Neige!

neige=snow.

So the Monday after American Thanksgiving I woke up to snow covered trees and streets. It was beautiful. Then it sort of stopped. Then it started again. And now it's supposed to be 15-25 centimeters tomorrow!

Here's a picture of the first snow:

(You'll be happy to know, Grandpa) I bought a coat. It's something I think about doing a lot so I'm glad I finally did it. I look like a marshmallow in my big, puffy, warm, white jacket.

Anyway update on the week. Went with Joanna and Inga to my friend Marcel's for his going away shindig. It was fun but very sad to me because a good chunk of my buddies will be leaving for home in the coming weeks.

Sarah and Cameron had a joint birthday party. The next day I went with some friends to the Christmas craft fair down the street.

When I came back home Nikolaus had visited our house! The 6th of December is a Holiday when St. Nick and a dubious character, Knecht Ruprecht. If you're good you get gifts, if you're bad you get beat. There were three little chocolate santas and a card written in German waiting to be let in.

Cardy and I just went out and purchased a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's pretty darling. Thought you would get a kick out of the tree Grandma.
Friday and I'm done. Woot. Then it's just saying goodbye to friends, getting some Christmas celebration done, and I'm off on my east coast adventure with Emilia.

T-day 2

Hello blog readers!

This weekend was fun; unfortunately fun tends to be unproductive.

Got a lovely care package from G&G! Awesome tuque (what they call the warm winter hats here), merci beaucoup. Also, the Utah chocolate and other goodies were much appreciated. I feel so spoiled, I think the place where I pick up packages knows my face by now.

Had my last full day of French class this Thursday, have an oral exam this coming Thursday, and turn in my play. Next week I have the French final and then I'm through with my semester.

Friday, I met with my group for playwriting and got a little bit done, had dinner with Graham in China Town, and saw a one man theatre piece based on the same story that Tom Hanks film, The Terminal, is based on.

Last night our house hosted American Thanksgiving as an excuse to pig out. G&G - we used that red white a blue USA scarf as a banner. Among other things there was turkey, taters, mussels, risotto, quiche, and lots of desert. Because our place is so small we opened up the divide between Tim's room and mine. I didn't think we'd be able to fit that many people but it totally worked with all Tim's floor pillows. Plus it made for a fairly intimate gathering because we were all sort of forced to lounge around and talk. It was very special for me. I was happy to say how thankful I was to have a good portion of the people I made friends with here all in one room.




This evening we had dinner at Tim's moms house. DELICIOUS pasta with mushrooms and tomatoes. Tiramisu for desert. YUM. We were entertained by his little cousin Tina who drew pictures of everyone and sang for us. Haven't been around kids in a while, or in a car so that was nice being in the suburbs for a bit.

Well, I'm very sleepy so I'll be signing off now. Apparently it's supposed to snow tonight! This November really hasn't been bad. Mostly sunny, cold, a little bit of rain. But I want my white christmas.

Fiya

This is an old image but I really love it. It's a photo I took from our rooftop when the trees were still full of fall leaves.

This one is on our balcony and an accurate depiction of the trees now.

I'm about to leave for a class at the Y but I just wanted to do my check in. I figure if I keep up one a week I'm in good shape and I missed last weekend.

Two more weeks of school! Yeyeyeyey!

All I've got left is studying hardcore for my final French exam and working on the rewrite of my play before the final class date. I can't believe my first semester here is almost over but I'm glad for it because I've needed a break.

Last week I invited a bunch of people over and then we headed over to Divan Orange. There were two French bands playing at the venue and both were very cute and dancey so it was well worth the evening. The first band dressed as sailors and the second band had three saxophone players.

On Sunday I checked out a show I've been waiting for with Ryan and Emilia. We saw the band tUnE-YaRdS and The Dirty Projectors. I didn't know the last band too well but they were pretty fun; however, I went for the first one. Merrill Garbus is the lady behind the music. She loops sounds and beats right in front of you and has a powerful voice that vibrates to your core. Just check her out for yourself on her myspace - she's well worth a listen. I went to buy a CD after but they were sold out. She was there so I said something lame like, "hey, that was really great!"

Hello Sunshine

It's been beautiful and sunny all day so I was hanging out on our balcony to soak it all up. I feel tons better: I joined the YMCA so I could take some classes and keep in shape, and I'm much more calm about classes now that things have sort of settled.

Graham helped me study for my last French test and it made a huge difference! I think I'll repay him in food as I'll need his help for the final.

We had another burrito dinner yesterday. Really hit the spot, as I've been craving, of all things, Taco Bell. At least we made a healthy, more authentic version of the stuff. I've kept up the vegetarian eating since summer and I just realized it's been about 6 months! Go me, but something about the 6 month mark is making me really crave greasy meat. I'll admit I ate the lard created refried beans that Morris made. I just couldn't help it, the craving was too strong.

This weekend I also reunited with some friends I haven't seen in a month. It was really nice because they're some of the first people I met here and we all really bonded over trying to find housing together.

Nothing much else to report. Grandpa sent me the second installment of Proust's In Search of Lost Time - sometimes all I want to do is curl up and read it until I'm through. I'm glad it's come in time for winter, it will make the snow all the more beautiful as I make my way through his page long sentences.

This week I'm going to see the Waterhouse exhibit at one of the art galleries in Montreal and I'm going to have to go to a theatre performance or two in order to write my review for class. La vie! J'aime Montreal!

Write a Novel

I've been pretty sick lately, not sure if I had swine or what, but I've got a pretty awful hacking cough and residual sleepiness from sleeping too much.

I rested up so that I could at least dress up for Halloween, though. Look how cheap I was! (Is it weird that I'm always excited for my thriftiness) Found an umbrella lying around outside and turned it into a bat costume. Here is me hanging with Heather (dressed as an apocalypse goddess - can't remember the name), street fighter: Chun Lee, and swine flu.

My hard drive keeps warning me it's going to crash. It's pretty weird turning on my computer and getting a message of its impending death. At least it's warning me. The people at tech support said there is nothing I can do, that my lap top is just nearing the end of its life. No sympathy from the man behind the counter, no words of comfort, just a cool glance and the assurance that I better not get too attached. I should take what I can from it and save all the memories it has elsewhere.

Unlike a beloved pet though, I'd really like a new computer. It's just not really something I want to spend the time and money on. Especially because I just lost my phone as well.

This month is NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month! http://www.nanowrimo.org/ is a month designated to writing a novel of at least 50,000 words. It's about quantity not quality, which is kind of assuring. Write like mad and then go back after to refine, if you like. So I'm gonna do it. I don't know why it isn't called international writing month. I think it originates in the states but it's open to anyone.

Waaachaaa! Unfortunately, in the mix of it I'll probably have a dead computer on my hands. Here is something I miss about Sonoma: readily available computers. Not so much at Concordia. Too many students everywhere to provide for that. Plus, campus is pretty far from where I am so I'm never that interested in heading over if it isn't school related.

Snow

I tamed the beastie on my head today! Got my haircut where Courtney suggested (Merci boucoup!) at an adorable little salon off St-Denis. Justine thinned it out so my curls would behave and trimmed my bangs. Here is a picture with my old-timey webcam filter that makes me look like I've got some yarn in my teeth:

I shopped for some layer today at my favorite boutique, Cul-De-Sac. The woman who works there is amazing. She loves her job and takes the time to get to know you and help you with what would look good for you. The store consists of cheap used or vintage items, more expensive reworked items, or just new fairly inexpensive clothes. I did some walking around to enjoy the fall and found something Graham and I had stumbled on before during a walk. Check it out Robertson clan:





It snowed yesterday!! I was just getting off the metro and suddenly it started falling, confused at first I stopped mid-stride in an intersection. Dazed and googly eyed with a dopey smile on my face I wandered around marveling at the stuff for a good half hour. I can't remember experiencing getting snowed on and I've been telling people that. Though, now that I think about it, it did happen during a tahoe trip at Andrea's cabin - so I'm a liar. But it seems completely different when you're just walking around the city. Snow falling on everyone and all the big buildings. It was so beautiful that these tears formed in my eyes. Very sentimental of me but it made me so happy that I was in another country, experiencing something so simple yet magical.

I tried to take a picture but my camera doesn't recognize the flakes.

The snow definitely made up for the week of midterms and an awful score on my French oral exam. Something about that bad grade really energized me, though. I'm going to the French speaking practice tea times that the school offers and I'm bringing that grade up for the final. Just you wait Prof Roch!

I'm going to take it easy this weekend and work on writing letters and reworking my play for it's final presentation next Tuesday. Lazy weekend of movies, roomies, and hopefully some Halloween cupcake decorating and pumpkin carving.

Family, even though I've little snow experience, I connect it with the holidays and it made me very nostalgic for Christmas, Emma's smile, and all you little buggers. I miss you very much.

Love,
B

Rumpus

Pictures from Thanksgiving are in!

Judith was taking the picture so she isn't in it but this was our Thanksgiving crew. Started off with some AMAZING squash soup and homemade bread, coupled with something I made: a scrumptious pomegranate, hot apple cider (Thanks Canadian Food Network). This was at Guido's house , Tim's twin and the guy looking away from the camera. The feast included a chicken, pumpkin pie, salads, mashed potatoes, stuffed peppers, cornbread, polenta crust pizza, Indian spinach bread, and manicotti. So much goodnessssss!

Mom sent me a wooden centerpiece ready to be colored. Cardy did the honors. Mom also sent eternal (polyester) maple leaves that we used to decorate the table. This the lovely Emilia, from Finland, and of course, myself - lookin full.

After the meal there has been talk of having big meals every two weeks. I hope this happens because I think it will make winters really fun. Plus, I really like cooking if it means I can cook for others. If it's only for myself, I've no motivation.

Speaking of food. Thank you thank you for my package G&G!! I love that gigantic scarf and I shamelessly lived off of Top Ramen (which is only called ramen here) for the past few days. Also, side note for G Bain - I found some oriental flavor here! So you don't need to keep sending it unless you want to - which is fine with me. Anyway, I've been holed up in my room writing (go figure) for my writing courses, handling midterms, and generally being an anti-socialite. I even gave up watching a band, a very good one, just down the street in order to write on a Saturday night. Dedication, I guess. After my French oral exam on Thursday I'll feel a lot less stressed and things will go back to normal: you know, semi-regular sleeping habits, varied meals, actually doing my laundry instead of thinking about it.

I did allow myself to go out and watch Where the Wild Things Are with Cardy and her sister, who was visiting. Was a bit disjointed for me, but I don't know what I was expecting for a movie based entirely on a book from my childhood. Overall made me tear up from nostalgia a few times. Mom, do we have a recording of G Bain reading this? I hope so, because that's how I remember it. A very beautiful work with an awesome soundtrack. I listen to the track used for the "wild rumpus" in the mornings to get me pumped for school.

Movies are $12.50 here. I'll stick to the dollar cinema and the underground $5 cinema du parc from here on out, thanks.

Oh yeah, and here is our ridiculously cute roommate picture. Toronto, Montréal, California, Alberta. California looks like she has a stick up her butt because she couldn't keep a straight face.