maybe i should stay in canada....

Today at lunch I learned a lot through some random conversations with my co-workers.

1. Canadian women get one year of paid maternity leave, and their husbands get 5 weeks paid paternity leave!

2. Although Canadians have free health care, it's not perfect. One of my co-worker's cousins went to the hospital at 2am and did not get seen by a doctor until 11am. As a result, although they have free health care, people who can afford it still go to private clinics.

3. Quebeckers think that weird un-refrigerated French milk is weird, too.

4. A condo--even a 3 1/2 room one (kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom)-- in Montreal costs at least $200,000.

5. Fou dans la tete is my new favorite expression--it basically means crazy awesome.

climbing the "mountain"

After a string of rainy Sundays, James and I decided today that we needed to just brave the weather and finally visit Mont-Royal...well, I should say that I decided that we should, and James is willing to go along with almost anything.

The Parc Mont-Royal itself is about an hour walk from our apartment, so we hoofed it there and then braved Mont Royal. Mont Royal is not really a mountain, but the Montrealers call it such, so I figured I should call it that as well. It is a pretty big hill, and it took us about an hour to get to the summit. Ironically, you can't see anything from the summit--the best views of the city are from the Chalet and a turn-off of the road that goes up the mountain. The views were AMAZING, and made the difficult hike totally worth it.

In my opinion the descent was more difficult than the climb! James and I followed this little old lady down this steep cliff-side full of rocks. It required lots of delicate maneuvering, but eventually we made it down. At the bottom, near the St. Etienne monument, the Tam Tams were in full swing. The Tam Tams are a group of drummers who assemble themselves every Sunday afternoon during the summer for an improv jam session. It had a very hippie vibe, and I witnessed more pot-smoking than I had ever seen before in my life, as well as my first drug deal--so exciting! Needless to say we were exhausted after four hours of walking, so the rest of the evening will most definitely be spent chilling out in the apartment. (It was really good cardio though!)

going for baroque

This Saturday we desperately needed groceries, so that was our main activity for the morning. We were able to get things to make several meals for just over $40, so we feel like we're finally getting the hang of eating semi-cheap in Montreal! Unfortunately it started POURING on our way home with our groceries, so we ended up having to take everything out of the soaked cardboard packaging and trying to scrounge up enough Tupperware for it all!

After drying out, we started out on our 1 hour walk to the Old Port for Arion's 30th anniversary concert. They played at the Marche Bonsecours as a part of Montreal's Baroque Festival. The festival's theme was "The Seven Deadly Sins", and Arion represented Gluttony. In between the orchestra's pieces we were served little "gourmandises", which was a nice addition to the classical music. My task at the concert was to sell CDs, and I feel like I did a pretty good job! I also felt a lot more comfortable speaking in French that evening, with strangers and my colleagues, and I got really good at switching between the two as needed to talk to customers.

After the concert, James and I ate at Bella Vita, a tourist-y Italian place in Old Montreal. The pizza was good though, and we finished just in time to make our way to the Old Port for the fireworks competition. China's entry was on display this weekend, and we rated it a 6 out of 10--some memorable moments, but not a very strong finish.

la fête nationale

Last Friday was Quebec's National Holiday--la Saint-Jean. It is a BIG deal in Quebec, I would say equally or even more celebrated than the Fourth of July in the US. It turned out to be a rainy and cloudy day, but we persevered and were able to take part in some of the celebrations.

The first thing we did was watch the Parade of Giants. This parade basically runs through the history of Quebec, using giant 25-foot tall representations of its important historical figures that are wheeled through the streets. It took awhile to get started, but really picked up momentum and was really fun to watch by the end. We brought Jeter along with us, and he was scared of everything!

After the parade we made our way to the Parc Maisonneuve to check out the Saint-Jean fair--food vendors, carnival games and rides, and live music. On our way to the official site, we stopped by the Parc Olympique and had fun walking around the old Expos stadium and standing on the Olympic podium. Due to the rain the actual celebration site was really muddy, but we made the rounds and partook in the fair food--yum!

swingin' saturday

Yesterday James and I set out on a new adventure--swing dancing! While I don't think either of us has ever been accused of being rhythmic, I do love swing music, James loves me, it was free, so we went for it! We got to visit one of Montreal's boroughs, Verdun, and hang out at a fabulous park on the river on a most beautiful day. The lesson was in French and English, and we really enjoyed it, although they made us switch partners every few minutes so it was a little difficult getting used to dancing with someone new every 5 minutes when you were just trying to get the hang of it. We stayed after the lesson and danced a few more songs, trying to copy the more advanced moves we saw others doing, walked around the park, and then decided to head back to the Old Port since it was such a beautiful day.

To our surprise, the Clock Tower Quay was open, so we were able to walk out and climb all 192 steps of the tower to get great views of the city. We then decided to pay $20 for a 30 minute pedal boat rental on this canal at the port, which was really fun, and as we both discovered, a first-time experience for both of us!

At this point we were ready to go home, and I'm sure Jeter was ready for us to take him out since we had been gone about 7 hours...but unfortunately James lost his all-day subway pass. Which would not have been a big deal, but for some reason at that point every ticket machine we tried could no longer accept cash, and the machines do not recognize American credit cards. We had to walk to four different entrances before we found one that worked, and by that time, we were exhausted.

We had planned to go back downtown to watch the fireworks competition at night, but it turns out they don't actually start until NEXT Saturday, so we were able to rest our exhausted bodies at home.

James left early this morning to head to New York to spend a few days visiting his family, and he took Jeter with him, so it's pretty quiet here. It is once again a PERFECT day outside, so I think I'm going to hang out in our neighborhood and do some shopping!

week 2 recap

Monday
A gift from God! I showed up to work and was told to go home because the roof was leaking in several locations and until it stopped they had to cut the electricity! Free day! Unfortunately due to the rain we didn't get to go out and do much, but it was nice to just spend a day at home.

Tuesday
Back to the daily grind! This week I tackled some really difficult translations about the intricacies of baroque instruments and some musicologist's blog posts about different baroque pieces. Lots of new vocabulary to tackle, but I'm making my way through it.

Wednesday
After work James and I went downtown to the Francofolies Festival, the big French music festival that lasts 10 days every summer--and it's free! The two groups that we watched were really good-- La Volée d'Castors and Vincent Vallières--hoping to be able to find some of their music on YouTube and show it to my students next year! I also had my first experience smelling pot--at one point I turned to James and said, "What is that horrible smell?" and, well, I had my answer. I realize marijuana is for some reason synonymous with outdoor music festival, but it just seemed rude to sit amongst a large group of people and do it...not the highlight of my night for sure.

Thursday
I got a break from translating and got to alphabetize concert subscriptions for next year! Exciting!

Friday
Today at work there was a surprise meeting with the artistic director of the orchestra which put everyone a little on edge....but it went okay, and luckily I don't do anything SUPER important so the heat is never on me :).

James and I met up with Karen, my friend from the PFMP program, and her husband Amos for sushi and gelato. The people who sublet their apartment to us gave us a really good Sushi recommendation, and we had a great time hanging out with them--we can't wait for them to come back from Minnesota so we can go to their place for dinner with their three kids and them.

saturday splurge

Saturday was another exhausting day for the "Walking Garcias"...I have no idea how far we walked, but I think it's safe to say that it was at least 10 miles.

Food
For our "Saturday Splurge" we spread out our eating to get some of the best Montreal had to offer in our stomachs. We started with Portugese sausage from the Street Painting Festival, added scrumptious mini-burgers and "the best" poutine in Montreal (a Quebec original dish--fries with cheese curds and gravy), waffles and crepes with Nutella from a street stand, and finally, a baguette with extra creamy Brie and grapes. It was all SO good. I can't wait for the next Saturday Splurge.

Attractions
We did some more tourist-y things today, and our first stop was the Basilica of Notre Dame. On our way we found an older couple that looked lost, and they asked us where they should go, so we led them here as well. Boy, did that make me look like a knowledgeable tour guide. The Basilica was amazing. I have seen many cathedrals throughout Europe, but it was by far the most impressive and illuminated cathedral I've seen. The work inside is so intricate, and I can't wait to get prints of the pictures I took.

We also strolled the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal and went out to walk along the Old Port. We intended on climbing the clock tower to get some great views of the city, but alas, it was closed off. We did have our first Bixi experience! Bixi is company that has bike rental stations all over the city, and you can ride them for free for 30 minutes. We rode them the length of the old port, and even though James was nervous, it turned out to be really fun!

We made our way back through some of the festivals we visited on Friday, and stopped by the main location of the Street Painting festivals to get a picture of us sitting in a GIANT Adirondack chair--a little shout-out to Webb! By the time we made it home, we had spent 6 hours walking around the city, so we were ready for a relaxing evening at home. We contemplated heading out for a free outdoor concert, but our exhaustion ruled, and fortunately so, as it started storming around the time of the concert. Another great day in Montreal!

TGIF!

Friday James picked me up from work at 5:00 since it was on our way to our evening activities. We walked about 40 minutes to get to downtown Montreal and the Place Bonaventure, the site of the World Beer Festival. Admission was free, but each 3-4 oz. sample of beer cost between $1-$5, so we were tapped (haha!) pretty quickly. I stuck to the fruity ciders, whereas James blew half of his drink tickets for the heavy Vermonster. We had a good time though, and there were TONS of people there that were very entertaining to watch.

Following the beer festival we went by the FrancoFolies festival and heard some French music, then walked through the Formula 1 Grand Prix festival, and ended our evening with the highlight of our time so far in Montreal--Schwartz's deli. Schwartz's is a Montreal landmark, and serves massive smoked meat sandwiches in a no-nonsense manner. We had to wait outside in a line for about 30 minutes, but were eventually ushered inside to the primo location for eating--the counter. The staff was extremely nice, and our buddy Mikey made sure that we got the full Schwartz'z experience. The sandwiches were great, and I'm sure we'll return there sometime again before we leave this great city!

Contemporary Art and Shopping

Wednesday, James and I visited the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art. For those of you that know us well, you may be wondering...modern art and the Garcias? For real? We decided to go because it is free on Wednesday nights, and we wanted an excuse to go beyond our neighborhood for the evening.

There was much art that made us go, "huh?", but also several pieces that actually made sense to us--yay! All in all it was a nice new experience.

Afterwards we ventured into the Underground to see Montreal's Underground City. Due to the extremely cold Montreal winters, they decided to build an entire underground network of shops. It is amazingly expansive...the best way I can describe it is the Mall of America flattened out and placed underground. It stretches between several Metro stops, so one could theoretically spend a whole day beneath the Earth.

Speaking of the metro, they have these really nice evening passes for $4 where you get unlimited bus/metro access from 6pm-5am the next morning. They're a pretty good deal, since a one-way trip normally costs $3!

Back from hiatus!

In order to document all the exciting happenings of my summer, and to make sure that I keep doing exciting things worthy of documentation, I'm back to the blog after a 3 year hiatus.

This summer James, Jeter, and I are living in Montreal, Quebec, the "City of Festivals" for two months. We arrived three days ago and have enjoyed every minute so far!

The apartment we are subletting is in a quiet area off of a major street...and yes, I used Craigslist for the third summer in the row and so far have no scars to show for it. It is pretty spacious for a city apartment, with a good sized living room, 2 offices, a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, a piano (!), and washer/dryer. We also don't have to pay for parking, and the gym we signed James up at is only a block and a half away.

Our most frequent activities have been taking Jeter to the dog park, WALKING, and grocery shopping. We have yet to find what one would deem "affordable" groceries after scoping out a few different stores of different sizes and profiles, so we've pretty much come to terms with the fact that food will break our bank these two months. Jeter loves the dog park and the dogs and people of Montreal love him. Everyone says, "What is he?" and I wish we knew! He's also a very good conversation starter, so James gets some human interaction while I'm at work during the week.

Which brings me to our next topic: work! I'm interning (read: not getting paid) at the Arion Baroque Orchestra like a real grown-up, working 9 to 5. There are only 2 other women who work with me, and they are in their mid-20s as well, so we get along really well. So far I've done lots of mundane tasks that they have obviously been putting off doing for months, and some French to English translation for them. The good news is that two of the three women are actually from France, so they are very easy to understand compared to the Canadian French accent--wowzers!

Favorite phrases of the day:
C'est malade! It's sick/awesome/wicked cool!
C'est fou dans la tete! It's unbelievable!
le lunch