Poutine once shame on you, Poutine twice shame on me !

Poutine pronunciation POO-TEEN : is a dish of French Fries, fresh cheese curds , covered with brown gravy or sauce.

Poutine is an ever popular pub staple here in Montreal, today UQUAM organized a meeting spot at a popular local bar to go out as a large group and give it a try

Our Poutine; we ordered the large- don't ask me or my stomach in its current state why we felt the need to order such a big portion

Me lovin' it ! but really I really was loving it, it was very delicious- I guess its not that suprising on the account of its made of french fries cheese and gravy. Bring this to the U.S ! (c'mon Mcdonalds I'm talking to you- you and poutine were made for eachother)

***UPDATE: today I unfortunatly had to pop into a Mcdonalds in this city (they were the only place on the block accepting cards and I only had my card on me) and there was infact poutine on the menu, there was a huge picture and it was only 1.50 tre bien Mcdonalds- I stand corrected!

These tours were made for walkin'

Today we went on an amazing walking tour of Old Montreal, this part of the city is beautiful buildings from the late 1800's and cobblestone make you feel like youre somewhere in Europe (perhaps France ? Oui ) The tour featured all sorts of great things, the first hospital in montreal, first bank, oldest road, an alley famous for artists, the origonal montreal stock exchange, Notre Dome (but I havn't gone in yet- that will have its own post!) and lots of other interesting great places.

Rue Des Artistes (the street famous for having artists painting and vending) The first picture is of my favorite artwork (and artist painting more of it) I saw on the street, the paintings were so vibrant and beautiful !

Im so excited for when we finally go to Notre Dome and visit the inside, I have heard its breath taking ! I just have to wait for a day when theres enough time.

 A chunk of the Berlin wall (random gift ? but still tre cool)

 the original Montreal stock exchange which is now converted into a theatre, oh and an awesome horse and pink carriage that accidently trotted perfectly into the center of the frame. Those guys are all over the place here kinda like in NYC.

The tour was quite exhausting - 3 hours of walking but it was great and informative ! Now we have plenty of starting points for exploring and adventures ! 

Sometimes

Sometimes my roomates and I go shopping together and then get excited about the things we got so we pose for self timer pictures with the items. So what ?!

Maybee somtimes the down time you have in your dorm on study abroad trips makes you go just a little bit crazy..but in a good way

Also Sometimes the location of the university you are studying at (UQUAM) is smack dab in the middle of the old red light district, therefore there are sex shoppes scattered everywhere you look and sometimes (just sometimes) they have really great puns as the names of their stores and I appreciate that.

...or garden themed window displays..but thats another post entirely

Les Canadiens aiment le B52's

My first lesson in Montreal : Dont trust the cab drivers and my second lesson: the Candaians love, and by love I mean LOVE , them some B52's . Last night was the last night of the big Jazz festival and the headlining act was ofcourse, The B52's they started at 930 so we headed out at around 850 from our dorm which is a 1 minute walk from the festival. Only to find that all of the mainstage area had already  been blocked off because as has been stated, apparently the Canadians LOVE themselves some B52's , and after last night I have to say who am I to judge them ??!?

Roam if you want to Canada ,Roam around the B52 World

Anyways, did we let the thousands and thousands of people and blocked off entrances stop us from getting a view of the mainstage ?? Absolutly not.

Did we sneak into the Hyatt pretending to be guest so we could utalize the view from their rooftop bar ?

YES.

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped during the concert

 this second one is definatly my favorite, its hard to make them out but in the gray areas its just thousands of people.

 After the concert was over we were pretty exhausted from walking, we saw this doughnut shoppe ( I always forget the name of it but it is like the equivilant of a dunkin doughnuts) being that it was the 4th of July and we were missing out on fireworks back home - what better way to get some red white and blue running through our vains than to fill said vains with sugar-lots and lots of sugar

 Just when we really started scoping out the doughnuts we heard somthing outside....Could it be ??

 IT WAS ! Fireworks! We got to have our fourth of July fireworks afterall !!

I got a few pictures on my camera ( Mom, I know I always give you props for this camera but thanks agian, this has lasted me like 4 years and for a point and shoot has some of the best settings EVERRR )

 Was Hulk Hogans old entrance song "I am a real American" playing in my head during all of this ? ....

 YEAH ! (duh)

So, in the end we got to have our B52's and our Cake (or rather doughnuts) and eat it too and suprise  Fireworks ontop of all that .

International 4th of July/ B52's concert/first real night = A great Success !

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaack

and by 'it' I mean both the 'Im traveling and studying and its hott out!' fedora

AND the ridiculous self taken pictures that always seem to occur when I wear 'it'

(for reference please see : http://girlmeetsmilano.blogspot.com/2010/07/could-it-be.html)

This morning we took our placement tests for classes; we were alloted a time frame from 9:45 until 11 to finish these and told "if you dont know it dont guess just stop filling it out and turn it in" at exactly 9:46 I was finished, only able to answer one question I moved onto the oral exam ..which did not take much longer. All I will say is there is quite a large amount of room for improvment. Hopfully 6 weeks from now Ill look back and be like 'oh remember the first day when I could hardly speak any french' but it will sound more like "OH souvenir de la première journée, quand je pouvais difficilement parler tout français" because I will be speaking french.

After the tests I went out with roomates in pursuit of a little tote bag to use for class. I wanted to loose the risk of breaking my brothers borrowed backpack (are you reading this Jimmy?? I care about your backpack and making sure it finishes its legacy with you at WHS senior year! I refuse to stand in the way of that!). Once we started shopping it did not take long to find where forever 21 is located in the city. Needless to say we were all very happy

This shirt perfectly describes my wadrobe here.

 We spent a couple of hours roaming the streets today and exploring, Montreal is a beautiful city, very eclectic. There are buildings like the one pictured below all over the place.

 This last picture is of the area thats in the center of the city, very close to UQUAM. Its all set up for the last day of the Jazz Festival (aka location of B52's concert tonight ! Horayy)

We've been lucky to have awesome weather too ! Although I wouldn't mind if it were to get a few degrees colder ( but now that I have my summer studies fedora I am all  set even if the tempurature never drops)

Tomarrow after class, which I have a feeling will be pretty difficult, we get to try poutine a very popular dish here that consists of french fries covered in gravy and goat cheese. Expect pictures !

jusqu'à tomarrow au' revoir !

ps. Happy 4th of July everyone back home !!

First D(eh)

This morning I left for dulles airport with my mom, nervous but excited for the next 6 weeks. My flight was just 1 hour and went by fast -it was smooth sailing ! Then I left the Montreal airport and ofcourse once stepping foot on land is when the 'smooth sailing' quickly dissappeared. I met up with 2 people I recognized from the program at the airport we split a cab (taken style) to what we thought was the address but alas it was the wrong UQUAM dorms, on the homeless, sex shop side of town ...which I have to admit I had mixed feelings about leaving. We took our bags around the block and down the street to another UQUAM building (the college is in the city so theres random buildings scattered throughout) only to find we were on the wrong side of town, got another cab and then arrived for our 4 o clock check in time, we were checked in promptly.... at 7:05pm...blech  below is a picture of the neon yellow lobby

 ..the setting of this all. After that I went to dinner with my roomate and her super nice (and ridiculously well-prepared...like seriously they thought of everything!) family to an awesome steakhouse called Gibbys, explored a little bit of old Montreal and then walked back through the jazz festival in the center of the city to our dorms. Dorm sweet dorm.

Yes, I am aware that this surely wasn't the most excited post and yes, maybe I still do have a nervous tone but I am looking to improve, surely/hopfully in the days that come these post will be a bit more exciting. As I travel out into the city and away from the neon yellow lobby so will this blog.