I want a bicyce race

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

All the leaves are brown...

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

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

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

the Gloaming (softly open our mouths in the cold)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanksgiving

This weekend was THANKSGIVING. It was only Canadian Thanksgiving, which is quite different to American Thanksgiving, but is still cause to stuff your face full of too many goodies. To celebrate thanksgiving Lucy and I decided to take a trip over to Ottawa. Annabel didn't join us as she had secured herself a traditional thanksgiving with her Canadian friend in Halifax (where she ate moose)! Friday night we bus to Ottawa after a great deal of panic! I get home at about 4:00 and Lucy tells me that Amanda (my balcony mate, who was also going to Ottawa, but because her family lives there) had left for the bus two hours before it was scheduled to leave, as she was worried / knew about how busy the station was this time of year. So I had to race to do my washing, buy groceries for when I would return home, as the shops would (in my mind) be closed for the public holiday, tidy room and pack. A task that also should have been on the list was withdraw money from the bank. A problem: in that Ottawa didn't seem to love my Bank of Montreal as much as Montreal does. Our bus was meant to be at 7, but Lucy had me shoveled out the door by about 5:45. My bed - unmade, my wallet - empty, by fridge - full (to no avail as the shops were open on Monday! - curses). Anyway, there were hoards of people wanting to go to Ottawa for thanksgiving. It seemed to be the thing to do. There were about 8 bus loads going!!! We waited about an hour and a half to get onto the bus though. They were letting people onto these 7:00 buses from about 6:00 and just filling them up, and bringing in another bus to fill...
We finally piled onto the bus and began our journey to the forgotten capital of Canada. It is always overshadowed by Toronto, this is somewhat like Canberra and Sydney's loving relationship. When we arrived, it was dark and raining. We were checked into our hostel by the vaguest lady in the world. She spent a good five minutes laughing at my surname and joking that I came from Holland, ha ha, let me go now, so I can dump my stuff and I can get something to eat. She then demanded $50 each from us for accomodation. Which I didn't believe, as I thought I had paid online! SO in outrage didn't pay up. Upon checking, I made no such payment online, but managed to avoid the lady the entire weekend, so potentially got free accommodation - unless they look me up and charge my credit card. We dumped our stuff and went out to scout out some dinner. We had some tea in a cute Canadian chain diner. I had a tasty club sandwich. We moved on to an Irish pub where we had some amazing cider. The hostel room that we stayed in, was an 8 share girls dorm. Anyway, we were with 4 Asians and 2 fat old ladies (one of which had a cold, and being in such close proximity to her (i.e in a room with no ventilation for two nights) have caught). We each got a top bunk, which had its pros; Pro: I was the one who disturbed the person on the bottom bunk. Con: had to make top bunk at 12:00 at night (a task hard enough to do in the middle of the day) Pro: this was to the annoyance of my bottom bunk mate - fat old lady #1. Con: when she wake up - I woke up. Ergh. So at about 6 or 7, I don't know, it was early, when all the Asians and old ladies got up to explore Ottawa, I was rudely awakened. Lucy and I slept in until about 8:30. We got up, and went to the Byward markets for breakfast. We went to the most amazing bakery and got some nourishing coffee and croissants. We enjoyed the markets and all the amazing produce, clothing and arts and crafts stands. I do love the markets. We sauntered around the town. The Rideau Canals run through the town, so we walked alongside them, took in the glorious sunshine, and frolicked in the fall leaves. It was amazing. We took a tour of parliament (they won't let you look around by yourself). We were really lucky, we went in at about 11:30 and got assigned to a tour at 12:50. By 12:30 Parliament had been booked out of tours and had to turn tourists away! That was a close call. We went up the peace tower in Parliament and at 9 stories high could enjoy most of what Ottawa had to offer. The tour was really funny, as our tour guide asked us all where we were from (most people were Canadians) and when he found out Lucy and I were from England and Australia always tried to mention things that were going on in Australian and English politics. For example he let me know, that this is where my Australian Prime Minister would come if he were to visit Canada - thanks mate. And he would point out the constant British empire rule reminders to Lucy. After our delightful tour we went back to the markets for some luncheon. We wandered around the city some more, being very touristy. This was glorious. We ended up at the mint, when upon walking in, they were just starting the free tour. Why not - we thought. But I must say I enjoyed the mint a lot more than I imagined I would. I mean, they were making the olympic gold medals there at the time - which was super exicting, and we got to see gold and silver bars, and a 100kg coin! This is because Canada is blessed with many gold and silver mines, and as such this mint was a gold and silver coin mint, not a common paper money mint (the paper money is s crappy to manufacture it is made alongside the stamps). Then we went to the National Art gallery until it closed. All these attractions were free, so Ottawa was quite good to us. We had bought some OBAMA cookies from the bakery earlier, and ate them at a lookout for afternoon tea. The deal with the Obama cookies, is that once Obama visited Ottawa (and they never forgot it) and he stopped by this bakery and tried a cookie (maple leaf shaped, with Canada written on it). The bakery is full of photos of Obama, there is a T.V screen showing non-stop Obama footage and there is the words "Obama Cookies Sold Here" written about 100 times. Naturally they charge way too much for these cookies - but how could I resist. I mean if they were good enough for Obama!
We wandered back to the hostel to relax and get ready for dinner. We went out to a pub - the clock-tower, under the pretense that they had pumpkin ale (what better way to toast thanksgiving). They were sold out! But we had some raspberry ale instead and I enjoyed a mildly healthy salad. There was a hockey game on, between the Toronto Maple leafs and the Ottawa Senators (how cute) and so we watched that on the T.V at the bar. We didn't come home too late, as Ottawa is not that happening, and we didn't particularly want out roommates to hate us.
On Sunday - Amanda came and met up with us. We went to ye olde faithful bakery for breakfast, and then Amanda drove us around Ottawa! Oh, it was so exciting and nice to be driven somewhere. But crazy to be on the wrong side of the road. She took us to Gatineau National Park, we walked around amongst the pretty fall trees, and then admired pink lake. Which is not in fact pink, but the most gorgeous shade of turquoise. It was such a nice location, and it was so nice to hang with a local and have her show us around! Oh, I was quite happy. We then had some lunch at the markets, and for lunch desserts, has the Canadian classic - Beavertails. A pasty which is long and beaver tail shaped, funnily enough, and covered in cinnamon, sugar and syrup. It was quite tasty! At this stage it was time for us to head back to the hostel to grab our stuff, and make our way back to the bus station to head on home. I managed to catch up on some homework on the bus. When I got home, Eric invited me to the end of the quidditch team's trifecta of "power hour". This is a concept where you drink 60 shots of beer in 60 minutes. I got ready for this phenomenon and met Eric at the metro to head over to this event (at the quidditch coaches house!! so it was serious game). Various members of the team had been completing the power hour Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Naturally by Sunday, the coach wasn't looking too happy, as he was the only one who had properly finished power hour the previous nights. Anyway, I gave it a shot (ha ha) or 38 shots. But stopped there. Beer is too bubbly, and I didn't particularity want to vomit or push myself through the power hour. Only Ben the coach made it through.

Ben on Yasin, Eric and MeMe, Yasin and KarenFocus: me and Eric - for those after a peak ha ha

Monday was proper thanksgiving. (but all the shops were still open, despite it being a very serious public holiday). My day was pretty quiet, and involved doing much needed washing, and much needed homework for the two midterms I have this week. Annabel came home on Monday afternoon, and we went out to dinner and caught up. We went to a really nice Indian restaurant a block from our place. It was really good and they gave us the left overs in two little containers each for our lunches the next day. So sweet!

Knotty Pine

I woke up early on Saturday in anticipation of all the work I have to do, and all the time I don't have to do it in! I worked for a mild part of the morning, then went out and bought some bright red gumboots! They do make me quite happy! I purposely splashed through some puddles on the way home. Take that cons!!!! I then met my friend Brendan for the Noah's Ark of Timbits. We ordered two of every flavor! We then progressed through the box, discussing and sampling the unique and distinctive Timbits. We had a Tim Coffee too, to cleanse the palate between each bit. This was so enjoyable - but not the most nutritious lunch, and then I had to go off to quidditch. YAY! There was a photographer from the Toronto Star there, and he was snapping away for the whole practice. But with special focus on the chick from Toronto, so I don't think I feature. We played until 5, had some team discussions about how serious we all want to take this. Some people are pretty keen to win this cup, so from now on we are going to have some more serious trainings and interspersed with some light heart-ed ones. But I am excited none-the-less. We have to choose numbers to get put on the back of our... CAPES!!! OH MY GOD! I could die of happiness. But I still have to choose a number, naturally since we are all geeks, 42 and pi are already taken.... ! I think I'll manage somehow, but I am open to suggestions.
When I was leaving quidditch I bumped into another Friend, Nick and we went and got some early dinner in the underground mall. I just like hanging out with people too much, dinner was a bad choice, as I had already planned to have dinner with Eric tonight as well. He came around here so we could cook some pasta and then head off to a quidditch party together. For all you back home, Lucy and Annabel - substitute family - approve. So, you will have to take their better judgment. The party was pretty fun, it was one of the guys on the teams birthday and his roommates had set up this surprise party for him. So when he came home to walk up the stairs they had set up drinks and dares for him to do - on each step, before he could even properly get into the house - it was good entertainment.

The next morning Lucy, Annabel and I were off to Mont Tremblant. This is a ski resort / village type thing. There is the most amazing mountain with many runs, and the most fairy-tale like village at the bottom of the mountain. The most glorious thing was that the mountain was entirely covered in the most gorgeous fall trees! The morning had a dodgy start though. So, when I woke up at quarter to seven (we were aiming to leave the house at quarter past) I panicked, raced to Lucy and Annabel's rooms to tell them of my lateness. Lucy was up and wondering why we were getting ready in seemingly dark rooms but had not bothered to knock on our doors. Annabel was fast asleep! So I panicked her in a state of awakening. We threw on some clothes, shoved some things on our bags and went down to the metro, to metro it over to the bus station. We made it there in plenty of time - but I guess that was the plan. I was SO silly at the metro station though. I wanted to buy a monthly pass, and apparently it is too easy. Well I bet it is, if you don't happen to shove your metro card into the wrong hole so forcefully that it gets jammed, and and puts the machine out of service. My only defense was the early nature of the time, and my lack of breakfast. The lady COULD NOT believe how stupid I was. Shame! So I left her my name and number, so that when it could be unjammed from the machine, I could have my pass back - probably with a black mark upon it, explaining that I am super stupid and will put public machines out of order. I have since looked at this machine, and cannot even begin to think how I messed up putting my card in so dementedly!
Our tour group was really funny. This was clearly a day trip for Asians. Lucy, Annabel and I were like the token Caucasians of the tour. The tour guide lady was most bizarre and stressed that what she hoped to get out of the tour was a clean bus at the end of the day, and punctuality. Sure thing crazy lady! She really wasn't kidding about punctuality. We enjoyed ourselves at the Ski Lodge in the morning before heading somewhere for an optional Asian Buffet, and when two people didn't make it back to the bus on time - WE LEFT! Oh my god! And then we had to sign something saying that we were okay with the fact that we just left these people. Well I was not okay with this, I would not like that to happen to me, but the tour guide MADE us sign it.
Anyway, our morning was lovely. We had coffee and much needed breakfast in a really cute cafe at the base of the ski lodge. We then caught a cable car up to another cable car to get to the peak of the mountain. We went to the lookouts and admired the sometimes cloudy / foggy view. There were even some deck chairs for us to chill out on, which we did for a while for amusement. We then cable cared down, and we had early lunch, as to not end up at optional Asian buffet. We had some maple ice taffy too! This is a process where by, they pour boiling hot maple syrup onto SNOW! and it freezes into taffy! Yum! But very sweet - I could really only manage so much taffy. We then piled back on the bus 9minus two people) and moved on to a lake called Sandy Lake, and something in French (sounded more serious) that I meant to write down but forgot. Anyway, the rest of the group, jumped at the opportunity to buffet while we walked around this cute little town. It had antique stores, cafes, ice-creameries and lolly-shoppes. It was that sort of 'ye-olde' town. God only knows how they manged to find an Asian buffet there! Then we got to go on a boat cruise on this river. There were hills that surrounded the river covered in spectacular trees and the most amazing holiday houses in the world. Apparently the whole lake freezes over in winter. It is just amazing to think. The cruise was most enjoyable, I don't think I can't really do it justice. We docked, piled onto the bus and left (with everyone that was left). We got home about 7:30. I slept on the bus instead of studying for my midterm on Monday! When we got home, we didn't much feel like cooking, so we all went out for some Thai. Someone else to do the cooking and cleaning - amazing! This was really good! Then when I got home - the idea of mid-term Monday hit me. I studied for a little bit, got too tired, and went to sleep.

I spent Monday morning cramming in all sorts of environmental system knowledge into my head - I did however have to miss some lectures to achieve this! On my way to school, I shuffeled into the metro station to shamefully pick up my metro card. Thank-god the same lady wasn't on, it was a man, who didn't think I was the biggest idiot in the world. He happily asked me where I was from and gave me back my card - which is now looking worse for wear. I dread to think what maneuvers they had to pull to jerk it out of there. I went on down to my exam - it didn't go so bad! Take that first McGill mid-term! I then bopped around for a chemistry tutorial which I felt compelled to go to, having missed the lecture and all. I came home, got ready for the gym and punched, kicked, jammed and jived with Sara, Sarah and Catherine. I had some really good tomato soup for tea and thought about my geochem assignment due tomorrow. I am still thinking about it now, and am going to get cracking. So enjoy my Mont Tremblant pics - I think I was a little over-enthusiastic with the photos, but the trees were too enchanting!

I made the TEAM

Monday 28th was a rainy and cold start to the week. McGill displayed its general lack of students due to rain. I had my usual history-chemistry-environmental systems combo. I tried to crack down on my many assignments in the afternoon until it was time for my gym class with Sara, Sarah and Catherine. I am trying to think what else happened to me on Monday but it seems such a distant memory – I am going to be more faithful to my blog from now on! I hope. I cooked some dinner with Annabel, we made an amazing couscous, tomato, lentil, eggplant, sweet potato, zucchini and onion combination type thing. And this yielded enough left overs for lunches for half the week. I am always quite pleased about left over lunches.

Tuesday 29th went down well. All I have today is geology classes, but the friendship status of this class is skyrocketing. Whoever I sit next to always makes jokes with me about the pronunciation of my name by Willy, and then further wants to bond, as I am an Australian exchange student. Yay! The best accomplishment was making friends with the question time of geology. It was so exciting, as he looks like Harry Potter. He has for real circular Harry Potter glasses, and shaggy black hair. But he did scare me a little when recounting a power-outage that lasted somewhere in the vicinity of weeks. They had telephone at least he reassured me. At first I thought this was a “hilarious” joke, but then his other friend from Montreal confirmed - Yikes! I hope I don’t have to experience one of these ‘freak’ winters. In the middle of my day I came home to try and achieve some progress on my many assignments and have lunch with Lucy. We are going to Ottawa, and so needed to book a hostel. Lucy’s friend had a bike accident, so half-way through lunch, we had to help this girl out, by offering her tea to sooth her nerves, or a carton of milk (which was our alternative to frozen peas – of which we had none) for the bump on her head. She sat around at our place for a while, as we kept on urging her to seek some better medical assistance than us. Finally she agreed to our demands and left in a taxi. Even if she went home, at least she would have frozen goods to put on her head. This girl had hit an old lady while riding her bike, and the old lady had come off seemingly well – while this Dutch girl totalled her bike and bruised herself something chronic. My afternoon geology lab ran late, so I had to race back home, get ready for quidditch and race back to McGill. It was raining, it was freezing and yet still enough people turned up for a game! Crazy! But it was fun, we were all about ankle deep in mud, everyone was super un-coordinated due to how wet and slippery it was. We could barely throw, catch or even pick up the balls, but somehow we managed to play quidditch until about 9:00. I went to show my dedicated enthusiasm for the team, as this week was judgment week for the world cup. Anyways one of the girls there took some photos of the end result of the mess;
It was a rough walk home not only looking terrible but feeling and smelling gross and muddy. The original plan for Tuesday night was to watch cheap movie at the cinema with Lucy, Annabel and some of her engineering friends, but due to the lengthy quidditch practise I didn’t end up making it. But Annabel had left me some soup and sweet potato fries for dinner. Oh, it was so lovely! I put my disgustingly muddy clothes in the washing machine, and then some of my normal dirty clothes in too - to fill it up. My muddy clothes exited clean, and my less muddy clothes exited muddy and stained a bit brown. Who would of thought something like that would happen in a WASHING machine. Oh, dear.


Wednesday 30th had a MAXIMUM temperature of 8 degrees. When you think about it, that is not a lot of degrees! To get into the winter mood Sara and I were going to go ice-skating for free at the McGill ice-skating rink. I can’t even imagine how glorious this rink must be, as I didn’t get to see it. We rocked up, and asked about renting ice-skates, and the deal is you can’t. Its BYOI-S. Dam, Sara is a figure skater so she had a pair, but oddly enough I didn’t bring mine over from Australia. So we didn’t end up going skating. We met up with Catherine from her rez and went shopping instead. We were hunting for gumboots, an impossible task I have now decided! You can’t get a nice pair of wellies for under $100. That is a lot of money for a bit of rubber. There was one pair for $40 but they were plain black. Mmmm. I wasn’t interested. We got depressed with the search and ended up clothes shopping instead. We went to some American stores, and the sizes are so funny - I am a size zero. Ha ha! Imagine my delight. AND the sizes go all the way up to 24 or something ridiculous! Oh man some Americans must just be so fat. So today I didn’t go to my gym class and outdoors club meeting as usual as I had agreed to go on …. A date! WOO! With one of my fellow chasers from quidditch! We went out for some dinner and it was really good - he is a vego too! (but for financial reasons). Anyways this was all pretty exciting and I had fun. I even got to master the metro to make it to and from said date.

Thursday 1st was similar to Wednesday, in that the maximum temperature achieved was 8. It rained and was 8 degrees! In fact, I would even go so far as to say the day got colder as it went on. I didn’t mind my walk to school, but by the middle of the day I was quite cold. This gave me a good excuse to seek refuge in the library and to crack down on my ever-looming history essay. I then went to a GIS lab, which ceased to exist. But I got to hang out with my GIS friends instead. They showed me the geography lounge (not as nice as the geology lounge), and the microwave that doesn’t rotate, but will still heat (a bit). This was pretty cool, and not my essay. We bopped around until it was time for the GIS class, in which I learnt that a feature of a map is a title. I have been here an entire month, and we have only reached title and legend complexity. This is not entirely unpleasing, although it is boring. After this I went home to get ready for the final quidditch practise before the team would be announced. To be honest I was a little bit nervous! The nerves continued to mount as they said we would have to stay through the entire practise, as they would call out the team at the end of the training. So there would be no early exit to my essay. It was SO cold during practise, and being subbed off was tough as not moving made things worse. I took a bludger to the face! But it was right in front of the selection committee so I played on to show how hardcore I was - despite my internal pain. Anyway my efforts must have impressed as I MADE THE TEAM!!!!!!!! The excitement and tension beforehand was almost too much. at the end of practise, the quidditch committee decided that it would be a bit weird if they just called out peoples names in front of everyone, so they said to go home and if you made the team you would receive a facebook notification. Oh the integration of facebook in my everyday necessities. I walked home past a huge street celebration for the first hockey game of the season. On Crescent Street there were live performers, an ice skating rink, advertisers, cars, balloons, food stalls and bars. All sorts of exciting hockey related glory. The game wasn’t over so there were no fights or riots (as I imagine happens) so I could safely pass on by. If I didn’t have an essay to write and mud to wash off my body, I happily would have stayed or dragged the girls back to the street party. I nervously worked on my essay while manically re-freshing my facebook homepage. AND THEN finally the good news came on through! OH my goodness, I am going to Vermont to play in the quidditch world cup as a chaser! Oh my goodness, my life is complete!!!!! I raced and banged on Lucy and Annabel’s doors and we all had a bit of a scream and a jump around in excitement!!!!! But then they both confessed how home sick and sad they were. So instead of dutifully working on this essay (due in less than 12 hours) I went out to starbucks with them for a comforting hot chocolate. Also I wanted to buy Annabel the hot chocolate as I would be printing off my many assignments due this week and next from her colour printer. I couldn’t leave her in her hour of need (especially considering my upcoming hour of printing need).

(this is me and date (Eric) sucks that I am pulling a stupid face - curses)

Friday 2nd was a glorious 14 degrees max. I was so happy, I had finished two assignments, and there was no rain. I wore tights and a skirt to celebrate. In history as a reward for writing our essays we got to go on a walking tour of Montreal. So we looked at the McGill gates, then made our way east along St. Catherine looked at a square and a statue. The tour ended by looking at some dense residential areas. Oh the historical significance! The teacher was so sly. She said that she would personally collect our history essays when we met her at the McGill gates at 9:30 in the morning. If we didn’t make it, she would have physically left and started the mystery tour. So, we had to be on time and have our essays ready to submit! i walked quickly back from the tour to make it to chemistry and environmental systems. I had an assignment due in for environmental systems as well, and the system was the same. Rock up with your paper and GIVE it to the lecturer. It’s so different to the ANU assignment box approach - I don’t think I am comfortable with how these Canadians do things. Anyway after class strutting around campus I run into fellow members of the quidditch team and we have crazy-dramatic hugs and hollers of joy at making the team! I am so happy right now. After my afternoon Pilates I did some shopping with Annabel. There are so many cute boutiques near our place. I bought a fall coat. Not a winter coat yet, as you need to hold off wearing the winter coat until its at least snowing or something. I’ll take some photos of the coat soon! But it is very cute and makes me quite happy. We made some stirfry for dinner and then went out to Blues Bar. This is an engineering bar, which does cheap beers and spirits on Friday nights (Annabel is an engineer by the way). We arrived at 6:30 and that was fashionably late, as the bar opens at 4:30 and many engineers get stuck into it on the dot. I met her engineering friends and generally enjoyed the engineering society. When the bar closed at 9:00 we went onto a house party at Annabel’s friend Colleen’s house. This was pretty cool, so we partied on into the night (12:30) before heading home.