Week 4: Falling for Montreal

I don't know where time is going - it is always the case during term that weeks merge into one long day of minimal sleep and staring at endless screens/text books/blackboards/Powerpoints . . . I can't believe that next week marks a whole calendar month of studying at McGill.

Certainly, work is mounting and - I can't believe I'm already saying this - midterms are looming. I'm unlucky in that my midterms are stretched out over the next month and a bit - no rest for the wicked! Luckily, I am still loving my classes and I've even had chance to celebrate As in my first two assignments. Let's hope this isn't a false start . . .

Beyond the classroom there is plenty to report, much which I've already talked about on the blog. I've got the ball rolling with Best Buddies and have been assigned a local Montrealer as my new friend for the year. I have also been offered a mentor role at a 'homework club' in the city. We have our initial training session tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully this combined with B.B. will give me the opportunity to get to know my city as much as my university. In between all this there has been lots of parties and coffees and walks with my lovely group of friends which is ever growing and ever cementing - what a nice bunch.

There's also a heck of a lot upcoming for me to keep excited about. In a fortnight Helena and I have booked to go to Kingston to see Faye at Queen's University. She lives on Lake Ontario so we're hoping to head out to see the Thousand Islands and catch the best of the autumn leaves. Then, come mid-November I have a trip to Boston to look forward to. I turned 18 in Boston and absolutely adored it the first time around, so I'm really looking forward to seeing its Winter face and exploring some more.

My colleague this summer told me that the most important thing she could tell me about my year abroad is that it isn't a holiday. I'm starting to realise what she meant. Believe me, I don't mean this negatively, but it certainly is different to live, rather than visit, in a new place. There isn't the same rush for every day to be exciting, and the niggles about your new culture won't disappear when you head home in a week's time. That's half the fun of it though, it isn't permanent so you enjoy even the tedious as novelty. I say that . . . I'm not looking forward to finding my way to the parcel depot an hour from the apartment to retrieve whatever my failed delivery note promises! What I do like, however, is that we're starting to have our favourite haunts. We can offer tourists directions (sometimes). And this is what I'm saying at a month in - there's still so much to see and do!