Song of the Day: Welcome Home

It was really warm today. And rainy. I choose to believe that Montreal was weeping over our departure. Today is our last day in Montreal. We had class and talked about our readings and the Interim as a whole. Then we all went out to Premier Moisson for lunch. I had planned all of my expenses so that I would run out of money today, but then I found $50.00 in my wallet, so guess who bought $70.00 worth of presents today? Then Jill and I went to the Jean-Talon market and I bought flowers for Angela. I came back home using the metro for the last time. It was very sad. I will miss the lady saying "Prochaine Station: Papineau" and things like that. Anyway, I came home and packed.

Breakfast: Yogurt
Lunch: Vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, cheese, and other veggies; cheese cake
Dinner: pasta with veggies, chicken with stuffing, deep-fried rice balls.

Today was our last free day and it was lots of fun. We went to the Notre Dame for Sunday mass, which was really interesting and the choir was really pretty. Then we went to lunch at a cafe on Sainte-Catherine and then to the same creperie from two summers ago: Paris Crepes! Oh my goodness, mine was so yummy and I got to hold it and walk while I ate it. This was the first crepe that I've been able to hold, and I decided that I would open my own creperie and call it "Holdy Crepe!" Then four of us walked up Mont Royal to Lac aux Castors and I sat and plaued MASH with Rebekah while the other two girls skated. It was so nice and sunny and "warm."

Breakfast: Yogurt, cookie, muffin
Lunch: Turkey, Bacon, tomato sandwich, nutella and banana crepe
Dinner Party Time:This was so much fun! The regulars were there and also Emmanuel's new students were there, who have only been studying French for two years, so it was fun to talk to them and feel ok about myself. Actually, to be honest, I rocked that dinner party. I could understand everyone and I joined in all the conversations and made jokes and actually said more than one sentence at a time (!!!). The Food: homemade pizza with homemade prosciutto; wine; tisane; tiramisu, neopolitan pasteries; whiskey.

Song of the Day: "Fireflies" by Owl City

Today we girls met at 11:00 at the Musee des Beaux Arts to see the Waterhouse exhibition. Before that, thought, I went to Premier Moisson for about an hour and read my book while eating a croissant. Absolutely lovely. I really liked the Waterhouse exhibition, although the lighting was a little annoying because the lights would reflect too harshly on the tops of the paintings. It wasn't really my style of painting, but I still really enoyed reading everything and looking at them. Then Rebekah, Harper, Lauren and I went to lunch while the other girls went to Tim Horton's. We went to Cafe Depot and had a yummy lunch. After that, I went on my own to buy some cadeaux for ma famille. I'm at Angela's right now (although I have no idea where she is) and tonight we girls are going out for dessert and coffee at the restaurant at the top of Ville-Marie. Ville-Marie is the tallest building in Montreal and it holds the main offices for the major banks in Montreal. But at the top of the Ville-Marie is a restaurant and a discotheque. Some people might go to the discotheque after dessert, but I really have no desire to.

Song of the Day: "Us" by Regina Spektor

Breakfast: yogurt and croissant
Lunch: baguette with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and pesto; creme brulee
Dinner: "macaroni" with zucchini, chicken

Today was the start of our free weekend. Kaylee, Jillian, Lauren, Rebekah, and I took a morning walk around Westmount, which is basically the really rich part of Montreal directly north of Saint-Henri, the really poor part of Montreal. It was really pretty, but it made me sad that directly south was a lot of poverty while these people had huge houses. Then we had lunch at Second Cup, which is a chain of cafes in Quebec. Then we met up with the rest of the girls to go to the Biodome. The Biodome was so cool! It was like the Meijer Gardens and the zoo and I took a lot of pictures. However, right after we got there, my batteries died in my camera, so I had to buy them at the boutique. Guess how much four lithium batteries cost? (hint: in Greand Rapids, it was $9.00.). I had to pay $25.00 for four stupid batteries! But I didn't know what the price was until after she had rung me up and I'm a push-over apparently. Then I went back to Angela's and had dinner, but she made me eat too much.

Breakfast: yogurt, clementine, cookie
Lunch: sandwich with mozzarella, lettuce, and tomato-ey pesto; apple tart
Dinner: tortellini soup, homemade chicken salad on toast

Hi!

Today we had a guest speaker in class today who gave a lecture (in French, or course!) about the history of Christianity in Quebec, which was actually really interesting. Then Kaylee, Rebekah, Harper and I went to Premier Moisson again and had a really yummy lunch. After that, we had a tour of Saint-Henri, which was really cold because we were outside for two hours. Saint-Henri is the sort of place where no one would want to take a tour if a really famous book didn't take place there. Saint-Henri is where Gabrielle Roy's "Bonheur d'Occasion" takes place, which is a really famous book that we read in class. The neighborhood is pretty crummy, and it's on the outskirts of Montreal, but we got to see where all the events in the story took place, which was fun. Then I went home, had dinner with Angela, did my homework, and then had a tisane. Tomorrow starts our free weekend! We're walking around Westmount (the really rich neighborhood), then going to the Biodome.

Breakfast: yogurt, clementine, cappuccino
Lunch: grilled bread with ham, cheese, and veggies; a weird salad of oranges and avacados; a sort of cake with apples, cinnamon, and pecans
Dinner: homemade sausage, penne with sundried tomatoes