Ottawa then London

Wow, it’s been almost 3 months since I got here, and I’m still talking about events leading up to me getting here. This will be the last one of those.

Eliott took some time off work to spend some time with me and take me back to London. Before leaving Montreal, I made sure to pick up some bagels for Crisia, who discovered the awesomeness of Montreal bagels when Eliott brought some to Kananaskis, and some authentic Montreal smoked meat for Nikhil.

Eliott and I decided to leave a day early so that we could visit Sarah and Brandon in Ottawa. For those of you who may not know Brandon and Sarah, Brandon has been Eliott’s friend since elementary school, and Sarah met them at Dawson. Brandon and Sarah got engaged last summer on their trip to Europe and now live in Ottawa as Sarah works on her PhD at the University of Ottawa.

Since both Brandon and Sarah were busy during the day, Eliott and I spent the afternoon in Ottawa walking around the market. I think all I bought was some maple sugar for Crisia who had no idea what maple sugar was. I will have to organize a trip to the cabane à sucre for these poor deprived Ontarians.

We had a very nice supper with Brandon and Sarah, complete with homemade pasta and ice wine. Brandon was very proud of his pasta maker; I don’t think I could ever go to that much trouble for pasta, but it certainly was good. Ice wine is awesome; I wish it wasn’t so expensive.

Brandon and Sarah revealed that they would be getting married this coming summer in early June. Sarah showed me a picture of her dress, which is beautiful; I can’t wait to see it on her. Brandon also asked Eliott to be his best man. I’m sure that we will have a very exciting time planning in the weeks leading up to June. I’m very excited for this wedding since this is the first time I get to attend a wedding for people I am friends with rather than for older relatives as a kid.

We left early in the morning the next day since I wanted to get to London for orientation, which was occurring in the early afternoon. I managed to get there just a little bit late, to the amusement of Nikhil. After orientation, Nikhil and Crisia had to take off since they had stuff to take care of for their new apartment.

Eliott and I spent my first real couple days in London getting me set up with some groceries, getting my cell number changed and putting together my new IKEA microwave and TV stands. We made many trips to Walmart to buy random useful things for my apartment and then to return/exchange other things later. At some point we did find time to walk around downtown. Eliott and I went to the Covent Garden Market, where they refused to give us hot tea because they ran out of cups. Apparently they only wash them once a day. We also perused a couple used music stores and went for coffee at Starbuck’s.

On the Saturday evening, which was the second day, we picked up Crisia at her and Nikhil’s new apartment. Nikhil was in Mississauga, so he was unable to join us. It isn’t that far to drive there from my place, but it looked like it might be difficult to get there by bus. We went for Hungarian food for supper and then to an Irish pub for drinks after. It took the bar almost half an hour to check our Quebec ID’s, and I’m not even sure they figured it out in the end. I wondered whether this would foreshadow what things would be like whenever I wanted to go out.

The next day I said goodbye to Eliott and was left alone in my new apartment in my new life here in London, Ontario.

For those of you who didn't see it the last time I posted it, here is the album from the end of April when I moved in to the apartment. Now there are a few new additions like a TV and microwave stand and my boxes are unpacked and my books in shelves.

Return to Montreal

I’m slowly starting to catch up with my blog posting here. This next entry will attempt to condense the two weeks I spent at home in Montreal prior to starting at Western.

My time spent in Montreal was very busy, so I’m having trouble remembering specific details. What was important was that I got a chance to spend time with a lot of people in a very short amount of time. I stayed mostly at Eliott’s house, but I spent a few days in Jackie and Anj’s apartment with Bucky. Maybe it will be easier if I broke this up into people I spent time with and/or events that occurred that allowed me to spend time with several people. I apologize if I leave anyone or anything out since it’s all such a blur

• Eliott, when he was not working, was with me a lot of the time except when I was at my sister’s.
• Jackie and I hung out quite a bit despite her work schedule. We didn’t normally see each other that often when we lived together. I slept in her bed with Bucky while she was sick. We went to work together and had lunch with my mom. We also had a fancy lunch at a French restaurant and went to see a movie at the International Film Festival. I also met her, Bryan, and Anj for drinks/tea in Mile End.
  
• Kevin’s party that occurred the day after I got back allowed me to see a few people I hadn’t seen in a while, including several people I had never seen before from the Liberal Party of Quebec.
• Jackie’s apartment also hosted on my first night staying there a going away party for Andrew. Andrew was moving to Toronto to study fashion design at Ryerson. So poor Andrew, like me, was abandoning Montreal for school. At least he wasn’t too far away from where I am staying. Eleanor, who also lives with Jackie, and I also met Andrew coffee early one morning.
• Jackie and I worked at registration at Vanier for a day. I got to say hi to a lot of people I used to work with, while making a bit of money to make up for my flight and a couple weeks of pay in Kananaskis.
• I saw my mom when my sister and I had lunch with her, and we did a little bit of shopping at Place Vertu, and on a separate occasion, my mom and I went to IKEA to pick up some bits of furniture for my apartment. I had Swedish meatballs for lunch, and we ran into Bryan who was working cash. Unfortunately, we met him too late to get a discount. Then my mom and I had coffee while we waited for Eliott’s dad to get home to let me into the house.
• Bryan, Anj, and I met Edith, whom Bryan and I know from Concordia, but who was also staying with us in Kananaskis over the summer, for breakfast one morning. Edith was moving from Montreal to Calgary to study at the University of Calgary. She is now living with Tracy with their two cats and her many, many books.
• Bryan, Anj, and I spent that afternoon wandering St-Denis and shopping around for nothing in particular. After Anj went to work. Bryan and I did more wandering as we tried to figure out what we should do. Then we met Jackie and did more wandering around until we decided to go our separate ways. Jackie and I then went out for vegan food.
• I saw my dad and my stepmom a couple times. Jackie, Eliott, and I went over to their place one evening for a nice dinner.
• Steph, Kevin, Eliott, and I went up to Steph’s cottage near Lachute for a couple days. It was nice. We all got to catch up a bit and do some kayaking.
• I met Marleigh, a former co-worker, and her beautiful baby, Kaelyn one morning for coffee. We then took a stroll to a local park so that Kaelyn could play.
• Eliott and I stopped by my stepsister’s birthday/going away barbecue. My stepmom was also there. Sheena was going back to Australia to continue her education. Her friends made her a cake shaped like a plane. Eliott, Jackie, and I also met Sheena for supper on a separate day.
• JJ and Michael returned from their trip to France and Spain, so JJ and I coerced the boys into watching Becoming Jane about Jane Austen. I think Eliott enjoyed it despite himself. The next step is to get him to watch all 6 hours of the Pride and Prejudice miniseries.

I think that about sums up almost everything I did in Montreal. Next you will be hearing about Eliott’s and my trip to London, including our stopover in Ottawa to see Brandon and Sarah.

Leaving Kananaskis

Even on my last day in Kananaskis, which was the second to last week in August, I couldn’t get away from doing a bit of work. We got up extra early to finish off Nikhil’s and Crisia’s grids, then we went to Fortress to wait for Jack’s class. We were taking them up to the long term grids to show them how we trap mice. They asked good questions, and we moved through my half of the grid fairly quickly and even met Nikhil on the other side. My group was lucky because we got a good variety of animals. I found that I rather enjoyed showing them what we do.

Upon return to the field station, I loaded all the stuff I spent all night packing (leaving some of it for the others to take back by car), got everyone together, and took off for Calgary. Those of you who are familiar with the way we work at the field station will know that this inevitably took a ridiculously long time. Crisia, Nikhil, Kurt, and Tracy were all along for the ride.

In Calgary, we had time for a nice lunch in Chinatown. Surprisingly that was my first time eating in Calgary’s Chinatown despite how often I found myself in Calgary. Afterwards we ran some errands and made it to the airport right on time. I said my goodbyes to my new friends, two of which I would be seeing in a couple weeks and two of which I might not be seeing for a while.

The flight was quick and uneventful, and I landed in Montreal to be greeted by Eliott and Steph and to the news that apparently Montreal was collapsing. It was so humid and gross in Montreal that night. It felt weird knowing that I was wearing a wool hat and gloves in the morning in Kananaskis. Eliott and I then met Bryan and Angelene for bubble tea downtown. It was nice to be surprised with a small group of friends after being away for four months even though it was rather late. Afterwards, we stopped by Jackie’s, and I gave a sleeping Jackie a good poke with my foot and got to see Bucky for the first time in a really long time.

Now that I’ve been away from Kananaskis for a while, I can now reflect on the things that I miss about it.

Things I miss

• The mountains: everything from the way they appear out of nowhere on a cloudy day and the way they turn pink when the sun is setting to the way they cause a lot of pain in my knees after a long hike
• The people
• The relaxed atmosphere
• Midday naps
• Being outside
• The wildlife
• The feeling that despite having to wake up early and do work during the day, I was still on vacation
• The ever-changing weather
• The ability to quickly (okay sometimes not so quickly, but never more than 3 hours) get a group of people together on almost no notice for supper, a movie night, or just general hanging out
• The mice

Things I will not miss

• Mosquitoes
• Waking up ridiculously early
• Poor water pressure
• Paying for laundry
• Calgary