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.

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!