I'll have a cocktail to celebrate my godfoetus please

Friday, for the most part, was uninteresting. I bought books, skyped and packed. I know delightful! Well I did get very exciting news that my friend is expecting. :D Not only that (which is good enough news) but I'll be godmother again! Victoria laughed as I refered to my god-foetus. Many congratulations to Nina and Tim.
Early evening we got on a bus destined for Montreal. At first it seemed we might miss it, but luck was on our side and by 7pm we were arriving. The hostel, luckily was not far from the bus station. We checked in and headed out for dinner. Mine was accompanied by a cocktail, just for the hell of it. Following dinner we explored a little. Though we hadn't known where we were going, we found ourselves at Place des Arts, where there was an outdoor showing of a Japanese film, which seemed to be a reproduction of Shall We Dance. We moved on after a while and stopped to play in the fountains. It was  a great way to cool down!
Finding our way back to the hostel, we encountered a group of Irish lads sitting in the communal area (right outside our dorm room door). We must have scared them away because they immediately moved into their dorm room. It soon became obvious that they were preparing for a night out as they wandered in and out with beer bottles, toothbrushes and occasionally in a towel on the way to the shower. Victoria and I found it generally hilarious that none of them would look at us until one of them said hello and asked where we came from and then after that it was like they were allowed to talk to us and they all started saying hi. The girls we were sharing our dorm with turned up as did some other men so it was fairly social.
In the morning, the girls dorm all got up reasonably early to get in lots of sightseeing and opened the door to find one of the irish guys sprawled on the sofa and a second across 2 chairs, blocking the door. It took some agility to get past them. By all accounts they had a good night, but neither remembers sleeping in the lounge. Bless.
We went for breakfast and headed for the Old town. I didn't mind going there again. On the way, it started to rain quite heavily so we ducked into a shop which turned out to be a bookshop (perfect for Victoria) and a music shop (perfect for me). As the rain stopped we continued. Not before being distracted by a hotel's souvenir shop where we overheard an exchange between a disgruntled American who had been caught smoking and the man behind the desk who was clearly fed up of her ranting. Highly entertaining, especially when she accused the hotel of forging her signature to pay her room bill. Massive LOL!
Our first stop was the Basilica. Not all of it was open due to a wedding, but it was still worth a second visit. We got caught out by the rain again, though by this time we were heading to the shops and so stayed in the one we had just entered. We ran out of things to look out and ended up playing a game of chess. I won! I was so proud of myself, especially as I didn't realise I'd won until after I moved the last piece. What can I say, I'm no budding chess champion!
We shopped for souvenirs before realising the time and went for lunch. Through a slip of the tongue I found myself ordering milk instead of water and couldn't be bothered to correct myself. Ah well. 
I found a t-shirt that I really, really wanted to buy for Abbie, but I couldn't find it in a size smaller than 6 years. Darn. I will keep up the search though.
Hmm, how else did we spend Saturday? We mooched through Bonsecours Market which houses lots of arty things among other things.

I set about finding a church which was visited by many sailors who prayed for safe travel and hung boats from the ceiling. Sadly there was a service in progress so we couldn't really go in. From there we went to the docks and visited the clock tower. We took shelter from the wind and climbed all the way to the top. Most of it was fine buy the very top stairs were very narrow and seemed a little rickety, it that's possible to say of metal stairs? It afforded a good view of the city despite the clouds. We found a park there and played on the swings before investigating the rock festival going on nearby. However, the wind was picking up and it was getting chilly so we went back to the hostel.
Yet again the Irish boys were getting ready for a night out. I chatted away to a few of them for a while. They tried to convince us to join them out but we declined. Instead we went out for dinner. It took us a while to find somewhere. We opted for starters and pudding. Good choice if you ask me. I got free tea out of it too. Not bad ey!
The hostel was empty when we got back and we settled for bed. A few hours later though I was woken up by people returning. At first it was some guys I hadn't seen before, but I asked if they could talk a little quieter. One of the Irish boys was yet again asleep on the sofa. He must have come back on his own because no-one could have missed the arrival of his friends. They were so loud. Since I was awake I decided I need the loo. Normally I wouldn't share this kinda of detail except I forgot to take the key and found myself locked out of the dorm! I knocked, but got no answer so found myself sitting in the lounge with most of the Irish guys. Slowly they drifted into their dorm room. One was intent on sleeping in a chair, despite my many attempts to get him to go to bed, it wasn't happening. Well I had nothing better to do! Around 8ish i finally managed to get back into the dorm. We had to check out at 10 so I didn't get much sleep overall :(

The aim of the day was Parc Mont-Royal. From there we went to the contemporary art museum which was weird. Contemporary art is hit and miss at best but some of this stuff was just plain weird. There was a video of a man washing windows. What's that about??
We we're going to go to the planetarium but we didn't have time before the bus so we ambled through the old town again in the direction of the bus station. On the way we called in at the music shop again and I happily spent lots of money on sheet music.
I snoozed a little on the bus but before long we were back in Sherbrooke. My mind was mostly on dinner and sleep. There were quite a few people in the kitchen but my brain was too tired to process the French. Food however, slowly re-energised me. I opted to stay and listen, as if I force myself to practise when tired I've got to get better right?
I get the impression that the boys think I like Gaston. I mean I didn't understand the whole thing but I got enough of it and I when I said 'Oi' they looked sufficiently sheepish and so "oh so you understood some of that". I wonder where this idea came from, unless one of them overheard and understood me telling Victoria that I wanted to be his friend because he's called Gaston like out of Beauty and the Beast. Just a throwaway comment, based on a love of Disney rather than anything else, but I guess it could be misconstrued. After dinner, we went down to the games room and started a pairs' pool tournament. I was paired with Andrejean and we successfully won 2 matches. Pure Skills man. I think that placed us third. It was good fun anyway. I somehow managed to keep my eyes open until midnight before retiring to bed.
Understandably I slept for a long time! Today is labour day, so not a lot going on. I've done some washing and some reading and well that sums up my day so far. The weather is no longer glorious sunshine and it saddens me slightly that I have to go back to leggings and trousers. Oh bare legs was so much better!

Since when was Scotland famed for making beer?

I found out what all that noise was about the other night. Quite a collection of people had gathered on the corridor and we're planning to go for a late night picnic. It's the only way I can describe it really! I joined them with my cup of tea, which was allowed because it was in a Quebec mug. It was nice to sit in the cool night air, enjoying the banter flying around. Since most of the group came from France there was often explaining to each other what a phrase meant which was really helpful for me! Sometimes the conversation went right over my head but it was good to socialise.
Yesterday, oooh what did I do? Oh yes, I went shopping. I needed some international stamps and some aftersun. I also bought sun block which I've appreciated greatly today! I tried to get a sim card but that proved problematic and in the end I just gave up.
In the afternoon there was a welcome event for international students, which we got to quite early. However we did beat the rush since there are far more international students than we realised. The first part was a mixture of a slideshow and videos followed by a few speeches. The former was understandable - even we could spot the humour but the speakers spoke far too fast and they mostly aimed the speeches at african students. Not so useful for us! After this introduction which took well over 1.5 hours they provided us with a meal, comprising of pâte chinois (chinese pasta - nothing chinese about it. It's basically sheperd's/cottage pie with a layer of sweetcorn) and pouding chomeur (poor man's pudding). Whilst queuing up some of the French guys from the late night picnic spotted me and invited me to join them. So we did. We by this point was not just Victoria and myself but Nicole, the american from my corridor, and her friend, Hannah. We ended up right in the middle of their group so we were straight in with the French conversation. I particularly like that one of the guys regularly corrected us when we made mistakes and explained it- most useful indeed! Somehow the topic of beer came up and one guy wanted to know the names of some scottish beers. While I may be able to reel off a fair few beer brands, this doesn't extend to the location of the brewery. Newcastle ale is made in Newcastle is the best I can do in that respect so I text my dad, who came to the rescue.
Last night was so hot that it was difficult to sleep. I chatted to some people briefly on the corridor but tiredness and heat stripped me of any desire to attempt any French. This is coming more naturally now though at least.
Victoria and I made plans to go to Lac Magog this morning but we missed the bus which was entirely my fault. The next one was 3 hours later so there was some pratting around doing not an awful lot! 
                  It only saved up to here and deleted the rest :(  alors, on y va!
We got on a bus soon after midday ish, without a map or an idea of which bus stop we needed. Oh how well prepared we are! Although we recognised the name we definitely got off at the wrong place, because although we were by the lake, we were also in the middle of suburbia, with homes and private land right across the lake side. We started walking, which in the midday heat was incredibly hot. I was practically melting and my face gradually turned a plum shade of red. Nice. However, I was well equipped with my sun cream which I did offer to share but it was declined. With her bright pink shoulders I bet Vicky's wishing she put some on now! After walking quite far, we stopped, trespassed and rested under the shade of some trees. Eventually we asked a nice couple to point us in the right direction. They were very helpful and even offered to drive us to the beach if we would wait a while. We declined the offer on the grounds that we wouldn't know how to get back! They sent us on our way instead with a hand-drawn map indicating a park and a bus stop. We found the park, which included 2 jetties so we had a bit of a swing before paddling in the lake. It was so refreshing! Possibly because I soaked all but my torso, I was much cooler for it. I tried skimming stones, but clearly it is not one of my many talents.
The fish crowding round my toes and the spider spinning a web from Victoria's toe clearly entertained us far too much and we easily passed a large amount of time there. It made the whole adventure worth it. After we dried ourselves off a bit and replaced our shoes we headed for the bus stop. Bearing in mind that we had no idea of the timetable, we were in for a long wait. Just as we were giving up hope and pondering how to get a taxi, lo and behold, there appeared our rickety bus which took us back to the uni.
Following this, we visited the uni shop, first of all to get Victoria some food and then to find our course books. Well some of them, darn expensive they are too. With my new books safely packed in my bag I headed to the poste d'acceuil  where I procured a key to the piano room. Excitedly I then rushed back to my room, collected my music and dashed down to have a play. Sadly the soundproof room lacked any ventilation and was like a sauna, so much so that it was unbearable and I couldn't stay very long. However I have the key for future use, not when I want to sweat out any toxins though!
Just as I was wrapping up my blog I have been rudely interrupted. Well not so much. It's Tino's birthday (a guy from upstairs) so everyone is congregating in the kitchen to celebrate. Andrejean is tempting me out promising that I'll learn more French chatting to people than in a lesson. While he may be right I'm not sure whether swear words will arise in any of my exams! A social butterfly I shall remain so  à bientôt!