i am le home!  ¶ 10:27 AM 0 comments

  ah yes, once again i am using the tender internet courtesy of apple and their macbook. nyc has been treating us well, although no more star sightings. yesterday, cait and i experienced our very first broadway. we saw the much hyped 'spamalot' which is a monty python and the holy grail rip-off. it was hilarious and excellent and full of wonderful puns. while we were in line to purchase our tickets from a legal establishment, we were approached from an elderly gentlemen who offered us tickets to the sold out spamalot. we bought the tickets (although we were very very very worried that they were perhaps fakes) but fortunately everything turned out for the best. to add to our slightly illegal day, yesterday while in china town, we were approached by this guy who asked us if we wanted to see anything fake chanel after which he led us to this shop and the guy had to unlock this drawer with the contraband material inside. very funny. yesterday we also poked around wall street and the new york stock exchange, complete with appearances by the men in the different coloured jackets (i also noted that they were all smoking - likely due to the stress). today we voyaged into queens - very different feel from manhattan. but they had incredible graffiti art. they also had a grocery store where cait and i bought a bag of cookies and ate them while on a bench. fun. tonight we walked around 5th avenue. tomorrow will be quite busy: seeing city hall, walking across the brooklyn bridge, snooping around brooklyn, eating in the posh McDonalds (complete with doormen and grand piano) and seeing the world trade centre site. the television shows and commercials are hilarious here. they appear to want to instill fear in the general american population. today marks the half-way point of our time in nyc. sunday morning, cait and i are planning to attend a church service at a gospel church in harlem - we'll see if this actually happens depending on how safe we feel. i'll be back in good old edmonton in less than a week. cait and i are planning on hosting a picture viewing evening. what fun!!!! talk to you soon! party down. xx nicole  ¶ 6:14 PM 2 comments

  YES!!!!! i am currently in the big apple, using a free computer at a mega mega huge apple store. thus far i have seen hilary duff, haylie duff and jessica biel. they were all approximately one meter away from me. this city is crazy - so much to do and see - hopefully we'll be able to all pack it in. it's quite overwhelming but i am very much enjoying it. the hotel is fantastic and very clean. the metro system is also quite excellent although it was very confusing to figure out at first. new yorkers, contrary to what i have heard, have been ultra helpful and friendly. they also don't seem to care what other people think of them. it's hilarious. i went to this free concert at another apple store and saw and then met pete yorn. i have seen the UN, was around times square tonight, museum of modern art, walked around SOHO and central park, walked through trump towers (ugly decor), went through the Toys R Us store that has a ferris wheel and went through the guggenheim museum. we're planning on hitting a broadway sometime soon - likely spamalot (a monty python broadway about the holy grail). should be very excellent. anyways, i should probably jad as i'm not sure when they will kick me off this computer. hope all is well. i'm hope next thursday. salut!!!  ¶ 6:12 PM 1 comments

  i have now completed all my exams and papers and everything for l´école de francais. and i`m getting mega pumped for NYC but at the same time, it`s weird leaving montreal and saying adieu to people that i`ve been living with everyday. picking up from where i left last time i wrote, tamtams were a fantastic experience. after that i rushed home and left to watch the national ballet perform in a park. by national i mean quebec. i have found that people from quebec refer to things in their country as national. they also call their premier premier ministre, or prime minister. strange. anyways, after the ballet we went to this poutine store where they had over 20 varieties of poutine. it was scrumptious. monday was school and then our class headed to `jardin nelson´ for a farewell dinner. i had this delicious veggie pizza and then for dessert i had this cheesecake crepe. amazing. then i walked around old montreal. in the evening i relaxed, watch some good old oprah and dr. phil and then i made this amazing dinner: rice, sliced avacado and sliced tomatoes, lemond juice, cilantro and cottage cheese. amazing! wonderful! delish! the rest of the night was spent on msn, talking on skype and watching the rest of high fidelity. tuesday morning i accidentally erased my pictures from my camera by reformatting which i did not realize erased pictures. i was sad but fortunately i had just switched my card on sunday so i only lost pictures from sunday on, but still. it was mega frustrating. after school i went to the jardin botanique and insectarium and saw lots of flowers and plants and green. in the evening i went to see bon cop, bad cop - this quebec movie that is crazy popular here. it was entertaining but cheesy in a way that only canadian movies can be. wednesday i worked on my oral final (that was on thursday) and in the evening we went to andrea and stef`s uncle`s loft for crepes. i stayed up late that night finishing my oral presentation. thursday was oral presentation and then andrea`s uncle drove us to st. sauver - a ski town just 1 hour outside of montreal. it was very quaint with lots of neat shops. for dinner i had kir, french onion soup and an espresso and our waiter was philippe: the gael garcia look-alike. party! anyways, that brings us to today, friday. i just had my final exam and i`m going to head back to the residences to pack for a bit. i`m off to NYC very early on sunday morning. hopefully the border won`t be too crazy. 2 weeks until i`m home! salut!!  ¶ 6:15 AM 1 comments

  hello friends. this morning was quite the disaster because i magically managed to erase some of my pictures. it was very sad. anyways, starting off from last wednesday: after school andrea and stefanie`s uncle took us all to this neat fruit market called the `jean-talon market´ where i bought some cilantro, an avacado, tomatoes and broccoli and apples (granny-smith style). then he took us around all these really really fancy houses on top of the mount-royal hill. we went for zataars for dinner (these delicious lebanese wraps with pickled radish and mint inside). after that we went to the contemporary art museum as it was free entrance that evening. they had this neat exhibit on music videos where they showed a multitude of music videos from the past couple of decades. very fun. and then they also had an exhibit by brian jungen who made native american masks out of nike shoes as well as massive whale skeletons out of lawn chairs. it was really neat and exceedingly creative. thursday was my little bro`s birthday - he is now 11. that day i went back to the fine arts museum to look around, bought my bus ticket for NYC ( i leave this sunday very very early) and watched some oprah and dr. phil while eating a microwave pasta dinner (this time with added cilantro and peppers). in the evening we went to oratoire st. joseph - this massive and beautiful church on top of the hill. and you have to climb a million stairs to reach it. the stairs were divided in three - the middle was reserved for those that wanted to climb up the steps on their knees - praying/thinking as they went. that evening homework and studying was the order of business. friday was my sister`s last day in her program in riviere du loup so she called to say hello and farewell. after school i went to this indian buffet near our campus. it was amazing: butter chicken, samosa, lentils, rice, delicious sauces and mango pudding. i ate so so so much that i didn´t eat for the rest of the day. but it was totally worth it. that night we had our farewell evening. there were some musical numbers, some skits and most people (minus me due to stuffage of le food) ate corn on the cob. that evening we watched high fidelity and i went to bed early because we had to meet quite early for quebec city the next morning. quebec city was amazing. we arrived in a city just across the water way so we took this sweet ferry across and then explored the city. chateau frontenac was everything i could have dreamed for... and more. while we were there it was `fete de la nouvelle-france´ so there were parades and people dressed in period costumes. all very amusing. we ate crepes for dinner. i really wish we could have stayed there longer but it was a really neat city and i will definitely have to head back someday in the future. sunday we went to andrea and stef`s uncle`s hotel for breakfast. it was amazing. yogourt! juice! croissants! smoked salmon and dill omelette! and then i went shopping to this neat store where i purchased some nifty post-it notes as well as these alphabet dividers for music collections. very neat. that afternoon i went to the tamtams for a tiny bit. the tamtams involve a huge mega group of people (anyone can come and join) that bring their own instruments (bongo drums, triangles, saxophones etc) and then play them for several hours every sunday. there`s one guy that whistles and then sets the beat for the song and then everyone joins in, improvising and dancing. tres, tres cool. oh - i gotta jad. i`m off to the botanical gardens. party out. xx nicole  ¶ 8:14 AM 0 comments