The Only Thing Worse Than Applying to College? Doing it again.

Jeannette, me, and my roommate Liz.

So I am currently in the midst of filling out the common application for the second time and it is no fun. However I am motivated to get it done quickly because I can't wait to apply to UVM because I can't wait to get in (fingers crossed) and then possibly go there!

I am also willing to tolerate it's monotony because of how happy I still am from such a fun weekend! Nette arrived in Montreal late afternoon Wednesday. During her stay we shopped, talked, ate/hung out at my usual haunts, shopped, and enjoyed a delicious thanksgiving meal with my American friends. It was really nice to be together, especially since I haven't seen since August. Also while she was here I finished a book called "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer and I think it is offically my new favorite book. I almost always say that the last book I read is my favorite book and it usually is (up until I read another book). But I think this book will transcend my list of favorite books and be added to the list of all time favorite books. It's just so good! It's about a little boy whose dad died on 9/11 and the healing process the boy goes through. The little boy is fascinating and hilarious and incredibly loveable. Bottom line: I highly recomment this livre. The only problem with reading a great book is answering the question of what to read next. My roommate just lent me "Catch 22" though so hopefully I'll have just as much luck with it.

UVM

So this weekend was quite fun. I took the bus down to Burlington, Vermont for the weekend. I got to see my friend who goes to Middlebury again and meet more of her friends. I also got to stay at University of Vermont and tour there. I went there to check it out because I'm thinking of transferring there. It is a very environmentally conscious school (they compost in the dinning halls, recycle, and all of their buildings are LEED certified). They also have a major in education so I could become a teacher right away (plus I would get credit for working with little 'uns which is pretty much the best thing ever). It has a very good reputation for having a nice population and for being in a very liveable city. I had a really good visit but before I can do anything else I have to apply and then get in.

Other than that nothing too exciting has happened. Last week was, very sadly, my last week of class. I said goodbye to all my other friends who were leaving as well and now I'll I have to do is wait until Nette gets here. She arrives tomorrow so it should be a fun week!

Lots of love to everyone!

Tout le bonheur du monde...

So today was fairly phenomenal. As I walked to class it was so foggy that I couldn't see the tops of the buildings. After living in the city I added "sunset sun" hitting the tops of buildings to the list of the things I love. After this morning I think I'm going to have to add not being able to see the tops of buildings to the list as well.

In French we're learning the subjunctive which is thrilling. It's great because now I can finally (properly) express wishes, obligations, doubt, etc. Plus my teacher for this session is fantastic so it barely even seems like work.

Then I went to lunch with my friend Maxi who is German and some Brazilian kids. From there Maxi and I went window shopping and then chez moi to rest our feet and drink tea. Then in the evening we went to a sports bar for going away drinks for our friend Mariana who is going back to Brazil tomorrow. At first it was kind of difficult since neither Maxi nor I speak Portuguese but eventually we made our way to the Spanish end of the table and we were able to mingle with people. All the kids who are native Spanish speakers get quite a kick out of hearing my and Maxi's accents. She talks like a Spaniard and I a Mexican. It's actually quite interesting because regardless of the fact that I've been here for two months studying French 3 hours a day the words still feel quite clumsy in my mouth. It's not like with Spanish. With Spanish the words fit well in my mouth. My tongue knows where to go and my mind knows what to say. Although my French has improved immensely, it's still a stranger to my tongue. As for which language I prefer I'm still not sure. Claire agrees that it's hard to choose between them but that for her Spanish is her spouse and French her mistress. I think though at this point, I'd consider myself a polygamist.

Tea Anyone?

This past weekend Claire and I ventured down to Boston. It's roughly an eight hour bus ride but it actually wasn't too bad. You know how ostriches bury their heads in the ground when they get scared? Their theory being that if they can't see the scary things then the scary things can't see them. Although Ostriches don't actually do that, I can understand their logic because for most of our trip it was so dark that I could barely see my own hands. Thus since I couldn't actually see the road trip happening, I felt like it wasn't actually happening. It mostly just felt like I was napping with my eyes open.

Upon our arrival in Boston, we were greeted by our two friends from high school who both go to different schools in Boston. From there we went back to our friend Lucy's dorm/apartment (where we stayed) and crashed. Unfortunately, the weekend ended up being less of a historical tour of Boston and more of a chance for us to catch up with our high school friends while walking around Boston. Regardless though, I am completely charmed by the city. I'm very intrigued by the thought of moving there at some point.



One of the best parts about the weekend overall was being exposed to yet another college experience and realizing that perhaps lewis and clark doesn't have everything I need/ should be getting from a college. Between seeing McGill, Middlebury, and NorthEastern, it just seems like there's so much college can offer you that I was unaware of. So, in the interest of keeping my options open, I decided that I'm going to start applying to a few other schools. Right now University of Vermont in Burlington is at the top of my list but I promise to keep you posted.

Contrary to Popular Belief Halloween Does Exist In Canada

Today is only Tuesday and I'm already exhausted. I woke up this morning and lamented the fact that I had forgot to turn my alarm off for the weekend. Then I realized it was not, in fact, the weekend. Bummer. Thankfully though, school was quite fun today. We learn demonstrative adjectives and talked about our emotions, what could be better? Rien. Now I'm resting and doing chores, bidding my time until I go meet my friends from school for a movie (Tuesdays are discount days at the theaters!).


As for this weekend, we had quite a bit of fun. Unlike in boring America, in Montreal there are three nights of Halloween and thus three costumes. Our main costume was that of the Mountie. There were five in total (plus our trusty steed Duke). Claire had come up with the idea and it seemed both realistic and creative but certainly not brilliant. To our surprise though, everyone was blown away. We got intense reactions from people yelling at us to laughter to pretty much any reaction you can think of. It was hilarious to see how shocked everyone was. It was also funny how many people (Americans) asked us if we were cowgirls. Hahaha. Our second costume was much less creative (mostly because we put them together in under an hour). Liz has these cups with animal faces on them so when you drink it looks like you have a snout, beak, etc. I wore different green articles of clothing, all with different patterns, and I was a chameleon. It was great to have such a fun weekend but now we are all exhausted. Thankfully though this is a mostly quite week until Thursday when Claire and I will hop on a bus down to Boston for the weekend. Yaay!
Claire was a shark.
Liz was a toucan.



Oh! The other reason why I'm exhausted is that yesterday I took a bunch of photographs for a "previously-loved" clothing website called MyExCloset.com. The premise is that you send them your old clothes, set the price, and then they put them online and other people buy them You spilt the profits 50/50 with MyExCloset. Claire is working as an intern for the Montreal branch and so when Claire heard that the usual photographer was unavailible, she volunteered me. I was a little aprehensive at first since I've never done anything like that, but it ended up being so much fun! It took three hours and we took nearly 600 photos. It was especially fun because one of the models didn't show so Claire ended up modeling. Thus for three hours I got to take pictures of pretty things and my best friend. That's the life, eh?

Oh and this is the highlights from Vermont/Middlebury. The top one is from the Quidditch World Cup (they all run around with brooms and the snitch is a person selected from the track team, you can see him in the back).

The next is a bee that joined us for lunch. His wings were covered in ketchup so he was more of a prisoner than anything. He eventually escaped successfully.

And finally the last one is your truly hiding behind some brilliant leaves.

spotted: beautiful image

I heard the fire trucks screaming and peaked out the window of my eighth story classroom to see them zooming down Stanley street. Then as I stood there, a dancing tissue caught my eye. And not just any dancing tissue, but a tissue dancing on the same level as the 5th floor. It swooped, dove and flipped back up only to land again on a nearby roof covered in graffiti. Clearly not satisfied, it swiftly took flight again in a matter of seconds and at that point I was forced to take my seat again.

I hope all ended well for that tissue.

And yep, that's the most interesting thing that's happened to me in a while but perhaps also the most pleasant.

love love

NEIGEEEEEEEE aka SNOWWWWWWWWWW

Oh Dear, it~s been quite a while since I~ve written. Luckily for you all I~m in vermont this weekend visiting my friend who goes to Middlebury. THe lucky part is that she is taking portuguese and so her computer has some really weird settings and there are things like the apostrophe that come up as a ^ etc. Anyways, bear with me.

So yesterday as I was walking home from the grocery store it began to snow. It has already been raining quite hard so snow shouldn~t have been that big of a deal but it was because I was poorly equipped for the rain so snow was fairly deadly. I was checking out when I first saw it and I thought, oh wow that is really weird rain. Only it wasn~t rain. It was big, fat, wet pieces of snow. Like miniature frozen clouds falling down on Montreal. I zipped up my coat and extracted my umbrella, and braced myself. I was doing fairly well for the first few blocks. Then the wind picked up and blew so hard that my umbrella~s little metal arms all bent backwards. What~s worse was that I was on the phone with Nora coordinating our plans and so I wasn~t in an ideal position to care or deal with my backwards umbrella. What makes matters in worse was that as soon as I turned around to see the umbrella I hear the deep roar of a belly laugh. That was cool. That was the least of my worries though, I needed to figure out how to right my umbrella while still holding my groceries and concentrating on the conversation and keeping my body from being totally overwhelmed by snow bits all while withstanding the wind. So, what else is there to do but to stop walking and turn 180 degrees and wait for the wind to blow my umbrella back to its original form. No go.

Wind 1

Lissie 0

I ended up seeking refuge under an awning and manually fixing my umbrella. Ahh, good times.

Now though I must be off. Nora and I are going to a tap dance competition and then off to explore the Middlebury night scene.

Hope everyone is well!

xo

Around The Crowd

Yesterday I ended up having to go back to the grocery store for some forgotten ingredients. Claire and I had just returned from the gym so I was attired in my finest Bosque Volleyball t-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes and I decided I would just run to the store. FUNNEST THING EVER. Generally, I'm not a big fan of running but in the city running is less like exercise and more like a game. Honestly, I finally understand why people race cars. It's like putting together a real-life moving puzzle. As I ran in and out of people I tried to make it so that I disturbed no one, as if I didn't even exist on that street. When I got cut off, I'd have to instantly regroup and find another way around the crowd. Then when I happened upon a red light I would have to wait with everyone else at the light (people we're shocked when they saw me appear out of thin air on the corner) but as soon as it turned I would sprint ahead and once again disappear.

Needless to say, it was the most thrilling grocery store run I've ever done.

Oh so Martha...

So yesterday was a wild day in the culinary world of apartment no. 5. I went to bed shamefully early (there's little for a bum like me to do when all my studious roommates have midterms). I got up at six am and made a loaf of banana bread (to feed the bounty of people staying with us this weekend). Unfortunately though, within minutes there was smoke pouring from the oven. That is alarming in any context but at 6 in the morning it is, without a doubt, too much to handle. That's okay I thought, it must just be the fact that our oven has "super powers" as Liz puts it. That's code for we're not really sure if it's temperature is accurate. Anyways, I shook off that failure, assuming that the bread was just powercooked (the top was completely black when I went to remove it) and so I moved on to the muffins. It's a box recipe so it was supposed to be easy but it too ended in plumes of smoke and black tops. It was then that I realized I had set the oven to Grill/Gril setting instead of the Bake/Cuire setting. Oops. Let me repeat, OOPS. Thankfully though, in my anger/frustration/confusuiopn/amusement I ended up making another batch of banana bread and so was able to correct my mistake. Just in the nick of time too, since minutes later I had to run out the door to class. Those are the times I love living five minutes from school. The culinary train rode right on into the afternoon when I make a vegan lasgna to be comsumed by all six of us on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I didn't have the recipe with me so I just did it from memory. Haha, we'll see how that goes.


Now we have a coupious amounts of bakes goods, some more edible than others. That's good because Michelle's boyfriend and Claire and my's friend Emily are visiting this weekend (yay!)! Tonight Michelle has prepared Tortilla Soup and then we're going to a concert tonight. I bought my tickets in August for it so I'm pretty much so excited that I can't breath right (I'm only half joking).

Right now that's about it. With so many visitors here this weekend will be a grand tour of Montreal.

xo

so many adventures, so little time

Sorry all that I have not written more regularly but things have been very busy. This weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada which was very pleasant to have early but fairly disorienting because now all I can think about is Christmas and Halloween hasn't even happened yet! On that subject though, I'm pleased to report, that we have settled on being Mounties for Halloween. It's going to be epic. As for this weekend though, we went to Michelle's grandparents house in Toronto. It was an 8 hour bus ride there which was too loong but a much more manageable five on the way back. We got in late Friday night, subwayed to the burbs, and then her aunt picked us up at the end of the line and drove us home. We then proceeded to binge on all of the goodies Michelle's grandparents bought to spoil us with (like all good grandparents should). It was pretty thrilling considering how little we eat junk food. After that, we rented "Adventureland" which was a very awkward but well done comedy that we all throughly enjoyed. I highly recommened it. Then, on Saturday, we ventured into the city and explored. There were copious amounts of fur-lined jackets bussling through the city in and around us. The highlight of the afternoon was when we went to the harbor. We were admiring the birds (malards, seagulls, etc.) when a fellow admirer gave us each a piece of bread to through at them. What ensued what nothing short of brilliant madness (see photos). After that, we realized we were freezing and quickly rushed to find a place to each. Michelle's grandparents treated us to a delicious meal and afterwards we explored College Street which is one of the main bar streets in Toronto. It was nice but nothing thrilling. On Sunday we went to the Art Gallery of Toronto which is a museum desgined by Frank Gerhy, the same man who built the Guggenheim. It was spectacular. What was even more spectaular was the exhibit on Edward Steichen during the years when he did fashion photography for Vogue and Vanity Fair. His photos literally took my breath away. After seeing that I want to become a professional photographer and/or be him. If you can look up his portraits of Amelia Earhart or Sylvia Sydney (my favorites) or really anything he has done. Then, after that life changing experience, we came home and feasted. Her grandmother even made me fake chicken to eat and butterless mashed potatoes. Yum!

The weekend was quite an adventure and I'm very grateful to Michelle's family for putting us up and putting up with us. T'was a lovely weekend.

bilingual living

So yesterday was lovely. I woke up fairly early for the weekend and tinkered around a bit. Then I met my friend Pamela (from Mexico City) and we went to Mont Royal Park, which is this huge park in Montreal. It is more on scale with Central Park than anything else we have in ABQ. It's crazy because there are always so many people there! Walking, running, playing frisbee, smoking, making music and a bunch of other cool stuff. Anyways, every Sunday during the summer they have something called TamTams which is where people come and play drums. So there we roughly thirty people druming and then another 75 or so watching them. There are also street vendors who come. I wish we could have seen it during the summer when it was really nice but there was still a fair amount of peope there despite the rain.

While we were there listening to the music, Pamela and I were approached by these two guys carrying a sign. At first they started speaking to us in French but we were very clearly lost. They told us though that they were doing a project and they wanted to take a picture with 250 women and one man to show the absurdity of the French language (since in French even though there's only one guy there, it would still be a masculine grouping "ils"). We told them we weren't sure what our plans were but if we were free at four thirty we would check it out. When we got there, we were two of six girls, a far cry from 250 women. All in all there ended up being only about thirty women and they took pictures of us in a group looking at each other, looking at the camera, and then looking at the one guy. Pamela and I were the only ones who didn't speak French and I could understand some of it but it was a very strange language experience. It took about a half hour and by the end neither Pamela nor I could feel our toes and so we ran/hobbled to a cafe. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the whole photo shoot concept but I talked to one of the photographers and she said that they were going to try and put the series in a magazine or something but who knows?

Then we went to a going away dinner for our German friend Milena at an Irish pub. I was telling her that I was planning on being in Europe a bit next summer and she invited me to stay with her in Germany or she said she would come meet me anywhere because she loves to travel. Then she said she would love to travel with me because she can tell that I'm very mature and content with myself. It was a very sweet compliment and it just makes me even more grateful that I get to meet all these wonderful people from all over the world.

Alrighty well I'm off to meet some friends at school to study,

much love
xo
Lissie

Rain Rain Go Away...

Even though I should be used to non-stop rain, I am still disappointed at the ten day forecast that predicts nearly ten full days of rain. Booooo. Our activity has decreased somewhat since it's gotten colder but we're still having a good time. Last night we went to Matias's apartment. He's one of the girl's friends from school and he, coincidentally, lives in the apartment next to ours. We thought that since it's part of the same building as ours he would have the same layout. It turns out though that their apartment has a much better setup than ours. Needless to say we were bummed out. Our apartment is set up so that the kitchen is at one end and then there is a long hall that has our three bedrooms coming off of it and at the end there is the living room. We all really like it but his apartment was much more centralized and communal. Plus he has a door to his fire escape, whereas we just have a window that we climb through. Alas! In this instance ignorance would have been bliss.

Generally things here are continuing to go well. This week I start my fourth week of French classes. They're going really well, although so far what we've been doing has mostly just been reviewing what I learned last year. I'm thankful for that though because I forgot so much over the summer. This week I have a long this of things to accomplish. I want to make dinner for my roomates, use our old bananas to make banana bread, visit the museum by our house, try out a yoga class at the Y, finish my book, and stop by the market in our neighborhood. It should be a full week!

I hope you're doing well!

xo
Lissie

the clouds move so fast in montreal

The clouds move faster here than I have ever seen anywhere in my life. I have seen them blowing so fast that it looks like a plastic grocery bag is being brushed over a street. It really is incredible. I will be in class looking at clouds out the window, put my head down to write down one vocabulary word and when I look up those clouds are gone and a new formation has appeared in its place. It's not every day but on windy days it feels like the clouds are just running laps around the world.

For better or for worse that was about the most exciting thing that happened to me today. I'm feeling much better but still kind of lethargic (or I'm just using that as my excuse to do nothing all day...). Regardless, today was a very relaxing day that included the introduction of a new snack into my regime: peanut butter dipped in broccoli. While, I would say it does not reach the greatness that is carrots dipped in pb, it was still pretty damn good. Credit to Claire for showing me that, thanks.

All in all I would say it was a pretty good day.

un nez qui coule

Yes, the magician has spoken, she's has a runny nose. She, of course, would be me and the magician is a very odd bird from Colombia who is in my French class. He sits in class all morning and plays with a silver ring on his right hand. The is thick and has the face of a dragon or something on it. He spends the majority of the class (that he isn't shouting out the answer because yes, he knows more French than we do) pinching the ring between his thumb and pointer finger of his right hand and then "magically" making it appear on his right hand's ring finger. The trick would actually be pretty cool if he didn't do it constantly for three hours M-F. To his delight though, Flavio, our new Swedish addition to the class, saw the trick today and was thrilled. I wish I were exaggerating but he almost literally freaked out in class. "Oh wow! Do it again! But slower!" he shouted. "There's only one speed," replied the magician. But he did it again, and again. Oh was the Sweed tickled! It was quite an enjoying interaction.

Anyways, I realized that I want to start relating more of the day to day interactions I've been having because they're all pretty fantastic and there is rarely a dull moment here.

Do something kind today!
(or tonight, or tomorrow!)


xo

(this is the view from our kitchen window. bien fait Claire)

Bon jour tout le monde!
I hope that everyone is doing well and having a glorious end to a glorious weekend. Overall, this weekend was pretty mellow for me. I felt like I slept for most of it which was nice and normally I would feel bad about that but I took this year off to relax (among other things) so I feel like sleeping in is good.

I’ve been thinking more and more about what I want to do when I come back. Montreal is a lot more expensive than I was expecting, so I’m definitely going to have to work and make mad cheddar when I get back (ahahaha I’ve actually heard people use that phrase mad cheddar which means a lot of money. Apparently it comes from the Niagara area?) Anyways, I will have to make mad cheddar since I’m spending more of my money than I expected to. It all works out though because I miss being/ working with kids so much that I think full time babysitting will be great and certainly very different from anything I do here. In terms of the spring though, I’m pretty excited about getting to see Argentina and Chile. Since two of my best friends, Nora and Juliette, are going to be in Chile in the spring, it would be crazy not to go there☺. I’ve decided though that instead of doing a program or volunteering, I’m going to WOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms) in Argentina first for a few weeks, and then Chile. Even though working on a farm for two months will be pretty intense I think it will be good for me. Plus it will be pretty different from anything I’ve ever done before. Bahh I’m so excited even just thinking about it makes me want to burst! When I come back from South America, pretty quickly Claire and I will leave for Africa. We’re still not definitely sure where or for how long we’ll go but it’s looking like it will be around six weeks and hopefully in Tanzania or Mozambique. Regardless though, it will be excellent. After that, in my dreams, I will go to France and either WOOF or au pair for the rest of the summer, until Scott’s wedding in Finland in August. However, by that point, I might be too exhausted to do anymore traveling. I do want to plan at least two weeks to recuperate in ABQ before I head off back to school (which I’m also pretty excited for).

Wow that’s quite a long paragraph. But it feels good to put my thoughts on paper and now you guys have some idea of what I’m thinking about (even though I will probably change my mind at least 10 more times before I come back☺).

Well until the next time,
Au revoir!
xo

Today was lovely and lazy. I know I've mentioned this before but I really can't get over how great it is here. Everyday is so fun and filled with so much laughter. Honestly, Liz, Claire and Michelle are some of the funniest people I've ever met and in the last two weeks we've had some of the best conversations I've ever had. Most of them I can't even recall but as they're happening I'm so enthralled and engaged and astounded at how great they are and the points being brought up. It's so refreshing to live with people that I like who awful (REID if you're READing this, you are obviously the exception). At school I craved those practically non-existent moments of solitude but here, even though it is nice being alone, I look forward to having someone be there when I come in. Even if all we do is sit in the same room and play with our computers it's still nice to do with people I like.

On the same note though, just in general, I'm really loving getting to meet new people. I almost wish that I could just eternally live in that stage with people where when you meet them everything you talk about is interesting and exciting because it's all you know about them. Not that getting to know people isn't great also, but I really love those virgin moments. Plus, it doesn't hurt that almost everyone the girls know is super interesting.

Most of our day today consisted of reviewing all of the pictures we've taken and it was fantastically fun. I've only been in Montreal for two weeks and I've taken roughly 1,500 photos and the great news is that they're all fantastic. The only bummer about this heavenly situation is that I'm in the process of getting sick. Hopefully I'll be able to bypass it and go straight to the recovery part, but I have to say that if a sore throat is the most of my worries, then I've got a pretty damn good life.

BTW:
my address here is
2075 de la Montagne
Apt 5
Montreal, QC
H3G 1Z8

real quick

( I just figured out how to add pictures (yaay!) and these are from the bio sphere. It was designed by buckminster fuller and it was pretty cool. The girl in the bottom photo is my friend Pamela and she's from Mexico and both pictures were taken by our friend pablo who is from spain)

so I'm already late to meet some friends to go to the bio dome but I just wanted to mention that yesterday was lovely. I went to class and then Claire and I got lunch and aux vivres (yumm).
Then I went to the frigo vert for my first day of work and it was out of control. I started off not knowing anything about a cash register and within twenty minutes I was running it by myself. Normally I would have been kind of freaked out since it was five o clock and there was a long line for about an hour but the guy who trained me, Fazziez, said that since it is an anitcaptalist grocery store, we should never feel like we have to rush. He said that long lines are good because they promote discussion and that everyone will get checked out in time. Plus, eveyone who volunteers there is so nice! Anytime I had a problem/question, they would help me figure it out. It was great!

ottawa, ottawa, ottawa, ottawa!!!

So this past Sunday I took a school trip to Ottawa and it was incredible. It is a really beautiful city. We went to the parliament building and got a tour which was pretty cool because I learned a lot. Ex.) Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the capital because Montreal and Kingston were the forerunners (in terms of candidates for capital) and they had a big rivalry going on for it. So, to avoid fueling the rivalry she choose Ottawa. Interesting, eh?

Then we had a few hours to wander around. I ended up going out to lunch with two Germans, a Spaniard and a girl from Mexico City. Between us we spoke five languages, each at least three. So the entire afternoon we jumped from English to Spanish to French and then to German and then we'd throw in a little Italian. It was so fun but by the end of the day my mind was spinning with words! They were all really into taking pictures (thankfully) so that was a big part of our day which, of course, was great. Even though we spent two hours of the day going and then two and a half coming back, it still felt like such a full day. I'm really glad that I went because I got to know everyone really well and I think that I'm going to do some traveling with Natalie (Germany) and Pamela (Mexico) at the end of November which is so exciting! They are both really nice girls and it's just so funny being with them because our senses of humor are all so different which just makes it even funnier to interact with them. Great fun though:)
I know that there was a lot more that I wanted to say but I can't remember now, so this will have to do.

Today though was pretty good. I had class and went home and cleaned up a bit in preparation for the dinner party we were having. Then I went and met up with some friends for coffee. Then I came back to the apartment and met the girls and we went to a flash mob. Apparently, it's where people get together and do the same thing for a short time (via secret invites, etc.). For this one we all went and made really loud noises to call attention to global warming. The prime minister of Canada, stephen harper, was the main target for the flash mob because Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol but it has failed to meet the requirements. This was supposed to be a reminder that the people want Canada to make a change and they hold the government responsible for shortfall. It wasn't super big but it was really, really cool.

Afterwards we came home and started cooking dinner for the girl's friend Sean and then Claire's old roommate Jenna. I made Vodka Penne. Liz made a salad adorned with fresh cooked beets, carmelized onions and almonds, yummy dressing, etc. Then Claire made garlic bread. It was absolutely delicious. Now we're all sitting in the living room doing homework (well sort of) and mostly just talking. It's so lovely living with people I like. During French today one of the conversation questions we had was "What is your favorite trip you've ever been on?" and all I could think was- this one! I seriously am so lucky that I get to take a year off and move to Montreal just to have fun. I almost feel guilty at how great it's been. Literally every day is either fun, charming, thought provocking, exciting, exhausting, or some combination of all of those things. Thankfully these girls are hilarious, we laugh out loud constantly. Even though I want you all to know how my life is going, I almost feel bad telling you this because when I reread it, it sounds like perfection, because it is!!

I'm sure this has lots of errors/ runon sentences but I hope you can understand and enjoy.
Much love!

hips don't lie

bon jour all!
So pretty much I love my French class. Everyone is so funny and nice. They are mostly all better than I am at French which is hard but good for me (better than the other way around). The funny thing is that most of the kids speak Spanish so when I don't know a word sometimes I revert to Spanish and last year in my French class that was just more confusing for the person I was talking with. But here since they speak Spanish it's perfect (perhaps not so good for our French though...). Oh and today was so great because I had my first argument in French!! We were talking about music and I said that I loved Shakira and this other kid said he used to like her but that he thought she had sold out. Well then this girl Maria and I (nearly) attacked him! We just kept going off on how great her music is and what a good person she is. Unfortunately, when I'm arguing in French I am easily flustered and
so my grammar serverly deteriorates but I would say it's always worth it to attempt to defend Shakira's honor, regardless of the language.

For the past two days our teacher has been out sick so we've had a sub who I absolutely love. She is really energetic and focuses a lot on pronunciation which is really helpful for me since I frequently butcher their language:)

Tonight, the girls and I, and Claire's old roommate Jenna are having a classy night. We're all going to dress up super fancy and go to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel bar which is where john lennon and yoko had their famous bed-in. Hopefully that should be really fun. And then tomorrow I want to get on the metro and take it to some cool neighborhood and then just spend the day wandering back to the hotel. I might even pick up a few things along the way...

Well now I'm off to make a yummy sandwich,
au revoir!

directions

I love living in a city because it's so spontaneous. It only takes me 5 minutes to walk to school but every day so far I've taken a different route. I cross when the light is green, which means that the traffic signals dictate which route I take. But sometimes I thwart their plans by crossing when the red hand is up, or, when I'm feeling really frisky, I cross in the middle of the street. It's quite a thrill. Since we live in a neighborhood with such abundant shopping possibilities it makes going home more of an adventure because there is a plethora of stores to get lost in on my way. But even though my walk home is always different, what I do when I get home is almost always the same: sleep. I had forgotten but I napped so much this past year in between classes and it's no different here. It's like my body resets itself to a "school clock" which requires that a nap is had mid afternoon (or at 11am or at 8 pm). Regardless, it's a highly enjoyable practice.

I'm excited because I signed up to go to Ottawa this weekend with the school. I only know two of the girls going, neither of whom are in my class, but hopefully I will be able to make new friends on the bus ride there. The two girls I know I met on the first day and they are very nice. In fact, it's almost overwhelming how nice everyone I met is. I almost hurt from all the kindness I've experienced. In a good way.

Now though we are off to the Jean Talon market to get some fresh produce!
I hope all is well!
xo

une epicerie anticapitaliste!

Today was pretty glorious. I woke up and made myself a heavenly breakfast sandwich. Rye (toasted of course), soy patty, ketchup, and a mound of lettuce. Then I went to French class and was placed into level D3 which stands for Debutante 3. There are ten levels in total D1,D2,D3,$ then Intermediate 1,2,3,4 and then two advanced levels. At the end of every month we will take a test and either move on up to the next level (D4 in my case) or stay in the same level. All of my new classmates hail from different parts of the world including, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Libya, Canada, and Switzerland. I'm the only American in the group. My teacher is very nice and she is from France. The three hours literally just flew by which was great but it was a little sad that after I left I stepped out into a world that feels mostly English speaking. Hopefully though that will change once I learn more French.

After lunch and a nap I met Claire and Liz at Gerts, McGill's on campus pub for a beer. Then I set about trying to find books about Canadian history in the library. The good thing about living in a bilingual city is that I'm always hearing new sounds and experiencing new perspectives. The bad thing about it is that it makes it twice as hard to find what book you want in the library when it's floating in a sea of French titles. It doesn't help either that I don't exactly know what I'm looking for. All I know is that I want to know more about this crazy country they call Canada (formerly New France, formerly Upper Canada). Bottom line:
Library 1
Lissie 0

From there I made my way over to the Concordia neighborhood to search for my vegan friendly grocery store. Concordia is the other major university in Montreal and it's pretty cool. It has a student run co-op that sells bulk items and all natural products. Everything is fair trade and/or organic. It is called Le Frigo Vert and it is roughly the size of my kitchen. Finding le frigo was definitely a success, even though it was a quarter of the size I was expecting it to be. It turns out that they are looking for volunteers so on Friday I'm going to go to a training and hopefully start volunteering there a few hours a week. The cashier was really nice and said that volunteers who work 4+hours a week get a discount. I think it will be a good way to practice my French and hopefully meet some new people:)

Au bientot!

ottowa is the capital of canada

Bon jour tout le monde! So today was my first day of French class, although technically it was just an orientation. The school is a few floors of an office building that is a five minute walk from my apartment. All the walls are brightly painted and all the staff is super nice which makes everyone feel more comfortable so they are, in turn, very nice as well. I took an evaluation today and so I will find out what level I am in mañana. They are really strict about creating a French atmosphere so from 9-12 everyday for the next ten weeks I will be talking today made me realize how much French I learned last year at LC.

Otherwise, we’ve just been hanging out and exploring. Unfortunately the abundance of exploration has led to an abundance of pain in my calves. Last night Claire and I ventured out into Montreal to meet her old roommate for coffee but we ended up getting super lost and our lower halves (my calves, her feet) had to pay the price. We eventually corrected out 1½ mile mistake and to the horror of our bodies, we marched on to what may be the coolest coffee shop I’ve ever been to. S’appelle Le Cagibi et est tres chic! They have a whole wall that is filled with zines and little comics and other trinkets other people left there. We only got coffee but the menu was mostly vegetarian and it sounded heavenly. Afterwards, we hobbled back to the metro station and headed home. The good news is that I am slowly starting to piece together the way the city is laid out. Tomorrow I am going to go investigate vegan grocery stores in the area.

au revoir!

le frigo vert

I think I might be too sleepy to write. Claire and I had a pretty epic adventure today. We went to the top of mount royal which is a huge park that was constructed on a mountain (large hill). Once you reach the top (20-30 minutes later) you can see all of montreal. It's incredible. And there is traffic the entire walk up, people are constantly coming and going. Walkers, joggers, bike ridders, families, dogs, babies, etc. The end result was a few very good pictures, some sore muscles and general exhaustion. My feet still hurt from all the walking we did this afternoon.

Tonight for dinner Claire, Michelle and I made ourselves salad for dinner. Liz went back home for the weekend. My salad was decked in deliciousness, including interesting canadian vegan meat products. Now we're all just sitting in the living room looking at our computers and zoning out. Tomorrow will be more of the same, walking and vegging.

I'm excited though to check out a new grocery store I just looked up that's super close to our apt. Hopefully le frigo vert will be the solution to my problem of not being able to find vegan butter.
Yummm

aux vivres!

So I think that today can definitely be deemed a success. Claire and I woke up and took our time getting ready. By two o clock we were on our way back to the Plateau which was lovely as always. The Plateau is home to the majority of Montreal's vintage shopping- to give you an idea of the area. We took the metro there and I was shocked at how clean it was. Each station has a different design. Our metro stop, peel, has lots of steel and bright colors. Others have red or grey brick but on the whole they are very nice and very clean.

Upon arrival at our destination we ventured into a very intense vintage store. There were rows of boy scout clothes and other uniforms, of wool sweaters, and men's t-shirts. The owner was aware that we were speaking english but refused to speak to us in English. He was super intense but it was very fitting because he was like the human equivalent of his store.

We then perused other shops until our stomachs wouldn't let us neglect them any further. We sought refuge at this super cute vegan cafe called Aux Vivres. It was top on my list of vegan restaurants to visit and it just so happened that Claire had seen it walking home the other day. We split a vegan blt with coconut bacon on their specialty chipata bread. It was incredibly strange and utterly delicious for the first few bites. Then it slipped into the category of good but not great. Our final review was that, although we propably wouldn't order it the next time, we would recommend it.

We then meandered until we made it home. I'm slowly starting to make a mental map of the city, connecting the dots of Claire's friend's apartments, McGill, the Plateau, and other bars/restaurants. Considering it's only day two though, I feel pretty good about it.

Tomorrow we're going to find the organic grocery store, explore the ymca gym, and locate the ilsc (international language school of canada).

I miss you all loads,
xo

day two

So it's day two here in Montreal and the city is just as radiant as ever. We live right in the middle of downtown which is super intense. The sidewalks are always super packed and everyone is painfully chic. Seriously, not a single person with a hair out of place! So far downtown is not my favorite part of Montreal. Last night though, we went to a neighborhood called the Plateau which is like the main art district of Montreal and it was incredible. We weren't even in the thick of it but I really liked the vibe there. It's a lot more laid back than downtown, although a majority of the people are still very chic.

Mostly so far Claire and I have just been walking around and exploring the city. Unfortunately living in ABQ conditioned me to be very lazy when it comes to walking and you have to walk so much here! Haha I'm going to have to get used to walking so much again but I'm looking forward to it!

Now we're off to the bank and further exploration
love love