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

recovery!

So it's been a week since I got my teeth out and it's pretty much all good now...the swelling isnt visible but it's still there, and I can slowly eat solids if they're not toooo solid. I've been holed up at home for a week and it's absolutely KILLING me :| I've finished all seasons of Big Bang Theory and multiple old movies in that time, so I'm finally going to Lisa's after lunch to bake and go to yoga again. I'm so glad I found bikram yoga as a form of fitness...I think I'm addicted :D Although I feel like dying when I'm in that hot room, I feel great afterwards and ready to come back asap. I also dropped a kilo after around 3 weeks of sticking to it! lovelovelove

xo

wisdom teeth

Got my bottom 2 wisdom teeth out yesterday! The actual extraction took what, 15 minutes? I was so surprised how fast it was, the full numbness hadn't even kicked in before it was alllll over. The numb feeling is hilarious, it tingles all the way into my eardrum. But once it wore off after 4 hours...the real pain kicked in and it was horrible :(

I had 1 painkiller but 2 hours later it wasn't really doing anything, so I had to hang in there another 2 hours before I could take another 2 (in case the drowsyness made me fall asleep and...never awaken). Had to sleep with 2 pillows as well so the blood would drain downwards a bit more, since I'm still bleeding every now and then and drooling like a baby. Also my cheeks have swelled up and I look like a chipmunk holding acorns in my cheeks ahaha...I would post a photo but I look like hell :D

xo

lost

Feeling really strange over the fact that high school is finally ending. On one hand I've been looking forward to this day since...well let's face it, pretty much since I was born. Funny to think that there's a life beyond Year 12, and I'm almost there

After talking to some friends last night about post-exam plans, I realised that a lot of the people I care about in my life are probably not gonna be around very often after Year 12 :( Lots of people applying to go interstate and would seriously consider going if they got in...sad. Like it's great that they're chasing their goals and they know what they want, but I'm personally way too unstable to leave Melbourne :P Knowing that these friends have planned all the way to life *beyond* uni freaks me out sometimes, since I can barely tackle my goals one at a time...priority right now is getting into uni at all hahaha

Dad asked me about going interstate (not that he understands much about all of this :P) and it's like...well uni is a big enough change as it is, I don't think I'd enjoy the thrill of being in somewhere unfamiliar with unfamiliar people. It's like Year 7 all over again O__O I guess I know what I ultimately want to do...I don't exactly have a clue how to get there, but I know that I'll find my way, right?

xo

i know, i know...

I've probably said this a thousand times all year, but the year is just going too fast :(

It hit me again today when I finished my final English SAC (YEAAHH!!), finished learning the entire Methods course (DOUBLE YEAAAHHH!!) and received our exam packs for Chem (...NOOOOooo)

UMM what the hell man, since when did I grow up so fast? The fact that I actually remember being in Year 7 looking up to the scary Year 12s just tells me how fast the last 6 years of high school have actually been...I mean, I'm EIGHTEEN now (yes it's taken 2 weeks to sink in) o_____o um, speaking of which...

so belated D: SORRY! ahh how i've neglected you blogspot...

So I guess it's time to persist just that liiiiittle big longer :( only 4 or 5ish school weeks left until I am well and truly no longer a high school student...

xo

we at the hotel motel holiday inn

Let's track back a few days shall we.......

Sunday morning, Lisa dropped her stuff off at my house and we headed off to the city, shopped all over the fricken CBD and headed over to Novotel on Collins (late) to pick up our hotel key from mum and dad :D I bought a pair of sweet boots and left them in our room, and then we continued shopping...and I bought a skirt and Lisa bought a scarf !

Caught the train to L'Olivo for Julia's 18th dinner, and we basically just ate some pizza and pasta (SO YUM)

Walked to her house afterwards for some cocktails&cake....yumm

Irene gave us a lift back to our temporary home in the city, and we watched the soccer til exhaustion got the better of us :D

Day 2 started with a massive bacon and egg megamcmuffin or whatever the hell it's called, and we got harrassed for money from an apparently mute person who owned an macbook. POOR MY ASS! We were totally out of places to shop because we'd been everywhere the day before, so we made a trip to South Wharf and checked out a pretty crappy DFO =/ Eventually met up with Irene again and watched Toy Story 3 WHICH IS AWESOME!

After the movie we trammed up Collins to No.35 in Sofitel (and attempted to avoid a really creepy hobo man who swore so much it was probaby Tourettes) and trekked through the insane wind...had a seat with the best view EVER and a salty/expensive meal that Lisa couldn't finish. We sat in our seats BURSTING with food so we walked it off. To the toilet. BUT WITH A VIEW :D

We ended up on some comfy seats in the Atrium...more cocktails and free pretzels yumm. Left Sofitel at around 9 and battled our way through the wind back *home*...aaaand watched more soccer. 11am checkout the next day and back to the reality of stress and holiday homework :(

xo

community day

Wasn't so bad.

The service made me sleepy, manning the gate for 2 hours handing out programs/raffle tickets made my back sore and I got sunburnt in a shocking place.

BLOODY SCHOOL DRESSES

but apart from that...the food was yum, music was good, I took some good photos and looked at some cool historical stuff about our school.

...plus the occasional old lady tell me about having holes in their gloves back in the day or something

So my diploma cemerony tomorrow won't be particularly attractive with a burn like that, but once the stole is on it should be hidden =__= hopefully it won't tan by the time formal rolls around

xo

hey ANGEL...

It's always awkward being invited to a party of someone you're not really friends with...what do you do? You don't go, then feel bad because 50 other people aren't going? You go just to be polite?

So I go because I'm nice like that.

You rock up in costumes and realise that nobody else really dressed up as hardcore as you did. Random girl comes up to you and goes "YOU PLAY THE FLUTE DON'T YOU!" and you spend the rest of the night thinking she has a 6th sense because you've never seen her in your life.

You freakin run away from her.

Then what, you sit in an anti-social corner all night with 8 other anti-social people and...be social together? Funny stories are swapped, pizza is notsogracefully eaten and gross drinks are drunk (someone dilute that craaaaaaap) but this can only be fun for so long...

People start leaving, one chick hooks up with all the guys there (a grand total of three), cake is eaten (or not eaten because of the sickness due to the gross drink) and photos are taken (or bombed) and at the end of the night everyone in your anti-social corner has gone home except one (ilyviv), so you stand there awkwardly being eaten by mozzies while a retard starts dancing up to you and you shun him.

A ride home doesn't come soon enough, and you spend the next half hour getting lost taking a "short cut" but car ride conversations are always fun ;D

So then when you get home...you hope the next party 1ups this one by a mile.

xo

first sac of the year, complete :D

CHEM SAC DONE :)

and I'm 99% happy...it was totally doable except for the part where I divded by 2 instead of multiplied :( but Dr J said that's only 1 mark deduction or whatever, so yay for consequential marking :D

5 more chem sacs this year...hey this isn't so bad! Let's just not think about the other 4 subjects shall we...

xo

and it begins

English teacher turns out to be PJU and he's......interesting.

Threatened to bash us up if we left the English exam room early. And awkwardly talked about blogs for half the lesson

Already have homework :( Gotta catch up on the holiday homework that I didn't know about because THE SCHOOL IS SLACK AND FORGETS EXCHANGE STUDENTS, and do an essay on conflict

Chem stresses me out already, Dr. J gave us his phone number to "text only" because calling him would be violating rules between male teacher and female students AHHAHAHAHA highlight of the lesson...I filtered out the rest of the stuff in class but I guess I have to do the 35 questions from the book......

xo

nocturnal

I've discovered these holidays that I'm a night person...I'd rather NOT go and have brunch with my mates cos I'm not even awake, but having dinner at a relaxed cafe is the BEST! If only this was asiaaaa and shops were open til 10...and if only my parents weren't so oooold and could pick me up from people's houses at 3am :(

Sam&Tam's party was really fun, mostly cos everyone at school I care about was there :) so it was good to see them all, eat food and dip chips into the wrong dips (Viv). There was some guitar hero, extreme uno, foosball, a piano, loud music and dancing...Lisa and Amanda taught Erika and me their dance from NYSF (who knew they would dance at nerd camp?) and I'm pretty sure I was laughing the whole way through it.

Funniest part was when Min was convinced some guy had a 6 pack and was trying to get him to flash it at us, but then Eric came along and was like I HAVE A 6 PACK and got a texta and drew 6 rectangles on his body...under the belly button? HAHA.

Erika made an amazing gingerbread house for them and it tasted sooo goood! Viv's Ronaldo soccer jersey cake also tasted amazing but after diving it into about 30 slices, Eric said it looked like diarrhea with blood in it =_____________= and he HAD to say that when it was in my mouth...ahh :( So at the end of the night I had consumed WAY too much sugar and now my skin has suffered the consequences...I also took like 3 photos, so I'm relying on someone elses camera for photos of that amazing gingerbread houseee!

* * *

Bridge Rd with Steph and Susan today :) Went to Steph's place first and Chris had a WHOOOLE bunch of friends over...that kid has grown up wayyy too quickly! We left the house before all of them did, but ended up waiting at the tram stop for half an hour, and the rest of them caught up to us by the time the tram came. I didn't buy anything (because I'm broke and I'm leeching off mum) but had a good browse anyway...probs gonna go back to help Lisa look for formal dresses soon :)

We ended up in the city, took some photos at photoworld (it bothers me that there's 5...the OCD in me wants to fill that last gap argh)

aand a tribute to 2007

...and Susan bought some heels at Scooter. She had to go home because Ben and Andy were coming over, so Steph and I ate out at a cafe and bitched about school, music, guys, girls and all that gossipy stuff...we so didn't feel like going home afterwards but here I am full of pizza, avoiding homework and looking for sheet music from the TV/movie Madeline :) so far no success but we'll see...

xo

end of '09!

Judging by last year's NYE blog, it's safe to say I've grown up just a liiiiittle bit more HAHA :D

No fireworks for me this year, as if the 38 degrees wasn't enough it's also gonna be thunderstorming at night...but I hope my friends are gonna have fun cos last year involved playing cards and eating KFC til the midnight fireworks started =__= yay new year! ahahah

Not gonna do the resolution thing, but I do need to finish reading 3 books, holiday homework, write a song and arrange instrumental all in the next month....THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HOLIDAY!!

I think I'll do a Stephen and reflect a bit (bonus convenient linkage)...

• Went to Rye multiple times, got my braces off...gee this feels like years ago (Jan)
• Black Saturday, and the memorial service (Feb)
• Bystander Effect ERA = frustration of 2009 (March)
• Run for the Kids 2009 (April)
• Had an awesome Mother's Day (May)
• Sat my mid-years, Sat my Lmus, MJ died (June)
• PASSED LMUS, Min's party, made a dress (July)
• CLC, Turned 17, Year 11 Formal (August)
• SKC formal, Jazz Soiree, David came back, 2010 Leaders (Sept)
• Final House Swimming, Unit 4 recital (Oct)
• Unit 4 written paper, OFF TO JAPANESE EXCHANGE!!!! (Nov)
• Home from exchange :(, my precious 49, best xmas ever, and finishing the year just the way I started - Rye! (Dec)

...wow I feel all happy inside now :D WHAT A GREAT YEAR HEY!! Nothing interesting happened in March and April (can't have a year without a bit of boring), July onwards was absolutely the best 6 months ever! Bring on 2010...final house chorals, final house aths, year 12 formal, a billion 18th parties, midyear exams, annual concert, jazz soiree, revue (if it hasn't been cancelled on us...), muckup week, end of year exams, valedictory, schoolies!, results day, TRAVELLING THE ENTIRE FRICKEN WORLD (hi Linda...coming to crash your place/Annette's)!!!!!!

xo

got all my year 12 books today

...I told myself I would be productive today, and so far I have almost finished arranging the cello part for chorals instrumental

PSHH "arranging"...more like copying out the bass line from the piano score HAHAHA

I HAVE to accomplish something pretty soon, or these holidays are gonna disappear before I know it :( and then comes the final year................................

Well so far I know I get to look forward to Susan's Christmas party! Yay for an all-day baking session :D I'm not so sure it's gonna be a successful outcome given my track-record with dessert baking, but here's what's on the menu

- Apple Sauce and Cranberry Gravy for the turkey (her mum's handling the turkey, thank god)

- Grilled Seafood Salad

- Chocolate Espresso Snowcaps and Upsidedown pear and gingerbread slice for dessert

something for everyone!

xo

crazy day :D

Mum jumped on me at 7am demanding to know if I got my SMS with VCE results...then my phone went off a second later

so proud, I got a 49!

Problem is, I feel like I'm not allowed to be proud because now nobody wants to tell me their result for subjects I don't even do. Is there some kinda study score etiquette that I'm not aware of?? It's not like they did badly, they just don't tell anyone at all =/ oops? I dont get it T___T

Met up with Corrinne and Bhavisha from my old school today :D I was gearing myself up for an awkward hangout but it was so fun and we just talked for 3 hours over Gloria Jeans and sushi...reminscing about the old days when vce didn't exist :) and wondering what the hell happened to x y and z etc...............

xo

2nd host family

Ayano got swine flu so right now I7m with my 2nd girl called Misa :D Had a lot of fun with her these days, we went to a game centre, did some shopping and we:re going to Disneyland tomorrow! Her dad and little brother speak English fairly well so I'm feeling less language tired these days :)

But physically tired? Um hell yes...sleeping on a futon isn[t too comfortable, and theres a lot of walking around every day. PLUS they go to school on Saturday WHAT THE HELL!

Gotta go sleep, 5:30 start tomorrow -_}____^

FREAKIN KEYBOARD!!

=___--=

xo

spot of trouble

Ayano has swine flu so 1) I have nobody to talk to except my okaasan and 2) I have to change families tomorrow

ahhh

xo

hello from tokyo

It:s been a crazy trip and excuse my typing because these keyboards arent exactly what I:m used to and I can:t be bothered finding the apostrophe....

Day 1 was Tokyo Tower, Asakusa and Harajuku - basically A LOT OF SHOPPING! I bought a pikachu plushie, a frog coin purse (cos you gain coins like crazy over here), a new bag (the one I brought here... the zip kinda died), 2 voodoo doll keyrings (maybe for friends) and a realistic looking donut keyring :D

Today was school and meeting our host girls, my girl is really sweet! Her mum is really lovely as well, both very patient with my crap Japanese...their house is also HUGE compared to what I imagined! They have the most adorable sausage dog called Cookie who runs around the house wearing a jumper and opening the sliding doors with his face HAHA. her younger sister has swine flu and the dad is in Germany so the mum is mostly upstairs looking after the younger sister, and I:m all alone on the bottom floor in a room to myself :) Ayano and I did a bit of timtam slamming, which she found difficult LOL...and dinner was also awesome, purple potato wth!! It tasted sooo good, and so did everything else. I felt bad for telling my host mum that I dont eat fish and prawn (but i eat sashimi and tempura) but hopefully that saved her from cooking me things I don:t like

anyways I:m off!

xo

日本 in 24 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK SO I NEED TO SLEEP IN ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

Getting up at 3am will be a serious killer, taking a 6am flight to Sydney and then off to Tokyo! I won't be blogging from anywhere, but I'll keep a journal and take heaps of photos and post stuff up when I get back!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG etc

Hopefully my host families will like me =/ and hopefully I'll like them...

If not, then I believe 3 packs of timtams per family is a sufficient bribe :)

xo

this time next week

I'll be in Japan D: (I think)

So yesterday we went shopping for gifts and travel things, and we got EVERYTHING! Sheepskin x2, Propolis x4, koala purse for the little sister, pen+keyring for the little brother, and cool notepads for my host sisters (plus the bookmark, jewellery and lollies we bought last time)

Mum won like $20 in the lottery and bought me a travel journal...the most awesome one everr!

I have English and Psych exams tomorrow and I spent the whole day doing chem HAHA

I figured I can't study for English, and I have 3 hours after the exam to study for psych....never underestimate the power of cramming.

Chem is a guaranteed almostfail, and gma is a guaranteed fail, but screw gma cos Sam and I have $5 on whoever has the better shit mark :D and I really want $5. (and also cos I'm not doing the damn subject next year)

at least this time tomorrow, it'll be 3/6 done!

xo