Advent Ca(le)nada: December 6th - 10th

6th December: International students getting Christmas spirit right. Okay, this was technically the night of the 5th - but I'm sure many peoples' tummies were still recovering today! Christmas dinner with the international student family, many of whom are going home at the end of this semester. Lots of sad goodbyes on the way.

This evening I did go to a Christmas concert that Helena was taking part in at a local church. A lovely hour out of my day.

December 7th: I went out to meet Paul whom I am partnered with through Best Buddies International and took him out to lunch in Villa-Maria.

December 8th: The McGill squirrels are stocking up for hibernation.

December 9th: Evening walk with a hot drink.

December 10th: McGill does school swag like nowhere else. (Note the wrapping paper!)

Advent(ure): December 1st -5th

December will likely be the least exciting month of my year abroad, at least in some ways. Half of that is because currently what I'm excited about now is going home for Christmas - the fortnight or so that remains before then just sort of feels in the way. The other half of the story is the fact I have one too many deadlines and exams to prepare for in that space of time. Every advent calendar door I open is a reminder of the depleting number of days left before my next hand in . . . So, to help ensure I don't end up wishing away a month of my adventure, I have decided to squeeze something festive into every day and I will document it on the blog. 

Please don't be fooled, these photos are all glossy and lovely - they certainly aren't the whole story though, I just thought nobody would appreciate a month's worth of photos of bibliographies and revision notes. So without further ado, here is what I have been up to this week:

December 1st: The best dressed moose in Canada. Christmas has come to the Hudson Bay Company.

December 2nd: The Book of Mormon at the Place des Arts. I saw this for the first time in February with Jamie and was definitely game to see it again. When we came out we were greeted by some pretty heavy snowfall, and I did had ballet flats on - cue very chilly toes!

December 3rd: Campus exhibiting school and festive spirit in equal measure.

December 4th: Okay, today I failed at my task of making each day exciting. Today was a library day, although it did mark my last day of classes for the semester, yay! This is a quotation on the steps up to the library from Rue McTavish that I only noticed a few weeks ago. A nice touch of a crisp winter day.

December 5th: I really like this picture because you can see Old Port, Downtown and of course winter skating which takes the foreground. Old Port in the evening was very festive indeed, it is decorated so beautifully! The best part of all - alongside the ice rink, the water in the port is frozen too! Seemingly once winter is in full swing, skating opens up on the actual water!

Week 13: Oh, snow!

 

I had to re-write this post, as my first draft was about just how snow-y Montreal had got. Well, the that would have been true a week ago. It was bitterly cold on the East Coast and the winds were biting. We had snow properly settled on the ground, or at least on any surface other than roads and pavements. It has all melted again now, and it was 16 degrees (centigrade..) on Monday. So the worst is certainly still to come.

Although I was completely prepared for Canada to be far better armed for the snow (and it definitely is), I have been really struck by the overwhelmingly nonchalant attitude towards it in this city. It makes sense, who wants to welcome three months of a freezing nuisance? But just think - the first snow fall in the U.K. would have every body outside, bundled up in ten jumpers, making snow men and snow angels with the inch of snow we are always just so excited to have. Here however, snow boots go on and so does life. Case in point: look at my first picture of Lower Field on campus. 48 hours in and the snow is barely touched (apart from the one obligatory phallus for everyone to see through the library windows - students, ey?) At home, that field would have been DECIMATED in minutes.

With finals looming and term papers due, there's nothing much more to report. I've been back at McGill Medievalists, and bowling with Best Buddies but those are pleasures I really don't have time for at the moment. Not long now, however. In fact I can't believe how soon I go home, the semester has vanished.

I have calculated that this semester I will have:

• Had twelve hours of class time each week with assessed participation.
• Sat ten tests and one final exam.

• Taken part in one play (wearing one novelty beard).

• Submitted nine essays, five translations, two term papers and one research project.

None to shabby, when you look at it like that . . . so I feel I definitely deserve my Christmas break even if it is far too short for my liking. 

I think coming back in January is going to be the very worst part of this year, saying goodbye to the people I've missed so soon after saying hello again - though I'm sure once I'm back and back in the groove I will remember just why I'm here and enjoying myself so much! To help counteract my bitter-sweet arrival in January, Faye and I have booked a New Year's trip to New York in the weekend before term starts. Definitely extremely cool and I do have to pinch myself to realise this is my lived reality - I can 'pop' to the Big Apple on a very tight budget. I promised my Dad that I would have fun and make the most of my year and so far I really feel I have, which makes me very happy. It would be awful to regret not making the most of this opportunity. Fitting in everything I want to do is very hard work - especially on top of the endless McGill workload - but it is utterly worth it when I start to look back on this semester.

Crikey, it is so weird to almost be able to look back at this semester in the past tense. I cannot WAIT to be able to open Day 1 on my advent calendar my aunt very sweetly sent over, though. Christmas is coming!

Boston

Boston Common

Massachusetts State House

Beacon Hill

Morning walk along Charles River

Prudential Tower

John Hancock Tower (my favourite building in the city)

I mean just look at it!

Boston City Library

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox

Up on the "Green Monsta"

Back Bay Fens

The First Church of Christ, Scientist

Panorama from the 50th floor of the Prudential Centre

500 Boylston Street

Old State House

Quincy Market

Custom House Tower

Long Wharf

Union Oyster House (home of quality Clam Chowda)

Holocaust Memorial

M.I.T. University Campus, Cambridge

Week 11 and 12: History surpasses borders

Work continues, and so do deadlines. They're boring though (well, to hark on about) so we'll ignore those this week. Instead I would like to talk about tradition a little bit.

First, Bonfire Night. I really was gutted to be missing the 5th of November, particularly as I'm not a huge Halloween-er, and that certainly is a massive deal over here. Edinburgh festivities on Arthur's Seat are always fun, and at home I can never get enough of some proper Yorkshire Parkin. Luckily however, it turned out that some of my other fellow British international students were feeling the same. It is relatively hard to explain to anyone else quite why we get quite so excited about re-enacting capital punishment!

So, come the evening of last Wednesday, a group of us donned our many layers and climbed to the top of Mont-Royal to pretend the colourful lights of the cityscape were rockets and to light some Dollarama sparklers (thanks Luke!) The Dollarama lighter was as good as it sounds, which meant me spent a good 20 minutes huddled together trying to spark up. This led to some shifty glances and us having to reassure, "Don't worry we're not taking drugs, we're just British!" Eventually however one sparkler lit and there began the great sparkler relay to ensure we could light all 40 of them without having to return to our dubious huddle. Needless to say we got far too over-excited, but it was so nice to bring a little tradition from home to Canada.

5th November

Today marks Remembrance Day, or Jour du Souvenir. The university held a very impressive service, both for students and the public, which Helena and I (among several thousand others) attended. At least eight or nine divisions of the Armed Forces were represented at the service and representatives of the city and province were also present to lay wreathes. There was a helicopter fly over, and a 21 gun salute.

I have previously mentioned how it has been a little eye-opening to come to terms with what it means to live in a Commonwealth country today, and learn what an influence - good, neutral, or otherwise - it continues to have. I was particularly moved by the idea today, having caught up with The Cenotaph broadcast on Sunday and been reminded just how many forces fought for Britain in both of the World Wars. The event of course was of national historical importance for Canada in its own right, and it was a privilege to experience this moment. Unexpectedly, perhaps naively on my part, several phrases of the British national anthem were played at the beginning of the event, and thus the connection was nodded to.

11th November

I'm not trying to be profound, or to come down on one side or the other about the Commonwealth in anyway. Living here has forced me to think about what I actually do think about the association, and I honestly don't know where I stand. I am just hoping to express what a meaningful moment it was to share in Remembrance in Canada,and find out just how many members of the McGill community were directly involved in the British war effort. They trained on Lower Field, the very location of today's ceremony, and their names can be viewed in McGill's restored Book of Remembrance currently on display in the library. Several of the regiments today were Québecois and thus received their orders in French. I had invited Australian friends to attend with me. In all, a very unifying moment.