Sorry I’ve been gone so long…

Hey everybody, I know there were promises of blogging very shortly after I arrived, but I’ve been pretty busy so I guess it’s a good thing I haven’t been around. So here’s the (condensed?) story of the last 3 weeks.

A couple days after arriving, I hit the pavement to find a job and in the process, I found friends. I wandered into Chapters to drop off a resume and met Brooks, a witty, sarcastic young man working at the info desk. I liked the cut of his gib, so I told him I just moved here and had no friends and asked if he would like to be my friend. He told me he was done his shift in 8 minutes and he’d walk me around the city. And he did. Not only that, he introduced me to his group of friends. So I am now friends with Saf, Glen, Ian, Alex, Laurie, Tyrell, Melanie, Mike, Macik (although I don’t really know how to spell his name), Macik’s girlfriend, whose name escapes me at the moment, and various others. It’s quite possible that I am now friends with someone named Dave. I’ve always wanted a friend Dave.

Anyway, that’s the story of my new friends. Next there’s Cameron’s visit. We did a lot of hanging out with my new friends, but some neat stuff. We went to see the first tam tams of the season and lay in the sun, which was awesome. There’s been a lot of walking around I might add, which is also awesome. We took pics in those cheesy 4 photos for $3 booths in the metro. We divided them up and I love the ones I got. We are so cute. There is also a lot of eating in Montreal. Ice cream and pizza haunt my existance. I want them all the time because they are everywhere. And that’s ok, cause I’m walking everywhere and swimming once a week with my bro, and I’ve started running again.

While Cam was here we went to the Atwater market and he saw a “help wanted” sign at this cute italian place. I have been working at Pasta D’Ici for a week and a half now. We sell pasta and sauce and coffees and olive oil and canolli and it’s great. Everybody there speaks french so it’s great for keeping up with that (all the friends I’ve made are anglophones) and my coworkers are really nice. Laurianne’s my favorite and Luc. Luc and this other guy Jean-Marc (he works at one of the vegetable stands downstairs at the market) were messing with me the other day speaking very quickly and quietly and grinning. I caught enough to know they were talking about me, but all nice things. I told Luc thanks for saying I had a nice smile and they both laughed. They’re teasing, but it’s the good kind of teasing, you know? Like family. I really like it.

Then Matt visited. We went to the Biodome (still waiting on those pics dude!) and Chinatown and he met this guy Chris who works at EA (on the magicbus coming into the city), so we went and got a tour there which was cool, but I’m not quite nerdy enough for that. The only game of theirs that I have played is NHL2004.  After we went out for poutine with Chris and his gf Alex. They were so sweet. I need to get their contact info from Matt. And THEN, Matt and I went to Cafe Gitana (a place introduced to me by Maya about 2 days earlier) and smoked shisha.

So I’ve been doing all this, working, getting a lot of reading done (surprisingly), going out with my new friends, hanging out with my brother, getting to know the roomie and walking around exploring my new city. So now you know why I haven’t been around so much. Hopefully I’ll post more now that I’m a bit more settled in. I have been noticing some really neat language stuff about Montreal. It’s pretty cool. For now, I need to get out of my smelly running clothes and shower and eat and get ready for work.

Last thought: I miss my Ontarian friends, but I have never been happier about my life than in the last few weeks. This was a really good decision. Come visit, any time, and I’ll prove it!