Three weeks of class are done already, meaning that the semester is one quarter over!  Almost there.  Sort of.

Finally had poutine today, yay!  Hoping to watch the US presidential debate tonight, should be good for a laugh.  Or recoiling in horror, one of the two.

It’s still surprisingly nice here, hope it lasts a few more months.  I’m sure it will.  But I think I’m getting a cold already:(  Break out the legwarmers.

So here I am back at my desk trying to avoid any form of homework.  Have had one week of class; web system design seems like it will be the most useful.  Government information, on the other hand, more like grade 8 redux.  I’ve been doing lots of shopping and partying before the real work, as it tends to do, starts.  Also, I started working at the McGill Geographic Information Center, so I am a GIS pseudo-specialist.  Pseudo because it’s really hard to remember where to find stuff in a collection where 80% of the material is uncatalogued:(  Anyway, here goes.  Hope to come out alive in 7 months.

Packing.  Ugh.  Back to Montreal in a day and a bit.  Worked my last day at the library today, yay!  Will miss everyone lots!  Okay, not the spitting guy or the masturbator or “I had a bad reaction to a hot dog…”  Will update my condition soon, presumably after mass consumption of poutine.

Ok, I haven’t posted in a long time. Facebook has taken over. Back to school, and finally doing some work after 3 weeks. Doing lots of touristy stuff around Montreal, including eating the famous Schwartz’s smoked meat. With a giant pickle, mmm… And cherry soda. So good. A group of us went to the Biodome, where they have a bunch of animals in different ecosystems, including penguins!! Very cute and swimmy. I might go hang out in the tropical area to keep warm. Move in with the monkeys. This weekend we went skating at the Old Port; it’s an outdoor rink next to the river. It was very pretty, best of all there’s the winter bar right next to the rink! It’s in an igloo tent thing, and you can go in with your skates on! We had hot chocolate with maple whiskey (yum!) and hot cherry ale (not so good, but at least I can say I tried it). “Study” break in 3 1/2 weeks!

I was just at the Provigo grocery store, and they were giving out samples of vodka coolers! You can actually drink while you’re shopping! Quebec is definitely ahead of the rest of the country. Imagine how pleasant going to the dentist would be, if you could drink a lychee martini in the waiting room!

So it’s officially winter in Montreal.  Which apparently means that it rains ice.  I may have suffered puncture wounds.  On the upside, I get to wear long underwear every day!  Yes!!

Luckily, I will be coming home soon.  New Zealand is off, alas our dollar has not gone up compared to NZ$.  So it’s turkey and stuffing for me!  Three more weeks and I’ll be done exams.

If I don’t catalogue myself to death.

I recently discovered “Toothpaste for Dinner”, a really funny webcomic.

I got a great email today…it’s for a volunteer position at the Canadian Centre for Architecture…cataloguing!!!  I might consider this, as you all know cataloguing is one of the great joys of my life.  I might also consider sitting on a freezing cold toilet seat for the rest of eternity.  Not pleasant.  Any volunteers?

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I went to a potluck dinner for all us poor library people stuck in Montreal this weekend. There was lots of good food (ham, no turkey), plenty of pie and wine. But, alas, no stuffing. Stuffing is the best part of holiday dinners, but none of us could find any stovetop here, and we’re obviously too lazy to make it from scratch. I am resigned to bringing some back with me when I come home.

It’s gotten pretty cold here, plus I’m sick which makes it worse. Yesterday I wore a scarf all day at home. We were all complaining about how cold it is, then my roommate remembered that it’s going to get 40 degrees colder than this at some point. I don’t know how I’ll survive. Perhaps more poutine is in order, to boost my thermal capacity. Or one of those full body down suits that mountaineers wear to climb K2.

This weekend we also discovered a strange underground movement in Montreal: medieval sword fighting. It all started when I was on the bus, and there was this guy with a wooden sword and a big shield with a lion on it. Later that day my roommates went for a walk up Mont Royal, where they encountered a mass battle re-enactment taking place. It was a large group of men dressed in medieval garb, yelling loudly and hitting each other with swords. Perhaps next week they are rescuing damsels in distress, if only I knew where to volunteer.

We went to the Chinese lantern festival at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.  Hand made silk lanterns from China depict traditional Chinese folk tales.  Spidey came along to see them.  Now he’s back to doing homework!