Is it rude to down your beer?

This weekend has been free to spend as we wished with nothing at all compulsary until Wednesday. How nice! We chose to spend Friday having a full exploration of the shopping centre. This was hampered slightly by my purchase of a pan set which I then had to carry around with me(a bargain at a mere $40 - the same Victoria paid for just one pan which has now been stolen :[ ) . I probably should have bought that last but that would have involved common sense or planification (the very Quebecois tendance of forward planning). It was a nice little nosy around some quaint shops though. After a while I started to feel really ill and resorted to sitting on a bench with my head in my hands whilst Victoria completed her food shopping. I helped her carry her bags inside before raiding my personal pharmacy. Thank goodness I came well prepared. Before long I was feeling tip-top again.
While the evening was still young, when returning to my room I was hailed by a group of guys standing on the corridor. They were planning going for a drink and invited me along. Jumping at the chance to meet people, I said yes and passed the invite onto Victoria. The guys then went up and down the corridor knocking on every door to find people to come. In all there were about 10 or 12 of us including an American girl who was very glad to have other English speakers. That may have been what persuaded her to come in the end. We all got the bus and headed to a place called Siboire, also a local brewery. I tried to follow the conversation and join in where possible. It was less hard work than I had imagined and I actually enjoyed myself. One of the guys, AndreJean, insisted that I should have a beer since we were in a brewery and we had been invited for a beer (I think he failed to specify this in his invite) but in the end I ordered a beer with blueberries, mostly because 2 of the guys had been drinking it and let me taste it beforehand. If I'm going to spend $6 on a beer I want it to be a nice one! Soon after, us girls decided to go home. I quickly downed my drink so we could go and in the process of doing so received some incredulous looks from the boys. It even procured a tabernak (in Quebecois, most words associated with the catholic church have become swear words - this was the first instance I'd heard) Either they didn't think girls could drink beer so fast or I was majorly offending them by not savouring it. I was quite glad we didn't stay out too late.
The next day Victoria and I took the bus to the town centre in order to explore it. We got off the bus and had no clue as to in which direction we should go. We spied a spire and made our way towards it. It turned out to be your average church, but was far more impressive than the standard English church - almost like a cathedral. We turned and headed back the way we had come after resting on a bench and taking out a map. We had also picked up many tourist information leaflets from a bank on the way. Eventually we found the main streets and stopped for lunch. We found the townhall, which had a beautiful garden out front and the actual cathedral. Sadly it was closed and is only open between 7-9am most days. We continued to search out some of the sites of Sherbrooke and found ourselves on a mural trail. Over the past 8 years the town has added 10 murals depictiting local history. We have 3 left to see. Although we located all of these 'tourist attractions' we decided to save them for another day with the exception of the murals, outdoor things and an art gallery. We will have plenty of time to see them all later.
Possibly my favourite thing that we found was this fountain. It was built by one Isabelle McKechnie Mitchell in memory of her husband. Of all the places to find someone of the same name! I feel I may have to research this lady, just for the sake of it. My memory doesn't serve me since I was only 3 at the time but I believe we also met a McKechnie down under. We're so common.
From there we found a market, a zen zone and realised we'd done a complete circle and were back on the Rue King Ouest. For the protests of dislike of the British (or maybe just the English) there are a large number of roads named after British people; Admiral Wellington, Queen Victoria, King George V (a mere side street), King William the something, among others.
Sadly all of this walking around town in the glorious sunshine presented a small problem. My shoulders, chest and back had gradually turned a lovely shade of pink. The solution to this was clearly a bag of frozen peas, since neither of us had any aftersun. Oh dear. Thankfully, it seems to have subsided over night and is looking more like a tan than lobster coloured burns but I made sure I covered up, except my legs. I yet have hope that mes jambes will cease to be the colour of milk. Fingers crossed!
I haven't done very much aujourd'hui.   I watched the football and was most disheartened by Sunderland's 94th minute penalty. Food shopping beckoned too as I had resorted to a frozen meal from the uni shop on Friday. I now have a fully stocked fridge including 1.6Kg of mince. I went a little overboard. Everything not only is more expensive here (nearly $4 for a small box of own brand teabags - what's that about???) but it also seems to come in a minimum size which is far larger than I would generally like! I don't think I'll use 2kg of flour or sugar before Christmas, not unless I perpetually bake. However, these things should last me a while. The downside of everything being so big (and we thought supersizing was a thing of the USA) was that it was also heavy resulting in needing to get Victoria to help me carry my bags from the bus stop, especially since one handle broke and another bag split completely. Oh dear!.
Oh my! This corridor is quite noisy! Some people had a guitar jamming session earlier and now it sounds a little like a party is going on! I must investigate all this noise.

campus

Eating dinner alone on Monday didn't seem as wierd as lunch, though I was among 4 other lone diners. I went to a little italian place called Eduardo's. Very nice it was too! So my evening in Montreal was passed rather pleasantly.
I rose fairly early on Tuesday as I wanted to get a morning bus to Sherbrooke. I had a battle with my suitcase though since through swapping the contents of my luggage around it was much harder to zip up, almost making me break a sweat, although the heat would also have contributed. I was waiting for my bus by 10am. The journey to Sherbrooke took longer than I anticipated due to the number of roadworks (they are absolutely EVERYWHERE) but eventually we pulled into the bus station and our bags were unloaded. I was left to work out how to get to the uni - a taxi seemed the best idea but without a taxi rank I was a little confused as to where to find one. However there was a discreet little phone with which to call one. The driver was really friendly telling me all sorts of things and singing along to a remix version of Edith Piaf's 'Je ne regrette rien'. He dropped me off right outside my halls, which would have been most convenient if I didn't have to traipse across the campus to get my keys first! All things aside, it was thankfully rather easy to get sorted. 
I have to be blunt - my first impressions of my home for the next 4 months were not the best.It looks a little better with my stuff scattered around it  >>>> The right wall is wood panelled and the left and back are tiled reminiscently of a public toilet. There's also plaster missing from parts of the ceiling. It could be worse though so I shall not complain further. I unpacked my things and waited for Victoria to finish her day. She then took me to the shops to buy some essentials which I limited to breakfast, dinner and bedding. Since she arrived a few days before myself she already knew where to go etc which worked out very well for myself :D
We had a meeting yesterday morning to sort out our timetables and modules. I'm currently signed up to 5 modules with the intention of dropping at least one and signing up to another that Victoria is on. She got all sorts of information beforehand that I hadn't but vice versa too. The uni thought we were a single student. Not the most helpful of situations. The modules we were signed up for didn't correspond to the ones we had been told (or I had been told) were compulsary but no matter really. After that meeting I joined Victoria at her class and asked if I would be able to join. It's aimed specifically at international students and helping them to cope with Quebecois studies. Far more suitable than one on the origines of Quebec literature no?
I dashed off at the end of the class to go to the shops again and buy kitchen things and food. Due to a slight issue with my card, this wasn't as successful as I'd hoped but I did get some stuff. One point of advice - NEVER bank with HSBC if you ever plan on leaving Britian. It is the biggest pain to unblock your account every single time. Just saying :)
I made myself a simple dinner, as in one that involved no pans because I haven't bought any yet! There was a young lad in the kitchen attempting to make pasta bolognese. He was very friendly and chatted away, asking me all sorts of questions. He even did my washing up for me. How nice :) Sadly I'm not entirely sure of his name. It might be Jacques-Luc. It's definitely something-Luc but I didn't dare ask him a third time!
I spend most of today being called Shirley. We had more pre-term classes which included a lunch for which we all had to bring a national dish. What would you say is a truly English (or British) dish?? We settled for cucumber sandwiches because we had bread, butter and cucumber. A cop out, maybe but they are associated with high tea which naturally we all stop to have a 4pm sharp.
My brain hurts a little from all the French. Hopefully I will soon become accustomed to it. The accent is wierd. The pronunciation is not at all like high French so we don't automatically recognise words that we do actually know already. However, all in all I think that the settling in process is going quite well!

Moriarty

I've discovered that Canadians don't pronounce the name of the city as we do, and perhaps we can blame the recent popularity of Sherlock Holmes but at first I honestly thought they were talking about that arch-enemy not Montreal.
My flight here was quite pleasant and there we no exessively long stopovers, practically from one plane to another. I was sitting next to a lovely woman who chatted away to me half in French, half in English and wished me good luck with my studies. Nearing the end of the flight some where over the ocean between Greenland and Labrador  I felt the need to give my legs a good stretch. There at the back of the plane where there was a self service area, after originally staring out of the windows at the mass of clouds that could have been mistaken for ice plains I ended up gathering a collection of nationalities chatting away, again in a melange of languages. As the plain landed it was chucking it down - clearly a welcome to remind me of home but it was no matter for all I did was get a taxi to my hotel.
My apprehensions seem to have disappeared; now that I'm here I'm all excited again.
I was up bright and early this morning (which is better than i could say of the weather which looked positively grey) and ready to start my exploration of the city. Sadly there were many many roadworks going on; it seems the whole city is under renovation. It was only a hindrance to the extent that you can't remain on the same side of a road the whole way own it and that one of the things I wanted to see was well hidden behind fencing, machinery and all that jazz. However I took in the sights as I ambled around the old town, noting the slightly syropy smell in the air and the fact that it's hard to walk very far at all without finding a green space or delightful square hosting fountains and statues or a church nestled between modern exteriors of business centres or skyscrapers.

My first stop was the Basilisque of Notre Dame and there's nothing else to say but it is absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt one of the most stunnign things I've ever laid eyes on. I lit a prayer candle and after a good nosy, sat soaking it all in. It seemed a very apt way to start my time here in Canada. Even the eternal Christmas shop just outside seemed fitting, and made me wonder why celebrating the greatest event in all of history should be limited to just one day (not that I advocate the sale of christmas decorations or the playing of christmas music any earlier than it already is).
By this time the sun which had previously been hiding behind cloud was down blazing, making me wish I' left the jeans in my suitcase. I wandered down to the old port and through some pedestrian streets before stopping for lunch. It felt rather strange to be eating toute seule but then again I had a wasp for company. This lovely affair was followed by nipping in and out of little boutique souvenir shops. Who knew so much can be made from maple syrop! I also perused a Inuit exhibition/shop. It was fairly interesting though I did recoil when I realised the fur thing I was examining still had the head (with eye holes) and claws attached. The head of Ruby the moose wasn't quite so respulsive.
China town seems to call to me, no matter the city, and this one had a Sun Yat Sen square and since I visited his house in Guangzhou, I felt compelled to find it and stay there a while observing a young man doing tricks on a BMX and old men smoking pipes.
I sought out another cathedrale, this time of Mary, Queen of the World. Oddly I felt compelled to wander around barefoot. It was wonderful respite from the heat as well. It had reached late afternoon and due to the heat and my poor choice of attire I decided to head for the hotel stopping for an iced tea en route which is where I am now. I bought my ticket to Sherbrooke (the bus station is literally down the road which is most conveniant) and am now pondering where to go for dinner. I am positively starving!

Hope that's not a prophetic dream...

Somehow I have no idea where the past few days have gone, though no doubt spent lunching with my mother and going for coffee. It has after all been a frequent pastime throughout the Summer. With this week being my last one here I have kept myself quite busy, invading Esther's life quite a lot this. She welcomes the presence of her dicey other half quite openly that I should hardly dare call it an invasion really.
On Wednesday we had the church bowling night. Considering we only played 2 games we were there for 3 hours. We were hampered by lanes breaking down, disappearing balls and well just general inaptitude and lack of competitiveness which made it altogether very pleasant. Naturally my mum with her carefree-toss-it-hard-as-she-can-aimed-somewhere-in-the-middle kind of attitude showed the rest of us up. Later that night I joined the girls for a night at The Birdcage. No mayhem or drama just a good night out. Entertainingly enough one guy was trying to guess our weight. This turned out to be far from a good idea as he added at least 2 stone to everyone; it's one way to insult a bunch of girls at least. There was also a girl in the toilets who was very excited, because she seemed to think Robinho (Man City player) was there (highly doubt it) whilst also mourning the fact that she didn't think she stood a chance.
I was more impressed that I was up and out bright and early the next day for I am definitely not a morning person of late. or ever. My day was crammed full of exciting activites. Shopping with the family was followed by a student lunch with Marjorie and the other students from church. Then Esther and I hit the Trafford Centre. I needed currency and she needed a present for her mum's birthday. I succeeded, sadly Esther returned home empty handed. The evening was taken up by visits from Dave and Ryan, 2 of my favourite boys :)
Emma came around yesterday afternoon for a quick visit, clearly to see me and not to collect her birthday present. I discovered that I give her increasinly awful nicknames. Emsywemsy should be the stop point!!
Last night was my leaving do with some of my nearest and dearest. I was so very happy to see everyone, chat away and catch up. We had a late night skype call to Charlotte which made me very happy as she's so far away! I fobbed Alex off with a crate of beer this morning since not that much of our leftover stash actually got drunk.
Right now I'm home on my own. Everyone is out at the wedding. I have been left to get on with the last of my preparation before tomorrow. I have insurance, but I need to book somewhere to sleep tomorrow night. I can't believe I leave tomorrow. I've been so excited about this year for so long yet apprehensions have started to creep in. In my dream last night I was wandering around Sherbrooke campus trying to find the place where I was to collect my keys, but I couldn't find it, nor could I understand anybody's directions, even though most spoke to me in English rather than in French.
I'm not scared to go. I have no doubts about going, but right now there are people I don't want to leave, whom I shall miss so very much. I can't believe tomorrow has crept up on me quite so quickly.

mes amis

I found the suitcase. It was hiding in the coal cellar harbouring a quilt. It's also not exactly fit for travel so yet another thing on my list that I should buy. Hmmm. I did get a lot of things off my list when I went shopping with Rachel last week. The rest will follow eventually.
Did I mention my hair? I got it chopped. :D The fact that it's obviously much lighter now seems to have helped turn it curly. I am now a semi-curly haired person. I say semi only because it does need a little help. It's spent all these years being straight and change is hard.
I went to York with Dave for the day. We had a lovely mooch around and just before we set off home I indulged in some travel guides. Oh yes. Naturally followed by highlighting all the wonderful places that I want to visit during my YA. (incidentally a week and a half away)
I had a lovely, if rather busy weekend. First I went down to Birmingham where Louise and I went to see Family Force 5. I'd never heard of them before only the songs I'd listened to once on their myspace page. I even still had my backpack with me at the gig. It was funny to watch people trip over it constantly though, oh and the little midget teens get trampled in their mini mosh pits. HA!
From there, I went to Sheffield not quite managing to do this all on one ticket as I had hoped. However, I returned some books, printed out my essay and handed it in et voila - the end of level 2. Then I was on my way to Stoke.
I had a fabulous weekend celebrating Nina's birthday and of course just seeing Nina :)we had a BBQ. The chicken was charcoal black on the outside and raw on the inside. Good cooking skills there boys! Though that wasn't the worst. I'd left my razor in Birmingham (a present for Louise obviously...) so I bought a cheap one from a shop nearby; no joke it must have taken a layer of skin off. Not impressed.
Today has been quite busy. Bee came round for lunch and a good catch up and then I met up with Sally and Abbie (that ever goregous god-daughter of mine). Altogether a friend-filled week. Exactly how I like it