Montreal and the cold.

It's fucking cold. Well, no, ok, not really but you can definitely notice a marked drop in temperature from when I first got here. You know how usually it's a pretty gradual decline in temperature as winter looms? Well, this is like, a 5 or 6 degree drop in a day (well, actually, I have no idea but it feels like it). The weird this is too is that it's still sunny.

Gosh this place reminds me of Auckland. Last night on the way to class it pissed down with rain for like, 15 minutes and then stopped and out came the sun. Frickin weird Auckland weather eh? I even had to bust out my big ass jacket which I haven't worn since I left. And it's only going to get colder from here. Eep.

Oh, yes, last night we had a test in my PR class which was multichoice which was pretty awesome. It was on like the first 3 chapters of the book which is fine, I mean, I didn't really study cos I mean, it's a multichoice test. Why don't we have those at AUT?? Anyway, that's not even the ridiculous part - our lecturer knowingly put up like, 80% of all the test questions online as the 'sample' questions! During the test he started calling out the answers to the first page! I would be surprised if anyone failed this paper. Seriously. Like, honestly. We did a presentation last week which was supposed to be 12 minutes long - ours was 5 and a half and we still managed to get a B. Ridiculous. I mean, I'll take it but c'mon, we didn't even do anything!

Ok, moving on to the more exciting portion of this post. Montreal. The whole weekend was pretty amazing but of course, there had to be a few bumps in the road. The first came just as we were leaving. When we hired the cars we asked for a minivan of 8, one of 7 and a car (of 5) - so 20 people altogether but when we picked the cars up they guy said that he couldn't get a minivan of 8! Which obviously meant that we had one less seat. Problem number one. My car had left early cos we had to get to the hostel by 9pm and we were already behind schedule but the rest of the group were contemplating getting two cars instead of the minivan (cos the guy would offer us a 'special' deal) but in the end they decided to just stick with the minivan to avoid all the extra costs and insurance and whatever which is fine. Someone just had to sit on the floor for the trip or like, swap seats with someone along the way. The minivan was pretty spacious anyways. Like, totally awesome with a rear view camera, touch screen radio, dvd player and a port for mp3 players. Too bad I didn't bring mine. It was a frickin Dodge which was awesome. Like, a lot better than I had thought it would be.

Anyways, the actually trip there was pretty uneventful. Traffic jams going out of the city which is kinda understandable with it being a Friday and around 4pm by this time. It also didn't help that we kinda got lost. Well, not really. We just didn't follow the exact directions that I got from the interweb. I'm a terrible map reader ok? In the end we just had to follow the same road until it turned into the 401. No problems there. It was actually pretty funny.

We arrived late to the hostel which was cool cos we called like, 2 hours in advance. Smart eh? Would have been smarter though if we had left on time... we were cutting it a bit close with our leaving time anyways. We planned to leave at around 2 or 2.30 at the absolute latest and it takes around 6 hours to drive there so we couldn't really afford to get lost or take any detours or whatever. I also didn't really count on people being late. I will next time though. (I wonder when that will be...). Anyways, as I was saying, we were late to check in and by the time everyone else arrived it was like, 11.30ish and when they did I tried to get them all organised into their rooms and whatnot which was a lot harder than it should have been. I canceled 2 of the beds that we booked because two of the guys were apparently staying with one of their friends which was fine but I don't think everyone knew that.... Anyways, while we were trying to get everyone's shit together we managed to get a few noise complaints. From the woman in the next room and a few others. Problem #2.

So as soon as everyone was sorted of course we had to go out for a few drinks right? I mean, thats what we came here for. It was raining. Problem #3. Well, not really a problem, just kinda annoying. Anyways, we went to this little bar a few blocks down from our hostel which was kinda nice. Drinks were relatively cheap but then all the Aussies with us and a few others wanted to go to another bar to see the AFL grand final which was cool. I totally went with even though I had no idea what was happening. Not all of us went though which was cool, I mean, chances are with such a big group not everyone wants to do the same thing.

Anyways, we got back to the hostel at like, 3am which is pretty normal for us now but when we got back we were in the middle of 'quiet time' in the hostel. One of the girls who came with us (and one that stayed in the first bar we were at) had thrown up a few times (at the that time I had just thought it was that once) but anyway, we were talking, kinda quietly I thought. But apparently not. the owner of the hostel came storming in and started swearing at us and told us to shut up and threatened to throw us all out and make us pay for the two nights we'd booked for. Massive problem #4. We were the first ones back when this happened so we called the rest (who were for the most part, drunk) and told them to keep it down when they got back (especially since the owner lived on their floor). Of course, some of them wanted to have a 'word' with the owner but I convinced them to leave it till the morning where Martin and I would have a talk to him. We woke up early (didn't want to make another bad impression. Plus we didn't want to waste the only whole day we had), pumped and ready to talk to the guy but he didn't start till about 10am so we ended up wasting like, 2 hours just waiting around. When he finally managed to make it down we apologised and he told us about some more of the stuff that our group had done - mainly throwing up both upstairs and downstairs, and everyone being just generally loud. Anyways, he let us stay for the next night but obviously on the condition that we were more quiet this time. Which at that point of time I was kinda doubting.

Half the group at this point were still in bed sleeping which I thought was a total waste of time, so the rest of us left and went to get some breakfast and decided to head over to Old Montreal which was pretty cool. We took a tour around the old port as well as old Montreal on a horse and buggy which was nice. A few of us also went into the Notre Dame Basilica which blew my mind. It blew my mind so much that I swore. In the Cathedral. Oops. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant where the rest of the group met us (they had just got up I think at at this point, it was like, close to 3pm).

Back at the hostel me and a couple of other guys went to a restaurant across the street for dinner. We had escargot and I tried rabbit as well (in the same meal, but not the same dish.). Both were actually really tasty. I don't think snails have any real flavour though cos all I could really taste was the bacon. It might just be more for texture. I dunno. Anyways, one of the waiters there was to me like 'where are you from?' and of course I'm like 'New Zealand' and then he's like 'I want to put you guys on a guest list for a club in the city.' And I was like 'sweet as bro'. The owner of that restaurant apparently owned this club so we were like 'yeah, ok, we'll come'. And apparently the other half of our group went there for lunch and they were invited too. It's pretty safe to say that some drinking occurred as well as some clubbing. Also, rain. Just to make this post slightly shorter. I'm almost done. Promise.

The Sunday morning we had to check out by 10am which meant that we were all up and awake relatively early. So we all went to go get breakfast - I think the original plan was to go in separate groups to different restaurants just so we didn't have to wait as long for food - but somehow everyone ended up in the same place... For our last day we decided to have a race to the mountain so we could get a better look at the city. The race was actually pretty awesome. At one point we went down the wrong way on a one way street to try and lose the other car who was following us the whole way. They obviously didn't know where they were going but like, at the last second, they got ahead of us and made it up the one lane road to the top of the mountain -which obviously meant that we couldn't pass them. All seemed lost but somehow we still won cos we were the first to park in the designated parking lot finish line. The other minivan never showed. Funny.

A few photos here, a few photos there and then we decided to head back to the hostel to pick up the others who went shopping instead/ to meet up and swap passengers/ for lunch. We were also meant to have a race back to Toronto which we would have won had we not got lost on the outskirts of Toronto. Problem #5. Ironically, we were looking for the fastest way to get back but we ended up getting lost and coming in last. Oh well, live as a team, die as a team eh?

So that weekend was pretty epic. Filled with adventure and mystery. A lot of laughs and (some) drinking. It was also a good way to bond with a few of the people in our group who I hadn't really know before the trip. I'm definitely looking forward to the next roadtrip. New york for thanksgiving anyone?

A quick update (cos really, nothing ever happens around here, lets be honest.)

Hey team,

Just a quick update about whats been goin on in TO and whatnot. This (hopefully) won't be a novel like all my other posts because honestly, nothing major has happened since the last one.

Lets start with the present day, then we'll move onto the past and then onto the future. Just because I want to.

Righto, well, last night I went with a friend to a live taping of MTV Live which was actually pretty cool. If you know me at all you'll know that last semester at uni I did a paper called Studio Production so of course I was interested in how shows like this were actually done compared to how we were taught in class. Surprisingly, it was very similar. The only difference was that everyone there knew what they were doing and we weren't really in a studio or anything - more like they just set up shop in a night club for the night. That place actually would make an awesome club. Anyways.... uhhh, actually, scrap that, I totally just lost my train of thought. I just got a call about organising accommodation this weekend (more on that later) so I kinda just forgot...what I was gonna...say.

Moving on. We went to see Brooke Fraser play live at the Mod Club last Friday night (cos you gotta support kiwi music right?) which was actually, to be honest was kinda disappointing. I'd never seen her live before but like, she didn't seem to want to be there that night. She also only made a fleeting comment about my flag (which I brought along - I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) and she pretty much just played her whole second album in it's entirety which I mean, is cool, I understand that she's trying to promote her 'new' album and whatnot but it would have been nice to hear some of her older stuff.... Anyways, after the gig I wanted her to sign my flag (I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) but apparently she left pretty much straight after the gig. And of course everyone we asked omitted this fact (except the one other kiwi guy in the band) so we ended up waiting around for like, 45 minutes for nothing.. The gig also finished just shy of 10pm which was kinda lame, but whatever, I wasn't really expecting an 11pm finish or anything like that. Most of our other friends though, were at another gig (Cut Copy and Presets) which didn't finish till way after ours did. So an early night it was. Which was fine, I mean, I wasn't really up for a big night anyways...

Saturday night we (attempted) to get into a rock club called 'tattoo'. I assume it was called this because of the tattoo parlour inside the club. That kinda fizzled out though, mainly cos we were still in line after midnight.... So I caught a taxi back home (aka the Primrose). Another uneventful night.

See? What did I tell you? Nothing much happens in Toronto. Also, uni work is starting to pile up for a lot of people now too which is understandable. I, for some reason don't seem to have much work to do and I keep getting the feeling that I actually might and don't know it.... You know that feeling right? It's not very nice. Not very reassuring.

And now onto some happier news. I finally have money in my Canadian bank account! Granted, it's only 13 cents but still! I'm happy. It means I'm making progress. On the advice of my wise sister, I set up two paypal accounts so I'm pretty much just paying myself money from my credit card into my Canadian account (which also means I get the true rewards dollars which is a bonus!). Anyways, this way I get to bypass all the security shit from my bank and it'll take almost the same amount of time to do it. Score. Thanks sis!

And now more happy news! We actually managed to get our shit together and this weekend we're headed to Montreal! All 20 of us... Man, I'll tell you what, it's hard organising 20 people but somehow we managed to do it. And, according to my calculations, it'll cost us a lot less than we thought to get there. We're looking at about $88 per person for travel and accommodation which I think is a bargain. But yeah, I don't think we're going out all of this week which is fine. It just means this weekend is gonna be huge. Huge like Canada.

Wow, ok, compared to my other posts, I think this one is a novella. But still, I'm sorry. I just get so carried away. It's one of my many flaws. Deal with it. God knows I do.

First day at school

So, my first day back at uni finally arrived today (after about 76 days of holiday). It felt good to get back to study actually but I'm kinda rusty at it right now I think. Anyways, my first and only class today was News and Current Affairs Theory. It seems like it'll be enjoyable and isn't too far away from what I was studying back home. Everyone kinda knew everyone else though (or at least one other person) and I knew no one. I'm sure most of you know that feeling. If you don't I'm sure you can imagine how it is.

The class itself was what you'd expect from a first class - ground rules, syllabus, introductions etc. That itself isn't new or weird but what is is that the lecture and the tutorial are kind of done one after the other which is why classes are like, 3 hours long or so (with a 10 minute break at the halfway point) so that will take some getting used to.

Also, part of the course is like, a 20 minute presentation about one of the key words or people on this list and we have to pair up and do it in front of the class like, 2 every week or whatever. So as soon as the class ended everyone ran up to the sign-up sheet and I was like 'well, I might as well just hang back and just take whatever is left' but when I got there there was nothing. Not even one space left. So obviously I went and spoke with the lecturer and she said that I could maybe do something about NZ news which could be kinda cool. Maybe comparing it to Canadian news or whatever. I still don't have a partner though which kinda sucks but apparently there's one person who didn't show up today so they might be there next week which is ok I guess. Like, I wouldn't mind doing the presentation on my own (just not a 20 minute one) so that's an option. And besides, if I did my presentation on NZ news like, my most likely Canadian partner would be like 'what the hell eh?' and that would make my job a lot harder.

Anyways, that was day one of uni. Not very exciting and also kinda disappointing (solely because of the reason above). Tonight I'm headed out to see a gig at a bar kinda out west which should be kinda cool. I wear glasses so for me it's cheaper. Who knew there wearing glasses had advantages??

Finally in my own space

Right now I'm sitting in my new room (which is amazing by the way) just waiting for my washing to be done. I'm pretty sure it's gonna take a while but that's cool. Today I'm just chillin which is a nice change. I don't really have a choice though cos today it's labour day in Canada. It's a good opportunity to unpack and get all my stuff sorted though. You have no idea how good it feels to finally just unpack all my things and just stay. Like, this is my home now (for the next few months anyways). So yeah, pretty much all my stuff needs to be washed which is kinda lame, especially since the washing machines here are kinda small and I don't have enough change to do another load.... (well, I do but I need a loonie and 2 quarters cos that's all it'll accept). I also didn't think about money for the dryer....

Anyways, here's a video of my new room. It's pretty sweet except like, my desk is slightly to big so the door of the cupboard in which my fridge/ freezer is concealed doesn't open fully. I had to move the desk across slightly (as much as I could anyway) so now my fridge/ freezer can open properly. It is also lame cos I have to open the fridge and freezer doors like, backwards so I have to lean over the door to get stuff....




Anyways, I thought I'd recap the last 10 days or so since arriving in Toronto (as much as I can remember anyways ahahaha). Ah, right, sorry, just had to check what my last post was about seeing as it's been so long since I did one. Ok, here we go.

So I arrived in Toronto on the train at about 8.30pm which was more or less right on time. I was kinda glad it was after stories I heard about it being as much as 12 hours late. On the very last day actually the manager I guess you'd call her told us that we'd be about 3 hours late because of a backlog in freight trains but apparently the engineers knew nothing about it so everyone was getting kinda antsy about that. It was ok though, it was just a mistake on the part of the dispatcher in Winnipeg.

Uhh, yeah, anyways, after picking up my backpack and meeting my sister at the station we headed down to the ferry to the house where we were staying for a few days. Our sister's friend and her boyfriend kindly let us stay for a few days which was cool. We were staying in the attic which was totally awesome except it creaked whenever we took a step. But this attic was like, the ones in the movies, y'know, like the ones with the pull-down stairs and everything! I was kinda scared going up and down the stairs though, mainly cos they creaked as well when you went up or down them as if they were going to break.

During the stay on the island we could'nt really stay out too late cos the last ferry was at 11.15 so we didn't really do much. We checked out the Buskerfest which was pretty cool. My sister and I also went to a Cirque du Soleil show for free and went backstage which was also amazing. It was the first one I'd been to ever so it was amazing sight to see. Apparently this particular show is one of the oldest running ones (like, 16 years) and now I'm like, super keen to catch another one the next time I can. We managed to score tickets and backstage passes because our cousin works for the show and we all happened to be in the same place at the same time which is kinda cool. Didn't manage to get a photo though which is kinda sad but it's cool I guess.

Oh, yeah, we also went to Niagara Falls which was simply amazing. The Maid of the Mist boat was probably the biggest highlight of the whole thing. The lowlight was most definitely the 'winery tour'. By that they mean a quick 15 miour of a winery's shop with a chance to sample either a small glass of red or white wine and an opportunity to buy wine. Lame. They whole thing was kinda quick though. 5 minutes in one place, 5 minutes in another. "Get on the maid of the mist and then come straight back to the bus - no time for looking in the gift shop. Just get the fuck out of there." (Ok, he didn't say that last bit exactly but y'know, thats what it kinda felt like). But as interesting as the history of the Falls is and how amazing the Falls actually are there are only so many photos you can take of itnute t! I must have taken one from every angle possible. We even decided to up the Skylon Tower which cost us an extra $12 dollars which was fine but like, we couldn't make up our minds about going or not (obviously we did). But working in a place with a tower back home we were all like (or I was anyway) 'You've seen one tower you've seen 'em all'. Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't been up the CN Tower yet (plus apparently it's like, super expensive).


Before and after the Maid of the Mist

My sister and I also went to visit some relatives who live close to Toronto. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but originally I was meant to visit them on my own but I kinda dragged my sister into it as well ahaha. Take that, Lian! Nah, it was pretty cool actually. They were really nice and I finally managed to get rid of that bloody present I brought all the way from NZ. They took us out to dinner at this chinese buffet place which like, seriously kicks Fortuna's ass! Like, 6 rows of food and seats like, 600+ and chinese! We also went back to their place for haircuts which was awesome but we were there till after midnight and I was kinda tired. We had also missed the last bus back so they drove us back to our backpackers.

The next night their daughter and her husband took us out for dinner which was nice. They were supposed to be there the night before but had to take care of some things in their new house or something. Anyways, they were really nice too and were like 'if you ever want to go out or something then just give us a call'.

I think that was pretty much it until "frosh week" (aka O week) where I met a lot of other cool international students from all around the world (well, mostly from around Europe and Australia but y'know). I also managed to get all my uni stuff sorted which is good. After that things just turned into one big, 4 day party. The details of which I will not divulge at this point in time. So yeah, I've made friends already which is really cool. A lot of us are staying at the Primrose too which is REALLY cool. like, for those 4 nights I ended up crashing in my friend's room at the Primrose cos I was still at the backpackers until yesterday morning and it wasn't really worth going all the way to the other side of town to sleep. Also, the room at the Primrose is a LOT better than the backpackers anyways.

So today I'm just hangin in my room, catching up on everything and stuff. Might be going out later to a BBQ then going to see The Dark Knight again which will be cool.

Right, I think my washing is done. I'll catch you guys later

The build up to nothing in particular

Since leaving work I have nothing to do. Combine that with not having to go to Uni and that means I REALLY have nothing to do. Seriously, that's like, two-thirds of my life right there.

So I haven't really been doing anything since Sunday except for sorting out any little things like buying power converters and whatnot. Pretty much everything's been taken care of. As far as I know anyway. I'm just waiting for my travel insurance policy to come in the mail (I need to go check the box, cos I haven't in probably more than a week) and I need to exchange all of my cash.

I also chose my papers for Ryerson. If all things go to plan I'll be taking:

Public Relations
Marketing Communication I
News and Current Affairs Theory
Fairy Tales and Fantasies
Social Psychology

I figured I'd take papers to do with my actual degree and then balance that out with some papers that sound kinda fun or that I'm interested in. Fairy Tales and Fantasies is about how oral stories for adults have evolved into children's stories. It includes like, work from the Brothers Grimm, Beatrix Potter, Andersen and Milne. It sounds pretty awesome. I've also been interested in Psychology for a while now and I miss it so I thought I'd pick it up again.

Other than that though, there's not much left to do. I've just got a few parties/ gatherings to go to in the next week or so but that's about it.

Only 9 days left.

Job status: almost unemployed

Only two shifts at work which stands between me and unemployment (yay?) I'm not sure where my money will come from now but when I leave I'll get all my annual leave paid out which, according to my calculations will be around $2700. That'll maybe cover 95% of my airfare (which I haven't really sorted out yet.....).

So yeah, after about four years now I'm finally leaving and probably just in time too. Everything is starting to go downhill - prices are going up, there's less entertainment, it's kinda dirty (plus it's pretty much looked the same since day 1), most of the other bartenders are kinda lazy which was/ is kinda pissing me off. So yeah, they want me to come back to work when I get back home but that'll depend solely on the state of the bar at that time. Cos I like most of the people but its just not the greatest place to work....

Ok, onto other things now. Everyone went back to Uni yesterday after a month of so off and I kinda miss it already (sad face). I dunno, I guess it just feels weird not going to Uni with everyone else. I've got nothing to do now (hence the writing of this post) and no one to hang out with but I'm trying to organise stuff with them while they're on their breaks.

Something kinda related - I have to choose my majors for next year! I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna do. I haven't left myself with many options (not intentionally of course) so it looks like either Journalism major/ PR minor or vice versa. That's it. I can't do TV cos I'm missing this semester's paper plus, I kinda don't wanna do it anymore after last semester. I mean, it's fun and all and it'd be an interesting job but it's just the way that they've organised (or not organised) this specific TV course. So I'm not gonna rule out TV as a job when I leave but it might take me a while to get there ( I probably need to do more networking etc etc or maybe I'll just stumble into it. Who knows?)

Ummmm, right, I'm about to confirm my leaving party for about 20 people which is a pretty good number I think. I just need to call them which I will do right after this.

I got my restricted license today! It's about time - I've had my learners for like, 2 years and for those who don't know you only need to wait like, 6 months before you can move from a learners to a restricted. But yeah, the test was surprisingly easy. It was raining though which didn't really help much but I passed and pretty well too. Apparently just a bit slow on the open road (but it was raining!) I've already planned my first trip by myself - a baby shower/ housewarming in Albany - all I need to figure out is how to get there!

That is all.