First Days...

Oh Canada...



My first week here in Montreal has been amazing. Flying in on the city was my first glimpse into its character and lively personality. The old French buildings combined with new world architecture peeked through the clouds and as the plane lowered I could see rivers sprawled everywhere only to be surrounded by greenery. To add to its physical beauty, the personality of city itself is a mix of eccentricity that only the French could bring, and a bit of British sophistication. I absolutely adore how easily people here switch from French to English and vice versa.

I am staying at McGill University (the Harvard of Canada) which is located wonderfully next to Mount Royal (which Montreal is named for). There are 11 other students here with me from the Univeristy of Portland, and I have to say, they are all cordial, wonderfully nice people. To be plain, we all get along great.

My first day here was spent getting settled in and grabbing some groceries and fell asleep listening to Stevie Wonder play live from my window (the Jazz festival is going on right now). The next day was Canada day and we went down to the waterfront to see some of the formal events going on, which involved Mounties!!! (Yes, they do exist and are not just mere Canadian legend). I was also spotted to be in a picture book about Canada called, "the Faces of Canada." I wasn't really sure what was going on except for that a man with a huge camera handed me a business card and began talking to me in French and taking my picture. Montreal also hosted an odd but cool ‘Water, laser beam, dance, firework’ show, which turned out to be fun but the only people who seemed to truely enjoy it were some rockin’ old ladies who were persistant in trying to get others, including myself, to dance to the techno beats.

I only have three hours of class a day, so the rest of the time is used for whatever we want, which includes spying on our neighbors...who turned out to be three very friendly Canadian students staying at McGill on their break from the Armed Royal Military College. We ended up going to a pub one night with them, and the next night to Australia’s showing in the international firework competition that Montreal is hosting, followed by going to the Jazz festival where we heard some fantastic music by a lady with the most fantastic afro---If your afro is that good, your music can only be great.

That leaves me with today! Today we went to St. Joseph’s Oratory for mass and to this little french bakery where I was able to order my food completely in french! From St. Joseph’s you can see Montreal at its finest. St. Joseph's isn't bad either; with lush gardens and an astounding building.

I will post pictures when I have them.
Au Reviour
amiliah