Travel Blog

This afternoon we climbed Mont Royal. At the top is a overlook of the city. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tomorrow is our last day in Montreal. Our bus departs late at night on Monday and we will arrive in Kansas City, MO on Wednesday. We’ll sell our broken car and pick up our gear we left at our friend’s parent’s house before heading back to Wichita.

One month from today we will be on a plane to Israel.

Next month Jerusalem!

Came across this sign at Parc La Fontaine. Only in Canada would the government have to post a “No Hockey” sign in a public park.

It has been awhile since our last update, it has been hard finding Internet access and free time.

This has been a very eventful. We finished classes, moved to another host’s house, ate great food and saw a number of Montreal attractions.

Class

Overall I would not recommend UQAM’s summer language courses. Despite claims that the course would be primarily conversation based, we never truly engaged in any conversation lessons. However, thanks to the Couch Surfing program, we have been able to stay with a number of native French speakers allowing us to practice and improve our French.

New Host

Well not that new. We moved back in with our first hosts. The apartment is downtown (our last location was in the suburbs), allowing us to engage in a plethora of fun activities. Plus, we once again have reliable Internet access. To use the Internet at our last host’s apartment, we had to pull chairs next to the window in the kitchen to steal the neighbor’s access.

Food

Most importantly, we have had some great food this week! Ashley discovered an amazing Afghani restaurant with the best prepared lamb shanks. Yum. We also munched on chocolate bobka from a local Jewish pastry shop. Bobka is a pastry made out of layers of phyllo dough and creamy chocolate.

Attractions

Our favorite attraction of the week had to be the “Just for Laughs” festival. We only saw two skits performed, but they were great. The best skit had to be the Bollywood dancers. I forgot the camera but snapped a few photos with my cell phone. I will hopefully post them soon.

We also visited the Museum of Modern Art and a museum on the history of Montreal.

Today, Ashley and I walked to Parc La Fontaine, one of the premier parks in Montreal. On our way we stumbled across a rugby game. I don’t quite understand the game, but it was fun to watch.

Below is a picture of us at the Montreal Port from last week.

Our weekend so far has been rather lazy. Yesterday we planned on hiking Mont Royal, the mountain that is the namesake for the city of Montreal. The term Mountain is a bit misleading as Mont Royal is more of a medium-sized hill, or as I like to think of it, a Kansas mountain. Also on our schedule was watching the fireworks display at the port. Yesterday’s thunderstorm had a different idea.

We ended up stranded at home all day long. Lots of naps, lots of catching up on design work and of course a late-night thriller movie à français.

5150 Rue des Ormes is a horror/thriller movie made in Quebec. A teenager crashes his bicycle and when he goes to a nearby home to call a cab, he stumbles across a man being murdered inside the house. Over the course of five months the teenager is held captive by the family and he descends in to madness. Eventually he is given the ultimatum, beat his captor at a game of chess or forever be held captive. Sounds corny but the director makes it work. *Spoiler* Ultimately he is forced to play a game of chess using the preserved bodies of the killer’s victims as the pieces and is one move away from winning when the police arrive.*spoiler*

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1331291/

The director of the film is heralded as the “Stephen King of Quebec”. And like many Stephen King movies I enjoyed the film but, given the opportunity, I doubt I would watch it again.

It’s been a few days since my last post. Our Internet access here is spotty at best. The University does not offer wireless Internet to summer students, and you must stand in line at the library to gain a temporary Internet pass at the Montreal Library. As for Internet at our host homes, everyone pirates Internet from their neighbors.

Today we finished our second week of class. Only one week left. It is amazing how quickly time has flown. We had our first Poutine meal yesterday. Poutine is a Montreal specialty that consists of French fries with cheese curds drenched in gravy. It sounds unappetizing, but it is delicious!

Photo from Wikipedia

We moved in with a new host on Wednesday. We now have a whole room to ourselves; however, the location is well-outside walking distance to the University. The host is in his 40′s with a ten year-old boy. He became part of the Couch Surfing project to give his son a chance to meet people from around the world and learn about different cultures. The host doesn’t speak much English, but he speaks English better than I do French. We’ll be with this host until the 23^rd of July.

Ashley and I had a great time at our host’s cabin this weekend. I was a couple hour drive outside of the city, through some of the greenest countryside. The cabin itself is part of a community situated next to a private lake with a beautiful sand beach. Most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach and swimming.

Joining us at the cabin was some of our host’s extended family. Our host comes from an Italian family and we had sit down meals for lunch and dinner that were to die for— Large, family-sized portions with tons of courses. We had steak and shrimp for dinner last night and Italian pasta for lunch. Oh, and all their appliances are restored antiques.

The first photo is of the plage (beach) and lac (lake). The second photo is of the outdoor pizza oven, how cool is that? Lastly we have one of three antique stoves in the house.

Tomorrow morning I have an interview with an Israeli nonprofit consulting firm for an internship position while in Israel. The place is very hip and has operations in NY, Chicago and Jerusalem. http://www.PresenTense.org

This morning we said goodbye to our first hosts. We were very lucky to meet such great people on our first stay in Montreal.

We just arrived with our new host, qui s’appelle Bradley. We’re going to spend the weekend in the country at his cabin.

Today we were supposed to visit the Biodome. Unfortunately, the staff decided to go on strike this week. Instead, we visited a cathedral/museum. It was pretty, not the Biodome by any means, but still nice.

Stained-glass window in Cathedral

Photos from the top of the bell tower. The first one is the Biosphere, America’s contribution to the World Fair in the 1960s. The second photo is of the Cirque du Soleil tents. The angel was added to the cathedral in the mid-1900s.

As we were leaving, we came across the colonial army marching through the streets. They are getting ready to turn in to the historic Rue Saint-Paul area. With them playing and the scenery around them, it’s like something from centuries ago.

Photos of our walking tour of Old Montreal.

You can see the evolution of the city in this photo. Instead of leveling buildings, they would be converted in to larger ones.

Basilica de Notre-Dame. Under construction, much like everything else in Montreal. I was told a joke while on the tour that Montreal has two seasons, Winter and construction season.

We walked down Rue (French for Street) Saint-Paul. It was a gorgeous part of the city. Markets galore, street performers and cobble-stone roads. Très belle.