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!

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