its appeal is that has cheap drinks on Wednesday nights. Some of my friends have organised a Wednesday catch-up type event for exchange students every Wednesday night at Gertz (until it hurts – ha ha – but you can be exempt from the illing if you have a mid-term). So I chose drinking over going to the outdoors club meeting. Why do we all want to hang out on Wednesday!!! I had to leave at 9:00 as all the guys from my residence were all going to fajitas for Amanda’s birthday. When it is your birthday they give you free cake and a sombrero at the Three Amigos. Fajitas were really good, but the free slice that Amanda got was not so amazing. It was so un-amazing she offered us all a bite, and yes, I could agree that it wasn’t great.

Thursday 8 – had some geology, where everyne is the class is becoming brave enough to tell Willy they don’t quite understand whats going on. He always asks, “so do we all get it?” and there are always a few feeble nods. But now, he asks us, and we say no, so he explains and re-explains to little avail, as we are all just so overwhelmed by the entity of geochem. After GIs I had ice cream happy hour with my friend Nick today. It was great – we strutted on down to Ben and Jerry’s (an American chain with AUSTRALIANS serving, we could tell by there accents). The deal is three scoops for three dollars between 4 and 7 - how could I resist. I then popped home to get ready for quidditch. This was a good training session as training is getting more intense in preparation for the cup. We even got to do passing and tackling drills to my excitement. It was Amanda’s actual birthday today so we all went out clubbing on Crescent street. The majority of the social people from the residence came along. We went to a place called sir Winston Churchill’s – so you know it was good, ha ha. The sad thing was Amanda wasn’t even ID’ed so she couldn’t put her real ID to the test. At the pub they tried to charge us $10 each entry fee, so we all looked disappointed and poor and started to walk away - the bouncer said we could all go in for free! Yay! There were $3 beers, so naturally I obliged. We partied the night away.

Friday 9 – I slept through my alarm and woke up just in time to be able to dash out the door and make it to my history discussion, which over time adds up to 10% of my grade! Oh my! I had some chemistry, environmental systems and pilates. I then raced home to do my washing and do my numerous household jobs before leaeving for Ottawa, many of which did not get completed.

Tuesday 13 – I had some geology in the morning. I did some quality chemistry study for my midterm that night. For a break I met up with Jeny, Nick and Amy for luncheon before a study date in the library! We all discussed our Canadaian Thanksgivings, and Nick had the privilege of the legendary turducken! He could not accurately describe the taste or how sensational it was, but I can only imagine the conquest. In the geochemistry lab I gorged myself at coffee and cookies for energy for the 6:00 midterm that was to follow. There were the most tasty mini cinnamon scrolls! I also had a wanky vanilla latte! Everyone is continually bonding and still calling me Kite (just because I can’t pronounce my name doesn’t mean you have to either). The midterm took place in a lecture theatre, which is rather uncomfortable, as you only have a tiny little space to write and nowhere to put all your belongings. I find I am hunched over the tiny fold out writing board the entire time. The midterm ran right through dinnertime and through quidditch practise. On the plus side my body is thanking me for my lack of quidditch attendance, first Saturday and now this. My bruises - slightly healing, and I am experiencing much reduced stiffness! I stopped by the pitch on my way out of the exam, and watched until everyone finished. I felt it my duty in a way.

Wednesday 14 – only experienced -3 to 5 degrees! !!! In fact some would say it snowed. Only the type of snow you get in Canberra, where it falls and melts straight away - but it was snow in the middle of October none-the-less. Oh my god! I am busting out my thermals these days due to the intensity of the weather. I mean 5 isn’t a lot of degrees. At least the weather encourages inside activity, like studying for a midterm the next day. I had my usual classes and studied manically for GIS. Tonight 2 more girls from Sara’s residence came along to punching, kicking, jamming, and jiving. The teacher must surely notice this boom in attendance, and the fact that these girls did not quite know the moves and combos we have been practising the past lot of weeks. Or maybe she just thinks they are crazily uncoordinated like the other half of the class. After class Sara invited me to meal plan dinner with the residence gang. I tired to decline, not wanting to spend more money, and perhaps I would make a small dinner with Lucy instead of going out to fajitas, as we both had exams the next day. But the deal with the meal plans is, you pay about $2000 for a semester worth of meals, and the money you don’t use simply disappears at the end of term! So she was eager to get someone else to help her use up the money, as crafty McGill naturally makes you put too much money on your card, to a point where you would have to be eating about 4 or 5 meals a day. SO I got a free dinner, and got the check out the residence cafeteria.

I studied a bit then had some hot chocolate with Annabel at starbucks. I think they might soon recognise us. I came hoem and panicked a bit for the GIS mid-term that would be.

Thursday 15 - I had a GIS mid-term today. Oh it was such a struggle. There were fill in the blanks, I was quite blank about, and I had to draw a map of Canada. Potentially an easy task for all the Canadians in the room, I mean I could give you a rough sketch of Australia no worries, but Canada! Oh geez. And this is a course about mapping, so I am sure some elements of the map, may have wanted to be somewhat accurate. But I answered every question, no matter how dodgey my response may have been, or how poor my drawing abilities were (there were a lot of diagrams to fill in!!). I guess the AST really did prepare me for the challenges of uni, with its diagram and drawing questions I so fully heartedly mocked back in the day. I went to geology, then spent most of the day in full study mode, in the map library (for inspiration) with my francophone friend Nicolas. After the exam – freedom, at least for the next week and a half! So after quidditch to celebrate Lucy, Annabel and I went out for crepes and then bought some rum (or Rhum as the packing told us) and made mojitos. We had all finished a hard week of exams. I didn’t go to bed to late, as I was SO tired from a week of hardcore study.

Friday 16 - this morning the cleaner approached me during my breakfast, to let me know the entire residence was using too much toilet paper. Well this is not my problem, and I should not be held responsible for everyone’s toilet paper usage. He said in all his years of cleaning he had never seen people go through so much toilet paper – well sorry! He then proceeded to tell me that he would not be putting down more toilet paper, and perhaps, I could go around, collect money and but some more toilet paper! NO WAY! How much do I pay in rent for this place, and they want me to buy toilet paper! Thank goodness Phillip wandered into the kitchen, he got the same spiel, about never had there been such reckless usage of toilet paper. Phillip didn’t quite know either how to petition back for our fundamental right to toilet paper! We just looked shocked, said oh no, said we weren’t the ones responsible for this travesty, and tried to look very needy. He didn’t give in, and told Arty on his way out! Lucky, I had stolen a roll once should such a situation occur. But I had to keep this secret, as clearly if I were to leave it out, it would be gone in moments due to our record usage. I felt bad that I was one of the people that was going to have to spread the bad news. The outrage that ensued was intense. Tim went so crazy he wrote on the communal white board: give us toilet paper for our sh*t otherwise we will sh*t all over the house. I suspected he would have such emotion when he heard about this. I had history, chemistry, environmental systems and Pilates as usual. I went home to meet up with Annabel, so we could head on back to uni for Blues Bar (the engineering run bar, with cheap drinks). Today they were fundraising for breast cancer, so the mixer type drink was called a pink drink, and it was a lot of vodka, pink lemonade and water. Needless to say it was not the tastiest of beverages. We hung out at Blues Bar for about 2 hours before heading off to the McGill vs. Concordia ice hockey match. The attendance for hockey night seems mainly to comprise of exchange students (I think I knew or at least recgonised three quarters of the McGill supporters) and girlfriends, friends and family. I don’t think “real” McGill students go. But it was a lot of fun, and really intense. I must say it was quite scary when the hockey players would slam up against the glass! Annabel and I got front row seats as we were some of the few that arrived on time! There wasn’t as much chanting as I had hoped either but it was an entertaining night.