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?