Food, Glorious Food!!

Last week, I was lucky enough to have my family come across and visit me from the UK and, as any good student will know, the best thing about a visit from your parents is that you get to eat whatever you want! So essentially, as a family, we conducted a thorough eating-tour of Montreal and checked out the sites in between to work up an appetite.

Sandwich Shop- I walk past this little sandwich shop a few times a week since it’s actually on my street and yet I’ve never been in! Out back they have the most adorable courtyard with coloured fences, fairy lights and a fountain that is just gorgeous. Inside is a mismatch of tables and artwork with big windows looking out to the courtyard. The place is cosy, yet not too crowded and wonderfully warm for the winter. The soups, as discovered by Mum, are delicious and the monster sandwiches are definitely good-value for money. There were some really cool posters on the wall of Montreal, which I’m attempting to purchase as we speak…

La Banquise- Not my first time to this one, but a definite Montreal-Must for all first timers as it sells the famous Quebecois Poutine. A fancy French version of chips and cheese, La Banquise is the only place to go for poutine if you’re sober. The dish comprises of chips, cheese curds and gravy, which whilst not sounding too appetising, is delicious, so long as you don’t think about what it’s doing to your insides- I like to think of it as getting me ready for the winter! At this restaurant, the traditional dish is spiced up a bit and served with a variety of toppings which are delicious and make it feel like more of a meal! It is certainly worth waiting in the queue that stretches out the door without fail to experience your first poutine!

Schwartz- Another Montreal hotspot that shamefully I hadn’t made it to yet, Schwartz is famous for it’s smoked meat and has been since… Again, there is a permanent queue stretching out the door for this diner since it is the only one of its kind. The place itself is tiny so you end up elbow to elbow with other customers as you eat which only adds to the atmosphere. The owners have persistently refused to open any more in the city, which has only increased its popularity, demonstrated by the pictures of celebrity guests that stretch across the walls! The dishes here are very simple really- meat, meat, meat and more meat! In hindsight it was a great idea to leave this one to experience with my brother since no one appreciates a good meat sandwich quite like him!

Juliette et Chocolat- Again, I walk past this place nearly everyday and every day the sweet smell of chocolate drifts out onto the street and makes me reconsider my decision to head to lectures but I ventured in here for the first time on a very rainy Tuesday with my family. After an aborted mission to Parc Jean Drapeau it was agreed that what we really needed was a café and a hot chocolate to warm us up- Two hours later we emerge, fit to bursting after one of the most delicious lunches ever! I had a pear and goats cheese crepe followed by a chocolate brownie with caramel sauce that was to die for. Between us we also had a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, a chocolate fondue and a white hot chocolate, and despite some mild temperature issues, no one was disappointed! I can see myself venturing back here during the exams to study and eat my cares away!



St Viateur Bagels- Yet another Montreal favourite that has escaped me thus far, I had my first St Viateur Bagel with the family and again I was not disappointed! Luckily the shop was just around the corner from where they were all staying so I ventured round there for brunch one day. The shop itself is so cool. J and I went to pick up them up, and you could see them making the bagels fresh, there and then! One guy was making the dough and rolling it out, whilst the other was sliding batches in and out of the huge pizza oven. The smell was delicious and we brought them back to the house still warm and devoured them with cream cheese! They really were so tasty- now all that’s left for me to do is try some from the rival store, Fairmont Bagel, to see where my allegiance truly lies! 

As you might be able to tell, it was pretty hard to say goodbye to them all as when they left, so did my free meal ticket- back to home-cooked dinners for me!!

Jokes aside, it was absolutely amazing to have them all come out to Montreal and see the amazing city that I’m calling home this year and it has made me even more excited to see them all at Christmas!

McQuid Kids!

As I might have mentioned previously, since I arrived in Montreal I have joined the McGill Quidditch team. Now, even as someone who has grown up living and breathing Harry Potter, I can hear how ridiculous that sounds... but it's actually turned out to be so much fun! 

We road tripped down to Cortland, New York this weekend for a tournament. Challenge 1: cross the border! We stopped at border control and an officer came on board the little yellow school bus to check our passports. Apart from myself and my Aussie friend Jamie, everyone had Canadian or American passports, so it was pretty intimidating when only the two of us were asked to step off the bus. We were escorted into what can only be described as a pen to await questioning and after a rather stressful 20minutes trying to explain what Quidditch was to an American official who had never read Harry Potter, we were asked to give our finger prints and got the all important passport stamp to let us into the country!


We stayed for the night at various students' houses at Ithaca College which was so lovely of them. Our host had to get up early for a rugby tournament so we had time to breakfast in Ithaca before we got the bus to the tournament. Unfortunately, we got incredibly lost in the maze that is an American college and still managed to be last on the bus. It was crazy, there were fountains and sculptures and amazing building all over the place- looked more like a stately home at times than a university!

We made it to the tournament and started warming up straight away since we were slightly late. Since it was my Quidditch debut I was pretty darn nervous but McGill have a million chants designed to wash away any nerves you might have. At any point during the day, if you were asked the question "How ya feelin'?" the one and only response was "FIRED UP" which really does convince you that you're ready for anything!

Our first match was amazing. I decided to make myself the last sub so that I could see what was going on as much as possible before I was thrown into the frenzy, but within about 5seconds of the whistle being blown my competitive spirit kicked in and I was ready to go! I've never really played a contact sport before and in training I'd been finding the whole concept of tackling a bit difficult to grasp, but as soon as the match started I realised my problem was just tackling people I knew: give me a complete stranger and, it turns out, I will happily tackle them to the ground if I'm able! Who knew?!

So, we went on through out the day to win our first three matches and yell several chants that unfortunately are probably not appropriate to be repeated on the internet! And then came the big show down. The tournament was played as a round robin, and so the final two matches were between Guelph and the two McGill teams. The first was kicked of with a rousing rendition of the Canadian national anthem since both teams were from Canada playing on American soil. The A team took them on first and fought valiantly but just missed out of the win. Now, it was B teams turn and, with the slight advantage of having watched Guelph play just before, the match was even tighter and ended on a draw meaning that we went into overtime. I don't care what people say about Quidditch not being a real sport, either way that was one of the most stressful 10 minutes of sport I have ever played and unfortunately we just missed out on a win. On the other hand, all three Canadian teams had lost only 1 match giving up the joint title for the cup!! Not too bad for my first tournament!

A brief encounter with Ottawa

After tackling the mammoth task of tidying the chalets and another quick paddle on the lake, we hopped back in the car and decided to stop in Ottawa for lunch. The impression that I have of Ottawa is much like that of Canberra- capital of a very impressive country, but outshone by bigger and better cities nearby. Yet,when we arrived the city was beautiful- helped by the fantastic weather!

We headed straight to Parliament Hill, which is so reminiscent of London, to the point where even the bells in the clock tower sound exactly like Big Ben. The buildings were some sort of a cross between the Houses of Parliament and Hogwarts and there was plenty of green space to sit and admire them. Perched right by the river, it seems like a pretty impressive place to work. We took the opportunity to go up the clock tower and despite the queue, the view was totally worth it.

Our friend Derek, a native Canadian, had made us promise to try something called Beaver Tails, and after clarifying that they weren’t in fact tails of the beaver, we made good on our promise. We headed straight to the markets and bought the tail-shaped pastries and we were not disappointed. I split an apple and cinnamon and a maple butter beaver tail with Ruth and we enjoyed them so much we found ourselves wearing the evidence all across our hands and faces. 

After lunch in the park by the river, we headed back to the car to make our way back to reality. Whether it be thanks to the weather or the pastries, our visit to Ottawa may have been short, but it was definitely sweet!

The Demise of Carla Bruni...

Driving back to Montreal, autumn colours out the window and Backstreet boys on full blast, I can’t help feeling sad that the perfect weekend is coming to an end.

This weekend is thanksgiving in Canada and with an extra day off for the holiday it’s the perfect excuse to escape Montreal for a few days. Twenty-four of us (all on exchange, of course) rented out a chalet, complete with kayaks and a jacuzzi, by the side of Lac Cayamant for the holiday, and it could not have been more amazing. The area was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to have near-perfect weather- 25degrees in Canada, mid-October, not too shabby! The night we arrived we headed straight out to the bonfire and sat under the stars, chatting and singing until the early hours of the morning. The stars themselves were amazing, and, since we were so far from any light pollution, we could see the Milky Way and shooting stars so clearly.

The next morning we committed to getting up early to see the sunrise over the lake and, as skeptical as I was at 6:30am about leaving my bed, we jumped into a pedalo and headed to the middle of the lake. After a near-sinking experience we made it through the fog and waited… and waited. The mist was lying low over the water and as the sun started to creep up from behind the hills the light was truly spectacular- the whole lake was glowing orange!

Later in the day we went for a hike just down the road to the top of a local viewing tower and the fall colours were fantastic. We crunched our way through the woods and climbed to the top of the tower, which gave us a complete panorama of the area. The thing that always surprises me about Canada is the scale of everything- the landscape is just so immense with forests and lakes as far as the eye can see.

The Sunday for us was the day we celebrated thanksgiving and was almost entirely spent cooking… preparing dinner for twenty-four people really is a mammoth task! Ruth (another girl from Edinburgh) and I somehow found ourselves in charge of the preparations and after a brief moment of panic upon realizing that the turkey (nicknamed Carla Bruni) was still frozen, everything went surprisingly smoothly! We prepared vast quantities of potatoes, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, squash and other seasonal vegetables with our army of choppers whilst Carla was in the oven. By 3pm the smell that wafted from our chalet across the lake was amazing (even if I do say so myself!), and we took a brief break to take a swim and pop into the Jacuzzi- a hard life I know, but someone has to do it. We put our own British twist of the dinner and made pigs in blanket which seems to be a complete novelty to the rest of

Europe! Until this day I will never know how everything went so smoothly, but at 7pm we all sat down at the makeshift table and ate. The wine flowed and the food seemed endless so it was smiles all round. It really felt like Christmas and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found my little Canadian family so far from home. English, French, German and Dutch could be heard around the table, which is just amazing to listen to. 

We even took on the challenge of preparing a real North American specialty- pumpkin pie! And so, just as everyone declared that they could eat no more, we brought out the pie and ice cream.  The whole meal was such a success and for as long as I live, cooking thanksgiving dinner for twenty-four in a chalet in the middle of nowhere will be one of my biggest achievements!

En Plein Air

I made my escape from the city again this weekend to the Mont St Bruno national park and again, I was not disappointed! The park is actually only an hour south of Montreal on public transport so a few of us piled on to the bus (we were only told to keep it down once) and set out for an adventure.

The park was pretty busy when we arrived but we set off on the walk anyway and after about half an hour we'd shaken off all the families with young children and pretty much had the park to ourselves! We walked past the lakes and through the woods for a few hours and stopped for lunch by the water. It really was a beautiful walk!



On the way home we passed a little shop selling fresh vegetables- characterised of course by millions of pumpkins for halloween! I invested in my first ever pumpkin pie which was delicious and was finished by the end of the bus trip!
Another beautiful city escape, making the most of the weather before the snow hits!!

Rep Your Flag

Middle row Seb (belgium) John (UK) Aissa (Swaziland) Sanda (Belgim and Italy) Eoin (Ireland) and bottom right Jamie (Australia)

I'm slowly realising that a classic misapprehension of the year abroad is that you will actually hang out with local people- in fact they seem to be some of the hardest people to find! The exchange students tend to gravitate towards each other which makes a lot of sense- we are all far from home and have the same total disregard for school work in favour of exploring Canada!

The MISN recently organised a rep your flag party which pretty much did what it said on the tin really. We all wore our colours with pride and I decided to support my Scottish roots for the night- it tends to confuse people here when I say I study in Scotland but live in England, that is if they even know where Edinburgh... got to keep things simple. It was also a fun little experiment to see how many other Scots were about- actually only about 4!

The party itself was a generic, North American movie scene to be honest. Loud music, red cups, some pretty drunk teenagers (lots of people here have come up to study from the US and are only just getting used to being able to drink legally for the first time!) so it felt a lot like being 18 again. Not necessarily a bad thing but not something I was to repeat on a regular basis... I'm getting too old for that!

My main reason for mentioning the party (other than to show off my fantastic face paint!) was to introduce some of my close friends here in Montreal! All have been named and shamed in the top picture- Montreal definitely wouldn't be the same without them. 

Hockey Fever!

It really is true what they say, hockey truly is the life blood of Canada, and this week marked the start of the NHL season- that is to say, this week was a BIG DEAL in hockey! On top of that it was also the first big meet between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiennes- an even BIGGER deal.

So, on Tuesday after university, I headed down to Place des Arts with some friends since we'd heard rumours that Kings of Leon would be playing to hype up the match and we were not disappointed. The square was absolutely heaving- stalls were set up left, right and centre handing out free scarves, food and beer and sure enough in pride of place stood a huge stage. We picked up our free merchandise, and sporting our new and incredibly attractive hats, battled our way to the front of the crowd. 

It was worth the fight though. We had an amazing view for a FREE concert of one of my favourite bands. They played all the classics as well as multiple tracks from their new album so, needless to say, I'd already lost my voice by the time the hockey started.  

The match itself was potentially one of the most ridiculous sporting matches I've ever seen (and this is coming from a girl who has just taken up quidditch as a sport)! Not only is the sport itself seriously violent, but fighting is actually allowed between the players. On a regular basis, all that testosterone just overflows and the gloves come off and the punching begins and the referees just stand back and watch. So bizarre!

Unfortunately, despite all the additional support Montreal had in the form of the exchange students we just lost to Toronto- alas, until next time!!

MOC

This weekend I made another escape from the city and went away with the McGill Outdoor Club on their newcomers weekend. The Club owns a house about 70km outside of Montreal that can sleep anywhere up to 80 people- it's like a small hostel. Located in a very small town, the house is perfectly situated between the mountains and the lakes to make it an ideal weekend getaway for students. It's actually very impressive; the student society itself own the house and are paying of the mortgage with the money that we give to be a member and go on trips etc which I thought was incredible. 

We were bused up to the house on Saturday morning in a proper yellow American school bus (!) and there was a traditional scramble on arrival as everyone tried to stake a claim on the best beds. We all headed out on a hike at lunch time and the scenery was incredible. It's the perfect time to venture out of town and see the fall colours at the moment and I was not disappointed. In climbing to the top of some of the local mountains we saw the most incredible panoramas of the forests, dotted with glowing reds and burnt oranges. Everyone who was not from Northern America was so excited, something the locals found pretty amusing. We came across a beautiful lake which gave pictures even the most amateur of photographers could be proud of!

Back in town we went to stock up supplies for the evening (I think we might have bought the local shop out of beer if I'm honest!) and found crates and crates of pumpkins sitting outside- a sure sign that autumn is upon us!! Even in the city, it is not uncommon to see crates like this at the side of the road, ready for halloween!

Later in the afternoon we were informed that it was compulsory to head down to the river for a swim, and, since the weather was phenomenal this weekend, we were only too willing to comply! The water was freezing but so fresh it was worth it. Some people were canoeing, others slack lining or playing frisbee and the rest of us just lay in the meadow and chatted until the sun started to set. 

Feeding 90 hungry newbies is no mean feat, but the MOC execs did a stellar job and we all sat down around the fire to chilli and smores- its a hard life! The rest of the evening was spent around the fire, singing, listening to some incredibly talented people play the guitar, chatting and drinking beer- very relaxed. Just before midnight some of us headed back down to the river to do some stargazing since there was so little light pollution and we were rewarded with numerous shooting stars!

The next day, after a much better sleep than I anticipated, was more of the same. Another walk, another swim and an incredible nap in the meadow whilst being serenaded by the lovely Antoine. I was so relaxed I even managed to get sunburnt- rather embarrassing for late-September in Canada!

The weekend was short but sweet and as usual it was a shock to the system coming back to a pile of university work on Monday. It takes a while to get used to holidaying for such short bursts of time at the weekend and refocusing every Monday before lectures. But at the end of the day, I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Les portes ouvertes!

The Canadians have been nothing but welcoming since I arrived and to top it all off, last week all the international students were given passes which make it possible to visit some of Montreal's top attractions for free.

On Tuesday night I ventured out to the Botanical Gardens to see the International Mosaiculture event and the garden of lights- both were absolutely fantastic! The mosaiculture is unbelievable- sculptures made only of plants and foliage on such an incredible scale and each with their own story. 

The garden of lights was equally impressive. The Japanese gardens have been taken over by a plethora of sculptures and illuminated by thousands of fairylights. The whole experience is made even more spectacular by the perfect reflection made in the water all across the gardens. Unfortunately, the whole place was seriously crowded but hey, if it's free, who am I to complain!

Later in the week, I also headed to the biodome, home to 5 different environments of the Americas. We made our way through Maple forests, the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Labrador Coast and much more. A personal highlight was definitely the beaver: a complete comedian of an animal without even realising! 

It was a lovely day out made even better by the people I went with- through the McGill International Student Network I've met some awesome people, all on exchange like me. It seems a bit counterintuitive not to be hanging out with more Canadians, but when you want to travel and explore at every available moment, you tend to attract other people in the same position- everyone else just seems to take their university work too seriously!I find myself hanging out with French, German, Belgian, South African, Dutch and Australians on a daily basis- definitely one way to open your eyes to the world!