HELLO MONTREAL

When I say I haven't blogged in a million years, this time I mean it seeing as the blogspot layout is completely different from how I remember it to be...

So as most of you readers may be aware, I'm currently on exchange in Montreal at the moment :D I've been here for almost a month and it's ridiculously how fast time flies. I always thought my 5 months here would be fun, but slightly terrified of the idea that I'd never make friends therefore my time here would be SO SLOW.

In the span of a few weeks, I've stayed at a hostel and hung out with randoms for a week, moved out of the hostel and into a nice apartment with 2 roommates, taken a trip to NYC, experienced Frosh week, MADE FRIENDS and started class. In a way it feels like it's been a lot longer than a month since I packed so many activities into it, but at the same time I feel like I just left Melbourne yesterday. I'm still in touch with my closest friends pretty much every day but I still leave the house to do something every day as well!

So let's backtrack a little...

WEEK 1
Stayed in a 10 girl dorm at HI hostel, which was an interesting experience I'd rather not re-experience. 10 people to one tiny bathroom is awful, especially since the shower block is so tiny I can't rotate 180 degrees without bruising a random part of my body. I did meet some great people, mostly from the USA or Germany (or a mix of both) and spent a few days exploring Montreal with them by day and having a few drinks by night. Went to see: Botanical gardens, Old Montreal, Gay Village, a few markets, a few churches and general downtown area...touristry things. Whenever I got the chance, I emailed about 15 places enquiring about an apartment and I went to see a few before finally settling on the one I live at now! I learnt after a while not to take too long to decide, because there's always a million people who want the same room. So I took this one on the spot and I'm lucky I got it despite being unsure to begin with (couldn't decide if landlord was really nice or slightly creepy...I guess he's just nice but different culture comes across as weird).

WEEK 2
Memorable bit of this week was taking the Amtrak down to NYC to celebrate my birthday and see my cousins! Hung out with Darren and his friend Alex for a day and saw a broadway show with them :) Next day, had brunch with Linda and saw Cirque du Soleil with Annette & fam and just hung out/had a nice dinner. Last day, I shopped! Tried to get a new macbook to replace my old dying one but they rejected my card and had ridiculous tax anyway.
Settled into the new place! Moved my stuff in, did my laundry and groceries, explored the area and all other domestic things like that. Met up with some Melbournians and had dinner/drinks one night but to be honest they weren't really my type of people I guess. I registered for Frosh week and had no idea what to expect (mostly hopeful I would meet people and make friends with people I had things in common with)

WEEK 3
FROSH! Oh my god. Best 4 days so far ever! Basically it was like Aa camp or any faculty camp except it wasn't camp. Day 1 we were sorted into groups by running across the gym and being caught by random group leaders (GROUP 4!). We got to meet everyone in our group and chat over a bbq dinner which was nice, I befriended a girl living at New Rez so she invited me to see what residential life was like seeing as most people live on college. IT WAS LIKE A HOTEL! Front desk, room layout  and everything was exactly like any other hotel. I played my first game of beer pong and then went to my frosh leader's apartment for predrinks. Met some more people and went out to club 737, a nightclub on the 40th floor of a building and had incredible views of Montreal and danced the night away! Next day was pubcrawl which was probably my favourite event. Basically free beer/games - 8 bars in 2 hours! Befriended some of the girls in my group who were actually from Montreal, which I preferred a lot more over people from anywhere else. I feel like locals are more relaxed and don't bother conforming to social pressures so I liked hanging out with them a lot more. That night there was an event at a 6 storey pub/club and I went and sat down with some people from my group but I was completely bored. Everyone was sitting down and not really talking, so I got up and left and some weird guy was yelling at me being like LAME WHY ARE YOU LEAVING IT'S ONLY 11:30! I just wanted to be like shut up you first year kid, I'm too old for this and I'm not gonna stay here just because everyone else is! Day 3 was BEACH DAY! So much fun, but really...it wasn't even close to being a beach. The line was ridiculous to get a bus, I waited an hour! Some people waited for 3 hours but I pushed right to the front hehe. Spent most of the day with a girl called Cici (one of the locals) and her friends from CEGEP and got a sweet tan. The beach was more like a man made lake/river but it was still a different kind of fun to Australian beaches. They had mini slides, a dancefloor, a pool (who puts a pool at the beach...) trampoline, bars and food stands. We didn't want to struggle through a bus again so when we left we literally chased buses down to get one. That night was another fun one at a club near my house...I think I just really like dancing. I really loved our frosh leaders too, after a few nights they were basically my new friends (I was probably older than them anyway). Day 4 was a chill picnic on some island nearby, the girls from here are hardcore drinkers...I felt like my body hadn't been cleansed of alcohol for 4 days so I was really over it. In the evening was an all ages event (terrible) and I didn't really have the greatest ending to frosh but it was still fun! Disastrous cab home alone where my nose bled, thought I lost my keys and accidentally punched the fridge whilst I was desperately trying to grab a pitcher of water.

WEEK 4
So this was recovery week and uni! I've had 2 days of uni so far and it's more or less like Melbourne :) with tiny lecture tables and hard plastic seats. Music was a bludge (was still forced to buy the exercise book) but a small class, Integrative neuro is basically about the 5 senses, Intro to neuro is about actual neurons/nerves (and it's hard), Pharmacology is self explanatory and seems really interesting, and Molecular biology of oncogenes is a combination of extremely hard and still interesting. So I guess I got a good combination of subjects...I was tempted to drop oncogenetics because it was too hard and I'm here to enjoy myself but I can't be bothered/it's still interesting/I need a challege

So that's a crash course in what I've been up to, I can't be bothered with pictures! It's either on facebook or instagram so if you're reading this it's likely you've seen them anyway :) Hopefully I'll actually blog again soon! Maybe in a month or so haha...until then!

xo