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!