Well, I went back “home” for 3 whole weeks! It was great to be back, and I was really surprised by both how much some things had changed, and how some things hadn’t changed at all. Here is the run-down of some of the highlights of my visit home (in approximately chronological order). Some of the gaps are when I was hanging out in Pakenham with my father, as there isn’t too much to write about that.
(1) (Dec 16th) Matthieu’s birthday party: What could be better than getting off of a plane in Montreal, getting picked up by friends (Thank you Danielle, Gabriela and Aurelian) and then going to a surprise birthday party for a friend who doesn’t even know that you’re in the country!
(2) (Dec 17th) On the 17th I awoke at Danielle’s and we had enough time for a little visit before she went back to Calgary for Christmas. The evening was spent with Claude and Leroy (one of many magnificent Claude and Leroy visits during my time home). It was great to visit with Claude and Leroy (I was fed butter tarts and date squares….my favourite Christmas treats, I think), and we had lots of catching up to do.
(3) Playing tourist in Ottawa with Barb: On Wednesday night I met up with Barb, Kate and Tanya and we went out for So Good (one of 3 So Good visits in the 3 weeks I was in Canada). Afterwards, I spent the evening with Barb, drinking and catching up and drinking and catching up and drinking. The following day we played tourist in Ottawa—breakfast at Ada’s followed shopping, playing at city hall and a walk on parliament hill. The bloody eternal flame was boxed up. Not very eternal now is it?
Well, I went back “home” for 3 whole weeks! It was great to be back, and I was really surprised by both how much some things had changed, and how some things hadn’t changed at all. Here is the run-down of some of the highlights of my visit home (in approximately chronological order). Some of the gaps are when I was hanging out in Pakenham with my father, as there isn’t too much to write about that.
(1) (Dec 16th) Matthieu’s birthday party: What could be better than getting off of a plane in Montreal, getting picked up by friends (Thank you Danielle, Gabriela and Aurelian) and then going to a surprise birthday party for a friend who doesn’t even know that you’re in the country!
(2) (Dec 17th) On the 17th I awoke at Danielle’s and we had enough time for a little visit before she went back to Calgary for Christmas. The evening was spent with Claude and Leroy (one of many magnificent Claude and Leroy visits during my time home). It was great to visit with Claude and Leroy (I was fed butter tarts and date squares….my favourite Christmas treats, I think), and we had lots of catching up to do.
(3) Playing tourist in Ottawa with Barb: On Wednesday night I met up with Barb, Kate and Tanya and we went out for So Good (one of 3 So Good visits in the 3 weeks I was in Canada). Afterwards, I spent the evening with Barb, drinking and catching up and drinking and catching up and drinking. The following day we played tourist in Ottawa—breakfast at Ada’s followed shopping, playing at city hall and a walk on parliament hill. The bloody eternal flame was boxed up. Not very eternal now is it?
(4)Fight Night at the Brydges: ok, well I didn’t stay out long on boxing day, but I did get to visit a little bit with Thomas, Chris and Nancy before I called it a night.
(5) On the 27th, I went to the national gallery with my father. I’m not sure what I miss most about Ottawa, but the gallery is one of the things that I really do miss. We took the time to look at the Inuit art and most of the Canadian paintings. I know that it is very Canadian-cliché, but I really do love the Tom Thomson paintings in the Gallery, especially after having spent so much time in Algonquin Park when I was younger.
(6)On the 29th, Katherine and I spent a day mostly in the glebe, drinking coffee and playing Boggle with Karim. They totally kicked my illiterate-ass, and looked pretty happy doing so. The best thing about playing Boggle in Bridgehead is that people want to talk to you about how wonderful it is that young folk are playing boggle, while you come up with four letter words like ‘cunt’ and really-don’t-want-to-be-interrupted-because-you’re-already-loosing-and-don’t-especially-like-talking-to-strangers. Oh, we also did s
(7) Spending time with a very-pregnant Caro and a wonderful as always Vincent: On the 30th, I spent the night with Caro and Vincent. I was fed “tortiere du lac St. Jean”, maple grandfathers, and we played “robot ricochet”, a surprisingly fun board game that has very little to do with robots, but just enough.
(8) New Year’s Eve with Kim! Need I say more. People were flipped, I was drug outside in my socks, and I got to spend a whole bunch of time with miss-kim. It made sleeping in a corridor all worth it. This was my second time to Fred’s cottage, and my first new years eve celebrated outside of Ontario.
(9) New Years day was a busy-busy day in which I visited with lots of people and ended up feeling rather loved! I started off the day with Kim & David, made my way over to Clarisse and Juan’s place and had a little brunch with them before heading over to Claude and Leroy’s place. Claude and Leroy then accompanied Karim and I to dinner (yummy Indian food!) before depositing me at Karim’s place for the night. Karim and I ended up talking music and telly into the wee hours of the morning before I started to crash.
(10)My plan for January 2nd included showing Karim some of my favourite things in montreal, but the city is filled with lazy people who don’t work on the 2nd. Ah well. We did make it to Santropol for lunch with Claude and Leroy (and some delicious vinegary coffee…. uh….). I spent most of the afternoon with Chris at his house. Everytime I visit with Chris I’m reminded of how lucky I was to have had him as my M.Sc. advisor. He is really nice, smart and interesting, and now is also a wonderful friend. I spent the night again with Claude and Leroy.
(11) Well, Claude and Leroy drug my ass back to Ottawa, and the three of us had lunch with my father at Colonnade. A really great way to finish up my Montreal-tour!
My remaining few days in the land of hockey and poutine were a bit hectic, and included a nice visit with Kristina, and going to see one of my aunts with Lisa. We had a really nice time, and made some chocolates. I also got to visit with Kate and Barb one more time, and spent my last night in Canada visiting with friends of my fathers. I returned to “les states” with my bags stuffed with chocolates, tea, and cbc t-shirts. I guess that I saw almost everyone that I wanted to (though I didn’t get to see my gatineau friends…. Next time!).
