Science Froshercise

This is an account of the past three most insane days of my life.

Wednesday afternoon; 5:00; all the new science kids are lined up at the doors of the McGill athletics arena. We are let in about 50 at a time, where we are told to sprint. At the entrance we were met buy frosh leaders. Met is not quite the right word, we were hoarded and grabbed, pushed and pulled by these guys into their groups. They were loaded with water pistols and squirted shots into our mouths. Each group had a number and various chants associated with it. My first group was the burning loin’s. We had to chant – touch my inner thigh. After an hour of this chanting and craziness, we partied our way down to the beer tent. This was on the opposite end of the campus, so we had to walk down through some streets. The poor traffic and homeowners on those streets! We got to the beer tent. It took ages and ages to get our first beer. But after the first struggle and desperation of many to get a beer, it became easier. Then pizzas were distributed within the groups. This is when I moved groups with my friend, as our group did not have any pizza! Our new group was 99. We didn’t have quite as good a cheer as good old group 20. But we had much cooler leaders and people. We bopped around the beer tent for a couple of hours, and leant many a chant that would serve us well over the next couple of days. (Mum I wouldn’t let Gran read these).

Ok so here was the classic:

McGill once, McGill twice,
Holy f*cking Jesus Christ,
Wham, Bam, God-dam, son-of-a-bitch, SHIT!
Three cheers for McGill: f*ck, f*ck, f*ck!
Three cheers for f*cking: McGill, McGill, McGill!

And then the Concordia one:

I’d rather be a redman (McGill) than a f*cking bumblebee (Concordia – though I guess you would have worked that out).
I’d rather be a genius than a flip burgers at Mac D’s
I wouldn’t wipe my ass with a Concordia degree
So f*ck you bumblebee’s!

Both a popular choice, and both lead me to being hoarse at the end of this experience.

So, then we had a pre-party at our leaders house, before heading to Club Altitude 737. This is a really flash club; there are spotlights that flash over Montreal. These belong to that club. It is really high up, and you ride an elevator to floor 737 (although there are not that many floors, really). We partied the night away.

The next morning there was a breakfast at 9. So I rocked up to this, and met my beloved group. The beer tent opened at 10:00. But I wasn’t ready to beer tent quite yet. Some girls and I went and checked out the bouncing castles and the general festivities, as it was carnival day. When we were finally ready for beer at lunch, the beer tent had been closed down!! Some people had served minors, underage people. There was panic that the entire frosh would be shut down, but the beer tent was the only casualty. Our rivals the arts frosh were at our carnival too. And their beer tent was still open! There were lots of separate froshes. There was a music frosh, the one time I saw them was when they were singing some do-ray-mi song about beer in a conga line. There was an engineering frosh, and they were really nerdy. They all wore hard hats and spent their time building things – for real. They kept on making all these human formations spelling out engineering things. These guys were also our ultimate rivals. When you passed them on the street, they would scream and yell about how we were med-school rejects and how we are unemployed! There was nothing that could be done. They also had a space theme, and a little space ship on their shirts. Ours was – froshercise, so think tight and bright, and arts had the best theme ever – super Mario!

Then began my favourite event (I think, it was all pretty good) of the frosh. The pub-crawl. This started at 3:00! Which was amazing!! We were running a bit late, so we had to run across to the first pub, play a super quick game and then race off to the next pub. There were three games in total, and the games just alternated at every stop. All were races. So the first one, consisted of beer being poured into your mouth by the person next to you, when you finished your beer, you then poured beer into the mouth of the person next to you and so on. Then there was a boat race, and flip cup, which was very similar to the boat race. Although you had to put you cup over the edge of the table and flip it from its bottom onto its rim. Surprisingly hard, and VERY intense. When someone was struggling with the flip, the pressure was tangible. I must brag that I was a bit of a one flip wonder! These games were alternated as we made our way through the streets yelling about McGill and the like. We got in the way of traffic, of pedestrians, of families and small children. It must have been very unfortunate for them. On the other hand, some of the old locals were loving it. They honked their horns and hi-fived the masses. There was one guy, in our co-group 24 (who’s chant was: Two, Four - get f*cked up) who in fact was a local. He was 25, had graduated, and was still coming back to McGill to do frosh. That was a bit scary! This glorious bar crawl lasted until 7:00. We then all went back to our frosh leaders house to pre-drink (that’s right) before heading out the club. This was lots of fun. There was a live band who were awesome, and down stairs they played 90’s hits, they played Radiohead and I could have died of happiness. I think I was the only one though, eh! This was the best club ever as it was a 30 second walk home!

The final day began at 9:00. I met my group for alleged free breakfast – of which there was none. We trekked down to Tim Horton’s for some tasty bagel breakfast and coffee. Yes Tim does do a very nice fruity bagel. Then raced back up to real yellow school buses (I was so excited) to drive to the beach! When we were getting on the bus, the free breakfast (uncooked bagel) was offered around. The arts frosh was super lucky, they had TIMBITS for breakfast! TIMBITS! Oh man. So off to the beach – which was actually a dirty river. But a loveable and fun dirty river none-the-less. I am ashamed to admit that I started drinking at 10:30 that morning and didn’t stop until 2:00 that night. But it was lots of fun, we went paddle boating, and kayaking. There was a dance floor for times between sunbaking. There was beach volleyball and there was a trampoline on the water! The Canadians did a good job of recreating a beach type fun. I sunbaked a bit too, and got really badly sunburnt. The leaders scribble on everyone in permanent markers, and I have a bit of a science sunburn. Great! And I wore sandals, so I have awkward sandal burn! At about 4:00 we left the beach on our yellow school buses. I think most of us had a nap. Then our group was too owned to stick around for dinner, so we each went back to respective places, had some tea / another nap / showered dirty river off . Then we met back at the leaders house for final pre-drinks. This was really fun, lots of groups turned up to, and some cool people from arts frosh. So there were heaps of us all! We then went out to the club. It was great, it was many stories high, and we pretty much jived the night away.

I then slept until one the next day. I had some brekky, and wandered out to the kitchen to do some washing up, and there were people out there. I had managed to go a week only meeting one girl, and now I’ve met about half of them. But this was only a little bit unfortunate as I was really tired, so I had to be really motivated and work really hard to be happy and awake and sociable. But so far everyone seems really nice. I’ll have another blog about it, as I’m going to end this on with pics that I ripped off my friend’s facebook. I didn’t take my camera out, as I didn’t want to loose it, or get it wet or anything like that.

Froshercise

August 25th McGill Mania

I have been having an amazing time at McGill these past couple of days!

On Saturday mum and I went to explore the campus, and I had an info session. The info session was lame, the speaker asked "who is going to be wanting a monthly metro pass?", the few students who were in the know put up their hands, and then she ended that spark of hopeful knowledge with a "good". Thanks lady! So I'm the one that is going to have to put in the hard yards on that one. Then she shooed us all out of the lecture theater, so no contact with the international student kind. We were all scared and confused, and had all brought parents. A memo I missed, so mum had to wait around campus, and then I had to find her around campus when the meeting finished about 1 hour and 10 minutes early!

We then went into the glory that was the McGill parents tent! This was heaven on Earth. They served FREE starbucks coffee, and low fat zucchini bread (for the modern parent). Mum signed a form, then she was laden with a goody bag, which included a wanky "McGill Parent" tag! All the other parents didn't seem to think this was a wank, and were strutting aroung McGill with pride wearing these huge tags. Mum had to wear hers to blend into the crowd. We went to the McGill gift shop, and after a lot of deliberation I settled on a McGill hoodie! There was a lot of choice, but in the end, the classic seemed the right thing to do! I can't wait until it's cold enough for me to wear it!

TODAY was even more McGill glory. At its prime, if you will!!! It felt reminiscent of a clockwork orange. We were made to watch an hour of McGill propaganda. An HOUR! Of all these shorts (which were funny, as they were done by students - but the message was still the same) and some longs, about McGill and its services. The shorts were so funny, they were "ads" for McGill. But scary in that everyone subtly or not so subtly put down the surrounding universities in the area, mainly Concordia (the other English uni in Montreal). We then heard speeches (yes this was a WHOLE orientation day), and were made to chant! I kid you not. We were all chanting "GO-MCGILL-GO-YAY", I know, catchy right! And every person that got up on stage - congratulations you are all so wonderful, we are sooo selective, ego boost, ego boost! Then the principle started telling us about all the influential people that try and blackmail her so that their kids would get in, but no she can't take their kids, we are all just too much better than the rich peoples kids! And the self indulgence went on for the better part of the morning. I was sitting next to two anti-friends. One girl Onya, she was from Toronto, and when I first met her, I thought she was a bit cool, a bit alternative - but then she got too alternative for me, when she whipped out her notepad and started writing NOTE TO SELF's, she made many notes to self over the course of the morning. We bonded over bands we like and stuff, but she just wasn't a winner. And the boy I was sitting next too! Jeez, he wanted to be a neurosurgeon and I guess figured social interaction would get in the way of his ambition. I introduced myself, we had a few brief words (of course when necessary) then when people tried to approach him for a chat while we were walking around the campus, he would speed up or slow down, and he would always just walk like 10 meters from the entire group! But during the walking tours I did also meet some really good people. Friends, or potential friends! So all is good! We hung out all day. Well, part of it was forced but the rest was voluntary. After the campus tour we all had pizza lunch (mandatory) and then had to hear another two hours of speeches (again mandatory). But then there was McGill's equivalent of Market day! Street Festival! We hung out enjoying the festival, listening to the street performers, and grabbed some free BBQ! It was amazing and has restored my faith in people and friend making! It was lots of fun! The BEST ever, and I mean best ever club I joined was ....
...
...
...
the McGill Quidditch team!
Thats right!
Ok, unless it is a scam! We all get to ride around on broom sticks, and there is a human snitch painted in gold and he/she runs around campus and we pretty much have to chase him down! I think, I mean that's what the guys were telling us, but they did also use the words spam email. So we'll see. I guess it was free, so no harm!

Tomorrow is my Frosh! I am a bit excited, and hopefully there will be a happy blog about that one!

August 21st: Poutine Prized

Today mum and I managed to try the Canadian classic - poutine (fries with gravy and cheese). This was so-so. I was not taken with the cheese and gravy on chips combo. Its best feature was that our entire poutine dinner only set us back only four dollars. The other Canadian classic sampled today was Sangria. Now I don't know why, but practically every Canadian restaurant I walk past advertises its sangria. And every person in these restaurants is drinking about a litre of this glorious drink. So today, mum and I ordered a demi-litre! How daring (for us), but this was probably a weak effort by Canadian standards!

I have tried Canada's other national food bit - Timbits! These are the middle parts of the doughnuts at Tim Horto's. This was terribly exciting, but terribly embarrassing - I was so demented. I went up to the register, and asked for Timbits. The lady at the counter waited for my next instruction. I looked at her blankly, expecting her to get out the Timbits boxes (like a happy meal box) and start loading it with alleged Timbits! Finally the silence was broken, with "what did you want?"
"Timbits", I said again,
"ohhh-kay what flavour?",
"there are flavours!" I asked
"yes" and she pointed at rows and rows of Timbits - there were way too many to name.
I panicked and asked for chocolate, and then came the question of how many!!! Now I don't know how many Timbits the average Canadian eats, but you can buy 40 for $5. So I must have seemed very weak when I asked for two, and was charged $0.47! Oh well, a learning Tim experience!

After these nourishing Timbits, we wandered down to McGill to check out the action on campus. At the gates, there were girls selling McGill t-shirts (HARVARD - America's McGill). That gave me a chuckle, until it was revealed that you would have to pay to wear this message! I have been loaded up with my McGill ID card, which is much nicer than my ANU blob, and had me superimposed in front of an attractive McGill building. I also have been loaded up with billions of pamflets, booklets, and McGill lolly pops - which have the logo on the lolly! McGill is very self indulgent. We went inside the book shop. There is every form of McGill clothing available. Yes, there's jerseys, jumpers and t-shirts. Then there's track-pants, pajamas, underwear, g-strings, mugs, water bottles, gift-wrap, key chains, hip flasks, socks, jocks, umbrellas, license plates, licence plate frames. If you can think of an item, it's got a McGill logo on it! There's even a range of clothes for the pretentious parent; McGill mom, McGill dad, McGill grandmom and grandpop jumpers, mugs and key-chains. Then there was the baby wear, don't even get me started on how much baby wear there was!

There were lots of exciting tents being set up around the uni, but these are for the weekend and next week when the Frosh begins. I am a little bit excited! Apparently there is more poutine available at the Frosh, so I'll be able to compare and assess if I actually like poutine, or if it is just bad everywhere!

The rest of the day was spent shopping; sheets (my bed is a double, so my single sheets made a nice around the world trip for their own amusement!!!), phones (which are crazy - I am charged for incoming and outgoing calls, incoming and outgoing text messages, caller id, voice mail and just about every feature on the phone has a charge attached! I'm going to be broke) and all sorts of housing goods were sussed. There will have to be more shopping done when I move into my house, as otherwise there will be too much to carry down to my apartment! I have a rich full weekend of moving into my home for the next four months!

Quebec Quest!

This is a massive entry from my time in the greatest city of all - Quebec City!

The late nights there wore me down, so much so that I could not blog! But now, I am back in homely Montreal.

Quebec was really easy to get to, a simple 2 and a half hour journey by bus. I was a little wary of the bus, someone once said that it was only the dregs of society and the poorest and lowest of the lows who caught the bus. But I found that this popular belief is a myth! There were respectable people on the bus, some wore suits, others were nice families. So bus system : 1.

We arrived in our luxury hotel! This beat the crap out of our gite. King size bed, bar fridge, the anti water saver shower, which could fit about four of the gite showers inside! And a swimming pool! Which I made good use of! This hotel advertised a free shuttle bus into the old town, as it was a good 15 minute ride out of actual Quebec City. Little did we know this free shuttle bus ran only twice a day - early in the morning, and at 6:00 at night! Thanks for mentioning that one on your website. But there was another shuttle (at a cost of course). We caught that one into the paradise that is old Quebec City. It is full of narrow, cobbled streets, buskers playing the harp, and stupid tourists who have insisted on bringing their babies in prams (which are a nightmare on the cobbled streets) or their kids which are slightly too old for pushers, so instead have brought scooters (equally a nightmare on the cobbled streets). Idiot tourists! But for the most of it, it was very enjoyable! There were the most amazing stores along the streets. You could buy Polar Bear fur skins, Wolf fur, Bear fur etc, etc, then stuffed dead animals; your Raccoons and Buffalo. There were a million inuit art-galleries. Which are composed of a lot of sculptures of polar bears, or creepy faces made in jade, or marble, or hematite.

Mum and I did this city walk along the walls which surround the city. Some are in ruins, while some parts of the walls are going strong. They are built along these huge cliffs, and kept out invaders form other countries in times of war, and from the poor in times of peace. Cannons line the whole walk, so at first they were very exciting, and quickly I had seen quite enough cannons. There was one cool tree with a cannon lodged in its trunk!

The major feature of the city, is the chateau Frontenac! This is a massive castle, which has been turned into a hotel with boutique shops and bistros and bars and the like. You can see it from every angle of the town! Its quite spectacular! We went inside, and it was quite full of tourists. It smelt of rich mahogany, and had lovely chandeliers and arts along its corridors.

We took an amazing day tour from Quebec. A whale and fjord watching tour! Oh my goodness! It was so amazing. I don't think mum and I fully knew what we were getting our selves into when we booked it, as we were on an adventure boat! So exciting. It was like a bright yellow ring, with flooring in the middle with seats and a captain's post in the middle! We were exposed to the elements (of which there were many) the whales and the fjords! This was so adventurous, we got to put on huge red waterproof jackets, and waterproof pants (which were not so waterproof). It rained most of the day, but that was ok! We would have got wet whether there was rain or not! The boat was a bit splashy! There were so many glorious whales to be viewed, Humpback whales, Minke whales and Fin whales. The fin whales let off a plume about 8 meters high! They did this over and over again! Oh, whales. The fjord was everything I could of hoped for and more, it had such geologic majesty! I loved it!

On our last night in Quebec, the cirque du Soleil was in town, and put on a street show! FOR FREE! This lasted about an hour and a half! And it was just so amazing! At the start, they were all in the crowd, and doing stuff I couldn't see, as we had really good spots close to the centre stage! Then after about 20 mins of that, the cirque was all ours, they stayed where they were meant to be, on the centre stage! I can barely do it justice, but it was jaw-droppingly good! They ended on trapezes spinning and juggling fire and firework type items! They do this Wednesday to Sunday all the summer! I can't believe how lucky people in Quebec are, I would be there every night if I lived there, looking at different things each night. There is always way too much to focus on at once.

We struggled to get out of the hotel. A stupid receptionist (who didn't take room keys off us) kept telling is the bus station was just down the road. No it's not, we'd protest, it needs a taxi ride. No, no, so lazy to need taxi, so easy to walk. Finally a common person (the handyman) came and, overheard the conversation and pointed her in the right direction, of calling us a taxi! Otherwise this stupid woman would of had us walking to the train station, or miles and miles along highway to the bus station. I suppose the upper class in that hotel have never had to catch a bus in their lives. They are also willing to pay $10 for breakfast! No thanks, I had three breakfasts for under that price. Good old Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes (eaten with a fork)! Speaking of good value, today we had lunch at Tim Horto's. We got a big sandwich (big enough for two), a doughnut and a coffee all for $5.01! That's value!

Back in the gite tonight! A big difference from the comfort of the hotel! But loveable nonetheless. Saturday morning I move into my house! I'm so excited!

August 16th

"This is the first time i was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window". Mark Twain 1881

And this is quite so, every second building has a mighty spire! And in regulation of Sundays, nothing opens until much later in the day. So mum and I organised our trip to Quebec! We leave on Monday. in absence of life in the morning we had a self-guided tour of McGill. I wrote down a list of all my buildings, and I sought them out!

There is only one massive trek in my whole timetable. It is much more painful than the one up through the ANU to the EMSC building past the many road works. It is a massive trek uphill, to the peak of the uni. So, I have Canadian History there at 9:30 am. I wonder how many of those I'll turn up to come mid-winter. Then the pressure is on, I have a mere ten minutes to make it the whole way across campus! At least it's down hill, so I should be able to roll some of the way, or optimize my downward momentum. We timed the walk, and its a seven minute door-to-door! So the pressure will be on with packing up, and beating students out the door.

Here are some pics of the most georgous buildings. Its kind of like Hogwarts, there is even a headwig *swoons*.

Also, as looking at these, imagine turrets, and spires and in some cases gargoyles.

I also got a good look at McGill's mascot Marty

the Martlet, here he is on a bin telling other birds how to recycle!

We did some shopping on St. Catherine in lovely air-conditioned complexes! The malls are so massive, there are a few stories above ground and a good few underground! I found an amazing store where all my housing goods will come from: Dollarama! So much goodness, all for a dollar (some new stock $1.50)! Then after more heat-stroke we had icecream and hung out in good old Cafe Depot.

We made tea next to the hostels oldest member. He was so slow and quaint, and seemed to belong to some sect - although he did promise it wasn't one and in fact a world recognised religion. Sure buddy. Anyway we went out to read our books by a fountain, and when we came back two hours later, he was only just up to eating his dinner! Funny man, it must be in the cult rules. Another crazy man that I have viewed, was by the fountain. He looked kinda like Jesus, and was protesting with a picture of a tree for the first nations people of Canada. Mum and I pretended not to speak French...or English. We must of seemed very hopeless, and were left alone. So we are just ending the night by packing up things for our holiday in Quebec City!!!

Saturday Night!

There was fruity bagel for breakfast, so there was much joy this morning... until these two hippy, talkative, drunkard types sauntered in. They had like 5 breakfasts (you are only allowed one, and extras cost $2.) and scared everyone in the hostel. They yapped and yapped, about their room, its hot and nosiness (probably caused by them) and their boring stupid lives. GET away from me.

To escape the mayhem that these two caused in the breakfast area, we went to a cafe to research our final hoo-rah of tourist activity. This task for some reason was really hard, and therefore really irritating. Who would have imagined that whale watching tours were so ridiculously hard to google. And then that accommodation in Quebec would be so hard to come by. I don't know, maybe there is a big festival there the Monday we want to stay, and everything is booked out! Beats me. We walked home past the most amusing sculptures. One was a crowd, which apparently depicts the emotion of man; there's an idea and everyones excited, but near the end of the crowd there is rowdiness, violence and death. Nice one man! I think it was called the Illuminated Crowd. Then there was a cute bench with a couple in it, and stupid other people who would not move, so I had to photograph them too! But isn't it nice to see a bench without Ronald McDonald on it!

In the afternoon we got to do some shopping down my future housing street! Eek! It's amazing, and well air-conditioned, as I can't express how hot it is here. The thing that really gets me is the humidity. I think. I mean I adore arid old Australia! Good, solid, dry heat. We gave the landlord my rent money! And I move in on the 22nd! So there will be photos then!!

At dinner, one of the freaky strays at the hostel was making his favourite corn dinner, and scaring everyone in sight. He bought like 10 corn cobs, and kept on offering poor, shy hostelers corn. No-one would dare even look him in the eye let alone eat his corn! This dish he was making himself would of fed a family of 6 or 7! I bet he hoped to share it, and his gruesome tales! Like if he was to come to Australia, he 'would get drunk, man'. It was lucky mum hates corn so we could excuse ourselves and make a getaway!

For tonight's entertainment we went to the Casino. To reach it, we caught the metro to Parc Jean-Drapeau. This is on an island in the Saint Lawrence, so excitingly we went under the river to get there. This is a fantastical kiddy island. 10's of jumping castles, water parks, fountains, playgrounds, stages, ice-creameries etc. I would have taken photos, but I felt it might have been taken the wrong way. A child's paradise. Here we spotted a potential BEAVER!

So cool, but the tail was wrong. My theory is it has genetically mutated on this island, as others around us were not getting excited. But look at the photo, it clearly isn't a rat (I think). This isle is also home to the biosphere -a learning centre about Canada's water ways. I'm sure given more time I would have loved to explore. But in the meantime there are some pics from the outside! Then it was off to the Casino, or so I would have hoped. But we wandered around this freakish paradise for an hour. This was a seemingly small island beforehand. And then, all of a sudden all the children and the families disappeared. It was just us, wandering around this fenced playground. Finally we ran into a security guard, who we assured, we weren't being seedy, we just wanted to get to the Casino. He pointed us in the right direction - to this bridge which you cross to get to the casino. This was no pedestrian bridge. So back we trotted to the bus depo. The bus was free! This really served us right for thinking that we could walk (the bus is for the weak) and that we could save a few bucks! Boo!

The CASINO was spectacular! It was about 6 stories of flashing glory! The best game by far was this one where you bet on mini plastic horses, and they run around a mini track! This was presented by the good folk of Sega! Any way, there were lots of punters there. Every kind of Casino glory imaginable was in that place. But they keep the bars and pokies separate, so they were serious players! Oh, and in the toilets, there was a cup holder for your cup of coins! The magic! Any way, we put 50 cents on the slot machine. A very Canadian one, WILD GRIZZLY! No luck though!

To end the night, we walked out to the front of the Casino, and there was a fireworks display!

14th August: Housing Drought Broken!

Today there was no fruity bagel! We got to breakfast too early, if that could be possible! At 8:00 I do believe the bread left over from last night, is put out again at the start of the morning. This is what I believe we were served. Never again shall I be early to a breakfast!

After brekky, we walked to a bakery and purchased a tasty roll! AND I understood the entire conversation, AND it was completely in French, AND there was more said than just the price! The learning has truly begun. But I secretly hope that I will have an epiphany like Bart Simpson, when he is being abused by the wine makers in France, and suddenly can speak the language!

We came back to the hostel to check emails, and there it was, the email that would change my life forever, and finally bring me happiness in Montreal! A housing acceptance!! Oh My Goodness, I am soooooo happy! This place is so cute, it is a student dorm, and on the main street of Montreal. There are some internationals like me and some Canadians! Eek! They all speak English - yay! And there is a lovely communal kitchen and loungeroom. I have a nice little room, with a futon bed, a huge TV (by my standards) with 100 channels! A balcony! A fridge! Everything I could ever dream of! I am just so excited to be walking distance from uni, and on St. Catherine - a street that pretty much spans the isle of Montreal! WOOO!

To celebrate the end of the housing hunt, mum and I went tourist-ing! Such fun. We went to the olympic stadium and the botanical gardens. I got so swept up in the moment, I took way too many pictures. But I feel that they are so pretty I have made them into a slideshow, if you can dare be bothered to turn your head sideways for some moments. The highlight of the Botanical Gardens was supposed to be this insectarium! Now here I was again imagining an insectarium to contain many LIVE insects. But I would be wrong there wouldn't I! It was full of dead ones - great.... I was dreaming of a nice butterfly house and a creepy crawly exhibit. No! It mostly consisted of dead ones - and people still felt the need to photograph it. Losers, go on google image and satisfy all you sick needs! It got sad when there was a didgeridoo exhibit! I came half way across the world for this - and call me un-Australian but what does it have to do with insects! So we left that disappointment quickly (after I weighed myself in ants - for the record its over a million ants - which I feel is a lot of ants).

The rest of the gardens were spectacular! It was divided into many mini gardens. There was a First-Nations garden too. And if I felt hot, I thought of those poor plants imported from the homeland of the first-nationers (way, way north). They must of been dying. There was a sign saying how the gardeners didn't know what the hot climate would do to the plants, they might exhaust themselves very quickly, or I don't know, take advantage of the garden and reign supreme! The highlight was the shrubbery! It was very nice!

The olympic stadium has this cool platform tower, which you take a fast cable car ride up to the top and then can admire the whole of Montreal! We beat the rush, soon a whole bus load of screaming children and invalids flooded the place. And in one attempt to be nice to a child, mum moved aside so this kid could have a look at the view. This fat old hag took the spot! Stupid fat, old hag, no-one wanted to stand next to you. So mum and I gave her a good scowl! Ha ha!

I then mastered the old classic - pasta - for dinner. Don't worry Alice, I'm simply on a progression to curry! But I'm excited for it! We left the kitchen, as fights (really) were breaking out over accomodation - a man who hadn't booked and whose room had been sold was getting angry that now he had no-where to stay! We escaped to the joy of Rue Prince Eh! We had more cocktails! So it was quite an enjoyable Friday night!

T'Oh

In Quebec the Simpsons have the most hilarious French twist!

English: D'oh

French: T'oh

I'm sure this is seemless! And now for the classic

English: Eat my shorts!

French: Va te faire shampouiner (Go shampoo yourself!)

I'm sure this is a real hoot over here! I can't wait to bust it out :P

August 13th

Today I missed out on fruity bagel. It was very dissapointing. I love the fruity bagel in the morning and Montreal is apparently very famous for its tasty bagels - and to a lesser extent its smoked meat! After less hearty breakfast I made some more phone calls to hopeful rooms for rent. Mum and I then set off to some housing inspections, and one forced inspection. But at forced inspection the security was so good, we were not allowed in. But I guess to its credit, I can only like it more for its top notch security. I called it from a pay phone outside and won't know the deal until sometime tomorrow. Next I was off to meet Monica. Now I should really stop imaging people before I meet them, as I don't know, for some reason I imagined Monica to be young - at least she was female. But a most bizarre and OLD one at that. She walks like two steps a minute and scowls a lot. There was a little asian boy in one of her rooms for rent, but she scowled him out of wanting accommodation anymore and thus it had become available to me! But I don't think I'll be taking her nice room for rent.

We had a good walk around the streets today, as I am in housing limbo. Waiting on many responses. We saw a funny street named Beaver Hall (those Frenchies don't mind the English too much) and a nice cathedral.

To take our minds of the housing crisis, we found salvation at the basilica Notre-Dame, for the low low price of $5! It was nice for the tourists, but not so nice for the devout! Everyone is very noisy and very flash photography. Here is a popular pose.

Later (4:30) we had some amazing cocktails in our favourite Rue Prince Eh! It was so sunny and the drinks were so refreshing. I am still not thrilled at the idea of tipping! 15% is a lot to ask, when Australians do the same job at a fraction of the cost. Oh well. BUT there is also a nasty business of surprise TAX! Thats right! Everything here is written as the price without tax, and then at the register, there's tax! It hasn't failed to take me or mum by surprise. This is quite annoying, as exact coinage can never be managed, as you can never quite guess how much everything will come to! Maybe one day I'll get the hang of it. After tasty drinks, I mastered 'remaining ingredients from last night's stirfry'- stirfry! things are looking up!

August 12th

Today was a roller-coaster of emotions. The day started so very well. I viewed such nice apartments, and fell in love with 2. But now its love on the rocks. My hopes and dreams are held in suspension for a couple of days. I don't know what to do, keep on looking, or play the waiting game... mmm.

Urgh, but I saw the worst place today, it was owned by a man named Pana. Now here I was imagining a cute, young, female exchange student. You may imagine my surprise as a man with a deep voice picked up the phone. Anyway, he requests ONLY females, and all the females keep on insisting the Pana is really good, really nice. Mmmm, I don’t think I trust you nice girlies. I feel some brainwashing or clockwork oranging has gone on! And to increase the suspicion, all the girls were leaving Pana!

But I am enjoying roaming the streets very much. The traffic prior to popular belief is VERY safe. Everywhere you go, if you dare even step out onto the road cars will come to a halt. Today I saw a man go so far as to brake at his own green light to let some stupid girl saunter on by! This kindness happens every-time. No one has never not stopped for me. I might even go as far as to say it is apparent there is no road rage in Montreal!!! But perhaps I speak to soon. The streets are three lanes wide, but are often filled with street parking on each side, so really the drivers only have about one and a half lanes to enjoy - and yet they enjoy! I am trying hard not to push their good nature too far!

So today involved a lot of hanging round the hostel in between a lot of house hunting.This is to check emails, make numerous calls, and to ponder the rejection or accepting of housing. Here are some photos of the gite. It is so cute. There’s a kitchen, which I made my first stirfry in – woo! I am surely learning many life skills, The whole place makes me very happy.

We also hung around Square st. Loius. This is our favourite square so far. It is so pretty, it has a house of crepes, it teems with statues and fountains, and it has many pigeons and squirrels for amusement. The houses that surround it are so gorgeous. But sadly there are also a lot of shaggy homeless people. I guess you can’t win them all. This Square backs onto Rue Prince Arthur. Or Prince Eh, as I affectionately know him and Prince Alfred as mum crazily calls him.

I read the about the intelligence of the wildlife here today in the newspaper. To reduce road kill the council builds tunnels for the moose and deer (massive road kill) to use, to cross the road. How smart! I bet if we gave a kangaroo or a wombat a tunnel it would make no difference, in-fact rape and murder on the roadsides might go up, instead of reducing wildlife fatality. How do the animals know!!! But it seems to be a huge problem and electric fences surround a lot of highways!

The last exciting thing was the discovery of the Willian Shatner Building! Viva William!!!

Moosehead sighted!!!!

Today continued the pain staking hunt for housing. The hunt took a turn for the worse today. Apartments seem to either be really, REALLY dodgy with graffiti on the door, and in a seedy neighborhood, or they are the most amazing apartment you have ever dreamed of and cost your not only and arm and a leg but your soul!!! I don't quite know yet what I am going to do. I do have some more house inspections tomorrow, so I am hopeful yet...

On the brighter side of things. Look! Here is what every Canberran misses while they are on holidays!!!!

I am so pleased also because the two awful people next door have gone away. They are driving to Ottawa - but they didn't even know which direction to go or street to take (neither did the chick on reception), and the other chick is stranded on the streets waiting for a plane ticket in the mail, and complaining ALOT!!! But serves her right for waking me up at 3 am in the morning and keeping me awake while she complained for HALF AN HOUR about how people called her childish. I was pretty close to stabbing her childish body!