A week worth of glory!

I’ll work through the week, but it has been a while, so I’m sure my week will get more detailed and Friday will be super involved and Monday will be a few sentences. I am also sorry for the slog that reading this blog is going to be. I think its almost 3000 words. A shame my history essay is not as involved as this.

Monday the 21^st - it rained. This decreased the student population by (and I’m not kidding) one third. I felt like I had survived some sort of nuclear bomb blast or something, it felt so deserted! I had my regular history, dash to chemistry and geography. There was a classic moment in chemistry when the honking lecturer had to load up internet explorer to show us something, and his homepage (or the page that loaded up) was on registering for “how to bird whistle” classes. I do believe he has the goose down! In the afternoon I had my gym class with Sara, and two girls from her residence, that really wanted to do the class, but hadn’t signed up. Their strategy was to blend in with the masses, and it worked! They were planning on blending in for free gym classes the whole semester, but enjoyed the instructor type lady so much, they confessed, and asked to pay and sign up. There are so many poor and uncoordinated people kicking, punching, jamming and jiving it makes me feel good about myself. I feel coordinated and full of stamina compared to some of the other girls in the class. For dinner I made a tofu curry type thing. It took an HOUR! Oh my goodness, about 5 people had made, eaten and finished their dinners in the time it took me to make mine. I guess this is a dish I would make if I felt like I would like to be social in the kitchen for hours on end. But I made A LOT (this was the plan), and then I had leftovers for lunches and dinners!

Tuesday the 22^nd – the bruises on my legs are going down I notice as I get dressed. The kayaking and quidditch have been brutal to my body.
Today I was singled out as “the Australian” in my geology class. We got a new lecturer – Willy. Everybody loves Willy (they say), he is a very prominent guy in the geology department. He wants the lectures to be interactive and we all talk and get along, so his idea, was to get us to tell him our names. I was sitting in the third row, and feeling smug about the fact that he struggled with a francophone name, and then with an Asian girls name! Little did I know the horror that was yet to come. Its my turn, “Kate” I say. “Pardon?”, asks Willy. “Kate”, “I’m sorry what was that?” probes Willy. “Kate”, a look of confusion comes across Willy’s face. He isn’t going to get this anytime soon. Thankfully the girl next to me is called Katie. “It’s like Katie but without the I” I try. Finally someone shouts out, “its Kate with an accent.” Thanks. Then Willy tries, “so where are you from?” “Australia” I reply. This gives him sick delight. He then tries to mock my accent back to me to the amusement of the class. “KITE” he says gleefully! “Kite”. Thanks Willy. But you know, this got some more people talking to me, and some bonding going on over my accent, so I guess it wasn’t too bad of an experience. I fill in my break with some GIS work, which I keep telling myself I will do. My afternoon ends with a geology laboratory, which includes coffee and cookies. This is such a delight, and is a good bonding.

Lucy bought a casserole dish (I guess you would call it that) today, so we baked an amazing tomato, chickpea, and eggplant bake. Oh, it was so good!

Wednesday the 23^rd – Classes as usual today. The weather still remains in a state of gloom. It is warm – about 23 degrees but rainy. So it is VERY uncomfortable. I went home for luncheon today, as that is where I accidentally left it. But there was a gang in the kitchen, so I bopped around with them. We watched a mildy entertaining show “Just for Laughs”. Now, yes I know the title is off-putting, but it was actually good. This is a show made in Montreal. Where a group of guys go round pulling pranks on people and filming it. I mean yes, some of the pranks are petty lame, i.e a man holding two ice-creams will drop his wallet, innocent bystanders will then pick it up, while he stands over them, so that when the person picking up the wallet stands upright they knock the ice-creams into his face. But you can recognise places around Montreal, which is cool. There is a park, west of where I am, and they do a lot of filming in there. And they do a lot of filming in the underground malls. It is funny to watch what Montréal-er’s consider funny, as I have had a few people from Montreal tell me what a good show this one is. I was really only so impressed. After this I went off to a McGill international Students Reception – by invitation only. Ha ha. This was a laugh. I walked in, and luckily met some of my exchange student friends. I totally didn’t think of making plans to meet people there. So there was wine to be drunk (and beer) so me and some Australians had some chardy for a laugh. There was a trio of violins playing in the background. There were fancy appetisers to be had from waiters with trays on their arms. There were chandeliers, there were fancy wall paintings. It was a very fancy place. This was fun. Here are some photos of charlotte (not Australian) trying to pretend to be a bit posh here.

Then I had a gym class with Sara and the girls from Rez. After the class me and Sarah (one of the girls from Sara’s rez) went off to the outdoors club meeting. This was a pot luck on top of Mont Royal. We all met outside the gym (convenient) and walked up the mountain. It rained – but it was the outdoors club – and nothing appears to stop the outdoors club. The theme was ‘outdoors formal’. Some people did quite well with the theme. I saw some formal dresses with caribena belts. Some rain jackets with ties. I wore a dress and a rain jacket. I did better than others! The pot luck was amazing. Since all these people are outdoor-sy and extreme lots of them baked vegetarian dishes – woo. There were also a lot of cookies, muffins and even a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Oh, I really tuckered into the desserts, as I don’t really buy dessert items for my self at home. Anyway, I was stuffed. It was a good meeting, really social, I made some more friends, pimped my Australian accent and generally had a good time. The blonde Australian chick (that I hate) was there, and she dragged me away from a conversation I was in so she could show other people my accent compared to her 'superior' Brisbane accent. So, when she was like “talk Kate”, I said “I’m Kate, and a dingo ate my baby!” therefore winning best Australian accent prize (if there was one)! She looked dejected as everyone like my accent and Australian humour better than her! Take that hoe! The outdoors club was going out to a pub after the pot luck, but I went back home, as Annabels parents had been for a visit and had just left. As she’s been busy with them (and got to sleep in their hotel, instead of on the cosy futon) I hadn’t seen her in a while. Lucy, Annabel and I went down to Starbucks for faithful hot chocolate with whipped cream. Life is good.

Thursday the 24^th – started with some geology in the morning. When trying to answer questions in class Willy failed to understand me. I guess this is more like a ‘get out of jail free’ card. He can’t understand what I am saying; therefore maybe I won’t have to give answers in class. My answers did also lead to more mocking of my accent by Willy. He gets such sick pleasure out of saying Kite. “What was that KITE?” I had some GIS today too. On Tuesday (the lecture I miss) they announced there is group work to be done with ye old GPS devices. BUT, somehow I have two groups to work with! Imagine missing a lecture, and somehow getting two groups. One of the girls from my quidditch team is in GIS, and sent me an email asking me to be in her group. And my two good friends who I sit with asked me to be in their group. In my excitement I have said yes to both. So I will somehow have tot work that one out. I think I am just so excited, I might do the prac twice (not really). I had some coffee and cake with Lucy in the afternoon sun. It was so good! We kept on basking in the sun until it was time for me to go to quidditch practise. At quidditch I put down my deposit for the QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP! Oh my GOD! So the plan is, I am trying out for the team, but if I don’t make the team I am coming along as a fan! Eek! I am so excited. So at that practise, they showed us the ‘selection committee’ of who we had to impress! And told us, from now on we will be judged for who is going to make the team. To be honest I was even a little nervous! But hopefully they are noticing that I LOVE quidditch, and should be on the team. We’ll see. It was really muddy on the pitch, so a lot of everyone’s time was spent on the ground. We also did some quidditch drills (I could of died of happiness at these words). We did passing drills and dodging bludger drills! Next week they say there will be tackling drills, which would be most handy. Also we practised the reverse triangle formation. And the guy running the drills would keep yelling at us in the games to, “Use the reverse triangle, use the reverse triangle!”.

When I got home from quidditch the girls in the rez wanted to go out, as there is scandal within our walls. Aurelian really likes Amanda, but she does not reciprocate this feeling, and avoids him like the plague. He will sometimes corner her into hour long conversations that no matter how hard she tries, cannot end. So when all the guys wanted to go out, Amanda wanted an escape plan. We went out to Crescent street and decided on the Hard Rock Café for some cocktails. It was really cool, and was meant to the church of rock, and Alex you will like this, had a stained glass alter of Lucy in the sky with diamonds. I took a picture for you, so hopefully it has turned out alright: We came home and watched so you think you can dance Canada. I went to bed at one! Oh, why does no-one have classes on a Friday but me. From left to right: Amanda, Lucy, ME, Emily and Annie

Friday the 25^th – was one of the most amazing days of my life! The day started with a history “discussion”. It was so funny, we had to discuss the readings, but being arts students on a Friday morning, not a lot of them had much to say. There were a few people that dominated the discussion and then somehow took it from geography dominating native people life styles to how bad capatilism is today. Ha ha ha. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Had some chemistry and some geography, where I sit with my new found friend. Who I forgot to mention I had a study session in the library with. It was amazing. We are in geography and geology together, and so have a few breaks together and can hang out! Eek! After class, we wandered off to the free BBQ on the lower field. It was Pow Wow day. This is where the first nations people put on a festival in the lower field. You can buy hand made crafts, eat a free burger (or not, as they were all out of corn (how disappointing mum!)) and watch the native peoples sing and dance! This was pretty cool, so we bopped around until it was time for me to go to Pilates. I came home excited for the AFL Grand Final. On Wednesday I found my Australian friend who supports Geelong and threw myself upon him for plans for the final (just like you advised Uncle Roger!). OK, so I hit the jackpot. He was a Geelong supporter, the other Australian I knew turned out to be a Geelong supporter too. Both their families were from Geelong! This was exciting. Anyway we met at a metro station and walked to their friend Mitch’s house. This Mitch is crazy for Geelong and he had forced all his international friends to come along to the final and barrack for Geelong! So this was quite exciting. We had a posse ready to go for Geelong. The non-Australians outnumbered the Australians. This is always an exciting prospect, for an Australian gathering. One of my friends from the Quidditch team cam down too! Which was cool, and got me points in the non-Australian, has been at McGill for a year, friend scheme of things. Go me! We hang out at Mitch’s from 7:30 and finally left for the bar at 11:00. The bar was only about 10 mintues from my place - woo! The game isn’t set to start until 12:30am. We establish ourselves a good table, with a quality view of the TV. The Geelong supporters hang out on one side of the bar and the saints supporters hang out on the other side. There is a big saints fan base in Quebec, I’m told, as they play ALF here, and their team is called the saints. So, I think all these veteran saints players came down to the bar. There are also rival groups of younger people like us. When they played the national anthem at the start, us Aussies stood up and put our hands across out chests! The patriotism was glorious! The game was so tense I could have died! The other Australians were feeling it a lot more than me though. It was funny, when the cats were in front one half of the bar was happy and noisy and the other half had their heads in their hands and were grim. Then the score would change, and we would be the un-happy half, and they would be going nuts. I mean it was such a fun night! Then when the game finished, we all felt obliged to party on into the night. I got home at 5:00 am! But it was worth it!

Saturday the 26^th – didn’t start until 12:30. I woke up, had some brekky, did some washing and oh, it was time for quidditch! This quidditch session was the most intense one ever! So they were judging us still, so pressure on! And we played for THREE hours! The people running it are like “who wants more quidditch?” and since I want to make the team I always reply “YEAH!”. But am internally so buggered. But I did so well at quidditch. The ref running it saw this awesome play I did with one of the other chasers. I can’t really describe it, but there was a lot of back and fourthing of the ball, we psyched out the keeper and it ended with me scoring an amazing hoop! He made the game STOP, so this guy and me could re-enact our play! AAAAA! I hope everyone on the quidditch team was equally impressed! I was so happy. And therefore the ref learnt my name! I’m in! Quidditch was lots of fun, and I would like to think I’m improving. The ref then noticed me for the rest of the game, and let me know when I was making some good moves!!! Eek!!!! The games were so intense my broom-stick died! It was so sad. Now I’m going to have to buy a new one, and its not going to be as glorious. When I got home Annabel was back from her engineering camp, so we hung out, and made some stir-fry for tea. Had some milky chai and then both went to be really early being buggered from respective activities!

Hands Open - Doors Shut

Friday - WAS TERRIBLE! I was locked out of my room from 9:00 and kept on thinking about it all day. I was in a rush to make it out the door in the morning, I grabbed my stuff together and raced out - oh no, my pens I thought! Then - OH NO, my keys! I rushed up to Shannon the R.A's room! RANDOM boy answers door all groggy and rubbing his eyes, as I start with the "morning Shannon, I'm so sorry for waking..." She has left - FOR THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. Great! (turns out boy was boy-friend though). I then go to dear Amanda's room, and wake her up from her sleep, and try to enter my room through the balcony. No luck, for some reason I've locked my balcony door! Awesome. I then have to give up and go to school after demanding pens from Amanda. I sit through some silly lecture about borrowing books from the library - I didn't need to rush to school for this. After chem I go home. I get Lucy to buzz me in and I call the handyman. Who is three hours out of Montreal! I am going to have to wait around until 6. Great. I then head on back into uni for my last class and Pilates with my friend. Pilates was great, my inner core thanked me for it! I walked home thinking about all the downtime I was about to endure, I was buzzed in, and there were people around to keep me entertained, but you can't help but think of all the things that are in your room. The handyman came at 5, which was pretty nice. I could finally get my stuff, make some tea and get ready for snow patrol! Annabel had made homemade baked beans, and made way too many, so I had some of her baked beans, eggs and toast for tea. Tonight Annabel, Lucy, Tim, Will, Tims girlfriend / nongirlfriend (she's come up from Yale, but he doesn't think they are together!) and I were all going to SNOW PATROL!

The warm-up act was the plain white t's. They said "the last time we were in Montreal was 8 years ago, and a lot has happened since then, like" - plays hey there Delilah. I think that's all that had happened...
Snow Patrol was AMAZING! They had such good stage presence. They talked and made jokes and just did a lot of good interacting. It was really weird when they say, "We love you Montreal", it took a moment for it to sink in, that yeah, I'm not "Australia" or "Sydney (as no one comes to Canberra)" I'm Montreal! The concert was most enjoyable! Afterward we went to a pub on St. Lawerence, and had some cocktails! Very nice! Then Jordan and Rana from the rez came out to meet us to party some more. But they wanted to go to this club next door, where to get in we would have to buy two bottles of Vodka at $125 each! And, Then we could get into the club for half price!!! Oh, what a bargain! Lucy, Annabel and I were less than impressed, so we thought we'd just go to another bar ourselves! We found this really, really posh bar on Sherbrooke, where a man with a top hat and gloves opened the door for us! We had some cocktails with grey goose vodka, as there were no other choices!!! It was amazing! There was also this cool lamp -


Saturday was chore day. Lucy, Annabel and I dominated the washer and dryer all morning, and did some grocery shopping and looked in a few nice boutiques along the way. I thought I would of had a chance to do some of the assignments that I have collected over the week, but no.
I had quidditch at 2:00. So, this Australian chick I knew and her New Zealand friend, turned up, as they had asked me when quidditch was, and wanted to hang. I shouldn't of told them - they were such posers. They bought some quidditch tops (thats ok, who wouldn't want one) and then just kept on taking the good brooms and taking photos of themselves. They left the game half way through (they were on my team, so I was annoyed when we were a chaser and a keeper down) to take photos of themselves! Barstards, they don't really like quidditch. Then we changed up the teams, and I got on a really good team and I even managed to score some hoops or goals - whatever they are called in Harry terms! This was soooo exciting. I hope the quidditch leaders were watching my glory. After quidditch the team was having a pot-luck at one of the quidditch leaders houses. I came home and made some potato salad. You can't go wrong with a good potato salad! I got ready and it was time to head off! As it was sorta a dinner, it started early - at about 6. It was lots of fun! If it was lame, I had the option of going out with all the gang from my rez, who were doing another club thing where you buy bottles of vodka for some large sum of money (but this was was 'cheaper'...) and get free entry. But the quidditch party was too awesome, so I didn't leave. There was karaoke, where I embarrassed myself, by being forced to sing land down under and then not knowing the lyrics! I think I only know the "he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich" and "I come from a land down under" lyric. There was even had a storbe light for dancing! So it was lots of fun to bond with my future quidditch best friends - ha ha.

Sunday I slept in, had tasty blueberry bagels for brekky, and then bopped around doing some of my much needed to do homework. I think everyone here is starting to feel the crunch, it was pretty quiet today. We all emegred for some dinner, grumbled about how much there is to do, and how little time there is to do it in. I listened to their stories from last night at the fancy club. Apparently it was a hit and we will all be going back there soon! I quiried the expensiveness of it all. But everyone told me, "no, no its really good value, when you think about it". Mmmm. The girls later confided in me, that sharing the bottles with the guys was a terrible idea, as they didn't get much for their $30 or more! The ill feeling over funding made me feel that I didn't miss much! But I guess this bottle thing is the thing to do in Montreal...

September 17th

Today I had fruity bagel for breakfast! It was so delicious. I bought these bagels on Monday, and it is now Thursday, and when I bought them they were on special as they are expiring soon. I fear my life might soon become too full of the fruity bagel.

I wore my denim dress today, as I am fearful about the weather situation. Last night was cold, it was a cold walk home. And the temperature is teetering around the 20 degree mark. I am trying to embrace all that I can salvage of the summer that was. First up I had geology, where I sat with my friends from the lab on Tuesday. And then when I was walking out, one of the girls in the class struck up a good convo with me about how we are also in Environmental Systems together, and we should sit together in all our poor sighted glory. That was the bad thing about today - I forgot to bring my glasses to school, and yes I did have a 4 and a half hour break but I was too busy in that time to go home and retrieve my much needed glasses. So in my break I went and got all my registration forms sorted for tomorrow, which is a photo shoot for the student metro cards. I am going to try my hardest to look good tomorrow! Then I had an optional tutorail for GIS. The aim of the tute is to work on the assigments handed out in class. This was the easiest agginement EVER, but somehow I managed to spend 3 hours on it (it was meant to take an hour!). But I was sitting next to my Francophone friend Nickolas, and he just doesn't get some things, so asked a million questions about wording and would get me to proof-read every sentence he wrote. I must say I didn't mind! What a friendship in the making; the Francophone kind is the rarest and hardest to achieve. Then we just chatted about Canada and Australia and got distracted from making a map in google maps. Yep, this is a good 10% of my grade, the fact that I can put a little pin on a map and have a description written about it! Anyway, I had it finished in the three hours, and Nickolas had only managed the very beginnings of his assignment. We then had a GIS lecture. This is pretty good, I mean everything seems pretty basic at the moment, so I'm happy. After class Nickolas wanted to show me some Coldplay and Radiohead songs he had learnt on the piano. Eek! So we went over to the SSMU building and he played some songs! It was pretty cool, then I had to leave as Quidditch training was at 6:30 and I wanted to have dinner beforehand.

Annabel made home-made baked beans the other day. But she made way too many so filled up my Tupperware with some. I had some baked beans, my first EVER soft boiled egg (with Lucy's help) and some toast. I didn't want to overdo anything before intensive quidditch. I strutted on down to the quidditch pitch and trained with the gang! I love it so much! Friendships are forming here too, as now only the most dedicated ones are coming! The games were really full on too; the tacking is becoming more forceful, we are becoming more skilled and competent with the balls; so again the bar has been raised. The field was waterlogged though, as the sprinkler had been on it all day, so we were slipping and sliding around in the mud, the hardcore tackles left everyone wet and muddy! But SO much fun! I had a good, long shower after practice. Then chats with flatmates, and BED, as I am so tired from all my exercising, and late nights.

September 16th

Today was the good old history, chemistry, environmental systems combo. It had everything I loved; power walking, lack of Phoebe boy (today at least) and nice engineering girl. She is in my environmental systems course; we sit together and chat AND enjoy all that is environmental systems! I feel a good friendship starting!

I met up with Hannah, Jeny and Jerome at les three bassuers for what I thought would be a humble coffee. When I arrived they had ordered some pizza's and beer. This meal was then finished with dessert pizza:Look at it - there is ice cream, apples (we also had a banana one) and chocolate, all on a pizza type base (but clearly this one is sweet (-er than usual)). Here are some photos of us enjoying our time:I know it looks dark, but this was the middle of the day - the restaurant was a bit dark, I promise! When it was time for these guys to head to class, I went on home to meet Lucy. We had a shopping date! I saw the cutest pair of gumboots and cursed that I didn't bring my own pair over (I was worried that gumboots wouldn't be "in"). But gumboots are everywhere here!! So I feel I might have to invest in a pair. They are really good for in the snow, as they won't ruin in the salt that the streets become paved with to prevent the snow, and a water proof shoe is always a good investment - right! There is this really nice brand of boots - hunters, I think I might get a pair pretty soon, so I can get maximum use out of them.After our shopping investments in gym clothes (as I only packed one pair of tights, and am turning out to be more active than previously imagined) it was time for me to head off to the kick, punch, jam and jive session with Sara. This was so good!!! I love the exercise and the motivation provided by our lovely instructor! She made us do push-ups and plank holds, but this was OK, as she was telling us how hot we'd all be after such good toning. I went back to Sara's residence where I power-showered, so I could head off to the McGill outdoors club meeting looking mildy nice! This meeting was so amazing! We got Horto's doughtnuts, as it was election night and they were trying to bribe us! And I signed up for beginners rock climbing! As a geologist I was told I should be interested in climbing activities! I'm excited and ready to take on rocky climbing challenges - I only wish I had brought my hand lens, so I could make some stops along the way. I caught up with my new friends from kayaking, friendly exchange students (un-Australians) that I had persuaded to join the group, and other people I knew from around uni. I felt social and happy! I left the meeting as they proceeded into the half and hour presentation about some guys ski trip. Instead I went to meet my lovely roommates for FAJITA night at the Three Amigos! So much happiness! There were ten of us all together, and this time sweet Phillip could come, as he didn't go early (and alone) like last week. We enjoyed the tasty fajitas and then moved onto Rue Crescent to an Irish pub were I had cider, and others had beer. We stayed out until about 1:30, when I decided it might be time to come home with Annabel, as unlike the others we don't have a four day weekend!

Monday, Tuesday and a fist full of quarters!

Monday 14th

Today I woke up pretty much paralyzed. My arms ached, my butt broken, my legs sore and bruised! Somehow I hauled my self out of bed and got ready for school. I had a pretty full on day today too!
I had to usual history – where we were issued with essays! Then ye olde power walk to chemistry, to honking teacher. The honk is getting worse I’ve noticed! I think honking leads to a sore throat, which leads to more honking. I then had a wee break, where I churned out my assignment for geochem, which is due on Tuesday. Then some environmental systems, where we took in the glory of the first fall leaves spied on campus!

I met up with my Australian friend, Brendan, for luncheon, as I had no food left in my cupboard (Monday is student discount day at the supermarket. So I was holding out on my shopping for the evening with Annabel). We had some sandwiches and TWO salads all for $6. Australia just can’t compete with such cheap, affordable lunches. We bopped around for two hours, and went to Second Cup, where I had the most intense cappuccino EVER. So normally cappuccinos come with froth, yes, I understand this concept, but this one was half froth and a little bit of coffee at the bottom of the cup. And then, they didn’t even put the chocolate on top. That’s what they taught me at the Vina Bakehouse! Cappuccinos have the chocolate powder on the top!
Then I had a tutorial with the honking chemistry teacher! Half the people in the tute left due to the non-stop honk. I tried to extract some knowledge from this experience and then I walked on home to get ready for my cardio workout! I walked up to Sara’s residence and we walked up to the gym together. We wandered around with a group of similarly confused girls to try and find where our class was. We finally worked out (witty) where we were meant to go, and went into the class. The instructor was amazing; she was so inspiring, yelling so nicely for us to keep on working out. This session got the old heart rate up, got everyone in the class sweating like pigs, but it felt good! I was so happy. Sara and I are so pumped for our semester of fitness ahead. I came home, showered and then Annabel and I went out to Provigo (supermarket) for our student discount shopping. But you had to spend $50 to get the discount! I couldn’t spend that much, and I hadn’t been for a good shop in weeks. It was nice to get some fresh fruit and veg. We came home, struggling under the weight of our groceries and made the most amazing green curry ever. I taught Annabel all I knew about curry in a hurry. Delicious! I feel more accomplished as a cook, as it’s always Annabel that’s giving me the tips, but tonight my Nigella Lawson knowledge reigned supreme.

Tuesday 15th

Today at school I felt really cool. I bumped into lots of people I knew, I’ve made bonds and I know people – it’s a good feeling. I bumped into a few people from the kayaking too, and we had a good laugh about the aches and pains left from the weekend that was. I had some geochem at 9:00. I even made a friend – well a forced friend! He had just moved into the class and didn’t have the notes from the past week. This was my time to shine - I gave him my notes. This would then lead to the follow up taking back of my notes, and then the asking of how the notes went. I couldn’t wait for the lab later, where I would assert my new friendship status. I went home in the break, did some work and did some washing. The washer stopped taking dollar coins - but I had saved up enough quarters (14) that I could pay for the washing and drying with all my hard earned quarters. I caught up my blogging, and my GIS that I was going to be missing later on in my geochem lab. I hung around around and had some lunch and English tea with Lucy. I walked off to my geochem lab AND as a class we bonded! Oh, the glory! We had a break at 3:00 for coffee and cookies! I had about 4 cookies and a mocha coffee. I chatted with my fellow students and enjoyed all that was geology coffee and cookies. We solved some problems and laughed at a boy that looked like Harry Potter, but his name was cereal (at least it was pronounced Cereal) as he struggled over everything he tried to present to the amusement of the class. My group finished our problems early, so we had nothing left to do but bond and learn about each other while waiting for other groups to finish! The glory!

I met up with Annabel and we went to the Activity Night. This is where all the clubs set up tables and you join millions of clubs you never intend to turn up to. I joined so many! I even joined a vegan club – this was in the pretence of obtaining some new, tasty and protein-ous recipes. I joined the ping-pong club, I joined to McGill greens party, I joined a drama society, I joined a volunteering for the elderly club. I just went nuts! The only thing I didn’t join was one of the twelve singing clubs. There were a crazy number of choirs, all asking me if I could sing. “NO!”, I kept on telling them! I also didn’t join the sororities; they were all lurking in the basement, so when I wandered in it was quite overwhelming, the jocks with their backwards caps and the jock’s chicks with their boob-tubes! The most glorious moment that occurred that night was the quidditch team waving and recognizing me. I stopped by their booth after they waved me down and we had a good chat. I was enjoying my in! I also ran into the president of the McGill outdoors club and she recognized me too, and we had a good chat! Oh, I was enjoying my new-found club status! I tried to go for a swim after that with one of the girls from the ANU, but the swim team was having a meet, so we were kicked out. I walked home and made some stir-fry with Annabel! It was quite a tasty number. I then gave in to the desire to hang out with my roommates and had a beer with them in the kitchen and just bummed around. Life is good.

White-Water Kayaking (for beginners)

As we were waiting to leave we did some meeting and greeting. Some were good some were not so good. In the kayaking group were the two Australians I hate the most. One was this try-hard girl who baked everyone muffins. I ate a muffin, but it was overcooked and burnt (like our friendship). She also wore a caribena on a necklace and tried to show people her ‘bling’. I could tell she was no serious kayaker from the start. While, other people I talked to had been kayaking for years – they had just never been white water kayaking! Anyway, the other Australian I hated even more than the try-hard. This was the one that didn’t want to be my friend until she realized how awesome and cool I was with my white-water kayaking adventures. This girl just talks to make noise, and by the end of the trip, I could see that everyone hated her about as much as I did! Joy!

Annabel and I ended up in a car with two of the instructors and a leader of the McGill outdoors club. The instructors were cool, they were first and second year girls at McGill and Jonathan the driver was the nicest leader of the McGill Outdoors Club. When we stopped for gas, Jonathan bought us all popsicles. He also asked Annabel and I about out outdoor passions – of which I could name none. And then later he asked how I got into the McGill outdoors club, and I had to admit that really I was just told by other Australian exchange students. Earlier he explained that he has met lots of Australians through this club. Jonathan was really nice, and told us lots of stories about kayaking and adventuring in the outdoors club and how in the outdoors club you have to enjoy life, and eat cookies – cute! After about two hours of driving (as the car that was following us got lost, so we had to make a few stops) we made it to our Island Resort. Well, at least I thought we made it to our island resort. In fact we were simply a ‘canoe ride in the dark’ away. At first I thought this was some sort of sick joke – how wrong I was. We had to load all the backpacks, all the tents, and all the food for the next three days, all the kayaks – EVERYTHING into canoes! We then took many trips to paddle all this gear and ourselves over to the island – known as H₂O adventure island. The only adventure I could see at this point was that there was no toilet! After a nice team chain of passing things from the pier all the way to the camping group we set up our tents and all fell asleep.

On Saturday morning I banded with a group of girls and we tried to canoe over to the other camp-ground, where there were alleged flushing toilets. We found them… locked. I was scared for the prospect of peeing in the bush as we were warned about poison ivy! The ivy covers the entire island, except for the places were we put the tents and the tracks between tents – leaving no option but to pee in the open! The McGill Outdoors club leaders opened a drop toilet, kindly, as this was a drop toilet that they would personally have to empty. The drop was about 30 cm, so this was one smelly and disgusting toilet, but a welcome one none-the-less. After a hearty breakfast we got ourselves fitted with wetsuits, life jackets, helmets and kayaks! We learnt about wet exits and were launched onto the water. This was so exciting! We leant all the basic strokes, we practiced our wet exits, and we had races, relays and a fun, twisted version of water polo, except clearly in kayaks! This was good fun, but also a lot of arm work! We had lunch, and everyone was super hungry and ate about 3-7 sandwiches each. After this break, we were back on the water and practicing T-rescues. This is where, your boat is flipped upside down, and someone comes and hits your boat at a right angle.

You then grab the nose of the boat hitting you and flip yourself the right way up. The whole time I was imagining being T-rescued in white-water rapids. I think I’ll just wet exit my way out of there, no waiting around for someone to come and T into me, so that I can fight gravity and rapids to safety. We kayaked up to the rapids. But my first reaction to the rapids was surprise! I mean I know I signed up for white water kayaking, but I just really wasn’t expecting so much white water rapids!

We were not going to kayak down them today; we were going to swim them! The theory being, if we could swim down them we could surely kayak down them, or worst-case scenario kayak, capsize and then swim down them! A good working theory! Ian, the paddling leader hated doing the swim and so was depressed when we were all so delighted by the swim, demanded to do it again! Swimming down the rapids was the best fun! The scenery was amazing; I can’t really do it justice with my feeble descriptions! But here are some google images of the place.

I’ve added one boy on facebook who took a waterproof camera with him, so hopefully a) he accepts my request for friendship and b) puts up lots of nice photos! Anyway before we swam we got a pep-talk about where the river flow was greatest – in the middle, and this is where is rocks would be more rounded – nice to hit. Oh, the geologic glory! I felt like this was meant to be, a sport that could be worked out by geologists. We kayaked back to our beloved island and had huge quantities of pasta for tea. We played some beach volleyball and then we set up a campfire and all exhaustedly basked in its glory. At the campfire we worked out that there were only 3 people of the 27 on the whole trip from Canada, the rest of us were from America, or exchange students! Ha ha! We all retired to bed pretty early, being so exhausted from the kayaking and all. There were a few alcoholics who were keen to party, but they found each other and I presume had a top night, thankfully not a loud one!

Sunday morning we had blueberry pancakes and oatmeal! A great start to the day! We then practiced more T-rescues, which I was still unimpressed with, as when I flip I was going to wet exit and nothing else. Then, we started our journey to the rapids. We were split up into groups, and somehow, I got in a group with 9 gun guys and one girl who shared my feelings of kayaking! We carried our kayaks up to the top of the rapids. Ian, our group leader cheered “who’s ready to go”, all the guys eagerly “YEAH”, ed and me and my new buddy timidly “yeah”, ed. But it was AMAZING! I made it down the rapids without capsizing and with the biggest grin on my face! It was the most wonderful feeling ever, I was so happy. So happy, that I became over confident, and the next time I went down the rapids I capsized! I emergency exited, like I knew I would, and swam down the rapids. I lost my paddle for a bit. The instructors kept shouting, “where’s your paddle, where’s your paddle?”. To be honest, it was the last thing I was thinking about while emergency exiting, and swimming down the rapids. But I was re-united with it at the bottom, so that was lucky. The instructors grabbed my kayak and took it down for me. My buddy had also kayaked, and so had about 10 others! Some people don’t even make it to the rapids and stack in the eddies before it – poor souls! On my third ride down I made it without loosing my cool! Then we got to play in the rapids for the afternoon.

We learnt how to surf in the troughs of the rapids, and we learnt how to do ferrying and cool turns! It was fantastic. Back at the island, I could barely lift my arms to change out of my wetsuit and bathers into my dry, warm clothes. Somehow I managed. We feebly packed up our tent and lugged everything into the canoes to be paddled back to land. We strapped the kayaks to the cars, bundled everything in, and began the journey home. Annabel and I were in Jonathans car again, with a nice Australian boy, and a nice Swiss guy! I felt we did well, as some outdoors people are weird and too outdoorsy! I feel asleep straight away, and didn’t stir until we pulled up at McGill. Annabel and I made sure our stuff was in the same car as us, so we could make a speedy exit home. We fare-welled our new friends, and our new enemies and trudged home.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday 10th

The day started with some geochemistry and some panic about the GIS that was later to come. I can never make the Tuesday classes as I am in geochem, and GIS (a computer based course) does not post anything on webCT. The assignment that was allegedly handed out on the Tuesday was nowhere to be found on the web, and the lecture slides also missing. I don't mean to panic too much, but as it is a class using computers, which I am absolutely hopeless with, I would like to think I would be able to catch up on my own! I went to the home of geography in search of the lecturer to harass. This was the most confusing building ever. I felt like Harry Potter trying to find platform 9 and 3/4. It seemed near impossible, every logical place was examined; I had to do a serious amount of wandering, looking lost and finally walking every inch of the map library to find this hidden room in the back. Anyway, I embarrassed myself further by asking the LECTURER if she indeed was the lecturer. Nice, I tried to make amends by stating that I normally wear glasses (a truth), but I don't think it really made up for my lack of recognition. Anyway promises were made about making the material more available. This was a relief, as today I had to make a decision, as the return deadline for the GIS textbooks was today. I didn't want to think I had thrown away $266 on nothing. And I didn't want to have to find a new course to take instead. So problem solved. I happily installed my GIS software onto my computer in celebration. I had a GIS lecture that afternoon. I wedged myself between my two friends (that's right!) and took in all that is mapping. When this was over I made my way home to buy supplies for the kayaking trip! Annabel and I made our way to Canadian Tire. We got some awesome sleeping bags, torches and an amazing TENT. The tent was the same price as renting one from the McGill outdoors club, so we figured - why not. Well it was more Annabel's decision than mine, but why not! The idea of owning a tent was very exciting! We practiced setting it up when we got home!

I had quidditch practice at 7:00. This was amazing! I just love quidditch so much. We played a couple of games until about 9:00 when it was too dark to see anymore. Although, I stopped playing a bit before this, as I took a broom to the mouth. No teeth were damaged or lost in this event, but my lip did bleed. A small injury, but enough for the people running it to seriously consider making everyone wear mouth guards and goggles like they do in the world cup. Hannah, who had come down to watch, and one of the quidditch leaders took me to the bathroom to clean myself up! I was all better, and looked very dedicated when I came back to the pitch to finish training. Then, the quidditch team announced drinks at McKibbins at 10:30. This is the pub 30 seconds from my house! Although I walked all the way back to the uni to meet up with some girls from quidditch training so we could all arrive together in our new quidditch member state. I didn't have any beer - yay! There were quite a few of us that all turned up, so we sat outside in the beer garden and chatted and bonded! I am so excited about the prospect of quidditch friends, and then a quidditch world cup. I am going to try very hard with this club! One of the leaders already likes me as I am from Australia, and he grew up in an Australian embassy - in France, anyway we can make Australian jokes, and therefore I can assert my in with the quidditch team!

Friday 11th

Another P.B for my walk from history to chemistry. Things just keep getting better I was thinking, until Phoebe boy! He was in chemistry again in ALL his harassing glory. He sat a few rows in-front of me, and kept on trying to make eye contact! Needless to say I was petrified! So I thought at the end of class I would make a break for it. I did, but he came RUNNING after me. So I upped my pace, he called out Phoebe a few times, I could ignore this with happiness, as this isn't my name! And then I hid in the girls bathroom. I let a few minutes pass before emerging. Thankfully when I did, he was gone. How I curse you Phoebe boy! My last class of the day was Environmental systems, where we talked about photosynthesis, and a girl seriously embarrassed herself, when she volunteered to talk about photosynthesis during different times of the day. She thought it was all the same, and the sun didn't play a significant role - the leaf just does its thing no matter what. When the teacher tired to help her out, she got more confused, and then revealed that she didn't know anything about photosynthesis (surprisingly) and returned to her seat. Shame on your girly for volunteering your 'knowledge'.

I walked home to go shopping for snacks for the kayaking trip that would leave at 6:30. Annabel and I bought essentials such as muesli bars, M and M's, and hand sanitizer. I packed up my bags in excitement. We had some eggs for dinner and then left for the Shatner building where we were meeting for our adventure! When we arrived the cars were looking ready to go:

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday 8th

Today was an easy day, I had some geology in the morning, and some more geology in the afternoon. The man talked for hours and hours. AND it wasn't even a bonding prac, it was a listen to the prof. prac. BUT at three pm, as promised, we were all allowed to leave the classroom to get the coffee and cookies. Oh, the glory that is standing in line for coffee from the machine (that takes a while when there are a lot of people), and the other glory that is imitation Timbits! I had two again; I didn't want to go nuts on rival Timbits. Everyone, no matter what brand they, always calls doughnut holes Timbits, so Mr, Horton has done well for himself in the market.

That night was wine and cheese night at my rez. This was to meet and greet the other residents. But sadly the residents that I don't know - don't want to be met. The party was optional - it should have been compulsory dammit! And there should have been some rule that you would have to pay more rent if you don't go to it. Also, sadly there is still no Arty. BOO Arty! But French Zac was there and he just smiled at people in his un-English comprehending manner. I'm thinking of more roommates I have not listed and profiled yet. There is Mo, an Egyptian who is rather secretive and smokes a pipe, and the people the live either side of his room always hear him clinking his pipe empty of its filth. They make a distinctive sound I've heard, and this guy is like clockwork, and clinks his pipe every ten minutes or so. There is also Jordan from Toronto, he is super tall and spends his time at the gym or drinking protein shakes / eating protein pills. Terry, now I know I have spelt this wrong, as he is Swiss, (French-Swiss), and he wore a Charles Darwin 200th birthday t-shirt to this event, so you can tell he is nice and non-threatening. Emily; emo Emily, who despite the black hair, tights, top, shorts, jacket, gloves and any other accessory you can think of is surprisingly funny, nice and talkative. I think that is all of them.
Here are some collective photos of these people.

Lucy, Me, Annabel (at our Sunday night house party):

Will, Rana, Annie and me out on Sunday night - after leaving house party:Tim, Annabel and I at the Friday night MISN event:Tim, Lucy and me at Fajita night!:

Annabel and Phillip at Fajita night:

Wednesday 9th

Today I had some history in the morning, followed by a record-breaking power walk down to chemistry. I made it down in a flat 5 minutes. The honking of the chemistry prof. is starting to get on my nerves. I just want to give him some strepsils or soothers or something to clear that honking throat. I met up with Adam after the lecture, and as we were walking I bumped into a group of loveable Australian exchange students. They were proud to have one Dutch girl with them. Oh, but I check-mated them with my Montreal prize! Ha ha! I win Australians, and the ratio was far greater, I mean 4:1 foreigner, compared to the 1:1. The group of us sat around in the Shatner building for some morning tea. I gloated as we ate. Then I had some environmental systems, which seems all too familiar to the blue planet. Where the prof. spent the whole lecture talking about open and closed systems! But, I’m not complaining. Then the course will morph into SRES1004 and we talk about soils and soil profiles, I bet there is even an old man Fields to deliver the lecture! Ha ha.
Then I met up with Hannah (Irish), Jeny (New Zealandish), Jerome (French) and Asian from house party with bandages on his hand, that refuses to tell anyone where he is from (but he has a Brittish accent, but this could be fake), for a coffee. I wonder who split the beans (witty) to the Asian, but someone in the group must like him... We met for coffee at the alleged best coffee in Montreal! It was pretty good, I'll give it that. Then we went and checked out the poster sale at McGill, this brought back memories of the ANU poster sales! I had some mixed feelings as to weather I should buy some posters or not, and decided against it, in the spirit of frugality! I mean I could buy some fajitas for the price of a poster. Also, they would be annoying to take home, and being frugal, I would take them home. I then trekked up to the McGill gym to become a memeber of their wonderful facilities! Only $20 for a semester! I am stoked!

Later on was the McGill ourdoors club meeting. It was here that I paid for the kayaking trip! There was much excitement and joy for some, and panic and worry for others. There were only twenty spots, and more than 20 people keen for a kayak. The word had spread like wildfire about the kayaking trip, and quite a few stragglers came along to the outdoors club meeting in the hope of nabbing a spot. Annabel and I had brought out moneys to pay for this glorious trip. Other people were taken by surprise that payment was required today, and this is where the desperate stuck it lucky. They had brought their money, and could usurp positions on the kayaking team! Oh the horror for some, as spots in a boat were taken right in front of their penniless eyes. After this, we went back home to wait around for ages, for Will. Tonight was Mexican fajita night! The fajitas are only $6. But then the cunning trick is that you buy a novelty drink at the same price as the food. I got an amazingly oversized margarita! We didn’t get out to dinner until about 9:30. By this time some of the patrons in the restaurant were a bit drunk, and I almost saw an amazing train wreck. Let me set the scene; there is a drunk guy on a table near us, to impress his friends he decides to conga backwards around the restaurant. He almost congas into a family, then almost congas into a waiter with a drink, THEN almost congas into a waiter with a good 7 fajitas on a huge tray. He thought the screams from his table were of encouragement, not of the need to stop conga-ing! It would have been priceless to see the fajitas spray everywhere, as the waiter was just paralyzed in fear, not trying to move away from the conga-maniac. A good night had by all, except poor Phillip, who didn’t wait for Will and had fajitas by himself and got home just as we were all heading out. Sadly he was not up for two rounds of fajitas!

This is the Three Amigos restaurant!Annabel and I loving the Three Amigos:The fajita action inside:

LABOR DAY

I slept in after Sunday’s festivities. Then after pottering around for a while went down to starbucks (and actually bought something, I could only mooch for so long) and used their internet with Annabel. The few days without internet have really made me appreciate it, and at the same time realize how dependent I am on it! It was a rough couple of days.

The lack of internet forced us outdoors. Lucy, Annabel, Annie and I all went down to the St. Lawrence Canals for a picnic. We stopped by the Atwater markets and bought some bakery goods, some cheesy combustibles and a tray of mixed berries. We set up Lucy’s British Airways blanket as our picnic blanket and basked in the sun, people watched and feasted. There was an enjoyable amount of roller bladders, tandem and regular bikers. There was also a mass dog baptism! Much hilarity ensued watching wieners getting their pooches baptized!

We wandered back home at about 5, as there was a parade on. But this turned out to be a protesting, angry parade, so we felt that maybe we wouldn’t quite fit in and decided against going. Lucy and I had bought some corn the other day, so decided to make the most of it and cook a corny dinner. Annabel joined in to make mystery Moroccan Monday Meal. We ended up cooking couscous, corn, tomatoes, onion, garlic, spices and bread and dips. Not bad mystery Moroccan Monday! We then watched some gossip girl, but I went to bed at 10 being so tired and desiring to be fresh for a good day of school.