Ashley and I arrived back in Kansas this week. We spent 43 hours on Greyhound buses. During which time two passengers were removed in handcuffs and one was left at a bus stop after she mouthed off to the bus driver.

Now that we are back, our time has been spent prepping for our next adventure, Jerusalem! We depart August 25.

From now until then, a lot has to be done. We ended up talking Greyhound in to changing our destination from Kansas City to Wichita at no charge, meaning we arrived in Wichita early but still need to visit Kansas City to scrap our old car and pick up the supplies we left.

We also need to take care of a number of repairs to electronics. This laptop goes in for warranty service later this week; the power jack is loose causing the computer to occasionally not charge. Our new Nikon camera has to have the flash repaired, it arrived broken. And, my iPod Classic no longer plays audio. Despite being four years old, I spoke with Apple and it seems that it is a manufacture’s defect and will be repaired at no charge. Overall cost of all repairs; only $6 to cover shipping of the camera. I love warranties. Now let’s hope everything arrives back before August 25.

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.