Thanksgiving equals family time!

I was so excited by the imminent arrival of my sister, yet when she actually arrived, I was more confused by how I had failed to see the bus so all I could do was stand, stare and say "How did you get here?" Not exactly the greatest of greetings in the world now is it. Before long I was hugging her senseless and introducing her to anyone that might be even remotely interested. I did make her a cup of tea, a must at the end of a long journey of course. Plus, I'd borrowed a mattress so she didn't have to sleep on the floor, which I did when I visited Strasbourg. Clearly Sherbrooke is of a higher calibre to Uni. Robert Schuman, with it's mattress-loaning facility.
Anyway, since she had a long day, the plan was to have an early night but it didn't quite happen like that. Ah well.
Thursday rolled around and I trundled off to my lecture as usual. This was followed by a group trip to the supermarket in order to buy all the things we would need for Thanksgiving dinner. We found a turkey for $10 - bargain. It does however mean I have masses of leftover turkey in my fridge now.  I made green curry for dinner but hadn't counted on it being spicy out of the jar, so I added a chilli pepper and well, it was a little spicy I'll give you that. Being Thirsty Thursday, of course everyone was rather merry and provided us with much entertainment, since they were mostly pleasant. Gaston was thoroughly entertaining. He finished off the leftover green curry, and was saying how yummy it was until he realised it was spicy and then promptly shoved his head under the tap. Bless.
Katie and I did bicker about how Friday would be spent, she wouldn't decide is basically it. Being sisters though it didn't last long. Gaston did ask her if she was my brother. I love that boy!
We agreed to spend the day in Sherbrooke as it would be rather expensive to go elsewhere. We started off with lunch and I made Katie order poutine (what? It's a quebecois speciality!) even though she couldn't have the cheese/curd stuff.

From there we went to the history museum which was clearly aimed at school children. The first exhibit was about the history of Sherbrooke and included some recordings of a guy with a horrendous accent. It just sounded wrong that he was speaking French!! The second exhibit was much more interesting, it was about the nativity around the world. I made a Christmas card for Katie. Well I was hardly going to turn down the opportunity of cutting, sticking and colouring in now was I! It was rather interesting to see all the interpretations of the nativity and how differently cultures portray it. From there we had a wander over to Lac-des-Nations but since it was freezing (il faisait frette à tabernak!) we didn't stay long and spent longer getting hot chocolate in a nearby coffee shop. Since it was still early, we went to the shopping centre. We had a mosey round and bought some Christmas decorations for my room. Sadly after we did decide to return chez moi  I put us on a bus going in the wrong direction. We had to get off and walk back. Even worse, I'm fairly certain it was the same driver when the bus finally appeared. Oops.

Saturday morning was a waste of time. Katie may have found it useful since she got on with work while I was at my lecture, but I would have happily spent the time sleeping instead. We didn't even do the essay so we'll have to do 2 next week instead of one.  After I came back, Katie disappeared to the supermarket (clearly my tour guide skills are so top notch she felt comfortable going alone) and I studied. I'm  hyper-cool! As soon as she came back we started on Thanksgiving dinner. Katie was in charge of the turkey. She got a little stressed as it's the first turkey she's done, the same reason why I got out of doing it! However, we rounded up the troops, peeled, chopped, (in some cases hacked) diced away and got the accompaniements on the go. The we offered out some free food to a select few (the remaining few still around and on the corridor this weekend) and by 7.15, so only 45 mins after our intended aim, we were reheating veggies in the microwave and serving up the turkey. The role of carving was left to P.E and Andrejean. It was like father and son! incredibly cute.

It took a while to convince Andrejean not to eat the incredibly pink turkey leg that looked set to poison someone. I also spooned up some veg on his plate. Mommaduck obviously just likes to mother people. Clearly, I also like to talk about myself in the third person. Anyway the meal was rather lovely, though my original shuffling of plates proved a futile attempt partly because I got the plate's owners wrong and partly because people swapped. I had tried to spread out franco-/anglo-phones (this also worked to spread out boys and girls) but we ended up with the 4 other girls together and me, cornered by the boys. Fail. Anyway, I enjoyed the meal! I hope our guests did too.
We had to dash a little afterwards as we had plans to watch Harry Potter. The boys, being the sweetiepies that they are did ALL the washing up for us without being asked. Unlike Georgie I won't be giving a whole review of the film, but to my surprise, it was much better than any other HP films I have seen. I admit this is limited to the first 2, but they were pretty dire and it frustrated me that they changed much of the story. However, HP is not at all a bad watch, even if I did hiccup loudly at inconveniant moments, much to the amusement of well everyone in the entire theatre.
We returned, rounded up P.E since he was the only one with his door still open and ate pumpkin pie. The kitchen was being used to play drinking games so we did have to put up with some loud, drunkeness but it was mostly enjoyable.

Yesterday was a little sad. I helped Katie pack and slipped in a few items that I no longer need i.e summer dresses, heels and birthday cards. We were able to hang out in the morning before I took her to get her bus to Montreal. I would have liked to go with her and if it hadn't been a Sunday I would have said let's make a day of it. Alas, a sparse bus timetable that offered only a 5 hour round trip with no time to do anything but wave my sister off in another town, convinced me otherwise. I would gladly have had her stay a little longer.
On the bright side, Victoria and I have booked to spend next weekend in Quebec City. This took a long time staring at maps of drop off points and bus routes. However it is feasible and our explorations have not yet ended. Hoorah!

This is NOT how you make jelly shots

Saturday was just not a day for working, as much as I may have wanted (which I didn't) procrastination was the way forward. Nicole and I even joined forces which resulted in the idea of making jelly shots. Sadly I did end up calling them jell-o shots after a while. Darn Americanisms. Anyway, we rounded up the troops (i.e. myself, Hannah and Nicole) and set off for Carrefour de l'Estre. Essential for the SAQ where we picked out a nice bottle of vodka. We also ambled into the shopping centre where I kindly bought a plate and some forks, meaning that my sister, who shall arrive sometime today, can actually eat like a civilised person and not off the table or with her fingers. What a good sister I am.
So yes, upon our return we raided Victoria's room for the jelly and to tell her she would be joining us that evening. I've never made jelly before. There might be special techniques one can use but ours were pretty concentrated at the bottom. By this I mean, they were chewy, which in my mind should never be a quality imputed to jelly. The evening panned out with us consuming said vodka jelly shots and a few games. Hannah, the least likely to do so, was the first to head to bed, but did stay long enough to witness Nicole's very first shot. I think we are very slowly getting her used to alcohol. It was a most enjoyable evening, which as is becoming more and more regular, ended with my good self scribbling on doors. My favourite has to be demi-habillé's door. Following a previous discussion with Victoria about what meat actually was, I wrote le premier choix pour cannibalisme and muscle-icious. He is quite muscly you see. His reaction when he returned was pure hilarity. If anybody asks, it wasn't me. I seem to have convinced him otherwise for the time being, however, I did want to share this piece of comic genius.
My days since have been shared between attempting to study and ringing up countless banks. Oh and there was cake on Monday for Tara's birthday.
Making my day yesterday were 2 skype calls, allowing long over due catch-ups. I love that Charlotte's life sounds like it came out of a trashy film/novel, not that I mean her life is trashy but I can just imagine the opening sentence or monologue, epilogue? Oh film vocab is beyond me, it remains a mystery to me how I got a 2:1 in German film last year, because I had no idea what I was talking about. Enough of this tangent, aside from reiterating my excitement about Katie's arrival and/or complaining about a grammar class that I ought to go to but downright wish didn't exist, I have no news. My life definitely wouldn't make a good trashy novel at the moment!

Let's ignore the crying and talk about free pizza :)

The bruise on my arm, though inevitably in some form or other, is impressively not dramatic. Perhaps my bruising tendencies are fading. That would be awesome.
Plans for playing a mini match on Wednesday were scuppered by the rain. Wednesday was not the greatest day in the world. We got our grammar tests back. A respectable mark, but I wanted to clarify something with the tutor who promptly told me that my French was appalling. Even though I returned to my seat she came over just to reassure that my French really is that bad. I didn't stay long after that. So Victoria and I were sat in my room and Mihai walked past, so I asked him to tell me bluntly how bad my French was. Boys fail at being tactful. I got all worked up, not just about my French but about how I felt I wouldn't be able to get a good enough grade to cancel out last years. I cried. Victoria was all lovely and supportive. Mihai (and I will blame the fact that he's male) quite frankly was useless. After I had stopped crying, he just said "it's just a mark". I can't think of much worse he could have said!
I rang my mum afterwards and sent my sister many abusive messages for not being on skype when I needed her. I got all worked up again and cried down the phone to my mum. Making it the second time in 2 weeks and I am not a crying kinda of girl really. Perhaps this is why they have organised for my sister to come and visit next week. I'm very excited by this. :D She doesn't realise how much I am going to invade her personal space when she gets here.
Later that evening the boys kept commenting that I looked really tired and my eyes were red so I should go to bed. I told them it was because I'd been crying. After explaining, they thoroughly insulted the tutor, offered to bash her over the head and told me my French was good. There was a hug or 2 thrown in for good measure. I love these boys :)

Thursday evening unfolded quite nicely. It started off with no plan and turned into prancing around to classic rock and jazz before deciding that ordering takeaway was a brilliant idea. We looked up domino's and placed an order on-line. I noticed that we'd ordered too many cheesy breads so I rang up to correct the order. This didn't quite go to plan. The first order turned up, much to our confusion as well as the delivery man. He rang up and we sorted stuff out. Turns out the guy on the phone hadn't realised we were correcting an order. He told us to keep the extra food and just pay for what we wanted. There's us thinking, sweet, free cheesy bread! It wasn't long before the guy rang back. He hadn't been able to get hold of the second delivery and so told us to keep it, free of charge. We effectively got more than double our order. It was a HUUUUGE amount of food! We shared some out on the corridor and boxed up the rest as leftovers (I think I'll get at least a 4th meal out of it). We whacked on Mamma Mia to watch and sang along to our hearts content before being asked to quieten down. It was kinda late and I suppose we were singing pretty loud. There were lots of other noisy people on the corridor too though! Tsk, those French boys! It was a fun evening! After the girls had gone to bed, I stayed in the kitchen with the boys, generally just laughing at them.

Friday was quite dull, I didn't do much except prepare my cake for the souper international. It was more fun than I was expecting it to be. Only one of the 4 brought a main course so they ordered in pizza. That would have been pizza overload, so I avoided it and munched on lasagna instead. It was very chilled out, everyone was having a laugh and joking. One of the profs. had brought her chum who took out his guitar and sang for us. Somehow I got made to sing, only they picked Hey Jude and I don't know most of the lyrics! Totally made it up!

I've already had my class this morning but I sort of want to take a nap. I should get some work done but sleep is just so much more inviting!

I'll never be the Quarterback

Alright, my brain is struggling with putting things in chronological order this week. It's all a bit mushed up. At some point I went shopping, well I went to a Canadian version of boots. I treated myself to some moisturiser, some sleeping tablets, a face mask and a whole host of chocolate. It wasn't just for eating, it was for baking. I made a very lovely chocolate torte. I didn't exactly think it through though; crushing the biscuits took me forever and I resorted to using my hairbrush handle. The end result was definitely worth it though. Nom nom.
We had our second grammar exam on Wednesday. It was a little different to the first one. In order to revise for it, I had written out lots of rules and exceptions on my door in chalk. I used up the back of my door so I used the front too. It was kinda amusing for my corridor who clearly thought I was mental. I also taught myself 2 tenses (they were related) because it had appeared a lot in previous exercises and I thought I would need it for the exam. It did not. How irritating. However, I can now form all 15 tenses as appear in my 501 French Verbs. Hyper-cool? I think so!
Since I'd wasted time attempting to understand La Québécoite I had no time to read the book for Thursday's lecture. My solution was to find the film online and watch that instead. The lazy students' approach worked surprisingly well since in the lecture he actually compared the book to the film a fair bit. Get in. Thursday evening was blissful, in the way that I had no class to go to! I was able to spend my evening doing whatever the hell I wanted! woohoo! I actually spent the evening teaching/revising the subjunctive to/with Nicole. The use of our doors as a chalkboard is actually really useful! She got a little frustrated by some of the conditions which introduce the subjunctive so to prove to her that not all francophones have the slightest clue how to use it correctly we went to the kitchen and asked which of the following phrases lead to the subjunctive (we used je doute que, j'aimerais que, c'est une bonne idée que and je ne pense pas que) No one has yet correctly answered that all 4 should. Point proven, frustration alleviated.
I think Friday was as productive in so far as we did some food shopping. We had major issues at the checkout with our cards though. They just didn't like debit cards. Eurgh. I like having yummy food to munch on though :D Saturday morning should have brought us a contôle but something about the profs computer and printer having a fallout (that could be massively invented, I didn't really follow what she was talking about) so we didn't and instead did an exercise meant for 4 weeks time. Very bizarre. Could have been a good thing since I'd been woken up again by people on the corridor. They were very nice and did whisper and go elsewhere after I popped my head out but I had problems dropping off again. I made up for it with a nice nap afterwards. Oh yeah.
Last night was epic. Alot of people went for KFC and the cinema but we wouldn't have been ready in time so after getting pretty giddy over dinner, Nicole, Hannah and I took a round-the-houses route to Siboire (cheers Hannah). We kinda thought that was where they were going after the film but they didn't. We had a great time though! MMMM cocktails :D We had a disney sing-along in the bus station on the way back, which completely put us in the mood for prancing to music. We grabbed speakers and ipods and headed for the salon where we fond the guys. Not entirely sure whether they found our giddiness amusing or annoying but they all drifted off to bed (at fairly reasonable times), but once having the room to ourselves we cranked out Abba tunes and danced away. Nicole and I added a few decorations to people's door and in th process scared the living daylights out of Pierre-Edouard. Apparently hearing scratching on your door after having watched Paranormal Activity is pretty terrifying.  Oopsy.
Today, well originally I thought it would be quite lazy after such a late night last night, but Tara spotted some people playing american football and took me and Vincent to join in. It was pretty good fun actually! I had no idea who I was playing with, but it was fun! They all left after a while but Tara knew one of them so we borrowed the ball and the 3 of us had a bit of a throw about. I cannot throw properly to save my life. They spent ages trying to knock the rugby out of me and to make me catch like a footballer. Fun times. That's my exercise for the week. I think I am gonna have an epic bruise on my arm now though. Bleurgh.

Remember Remember

I went for a nice run, well sort of a jog on Tuesday. It was an attempt to up my motivation. It was freezing outside and I wish I'd worn gloves. I ran the whole way around campus and didn't walk any of it. Proud? Just a tad :) The boys told me I was mental. Exercise felt good though.
Wednesday strolled around and I had barely done any work. Well I`d actually done 2 weeks work not 1 the week before so I was OK for grammar. The reading for my afternoon lecture wasn`t exactly finished either, nor for Thursday's lecture. (Did I even mention that I got my results back and didn`t fail?? Go me, I'm in the 3rd quartile). I plan to do the reading at some point before finals. I feel so American saying finals so it's all good.
I felt rather icky on the Thursday actually. I been kept up with a migraine the night before. Boo. Our evening class didn't exactly help. One of the tutors said that I was a bad student and a bad influence on Victoria. Even after I said that I was really insulted by this, she carried on. Victoria said nothing. The best I got was Astrid's interjection that it wasn't that, it was that Victoria was a good influence. After all the work I've been doing, to the point where my corridor tell me that I work too hard, it was really offensive to be told that and it hurt even more that Victoria just smiled, as if to affirm it. I made my excuses and left, skyping my mother and sister at what was for them stupid o'clock in the morning so I could have a good cry.
I was awake when people started drifting back from a party somewhere, so I chilled out in the kitchen, helped Nathan make chips and gave out chocolate. Sadly, for one night only my insomnia came back. I just couldn't sleep. I got up and did stuff, like getting my mail at 6am. I skyped my sister around 7am for which I was told off for being up so early. I then went and did some shopping. I did actually take a nap in the afternoon, after Nicole and I had planned the rest of the day which included shopping for things for that night.
It was Bonfire night and I was determined to celebrate it. I didn't think we'd really get away with a bonfire or fireworks on campus. Instead, we attempted to make parkin. I say attempted. I think the video will explain all. I have no idea what went wrong!! Oh well. We also made an effigy. He had a face, hands and shoes and a name tag. We rounded up a few people and went outside, shoving our stickman into the remains of a snowman from the first snow the week before. He didn't burn very well. Oh well. We played with sparklers. None of the Canadians or frenchies seemed it get it and very quickly went back inside. Ne'er mind, at least Nicole and Hannah got into our very British celebration.
Afterwards we were a little bit silly and used the extra paper and markers that we had. The girls, after a joke that arose in Toronto made a sign for my door that says (in french) Because of hugs Seòna is pregnant with twins. There are 2 fathers :O. This clearly has got people's attention, though I wish they'd read it properly since Nathan asked if I really was pregnant. We've also told most of the boys that they are one of the fathers. It's quite entertaining.  I've now taken the sign off my door.
Victoria and I were quite spectacularly late for Saturday's class yet it didn't seem to have started. We got all our work back. It stretched out a little bit but soon enough I was back in halls having lunch whilst everyone else munched on breakfast. Nicole and I went swimming. Most energising I have to admit. I wasn't counting my laps bit I swam a fair distance. Then I did some diving. Just off the side of the pool. I was not joining in with the group of boys who were throwing themselves off the diving boards any old how. I swear sometimes that it had to hurt.
I've spent the rest of my time trying to read a book for Wednesday. I say trying. It is so obscure and ultimately boring that, no word of a lie I have fallen asleep 3 times whilst reading it. I still don't have much clue what it's about either. The author doesn't seem to want to stick to one langauge or write in full sentences. Mighty confusing.
Somehow it's reached Monday again. Time escapes me sometimes and I don't really know where it has gone...

Hallowe'en

After such a wonderful week it was hard to get back into the swing of studying. I hadn't exactly made it easy for myself. Although I'd taken a book with me, with the best intentions of reading on the bus, I managed to get about a third of the way through before the lecture. Better than none I suppose. I also had a 5-6 page essay to write about time management. Clearly I was demonstrating nothing of the sort since I was finishing it and printing it off just before the class. Doing this actually kept me hidden away until Thursday evening so when Hallowe'en weekend swang by I really wanted to do nothing at all!
On Friday afternoon we shopping for some fancy dress. They go all out over here. We didn't want anything too fancy though, just some wings and masks. We joined the masses heading over to a campus party in G-13. Well there was free beer, of course it was going to attract people. I put on a party dress and heels for the first time and donned my wings and mask. The mask was feathery and I kept geting feathers up my nose and in my mouth everytime I drank, spoke, breathed... There was music and dancing! 2 things I have missed muchly. Despite knowing I had an exam at 9am the next morning, I didn't care and was convinced to join people heading for maison jaune. I was wrongly under the impression that this was a bar or a club. It was not. It was somebody's house and no-one seemed to know whose. It was also a trek away. Lots of walking  in heels? Hannah and I were no so impressed. We did have Gaston walking in the middle of us though. He was enjoying looking a bit like a pimp most likely. Well until we stopped so Hannah could throw up into a bush.

Not a clue what was wrong with her - 1 beer is definitely not enough to do that. We spent a fair amount of time in this random party house running to the toilet generally pushing to the front of the queue. Definitely time to go home. The problem? Neither of us had anything more than keys and a student card with us, we didn't actually know where we were and despite having come with a big group, could I find anyone? No. I left Hannah by the door and went on a hunt. I found one person and came back to find Hannah being chatted up. The guy did not appreciate me taking Hannah away. She looked like she very much did! We went outside, asked a random guy for directions to the bus stop and went. Pierre-Edouard caught up with us. We had a half an hour walk to the bus stop. At one point I took my heels off but Sherbrooke pavements were littered in things that are not friendly to bare feet (it felt like walking on glass) so much so that heels were preferable.
We did manage to catch a bus and were back at the residences by half 12.  Not that this means I got an early night. That would be asking a bit much now wouldn't it.

The test went quite smoothly for the little sleep I'd had (I also got up early, though I did have a good breakfast as a result). In fact,  I got 91% which funnily was the class average.  We had planned a night out for that Saturday, which was the real reason we had bought masks and wings, but with Hannah not feeling good and Victoria not really liking clubs it didn't happen. Doesn't matter. I WILL have a night out eventually. I spent the rest of my extended weekend (so until Tuesday) doing no work. It was wonderful. Well I did say I was totally unmotivated. I watched lots of TV instead. It was a sad moment when I realised I was fully caught up on every series I've been keeping track of. As a result it was hello Megavideo, Glee season 2? Yes please.

Niagara Falls

My role as Mommaduck continued but although I got us safely to the hostel, we kinda did circle the block first. It was dark and I missed the street sign!!!

passing the American falls

Although we had 2 nights here, we only had 1 day. An early morning it was! As appreciative of the free breakfast I was, the teasing kettle but no teabags was just a little too much to handle. Instead I filled up on toast before we trekked down to the centre of the action. We bought ourselves an adventure day pass, which gave us access to most of the main attractions. I think it lasts for a weekend, but we were going to cram it all into one day. The first attraction was the Maid of the Mist. How could it have been anything else?? It was possibly the last weekend of the year that she was running.

We donned the ever so attractive ponchos (the first of 3) and went aboard. The foamy stuff by the pier looked absolutely disgusting. We plonked ourselves by a railing at the front of the boat (I hope my lack of nautical terms here doesn't upset my dad) . I was sort of vying for my spot with a young girl. I felt kinda mean. I also accidentally elbowed her in the face apparently. Clearly I am a horrible, horrible person who should watch her elbows when taking photos around shorter people. The Falls themselves aren't actually as big as I thought they were; I knew they weren't the biggest in the world but still. They were still damn impressive. Oh and you get REALLY wet in the pool of the Horseshoe falls. The spray goes up higher than the waterfall. Sadly, my poncho wasn't really long enough to stop my legs getting drenched. After we had disembarked, i sought out a hand dryer. The one I found was broken so I resorted to dabbing my legs dry(or drier) with paper towels. I'm so cool. In the meantime, Hannah was yet again indulging her love of squished pennies and getting any available by borrowing all sorts of coins from anyone and everyone.
From there we headed closer to the falls for our next 2 attractions. Sadly, on our way there I asked a passerby to take a photo of us.  >>> Said passerby managed to take the photo but then dropped my camera and broke the lens. My history with digital cameras is appalling. I shouldn't be allowed to own one in truth, but as though that's going to stop me. I was gutted. The woman was also feeling pretty guilty and gave me money to get it fixed. So my photos looked like this.one below. Bad times

Amazingly, whilst mooching around the gift shop at Table Rock, after some prodding, poking and generally abusing my camera The lens went back it. Trying my luck, I wondered whether it would come out if I turned the camera on again. AND IT DID!! It focused and did everything a good little camera should. WAHEYYYYY!!!
Stop 2 was Niagara's Fury. Sounds interesting enough and we were given another poncho. It was a 4D effects things. Yes I know, what is 4D? It means that the floor rumbled and moved and we got wet. A bit. It was a pretty effective way to explain the history of the falls though to be fair. By this point I was starving, but since we had an allotted time for Journey Behind the Falls (at least I think we did) we didn't have time for lunch, just a quick snack. Chocolate and crisps : Healthy!!
Stop 3 was less exciting than it sounded but it got you pretty close to the falls and you also got another poncho, this time in a sexy yellow colour. It had lots of information about random Fall-related things. Did you know the first person to go over in a barrel was a 63 year-old woman who said no-one should ever do it again?? She took her cat with her. The poor thing.

By this point it was raining and it was definitelhy time for lunch. We took some rail thing that took you about 50m (if that) up a hill purely because it was free. We then hunted down a restaurant.
We found a pretty good one. Do you know why I think it was so good?? Because, well not only was the food pretty darn good though I have no idea what I ate any more, IT HAD UNLIMITED TEA!! The waiter may have gotten fed up with sending him back and forth to refill my teapot but I was making the most of it being UNLIMITED. Potentially the best $2 I spent all day. The meals were also really big so we stayed there a while before moving on. We had to go back the way we came getting another ride on the rail thing. Our last stop was supposed to be some other Falls related thing but we arrived a little after the last tour had left so we couldn't go. By this point it was raining a fair bit but we weren't too far from the hostel so back we went.  We spent a while debating where we would be able to find the rest of the souvenirs that people wanted without trekking around in the rain.
Thankfully the rain stopped so we went back to the town centre and explored the excessively touristy main street. We got all our souvenirs though, and more which we can't say for Toronto. After some grand old purchases I insisted that everyboy ate something, even if just a snack. 3 meals a day and all that jazz!
Weighed down and realising it was pretty late we went back to the hostel to pack up our stuff.
Our bus left at 7.45 and the hostel owners were kind enough to put out breakfast early just for us! It included teabags!! I was happy. Not so happy that we didn;t realised the time and I got 1 burning hot sip before we had to run out the door.
We have reached Sunday, the last day of our travels. It was spent exactly thus. Travelling. 2 hours to Toronto, 6 hours to Montreal and 2 hours to Sherbrooke and the 20 minutes to the uni. We had a 4 hour layover in Toronto.We deposited our bags in a lock which put my stupidly good packing skills to the test and set off. We had been told that Kensington Market might be a good place for souvenirs but it was in fact a slightly creepy area. We hurried away as quick as our feet could carry us and went to the mall. Yes I'm using the word mall. Much more success, especially after a H&M trip. I bought hair accessories. Shiny, pretty ones :D Then we went for lunch before getting back to the bus station. By the time we got back to Sherbrooke, which was quite late, my bum cheeks were killing. It was an excellent week's worth of travels, even if it did rinse me of money. I love travelling!

I'm a good mommaduck

We started the morning off with a bit of repacking before heading down for breakfast. Hannah and I made it down considerably earlier than the other 2 so we weren't all eating at the same time. It was a BIG breakfast though. I still haven't quite got used to the size of the portions. Our day was fully planned this time, so having checked out and deposited our backpacks into a locker, we set off with map in hand. Once again I was the navigator which led to me being named mommaduck. I think this came from a Hannah quote about wandering round in circles without me. The other 3 are my ducklings :)

Our first stop was Fort York, formerly used by British soldiers. Apparently, Toronto used to be called York, no doubt after the English original. Those Yorkers sure got around a bit, I mean it was my second city in a matter of days to be named after the place. Anywho, I'm getting off track. The Fort wasn't the greatest attraction but it only cost us $3.25 so who can complain. We got to see cannons and wander round old buildings with random things on show. We only have one audio guide between us and it was pretty quiet so either we crowded round it and didn't move or we just gave up and wandered around regardless. We probably like the armoury best. There was a bit which played songs that soldiers would have sung/played to chill out and you could sing along. So "tow row row row row row row row row row of the British grehehehenerrrrrrdieeerrrrrs!". There's a video and I must admit I look like I'm having far too much fun in it. I'm cool really!!!
I feel like we may have gone for lunch after this, or at least that we should have but I can't recall doing so.

Second stop was my choice of activity : Toronto's Music Garden. It was designed to represent Bach's suite no.2 for unaccompanied cello. It probably looks better in summer where things are flowering but I enjoyed finding all the different movements and things. I have no idea how it represented a piece of music but I'm sure some genius thought it out. Actually, these little signs may have explained it. I should have read them more closely.... Och weel.
From there we moved on to Hannah's choice. By this time we had decided that her messed up accent was kinda South African so we set her the challenge to sound American for the day. To level the playing field we all had to put on accents. Nicole was trying to be English, Victoria was putting on a convincing Russian that reminded me far too much of Liudmila (a professor from Sheffield's Russian department) and I was trying to be Irish. The slight problem with that is that I sort of drift between Irish and Scottish and a dreadful mixture in between. It was ever so amusing to us. We were supposed to be carrying on at the Brewery (our destination) but everyone else gave up. The barman was trying to guess where we were from which we told him would be difficult (the concept of 4 traveller's from different places seems unheard of). His response, and I quote "what did you spin a wheel and decide, hey, I'm going to be South African today." Ah, it was of great amusement to us. The brewery tour was pretty good. We got 2 glasses of beer and a free glass in the price. The beer wasn't my favourite but it was free so naturally I was going to drink it!
Having accomplished all of our aims relatively early we set off on a souvenir hunt. On the way we found a Mexican restaurant. Nicole had been craving it for days so it seemed a perfect stop for lunch. Wow we had a late lunch.... It was really good food actually. I spent a fair amount of time trying to complete another crossword because somewhere along the way I had found another metro crossword.
So after some scrumptious food, we headed for the market. As lovely as the market was, it wasn't so useful in finding souvenirs or postcards.

On our way back to the hostel we stopped to explore the church across the road. It was getting late and they wanted to shut the doors so I had enough time to light a customary candle and mutter a quick prayer. The Queen visited this church earlier in the year. It was on their notice board. I also had time to look at that clearly!
So we collected our bags and things from the hostel, bought some postcards there and made a very non-beeline for the bus station. We did have plenty of time so it wasn't a problem. We eventually found some souvenirs in a shopping centre in a Hallmark shop - yes a card shop. Toronto is not the most touristy of cities, but I quite liked it that way. Not as much as I liked New York.
It's very easy to navigate even if it was freezing. I was volontarily wearing 6 layers, never mind Nicole. She didn't get a choice. I wasn't having her getting any more ill, so she had to stay wrapped up at all times. She also got cold and flu relief shoved down her throat. I'm a good mommaduck!
Aside from some people watching at the bus station that is it for Toronto!

Being stalked by the Terracotta Army (Torono Style)

We arrived in Toronto a little after midnight, after a much more pleasant bus journey, jumped in a taxi and headed for the hostel. Not so much an exciting start to a city, but after spending all day on a bus, my bum cheeks were incredibly happy. It was a little strange changing out of pyjamas into other pyjamas. Yes, I had got on the bus in my pyjamas, but they could be mistaken for joggers. Maybe?
The next morning was a little confusing for us. The 2 girls who had been in the dorm also had both gone, suitcases and all. However, there was a LOT of stuff and belongings that was still hanging around, things like shampoo, a toothbrush, magazines, drinks, cold medicine... Goodness knows how long some of it had been there.Anyway, having all sufficiently cleaned ourselves up for the day, we went in search of breakfast. This wasn't hugely successful and we ended up at subway. It did however allow us to whip out the maps and plan the day properly. Actually, no it didn't. We just worked out how to get to The Royal Ontario Museum - Victoria's choice.
The cold had definitely caught us out. It must have been at least 10 degrees colder than New York (celcius that is, just to specify).
So yes, a short walk to the subway, where I picked up a free metro newspaper. Not that I read any of it but I did pass much of the rest of the day absorbed in the crossword.  :D

As we approached the ROM, the others noted a few signs saying that the Terracotta Army was in town. I sighed. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that army stalks me. I tried to convince them it wasn't worth seeing. I failed however, the $8 surchage did the job.
I promised them that this was just as good. It also turned out that there were miniture versions for sale in the gift shop which is almost better seeing as they copied the ones with complete faces and with no limbs missing.
We spent a good long while mosying around the museum. It had plenty of things to look at and an exhibition for everyone. I got all excited by the Chopin one. I don't even like Chopin. Well, I have nothing against the man or his playing but I find his compositions a little samey. Nevertheless, the exhibition was good.
Thursday is obviously a day for school trips because there were school children (of varying ages) running around all over the place. Ok so not all of them were running, most of the older ones were in fact wandering around with clipboards occasionally taking note of something of interest (though mostly their faces suggested anything but). We found Dorey, or a Dorey look-a-like in the wildlife section. Did you know that if my species were picked at random I would be a plant? Not even a specific type of plant, I could be a tree, or a flower or alagae, just a generic plant. This was around the time that I discovered Hannah's surprising knack for recognising animal skulls. We lost Nicole and Victoria for a while but found then hiding out in the dinosaur section. After a while our tummies began to rumble so it was time to leave the lovely big museum and find lunch. We went to so egg specialist place, at least I'm fairly certain everything on the menu included eggs. Apart from my tea. That was egg free. Thankfully.
After lunch, which took us to the mid afternoon, we planned out the rest of the day which included an onward march towards Casa Loma. I was the chief navigator :) I always get us where we are going and 3 minutes before last entry. Oh yes.

Casa Loma was Nicole's choice. It's a mock medieval chateau built by some scottish general. As a result there were several Scottish flags around :D
We all sorted ourselves out with a leaflet and an audio guide each. I was very good and got both in French. I was only one to get the audio in French. It was quite easy to understand. Well when it wasn't hopelessly dull so I stopped listening. There's only so much I need to hear about a dining table and I'd had enough after 5 minutes. I wonder if he said anything more interesting... I think the Princes may have visited at one point. I could be making that story up though.
We realised that the place was wanting to close so we didn't actually get to see all of it, but the majority at least. Time had slipped away from us so we went back to the hostel. We were planning on going out on a bar crawl that night so we wanted plenty of time to eat and get ready.
Once back at the hostel, Hannah promptly fell fast asleep and Nicole, who had picked up a cold, also looked like she could use a good night's sleep (and a healthy dosage from me and my travelling pharmacy). Around half 8, Victoria and I decided in hushed whispers to forsake the night out and set about finding takeaway instead of ushering the others out of bed and off to a restaurant . A good choice over all I think. We had delicious pizzas which were very large and left us contently stuffed for a "quiet night". Since when was it a quiet night with 4 girls in a dorm room though? I think it accumulated in singing "Be Our Guest" from Beauty & the Beast at the top of my voice around midnight. Not exactly the most considerate for my neighbours sadly. The next morning, whilst wandering down the corridor with Hannah, a girl actually said "Oh you're the singer from next door." Half embarrassed, half shocked I didn't get much of a response out. So before I start day 2, I'll post this, so I don't get too far behind.

Never Get a Greyhound bus

So I'm very slowly getting up to speed but I figured, rather than taint the loveliness of my travels, Greyhound can have it's own post, just for a rant. Also I haven't yet got around to writing my complaint, mostly because you don't seem to be able to do it via e-mail and I feel the company is worth neither a stamp nor a phone call.
We got ourselves up bright and early on Wednesday to make sure we were at the station at least an hour before the bus left, which considering the debacle on the way here seemed a great idea. It possibly was, but we had a slightly grotty breakfast at the grim bus station and a whole hour waiting in a queue of 4 people (yes we were half that queue).
The bus actually left on time. 3 minutes early in fact. Somewhere along the route we lost those 3 minutes and a further 55. The unscheduled pizza stop probably had a fair bit to do with it. I was blissfully unaware of this until the last stop before the border brought us a whole host of grumbling passengers. Then I started to be a bit anxious. Nicole and I , when booking our bus tickets, had in fact only left 35 minutes between buses.
Then we stopped for a toilet break (there was a flipping toilet on the bus??) and duty-free. Definitely not on the agenda. Worried about the time, I found 2 men dressed in greyhound uniforms but who weren't the driver. I asked them if they were officials on the journey and they happily said I could ask them questions. I asked why we were so late. The response was pretty snooty and rude. They told me we weren't but were completely on schedule. They said that if anything would make us late it would be customs. I didn't quite believe them since it had taken 45 minutes to get from Montreal to the border at night and we had 50 to reach customs, go through and then crawl through Montreal's rush hour traffic.
Customs took a grand total of 10 minutes. (I probably didn't help by leaving my travel documents on the desk and wandering off causing a the customs officer to chase after me.) Therefore customs did not delay us.
We set off with 25 minutes to be on time.
Not wanting to disturb the driver, I went to ask one of the men in uniforms if they had ID numbers. He got all defensive and had a bit of a go at me saying he had nothing to do with this journey, calling me "lady" and being plain rude. I told him I didn't think he was being very polite to which his response was "yeah maybe am bein' a liddle loud witcha" - loud? the whole bus could hear! He kept telling me that it wasn't his responsibility blah blah blah. He didn't take very kindly to me pointing out that whether he is on duty or not whilst wearing his uniform he is still a representative of his company thus he should not be speaking to a passenger in such a rude way. Nicole couldn't believe the way he'd spoken to me either. Sucks to be him because he was wearing a name badge. Named and shamed Eduardo Lopez, named and shamed.  
Our 35 minutes of overlap were slipping away as we crawled through traffic. By some absolute miracle, Hannah and Victoria had convinced the next bus driver to wait for us. They texted me for regular updates as to our location, which became more and more frustrating the closer we got to the bus station but the slower we went. I actually contemplated getting off the bus and running instead. We pulled into the station more than an hour late, grabbed our bags and literally ran to get on our next bus. I wanted to hug the driver but he might not have appreciated it - hugs from a random stranger, well it's not everyone's cup of tea now is it?
So, if you want a bus that will be on time? Don't pick Greyhound. If you want staff who are polite and helpful? DEFINITELY , whatever you do, do NOT choose greyhound.
If you want a bus that will wait for you when running late and then proceed to make up the lost time and arrive 5 minutes early? Pick Megabus. It's also far cheaper.

The Big Apple

Alright. So after wanting to visiting this city for many, many years I was finally standing in a grim looking bus station, probably looking equally grim after spending the night on a bus, but feeling oddly awake and potentially grinning just a little bit from excitement. I whipped out the guidebook Hervé had so kindly lent me (it took me a while to realise that Le Rockerfella Centre and Le meatpacking district don't have the le in English. I'm smart I am). Having worked out where we were and where the hostel was, we decided to head for the corner of 5th avenue and 42nd St. just so I could take a photo of the streets 2 Mancunian clubs are named after and just so happen to be frequented by many of my friends. In doing so we found ourselves outside the NY public library. I had a photo with Patience, or Fortitude. One of the lions. I wonder if anyone does actually know which lion is which....
Having kickstarted the sightseeing so early, it was definitely time for breakfast. We ambled around looking for a) somewhere open and b) somewhere that didn't look like it might be home to a family of cockroaches. Mission accomplished and with full bellies we hopped on a subway and headed towards our hostel. We weren't able to check in yet but they did give us towels, point us in the direction of the showers and give us directions to the locker room. The hostel was fully decked out in Halloween decorations. It was a huge hostel. Goodness knows how many people can actually stay there at a time. Nice and clean though which is always a bonus.
It felt rather nice to be all clean and showered - I even put on some make-up. I was slightly inspired by the girl showing her friend how to apply foundation, and I think I may have been waiting for Nicole as well. However, feeling wonderfully refreshed and a whole host light for losing the baggage we decided to start our day in Central Park. It was beautifully sunny and warm, plus it was just 2 streets over. Perfect start!

Obelisk perhaps?

There was a massive sponsored walk going on for breast cancer so it was full of people in pink making lots of noise. Escaping the main routes, we discovered plenty of the park's monuments (most of which I couldn't tell you who it was of) and other such things to do. It was full of dog-walkers and runners. It was hard to keep Nicole from running over to every single dog whilst cooing "Puppy!!!" There was an aerobics class in front of one of those big Egyptian pointy things. Sorry I've forgotten the name of it. We also climbed a tree. Just for kicks.
We found ourselves by the Belvedere Castle and naturally went in. As we were climbing the very narrow stairs which were difficult to get up due to the volume of people trying to go down at the same time and being unable to see if anyone was coming, I was stopped by a little girl of around 9 years who boldly asked me straight out who I was. A little taken aback I told her my name. I don't think she really cared. She told me I look like Bella from Twilight then merrily skipped down the stairs. Oh well.
We moved on, jaunting merrily round some twisty paths were a man recognised my shoes. (very odd I know) before acquainting ourselves with Hans Christian Anderson who was so kind to have the little duckling open and ready for a bedtime story as well as Alice in Wonderland and all of her merry friends. How lovely :)
We left the park and hunted down some lunch. We had by this point been wandering around for a good 3 hours and it was nearing the afternoon.
Following lunch we headed towards the South of Manhattan Island. We plonked ourselves on the Staten Island ferry. This wasn't so much as to go to Staten Island as because it was free and afforded decent views of the harbour and the Statue of Liberty. It was a little windy and it was not nearly half as warm as it had been that morning so both Nicole and I found ourselves buying NY hoodies from a street vendor so as to keep warm.
We headed to Chinatown and Little Italy for dinner, stumbling across Wall Street and the mighty stock exchange on the way. Chinatown was so un-Chinese it was unbelievable, well apart from the haggling. I restricted myself as to what I bought but Nicole was on a souvenir mission. We found a nice little Italian for tea which, for $9, gave us all you can eat pasta. Not as in a salad bar, as in yummy, steaming plate of hot pasta. We could only just fit in 2 plates each and it was yummy. Oh and the cocktail menu was pretty damn impressive too. So, if ever you happen to be in NY, look up Focolare. Nom nom.
As if I have only just reached day 2. This will be an essay and a HALF! Sorry folks.
We didn't start the day quite as early as planned which is entirely the fault of me and my love of sleep. It was still a respectable start before anyone thinks I slept in until noon. Not at all. We had a leisurely breakfast (I have discovered that Americans cannot pronounce this word it's an 'eh' sound not an 'eeee'!!!) before heading back to South Manhattan, this time in time for the ferry to Liberty Island. The queue for tickets in itself was not long, but the queue for the ferry? OOF!! As a result, dinner was had in the queue., It consisted of a hot dog which was so disgusting I threw away the sausage and simply ate the bun on it's own. Nicole, having forgotten a jumper, found herself buying another hoodie.  I would say the wait was worth it. We didn't get off at Liberty Island since we didn't have monument tickets but we did explore Ellis Island and the museum about it's history as an immigration port. This took up most of our afternoon. We had enough time to go back to a shop we had seen the night before and let Nicole try on lots of dresses. She found one she liked and we headed for the hostel to make ourselves beautiful for Broadway.
I don't think I have the words to explain just how AMAZING the performance was. It was bloody awesome! It's easy to see how it's the longest running musical. At the interval, I made a mad dash for the toilets, determined not to be stuck in the unavoidable queue for the ladies, practically jumping over chairs on my way. It paid off, there was only one person in front of me and by the time I came out the queue was tailing off somewhere in the distance. It was hard to tell precisely where because of the people milling around. Our seats actually afforded us a much better view of the stage that I had been expecting so I was definitely very very pleased.
Following the show, we opted for a late time snack in a restaurant across the road. I ordered a small house wine thinking this meant a glass. It did not. We stayed there a while so I didn't have to rush my wine by downing it or something else wholly unsuitable for a young lady in a posh frock. We were on the edge of Times Square by this point so headed there. We discovered that some of the French boys were also there so we met them briefly on the red steps. It was getting late however so Nicole and I took a taxi back to the hostel.
Aha , we reach day 3 - our last in the Big Apple. It was no less busy than either of the previous 2. We were much more organised though and having marked on the map everywhere we wanted to go, we planned the most efficient route. First stop - Macy's. That shop is actually mahoosive! It had a glee section, which probably let it down a little. Who needs Glee clothing?? However, the girl from the MAC counter liked my eyeliner, which I still had on from the night before. My sister would probably call me a skank for that.

This was just around from the Empire State Building. Despite being prepared for lengthy queues, we wandered straight in, bought the tickets and up the lift to floor 86.The sky was pretty clear so we got some wonderful views of the city. Oh and a photo with King Kong. Don't know what he was doing there ;)
We moved on from there finding our way to the UN centre. You can go in and have a guided tour but we didn't. I might work there one day, who needs a tourist tour then!!! ha ha. We got some lovely photos of all the flags. I recognised barely any of them. There are far too many countries in the world.
From there we mooched to Barney's, F.A.O Schwartz and it's big piano (vue massive cheesy grin for getting a go all on my lonesome yeahy), Saks, Bloomingdale's and that might be it for the shops. We were out of place in most of them. Oh we also checked out the outside of the Rockerfella centre which just so happended to have a giant lego shop next to it. Hello lego statues. It's kinda impressive what can be made with lego!!
Having thus spent all day walking, we headed towards Times Square, this time with full camera batteries and a need for some food. It took a while to pick but we found somewhere where we muched away watching some dodgy Italian dating gameshow.
We raided M&M's world. There was a 'mood predictor'. Apparently I should be a yellow M&M because I bring sunshine into people's lives everyday. I'm a little ray of sunshinnnnneeeeee. We spent lots of time in that shop before crossing the road to the Hershey's shop. Yes, it's all about Chocolate. We met up with 2 of the Frenchies again. They wanted to go for a drink but since I was the only one over 21 and thus legal, this didn't happen. It was getting late so we bid them goodbye, and hopped in a taxi to pack away our stuf, which seemed to have doubled in size and to finish our time in New York. Sad times indeed.

it's been a while...

I can't remember the last time I left my blog feeling so unloved. Probably never. I will also start off by saying that there is no way that everything since the 14th is going to be contained in just one blog post. It will have to be in installments. This is partly because I have lots to write, partly because I'm being kept rather busy and lastly, also because I'm just a little bit too lazy to write it all at once.
So, hang on a minute, I have no idea where I was up to....
Ah yes, mid-terms. Thursday's exam proved to suit me a little better than the day before. I worked up until the time limit, but there were no hastily scribbled conclusions that can barely be considered a conclusion at all, and definitely no running after the invigilator. No skipping either for that matter. Walking out of the lecture hall was like a whole weight off my chest - no more cramming or wondering what on earth the crazy shorthand I'd taken down was in fact supposed to mean. Goodness knows how I was intending to reinterpret some of my notes. I was not the only one to finish my exams that day and thus there were a few of us celebrating freedom. Within an hour both Gaston and Vincent had asked me why I no longer spent time with everyone. That's how studious I had been. Who'd have ever thunk it ey! I swiftly promised that I would once again be super sociable starting that night since I would not be holed up in my room revising any more. Good times. A most enjoyable night.
I spent Friday doing goodness knows what amidst packing and buying tickets for Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. As if I wasn't excited enough about going to New York, that just tipped me over the edge.
I feel I should have something to recall about the controle but I have nothing to add. It was far too long ago. After faffing around plenty afterwords, Nicole and I set off in the afternoon, reaching Montreal well in advance of our bus. We double checked the bus stations and times of all buses (not just those for that day) and satisfied we were in the right place, headed off for a gander around the town. We caught the last hour perhaps of shopping time. I used this to replace the boots I was wearing, but which really needed to be disposed of. I walked out of H&M wearing my latest purchase and wandered around with my old boots looking for a bin. I must admit, throwing them away was almost sentimental. Unless I wanted to continue looking like a tramp (not necessarily on my agenda) they had to go.
Time was ticking away and we settled for dinner. A very yummy dinner indeed, even if they did get the pudding order wrong and charge us an extra dollar. Eventually finding that there was not much left for us to do we returned to the bus station almost 4 hours early for our bus. Being there so early did not stop us being one of the last on the bus. We didn't join the queue as there were 2 buses leaving before ours. What we didn't know was that when a bus is full they make the rest of the queue wait for the next one. We ended up half way down the queue once we finally joined it. That wouldn't have been half as annoying except when the buses arrived (they had sent 2 for our departure) the first wasn't quite ready, yet they took the back half of the queue, loaded them onto bus 2 and sent them packing before we boarded the first one. In my eyes that completely defies the object of a queue. Enough of that, there will be more ranting about Greyhound buses at a later date.
Nicole and I secured 2 seats each so at least it was a bit more comfortable and thus should have been easier to sleep. It was not. Between 1 and 2 am we had to get off the bus for customs. USA can take it's declaration of liberty and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. The first woman was quite snappy, asking me if I'd ever been to the States before whilst flicking through my passport and it's variety of stamps and visas, but looking mighty pissed off when I added it was on my old one. She eventually sent me off with a green card to fill in. Once filled in, I rejoined the mostly depleted queue and got a much nicer guy, who didn't seem to mind so much that I hadn't completely filled out the form (sadly when it says sign and date if answering yes, it does not in fact mean you don't have to sign and date there when answering no - making a total of 4 signatures and dates on one piece of green paper). Not having my return ticket on my person didn't seem to bother him either, unlike the grumpy woman who was complaining that immigrants didn't listen. In our defense, they should have specified which ticket they wanted. How was I to know they didn't want to see my ticket to NY?? After that, he took fingerprints and thumbprints and then changed hands and then took my photo (I esperately wanted to o a cheesy grin but thought better of it) before asking for $6. He looked mildly amused when I said my purse was on the bus still. Like I said, they need to give better instructions! Such kerfuffle just to cross the border for a few days.
Back on the bus, I curled myself up on my 2 chairs and attempted to get some sleep. A got a bit of shut eye in. Nicole woke me up around 7am as we crossed the toll bridge into NYC to see the sunrise behind the cityscape. I wish I'd taken photos - it was rather beautiful. I then went back to sleep for the last half an hour of the journey.
This seems like a suitable place to stop. I shall regale all my New York adventures next time.