Je me souviens: One Month Gone!

Sorry, I'm not good at updates and such. So many distracting things...cafes, TamTams, farmers markets, those things called classes and I guess some studying too. Those are my excuses. Let's see, two weekends ago was the first home football game of the season against Concordia. There are two francophone universities and two anglophone universities in Montreal. Concordia is the other anglophone school. Hearing the Canadian anthem before the game was one of those moments in which I realized I really am in a different country. It happens fairly rarely here - though I'm reminded everytime I hear the temperature in celcius. Anyway, apparently the McGill team isn't that great (they won one game last year-the first in three years), so it was a surprise when they scored a TD within the first minute of the game. Everyone that came was decked out in red (the McGill Redman - which is an eagle-looking bird is the mascot). There were exactly two cheers everyone chanted, the lack of creativity was slightly amusing but then became annoying. So that was a fun friday, though I didn't stay the whole game and went to chill at someones apartment at half-time. Apparently McGill lost in the last minute, so their reputation is unchanged.

On Sunday I went back up to TamTams. I don't remember if I described it before, but it is this mass drum playing/chilling/dancing event that occurs in Mont Royal parc. The musicians are from all different backgrounds and walks of life, but play together really well. One way to illustrate the general attitude: while you are browsing the vendors who layout their stuff on the sidewalk or moving to the beat of the drum in the crowd, you will smell the occasional waft of smoke from the surrounding lawn that is that interesting combination of cigarette smoke and weed. It is a great atmosphere and an awesome way to spend Sunday afternoon.

This past weekend was fun too. I had a date Saturday. We went to see Inception - which is an incredible movie for all 5 people who haven't seen it yet. and then dinner. It was nice and fun. Sunday was super chill, I just went to a dance class at the rec, and tried to do some homework.

This week I also went to the New International Students' Reception held in a very nice building on campus (akin to Alumni House at WM). There I met many Americans - one was a PhD Neuroscience student from Chartiers Valley, Pittsburgh, PA. So that was a weird coincidence. But I also met a really nice girl from Malaysia, so we talked about a whole lot of stuff. Actually talking to her gave me the most international experience thus far. I described how Christmas is my favorite time of year with all the decorations and festive mood, and she asked if it was similar to Chinese New Year, because it is not a big cultural holiday in Asia. That was interesting and it was really fun talking to her.

Tonight I just got back from "People's Liberated Knitting Front" which sounds a lot more radical/activist than it is. They're just a group of really chill knitters who meet at a cafe near campus and knit/socialize. It may sound lame to some, but it was really fun and ironically I met more people from the US than from Canada. But a Habs game was on at the same time so got on the subject of hockey and we were talking about the Olympics game (which I am ashamed to admit I didn't watch). They talked about how it was a huge moment, and there was so much national pride, etc. Which was fine by me, Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal so in some ways it's still a win for Pittsburgh.

Classes are going well, though the material is starting to pile up, and I have my first midterm next week! I can't believe the first month is basically over, it went by so quickly! Here are a few pictures covering this and the previous post.