hello friends! today i poured milk over my oatmeal only to discover that my not-yet-expired milk had actually expired. yuck. it´s somewhat strange that this is the last day of july and that tomorrow will be august and that that means that school is starting very soon. starting from where i left off last time, the vetiver concert was awesome and fabulous and extremely fun. and i bought a nifty bag and the concert hall that it was in was air conditioned. thursday i had my presentation on cloning and it went very very well. the rest of the day was spent working on a newspaper project with a gal from saskatoon named erin. i took a break and watched 'l'auberge espagnole' with audrey tatou. it was a fantastic movie and i would highly recommend it. friday after class i went shopping to h&m and village des valeurs (value village) with some friends. later on in the day, i got to visit with jennyrae and aaron (friends from church) as they stopped in montreal for a few days before heading over to jamaica for three years. it was very excellent to see them. after that visit, i went for greek food with a gal from sherwood park named suzanne. the food was excellent and inexpensive. i tried moussaka. saturday i got up early to meet for the trip to ottawa. it was a 2 and a half hour drive. i think i slept most of the way. i also tried to read harry potter en francais but it´s not as enjoying as it is en anglais. we toured the parliament inside and out. the library was my favourite, favourite part. after that we went to the national gallery of canada. i was expecting to be bored, but fortunately it was an excedingly excellent art gallery. and they had many paintings by alfred pellan. i very, very much enjoy his work. then we voyaged back to montreal. i was planning to do something that evening but i was tuckered out so i watched day after tomorrow with stefanie. sunday morning i called home, watched crash for the first time. i very much enjoyed the movie. that early afternoon we went for lebanese food - the best wraps i have ever tasted in my life. and then we went to this event called piknicelectronik. it`s a huge huge mega large dance party that happens every sunday during the summer in this park on an island right next to montreal. it was so so so so much fun and the dancing was great and the music was highly enjoyable and everyone was having a good time. it was grand. that evening i met with my group for our group presentation monday afternoon. i went to bed slightly early. it was lovely. monday i had school in the morning and afternoon. our group presentation was awesome and excellent. after school i watched a bit of oprah. bill gates is on this mission to save the american schools. then we went to go eat at a greek restaurant but for some reason this restaurant closed at 7pm. strange. so we ate at mcdonalds instead. the cheese burgers were delicious. i also ordered poutine because it´s likely one of few times that i will be able to order poutine at mcdonalds. then we went to go see C.R.A.Z.Y. in a huge park. but a few minutes before the movie began it began to pour. crazy. immense flooding and rain. so we were soaked and so we left. and we were wet and my food was soggy. then we came home and did laundry until 12.30 in the morning! hip hip. tuesday we had school and then we went for food at the place that we had tried to go to the day before (arahova). i had a chicken gyro. it was delicious and they made their own tzatziki sauce. it was filled with garlic goodness. then our intention was to go to a maze/labyrinth game in a warehouse. but when we got there it was more expensive than anticipated and it looked like it was a place better suited for an 8 year-old. thus we left and went walking around old montreal. but then the temperature was 47 degrees with humidity. and we were slowly dying. thus we got a iced coffee and went to andrea´s uncle´s hotel where there was intense AC = redemption! then because it was still so so so sickly/grossly hot, we went to the `underground city´ which is this huge network of tunnels and passageways underneath the downtown area of montreal. so we shopped and explored. then we came home. and there was a huge storm. lots and lots of lightning. and wind. and rain. but it was entertaining. and we had a good view from our 19th floor common room. today is wednesday. it´s lunch break right now. oh man. big news. lately i´ve become a huge sudoku fanatic. but the ones that i have tried have always been too tricky. and so today. i completed my very first sudoku grid. hip hip!!! i think tonight after school i´m going grocery shopping because all i have in my fridge is cheese. and after i will hopefully check out the contemporary art museum. we are wolves are here on sunday and i hope to see them. hope all is well in edmonton. salut!!  ¶ 4:42 AM 4 comments

  hello friends! today is the half-way mark of the montreal program although i still have a month minus 2 days until i arrive back in fair edmonton-ville. things are going quite well here and there`s definitely quite a bit to do in this city. the weather has fortunately been much cooler and there`s been lots of sweet thunderstorms in the evenings. time has been passing by much quicker and it`s strange to think that i will be home somewhat soon. what have i been up to lately, you ask? well, starting from last monday the 17th, the metric concert was cancelled due to some `scheduling error´ so in the evening i watched this movie in the residence called `les aimants´ which was quite a lovely movie about magnets and being in love (which are the two meanings of the word `aimant´). on tuesday after school, we went to the montreal biodome and the stade olympique. it was quite nifty and we went up this semi-elevator and saw a 360 view of montreal. the biodome was neat. i think i liked the penguins the best. that evening, we went to a movie - `la secret de ma mère´ which was quite funny but strange at the same time. later on that night in our residence, we watched capote on stephanie´s laptop and ate cookie dough. yum. delicious. wednesday was school and then in the evening i went to the montreal symphony orchestra in the notre-dame church where celine dion got married. it was beautiful inside. not too much happened on thursday - a lot of homework and studying and also met andrea`s uncle for dinner at this neat irish pub where i had the most delicious hamburger. eating in dorms definitely makes you appreciative of warm, non-microwave cooked meals. i`ve been eating so so much hummus, yogourt, pita bread and granny smith apples. there`s this brand of yogourt here called `liberté´ and it`s the most delicious yogourt i`ve ever tasted - especially their mocha flavoured yogourt. anyways, on friday after school i went to LaRonde - an amusement park that`s part of the six flags family. it was so so so much fun. they had crazy roller coasters: some where you stand up the whole time and others where you`re suspended from the top and a really really megatron huge wooden roller coaster. there were also a lot of other rides, one of which involved being spun around and upside down, rotating both clockwise and counter clockwise. that one was quite intense. after coming back from LaRonde, i bought harry potter, book 4 in french. it`s kinda weird because some names are a bit different, for example, hogwarts is called poudlard but some names remain in english, for exmaple little hangleton. strange. very strange. saturday some of the people in the program headed out to oka beach, which is an hour away from montreal. despite the fact that it was quite cloudy and rained for an hour, it was still quite fun to sit, read, play cards and hang out. after coming back to the dorms, we finished capote. i was extremely extremely impressed with philip seymour hoffman`s performance even though i`m not quite sure i totally enjoyed the movie. it was a bit of a downer. after the movie, we headed out to andrea`s uncle`s apartment. her uncle is a part owner of a hotel in old montreal and lives in a loft right next to the hotel. his loft was amazing - just like a neat loft you would see in the movies. anyways, the purpose of our visit to his place was to watch fireworks from his roof. during the month of july there are firewords every wednesday and saturday; a different country from around the world produces the fireworks for each wednesday and saturday. i believe france was the country that presented the fireworks on saturday. the view from her uncle`s roof was amazing and it was neat to look out around montreal. when we got back to our dorms that night, there was a party going down on our floor as it was someone`s birthday. we joined in and had cake and i also tried sangria for the first time. it`s actually quite delicious though somewhat potent. we went to sleep quite late so sleeping in was the order of business for sunday morning. the rest of the day i just hung around, went grocery shopping, went to the bank and did laundry. what fun! monday after school we ate an early supper while watching oprah and dr. phil. and then we had a arts and crafts evening. i made a layered candle. it was extremely amusing. the rest of the evening was spent talking and doing homework. yesterday (tuesday) after school, andrea and stefanie´s mom arrived for a few days. for supper we went to schwartz - a famous smoked meat shop. i had the BEST sandwhich that i have ever had in my life there. it was like 5 layers of smoked, seasoned meat on rye bread witha bit of mustard. delicious and amazing. after that we went walking around this street called rue st. laurent. after that we went to orange julep - apparently the original orange julius. it tasted very much like an orange julius only more pulp. but the building is a huge orange. and that was funny and exciting. after that we got more groceries (more mocha yogourt for me). for some reason everytime that i buy the mocha yogourt i sing songs by moka only. strange. andrea and stef`s mom bought us this weird pop called pinebeer. it`s like 7up but it tastes like a pine tree would smell. it was...an experience. tonight i`m off to the vetiver concert. i am very very very excited to see devendra banhart. hopefully this concert is not cancelled. it`s only 12 dollars too. hip hip!! i have my mega presentation tomorrow morning and then i have a test and a mega project due friday. i`m somewhat nervous. saturday i`m going to ottawa and the next saturday i`ll hopefully be going to quebec city. this has been a mega update. i hope everyone is doing well. i heard that it was mega hot in edmonton and that gas prices have gone way up. monday should be quite the day. in the evening, i´m going to see the movie C.R.A.Z.Y. in a huge park. that movie is very very popular here. and in the afternoon i get the next 300 dollars! yes!! no more microwave dinners or oatmeal for supper!! alrighty, i´m off to practice my speech. hope everything is going excellently at home. salut, nicole  ¶ 6:30 AM 1 comments

  i am still in montreal. the weather has cooled down. i am speaking lots of french. i will write more later.
love, nicole  ¶ 2:52 PM 0 comments

  one week in montreal. it seems like muchos longer, which is kinda crazy. what have i been up to thus far?? last sunday i arrived around 7 at night and then fortunately i met up with a gal i knew from high school (stephanie harries) and her friend's uncle was picking them up from the airport so i got a ride to the residences which was ultra sweet because i had no clue where i was going. our school is on a bit of a mountain. i'm on the 19th floor of the residence which is a bit weird because the rooms start at floor 7. anyways, after i arrived and unpacked a bit, i explored the university area with steph, andrea (her friend - also from scona), stef (andrea's sister) and matt (a guy on our floor from drayton valley). monday morning we had our french placement test in this mega huge auditorium (even bigger than the huge tory room at the u of a). that afternoon we tried to find a walmart to buy fans and real pillows. we couldn't find the walmart. then it started to pour and we went for the greatest thai food i have ever tasted. that day we also got some of our food allowance. we get 600 dollars in total, 300 dollars now until july 31 and then 300 dollars from july 31 until august 13. it sounds like a lot of money. but eating out and buying groceries sure adds up mega fast. tuesday evening we had a huge group activity called `les pizza olympiques´ which is where we had all these silly stations to go to and then we ate lots of pizza. maybe too much pizza. at one of the stations, i had to stick my head in this huge bucket of flour and find an olive using only my face. and another station we had to pass an onion ring down the line using only a toothpick in our mouths. it was actually quite fun. wednesday i switched classes from the highest level of french to one down. i think i probably could have toughed it out in the ultra french class but the teacher wasn't very nice and it seemed like a ton of work. my new class is excellent and the teacher (joseph) is rad and we're watching amelie. thursday i went to one of the art museums here. it was quite lovely and i think i have discovered an artist that i love. of course i can't quite remember his name. anyways thursday night we had pizza for supper and an iced chai from second cup (so so delicious). then i studied and did homework as we had a test on friday morning. friday afternoon i met up with katie and danno who have been traveling throughout eastern canada. it was so so nice to see them and just walk around with them. that evening myself and all the people from my floor and katie and danno went out for thai dinner. mme harries (my french teacher from high school) arrived in montreal that night (as it's steph's birthday today) and joined us for dinner. it was lovely. saturday mme harries took us around montreal as she lived here for three years. it was excellent and we saw tons of montreal. it's really quite a diverse city. and it seems large people-number wise but it seems kinda small land-area wise. anyways, that bring us to today. i slept in and we walked around this neighbourhood called outremont which is kinda the rich, french area with ultra nice houses. and then we went around to st.viateur's bagels. this is supposedly a famous jewish bagel place where they boil the bagels. so delicious. so fresh. and so tender. i'm now going to watch a movie and do some research for an oral presentation that i am doing on cloning. tomorrow (monday) i'm going to a concert in the park with metric, electric six, fiery furnances and secret machines. should be quite nice. i hope everyone is doing very excellent in edmonton. i kinda miss home. salut!

  ¶ 3:34 PM 2 comments

  i am now in montreal!
the weather here is crazy hot and my hair is completely frizzled. there´s over 400 kids here so the program is really crazy and it kinda seems disorganized but hopefully things will pick up. my teacher is pretty nice but we have a ton of work to do. i`ll write more later!!  ¶ 10:59 AM 1 comments

 
i am now back in canada. hip hip!!!
this is one of my most favorite pictures of my adventures in france.  ¶ 5:55 PM 1 comments