Settling in - American Football, Quidditch, Comiccon and more!

There have been a number of things that have shocked me about life in Montreal. From little things, like the different administrative processes at uni, to big things like not for the life of me being able to find a block of Cadbury Top Deck chocolate!

At first, I found myself quite resistant to all these changes in my everyday life: feeling resentful that the campus wasn't as easy to navigate as at home, questioning why I had to pay so much for a bus/train ride ($3 flat rate??), yearning for a hot meat pie from Pie Face after a big night, wondering why tutorials didn't exist at uni, and feeling a little isolated. And the thing was, I think I was isolating myself a bit. I found myself wanting to stay inside most of the day, watch TV shows that I recognised, Skype friends from home.

One day, a new friend I'd made invited me to a Carabins American football game at UdeM.

"American Football...in Canada?" I thought, "...why the hell not!"

So I bought a Carabins hoodie and ticket, then headed to the game.

The atmosphere was fantastic from the moment we got there - blue and white everywhere, those annoying clapping sticks (which weren't so annoying when you had some of your own!), cheerleaders, a drum line, POUTINE and a killer crowd! Not to mention that the Carabins...well they were dang good! We ended up smashing the Bishop's team 44-18. At first I was completely lost by the game, just following where the tackles were going, but by the end, once I'd picked up the main rules, one of my friends was actually laughing at how into it I was getting!

Allez CA...RA...BINS!

I came home in excellent spirits and felt alive at having done something surrounded by local students and International students alike, getting a feel for the spirit of the University and the city.

I felt like I needed to start putting myself out there a bit more, so I started just accepting invitations to do stuff left right and centre, much to the dismay of my wallet.

I head down to the park around the corner from my apartment each weekend to play a casual game of Quidditch. This, much like my weekly visit to the fruit market and boulangerie has become a treasured part of my routine. The sport is fun, quirky and tiring! I usually play a "Poursuiveur", or a "Chaser" in English. Last weekend, there was a jazz band in the park, playing a gig while we were playing Quidditch, who decided to accompany us with a round of the Harry Potter theme song.

Waiting for "Brooms up!"

I have also been to a couple of International Student parties (which are quite loose it would seem!) and have enjoyed a casual beer at the University pub with some great new friends from all around the world. I am still yet to make some friends who are locals, but I'm working on it! A lot them already have friends from the CEJEP/school etc so it has been hard to break into those circles.

Last week I went to a concert run by the Uni featuring Les Trois Accords - a well-known Quebec indie-pop band! They were fantastic and there was a great vibe amongst the audience and on stage.

Les Trois Accords!

And of course, this weekend, I paid a visit to Montreal Comiccon - which was amazing!! If you had told me three years ago that I would be going to a comiccon...ever...I would have told you there was no way - that was way too geeky for me! Oh how wrong I was.

From the moment I walked in, with the myriad of cosplayers, the discount comic book stalls, the stands of local artist meeting and greeting...it was pretty much official that I was going to have a good time.

Highlights from the day included:

• I got to ask T-Dog (IronE Singleton) from The Walking Dead a question about the show - Do you think that you need to lose your humanity to survive a zombie apocalypse? He replied that he thought that you had 'moments' where you lost it, but in the end it was for the good of the group and that's where your humanity comes in. He seemed like a righteous dude with a lot of compassion for people, and I can see where it comes through in T-Dog's character on the show.

Feeling pretty lucky!

• Listening to George Takei's soothing, soothing voice during his Q&A. I will admit, I have never seen anything remotely Star Trek but loved this guy! He was such a sweetheart (Oh My!) and had a great vision for what equality should be like in America for every single person!

George Takei on one of his famous 'rambles' as he put it!

• Exploring the convention room and seeing all the different costumes, comic titles and merch that was available. A particular highlight would definitely have to be one particular cosplayer though - Ace Ventura! He was so dedicated to the role and agreed to take a photo with me :) Me and my friend could have stood there watching him talking to people and getting reactions out of them for hours...he was hilarious!

Me and Ace!!

• Talking with the local artists and buying my souvenir of the day - Issue 2 of Heroes of the North, a comic about Canadian superheroes! It featured a lot of different artists for each story, including an artist of Archie comics in a very similar style!

Heroes of the North!

• Seeing Sean Astin's Q&A - It is with great sadness and embarrassment that I admit I have never finished a full Lord of the Rings movie (don't hurt me!)...but he was great! He had a good sense of humour and admitted to the hardships he faced whilst making the movie.

Overall, it has been a great week and I'm starting to feel more at home here and build a great group of friends. Can't wait to see what this week holds in store! 

Erin xox

First Impressions of Montreal

After having been in Montreal for about three weeks, I have seen some of the city, but haven't been as much of a tourist as I have in the other cities, as I have mainly been focusing on settling in.

Touristy Activities

A few days after setting up camp in my apartment, I began to explore my new home by visiting the Oratoire de St Joseph and Mont-Royal, the mountain after which Montreal was named.

The Oratory is on a bit of a hill and has a great view of the city and my university here. There is a great big set of staircases that lead up to it, and as I struggled up the hill, I was a bit shocked to see pilgrims climbing the stairs on their knees.

Oratoire de Saint Joseph

The Oratory itself was an incredible space with fantastic acoustics. It took me back to my Chapel Choir days when I saw the enormous organ and I found myself wondering what it would be like to sing in the space. The sheer size of the room as well made it almost seem all the more grand, and a great place for reflection.

Inside the Oratoire

There were also beautiful gardens around the side and back of the Oratory, telling the story of Jesus as told in the Bible through sculptures, and eventually leading to a gorgeous fountain.

Behind the University, there are two enormous cemeteries, and behind those is the Park of Mount Royal (again, enormous!). It took me about 3 hours to walk the park and cemeteries, which are an absolute maze. I already have a bad sense of direction, but this was taking it to a whole new level! The paths were winding and in the middle of woods... Anyway it was worth it, because I got a sweet view of Downtown Montreal from the Chalet du Mont Royal!

View of Downtown Montreal from Mont Royal (taken at the end of summer)

Another day I also explored the two islands (Ile Saint Helene and Ile Notre Dame) in the middle of Montreal with my roommates, where we went canoeing on the lake, had a picnic, and spotted a Groundhog! None of us had ever seen one before so we made like real tourists and took about a hundred photos. Here's one of them:

Woodchuck, Groundhog...whatever you want to call it!

After we had exhausted the islands, we hit up Old Montreal, where we got an awesome ice cream and explored the historic streets and Old Port.

It's also interesting to see how the architecture of the shops and metro in Montreal have been adapted to account for the snow in winter! Right now when the weather is so nice, it's almost impossible to imagine that snow is going to cause a problem, but as I have been told by locals, it gets really deep on the streets, very windy and very cold. The shops and metro stations almost all have two sets of doors you have to get through before you get to the actual entrance of the store. The doors of houses usually have a mini roof above them and there are a lot of stone houses around my suburb, and the buildings of my university are almost all connected by tunnels. If there's one thing I'm slightly worried about as an Australian in Montreal, it's the impending winter!

Example of roof covering door

First Impressions of the Culture & Language

As soon as I arrived in Montreal, I instantly noticed that the culture was markedly different from New York and Australia, particularly made obvious by hearing the French language everywhere. There seemed to be a much more European influence in the city, in the fashion, products, brands and architecture I was seeing around the place.

All the signs were in French, which I found interesting - my French roommates told me that even in France, stop signs read "Stop" but here, they read "Arrêt". I felt like there was a real pride in the francophone culture of Quebec, but in a different way to France.

Stop sign on my street

The people seemed really nice, and the accent came as a bit of a shock! Not only is the accent different here when people speak French, but there are a whole heap of slang phrases that neither me, nor my French roommates had even heard of! (for example, "T'es-tu au courant?" where French people would say "Tu es au courant?/Es-tu au courant?") My linguistics subject on French-speaking times and spaces is proving very useful in decoding québécois!

I have found the language quite difficult to get used to. Learning French at school and university seems to be a very formal way of getting to know the language. For instance, I am finding lectures at university a lot easier to understand than general everyday conversations, where a lot of slang is used and people talk a lot more quickly. It does also prove a bit of a barrier for making new friends - it's hard to get by with just the formal French I have learnt just by studying!

Through my university - which is on a mountain! - I have started to meet a lot of other international and exchange students from all over the world! Whilst most of the international students seem to come from France, I have met people from Senegal, Mexico, the US, Aruba, Mauritania, Reunion Island, England, Ireland, Poland, Brazil and many more! I guess this has been one of the most interesting parts of the experience so far - meeting people from so many different backgrounds, cultures and first languages, I can't believe how different everyone is but also similar! Often it is easiest to connect over a mutual love of international things such as films, TV series and music.

That's about it for now, my next post will be soon, probably about the campus life at my university and social experiences I've had!

Erin x

Weekend Trip to Ottawa

I had a fantastic (albeit, very spooky!) couple of days in Ottawa from 25th - 27th August.

First Day:

I had booked myself a couple of nights in the Carleton County Jail for my stay, otherwise known as the HI Ottawa Jail Hostel! One of the main attractions that they'd advertised on their website was the "Haunted Walks Tour" that was run in the city. Since I was staying in the jail, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of them! 

The jail hostel was great - like the New York one, except spooky, and a little less comfortable (it did used to be a jail after all!) Classic "the world" - the first girl to walk into the room (or rather, cell) was an Australian and from Sydney! 

HI Ottawa Jail Hostel

After settling into the cell, I headed Downtown to buy my tickets for the Haunted Walk and on the way saw the Chateau Laurier, the parliament building, and got a general sense for the city. Ottawa seemed really small, and a bit like Canberra in a sense (mainly because of the whole Parliament thing, and people not knowing it's the capital). It was so nice to hear English around the place after being in Montreal for a bit - it made me feel a bit more at home. 

I had a bit of a shop in the afternoon (was also good to see some brands I knew around). After this, I went to grab some dinner and found a little noodle bar called "Wang's"! 

Wang's!

That night was the Haunted Walk. Our guide was Charles, and we started on Sparks St, where we learned that downtown Ottawa used to be a graveyard! Here are some of the highlights from the tour:

• Hearing about the Chateau Laurier, and stories of hauntings by the commissioner, Charles Melville Hays, who died on the Titanic and predicted it would sink!

• The Ottawa Normal School - in particular, a super creepy hallway where an old headmistress has been sighted haunting two classrooms. Two security guards have quit their jobs because of this - and the older security guards play tricks on the newer ones using a cardboard cutout of the lady!

• The old Bytown Museum, rumoured to be the most haunted building in Ottawa! 

Chateau Laurier

It was a fantastic walk with chilling stories - I would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Ottawa! It was a great way to learn about the history of the city in a fun way.

Second Day:

I had quite a lazy start to the day, getting out the door at about 10am. After a quick bagel for breakfast, me and my new Australian buddy went off to the Australian High Commission to vote for the federal election (we did what we could...). Much like the US Consulate in Sydney, the Australian Commission was a little room in a tall building in the CBD. It made us quite nostalgic to see images of the Australian landscape and such.

That done, we decided to spend the day together, starting off with the old Bytown Museum - the oldest, and (did I mention?) MOST HAUNTED building in Ottawa! 

The Bytown Museum

We did a great audio tour, guided by a friendly Canadian that encouraged us to "imagine ourselves in a green field" or "hear the sounds of the war" etc. He was hilarious. My favourite parts were about the planning of the city, Colonel John By, and I found it surprising how young Ottawa is as a city - almost as young as Canberra! It was officially named Ottawa in 1855 (but started as Bytown in 1826).

At the end of the tour, when we were giving back our headphones, I decided to ask the girl working there about some of the information I'd learnt on the Haunted Walk tour.

"Look...I have to ask," I said, "Have you ever worked here at night?"

"A lot of the people who work here have had haunted experiences." she said. I was expecting her to go on to say "but I'm not one of them." but INSTEAD she said..."And I'm one of them!"

She continued: "I've heard about these Haunted Walk tours and yeah - I hear my name whispered to me up there all the time! (the third floor and attic) But I just put in my iPod when I go up there now so that it doesn't bother me."

My new Australian friend and I just looked at each other in shock. I was stoked!! I couldn't believe my luck.

After lunch, we paid a visit to the National Gallery of Canada. There was a sweet artwork with a giant spider out the front of the building!

National Gallery of Canada

I found the gallery fantastic! Whilst there were not a lot of really famous artworks, there was a great varied collection - particularly of contemporary art. There was also an amazing exhibition on contemporary Indigenous art - it was really interesting and unique. 

When that was done, we went back to the By Market area to grab a Beaver Tail, on recommendation from a very nice (and very Canadian!) guy I met on the bus to Ottawa. Turned out it was a very good recommendation! I got one with vanilla icing and Oreos, and it was the absolute shiz. 

Vanilla and Oreo Beaver Tail

That night, I did another Haunted Walk - this time of the jail. It was good, but not quite as good as the first one - I liked seeing more of the city. The jail was quite hot at night too, so was a bit uncomfortable in there with all the people. 

My favourite stories were about people seeing someone materialise at the end of their bed during the night, and also one about a woman sighted in the bathroom (on my floor!) who had NO FEATURES ON HER FACE. Creepy as anything!

What was weirder though was that my Australian cell-mate said that she kept thinking there was someone on the ladder of her bed at night! (She was in the top bunk). 

Too cool.

I didn't do much on the final day as I had to catch the bus back to Montreal quite early. But I had a very nice stay, and will definitely be returning to Ottawa - hopefully during the winter. I really want to go ice skating on the iconic Rideau Canal!

More on my experiences in Montreal soon! 

Erin xx

New York City!

My first impression upon arriving in New York was that it wasn't that different to an Australian city like Sydney or Melbourne. I was actually disappointed.

...How wrong I was!

First Day in NYC:

After waking up at 5am with some shocking jet lag, I decided to start the day with a morning walk/run in Central Park, which was one of the first things on my list to see! I couldn't believe the sheer size and beauty of the park, and it was a great way to start the day.

Central Park

I was in New York with two friends from college in Sydney and two of their new awesome friends from Contiki! We did so much in our first day in New York that I almost don't remember everything. We visited:

• Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty (which was really far away)
• The 9/11 memorial - it was huge, and quite eerie to think that the old World Trade Center towers once stood in the spots that are now the memorial water fountains.

9/11 memorial

• Wall Street - a great big street and a guy "occupying" the street shouting "Outsource America!"
• Brooklyn Bridge - gorgeous and a great view of Manhattan Island and Brooklyn
• Dumbo in Brooklyn - we hit up Starbucks for some lunch and also saw a guy in a photo shoot looking pretty sultry!

Brooklyn Bridge

• Carrie Bradshaw's house from Sex and the City and the Friends apartment
• Went to Soho, then Little Italy for dinner (they had some great Spag Bol)!
• On the way home we went to see Beyonce/Jay-Z's house (stalkerish I know)

Finally, we arrived home at about midnight and I was exhausted!

Second Day:

The second day in New York, whilst a bit slower than the first day, was also jam-packed full of sight seeing! 

Three of our group left very early (5am I think...) to go see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis play in Central Park for the Morning Show. Me and our other friend could not get up that early after that exhausting first day so we decided to have a slower start!

Leaving at about 10am after breakfast (a much more humane hour), we took the subway down Central Park and headed for the Loeb boathouse to meet the others. We saw many great sites alone the way, including the Bethesda fountain and terrace, the lake, and some sweet inscribed benches by the water.

The boathouse was a fantastic tourist activity for summer - only $5 each for 2 boats between us and an hour on the lake!

Boating on the Lake in Central Park!

We then all split up - I went to go do some shopping/have lunch/MoMA and the others split up to do the Natural History Museum/a bike tour/explore. 

MoMA was fantastic, but as it was Free Friday Nights, it had the longest line I've ever seen in my life! It hugged three sides of the building, but luckily it moved very quickly. It was worth the wait though, as the gallery had amazing works, from artists such as Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Van Gogh, Monet and Sol Lewitt. 

After this, we walked to Times Square for dinner at a cool Chinese/Asian infusion place. 

Third Day:

I started the day fairly early in order to hit the Museum of Natural History when it opened (at 10am), and I'm glad I did as there was barely any line! It was incredible - if I had decided to pursue a career as a scientist, I knew that it was exactly where I'd want to work! I didn't have much time, so I did the Planetarium (I had to, just because of Friends!), the animals from all countries, some of the human sections and the origin of man section.

Origin of Man Section of Natural History Museum

Next, I crossed Central Park and tried to find something to eat. On the way back, I stumbled across the Jewish Museum, which was a nice (FREE! On Saturdays.) gem. I particularly liked the exhibition of Jack Goldstein's work, some conceptual paintings and film.

I then made my way to the Met which was ENORMOUS! I would have liked at least a week there to explore everything! I particularly liked the rebuilt Temple of Dendur (a gift from Egypt to the Americans for their help in saving monuments from damage in the building of a dam). That glass wall in the room is incredible too - such great light and so iconic! (When Harry Met Sally)

The Temple of Dendur

After all this, I was a bit museumed out, so went back to the hostel early and had dinner at a cool Mexican place called Blockheads. 

Fourth Day:

After saying goodbye to one of our friends who was off to Washington, me and my other college friend paid a visit to Columbia University! It was incredible, with such history, but looking at an Ivy League University made me realise how lucky we are at Sydney University with our sandstone castle! 

Columbia University

We then met another friend for lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner and decided to go see a matinée Broadway Show (Chicago)! Ellen's Stardust Diner was awesome and had a great vibe - our waitress was super cute! I think she was called Shortcake... 

Ellen's Stardust Diner

Chicago was also good - although it didn't quite live up to my expectations as I had seen a couple of Broadway shows in Australia (such as Wicked) which were incredible! I imagine only the very best ones tour overseas though. 

For dinner, we hit up a "family style" Italian restaurant called Tony's, where you shared the dishes on the table. The food was delish and we had a super nice waiter!

My final day in New York was pretty quiet after parting ways with the others, I mainly spent it exploring more of Central Park.

In summary - New York was a vibrant and interesting city, full of tourists, with so, so much to do! In the five days I spent there, I still feel like there was so much I didn't get to do, so I will definitely be back! I found the people in New York really kind and friendly once you got talking to them, all with great tips about the city. 

So sorry about the essay everyone and welcome to the blog! I am a bit behind but will try and catch up the posts on my travels over the next couple of days!

Erin xx