Something A Bit Different.

As anyone who's abroad at the moment can tell you, it's a bit of a weird feeling: knowing you've got a home in your new city, but that it's by no means permanent. That whatever home you make for yourself will, in a matter of months, be left, maybe never to be seen again. So I suppose what I'm trying to say is, that everyone in your Old Home will still be there, and will still be your friend or your lover or someone you bump into around uni or whatever. That however your time abroad feels, whether you're happy or unhappy or permanently excited and inspired or dragging yourself through every day like it's a chore, it's inevitable that you'll be delivered back to the people in Old Home. So I wanted to do a post in celebration of keeping up contact with people back in Old Home!

It's so, so easy to keep up with people while we're away this year, with Facebook, email, Skype, snail mail, this stupid little blog, and I think this level of communication makes the whole experience so much smoother, and kinda takes the pressure off a bit. I mean, yes, I'm 3,500 miles away from, oh, every single friend and family member I had prior to September, but when my dad can email me to ask where I've hidden the DVD of Some Like it Hot, or me and Annabel can paint our nails together on Skype, it doesn't seem like such a big deal I'm not right there. Whatever people want to say about technology (like it's a dirty word), it definitely makes a difference when you're living away from Old Home.

But then there's post. Getting snail mail in my little mailbox downstairs is one of the things that will 100% guarantee a smile on my face. Since coming here, I've had post from best friends, family, ex-boyfriends, people I'd never expect to write to me, people I forced to write to me etc etc. I've received cards, postcards from New York and the Grand Canyon, letters, a wedding invitation, a pencil case, a brooch, a post-it note with a 'would you rather' on it, a personally spraypainted potentially Kandinsky-inspired (?) postcard that I've probably stuck the wrong way up. And I'm quite sure it won't end here.

My parents visited this week, and brought some blu-tack with them so I could turn some of my bits of paper into a wall collage. I really hope it keeps growing, I love finding something colourful in my mailbox :) Letters did not make it onto the wall for the purposes of privacy.

So, in short, if you've got someone's address, write them a letter or send them a postcard or make some cool ting to brighten up their day. Thankyou to everyone who takes the time to do a Skype catchup, an occasional Facebook inbox message, a long email, a blog comment or some post in my mailbox. U iz good.
xx

Well That's Just Bazaar.

The church on St. Viateur has been the focus of much interest and curiosity since we got here. This weekend there was a Polish bazaar in the church, and Emma and I knew this was an opportunity too great to pass up.
It was full of cute jewellery, vintage clothes, random crap, lots of old ladies playing card games, and, fairly importantly, food. All pictures are courtesy of Miss Emma Davson, as I left my camera at home after uploading the Hallowe'en pictures from last night. Emma, I salute you.

 

My dumplings with meat and sauerkraut rank among the best things I've eaten in Montreal. I can't put into words how perfect they were. When I grow up, I want to be an old Polish lady who makes food like this. This, I suppose, is why I love Montreal, and why I don't ever want to live in a city or a country that doesn't have different communities or areas or personalities. I can't imagine life being much fun when everywhere looks the same and is inhabited by the same groups of people.
xx

Greyhoundin'.

So, this week was semaine de relache from university, and we took advantage of this by going to Boston for a few days. Boston was just beautiful. The weather was freakishly warm, and bar one rainy day it was lovely. I can't adequately convey how true the cliche about New England foliage in the fall really is. The colours are like nothing you can really imagine, and I feel very lucky this natural phenomenon extends up to Quebec. But back to Boston: a divine, beautiful city, full of very friendly people and home to one of my favourite accents. So, our trip in pictures.

First up was Harvard. Fans of The Social Network will recognise the first picture as being the statue from the film. DON'T TOUCH THE STATUE'S FOOT, THE HARVARD SWINE STUDENTS WEE ON IT.

Next up was a beautiful afternoon stroll along the water of the Charles River Basin, across the Longfellow Bridge, along the other side of the Basin and back. Delightful.

 

So Wednesday was a bit of a rainy day, BUT it was all good because we had company in the form of Allie and Ryan. The lovely and beautiful Allie took us on a highly informative tour of the Freedom Trail (or the 'Liberty Trail' as Jonny insisted on calling it), before dinner in Quincy Market with Ryan.

 (below is a very, very interesting and thoughtful Holocaust memorial)

Before hopping the bridge to beautiful Charlestown, we stopped off for fuel at Mike's in Little Italy, in the form of the richest, most divine canoli this side of the Atlantic.

Thursday was Salem. Being keen on early postcolonial history, it definitely did it for me. And just to make it even more delightful, we took a boat there.

And just because they were excellent, here are two animal encounters I and Jonny had:

xx

'I Found It In The Street....'

The title of this post is a completely legitimate phrase to utter in Montreal due to the general population's attitude to 'stuff'. In addition to celebrating the culture of leaving stuff out in the streets in this fair city, this post also largely revolves around my favourite part of town, Mile End.

First up, we have the first item we encountered just hangin' out on Rue Jeanne-Mance. A sofa. So if you need a black leatherette sofa, you know where to go:

 Then there were the books. I was musing just this morning how when I finish Never Let Me Go today/tomorrow, I will be out of reading material that doesn't revolve around aesthetic theory or American Action Painters. And what luck! Someone also on Rue Jeanne-Mance decided to leave a load of books outside their house in the hope someone would relieve them. I'm now the proud owner of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Germinal by Zola, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun, and my personal favourite, a particularly educative tome called Complete Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen. No, not one of those ironic, 'retro' volumes printed in recent years, but a proper old book with an index that includes such domains as 'Shooting Parties: Seasons', 'Veal, to carve', ' "Honourables" ' and 'Etiquette at the Card Table'. I think I just died and went to Mitford heaven.

 Emma was tempted by the guide to breastfeeding but settled for fiction.

Rue Waverly is home to some of the prettiest houses, and outside one of them is this metal sculpture. It's not just a collection of metally junk, it's art. Because it has a label like in a museum.

This is the top of the beautiful, beautiful Byzantine church on St. Viateur in Mile End. Next weekend there's a bazaar on, so I will definitely be taking advantage of the opportunity to see inside.

One of the nicest things about Mile End is the ruelles. There are ruelles in a lot of Montreal but I don't walk down them as much as I do in Mile End. I can't quite explain it, but there's a certain kind of loveliness to be found in the alleys round the back of people's houses, especially at night. But here's Emma in a ruelle, followed by ruelle au naturel, and me in the ruelle, just in case anyone's forgotten what I look like.

 If this was in London, in English, it'd make me sick. But platitudes and cliches are somehow more moving in French, on a random wall round the back of someone's house. If you can't read it, it says 'L'absence est a l'amour ce que le feu est au vent. Il eteint le petit et allume le grand'. I don't know how I feel about it. But I thought you'd like to see it, and I like the fact it's there.

Oh look! Another metal sculpture! With another museum-esque tag! Mile End front gardens: centre of the art world. Pretty neat, huh? Like, sooooo Montreal.

This time I really mean it: next entry WILL be about Boston.
xx

Things What I See When I Walk Places.

Longest hiatus yet! To break the spell of blog-apathy, here's a picture-heavy amalgamation of things I've seen on my walks to various places/to nowhere in particular.
First up, some cool new statues that appeared in one of the squares near my apartment:

Last weekend I walked to a friend's house, and on the way I saw some pretty sights. The second picture is of Parc Jean-Drapeau, which is a theme park on a little island next to Montreal.

Although Emma has mocked me for my keen-ness for street art, I'm going to show you some more because YES I DO LOVE IT. The last picture is super dark, but it's from a part of town I don't usually go to so I thought I might as well get a picture when I saw it rather than pretend I'd go back in the daytime:

And here's my favourite square, again, but this time looking more autumnal and leaftastic. I'm probably going to cry when the trees have no leaves anymore; they've become one of my favourite Montreal sights.

Oh, and just because I hate the thought of this photo going to waste after Emma was so insistent I took a picture of her with the duomo at the Musee des beaux-arts:

Next entry: Boston, MA.
xx