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!