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.

"Brit Abroad"

This is just a bit of silliness. Some of things that have left me a little lost in translation as a Brit Abroad...

Dairy Milk doesn't taste the same here. Devastating. 

"I study in Edinburgh." "Oh, so do you know my friend in Aberdeen?"

"I live in Halifax." "Oh, so do you know my friend in London?"
"I'm from England." "So you live in London then?"
These are all everyday questions.

I've just had to accept that in French Canada, my Starbucks cup will always say Catherine.

The Commonwealth is very prominent here, but it always takes me by surprise. An enormous eighties portrait of the Queen overlooked the ice hockey game we went to with Faye. The teams sang the Canadian national anthem to her.

My friend from class has a phone case saying: "If I had a British accent I'd never shut up."

For someone who took the train to school for years, I had to look twice at the title of this utterly serious article:

 http://www.mtlblog.com/2014/10/20-reasons-to-travel-by-train-before-the-age-of-25/

North America: Why are your bathroom stall doors so see-through-able/see-round-able/over-able/in-able?

I'm still learning the intricacies of jaywalking.

My ears have developed a rah-dar. If I hear a U.K. accent somewhere in the city, I can't help but listen in!

I have met children who haven't heard of Wales, Europeans who didn't know Scotland was a country and North Americans who have asked me if the British celebrate Thanksgiving. I wonder what equally silly questions I've asked, too? 

Also, Canadians really, really dig Maple Syrup:

(P.S. 99% of the time this is the best thing ever. Maple roasted almonds, oh my oh my.)

Oh, Canada.

Week 9: It's November, what?!

So it has been five weeks since my last update. First, the fact five weeks have flown by is crazy enough. This semester is disappearing. After tomorrow it is five Mondays until I come home for Christmas. November is phenomenally hectic too, so I can't see that taking too long to whiz by . . .

As a general rule, life is just busy beyond belief. I'm still sitting Midterms, and when exams emerge in Canada, the rest of your workload doesn't deplete. Y'all who know me will be far too aware of what a perfectionist I am, so the style of learning here - that is to say continuous assessment - means that my desk and I have become as one. 

That's not to say however that I'm not having the best time. It is a hard one to express to family sometimes, because your year abroad is so amazing, but all the boring bits of life still go on. I've got poorly grandparents to Skype and washing to do, I've got bills to pay and - yep - essays to write.

If you work hard then you can make the time to play hard, too. Casing point: I'M OFF TO BOSTON IN A FORTNIGHT! There's been lots of niceness going on these last few weeks and I'm really getting to establish myself in the city as much as in class. I've met my new buddy Paul as part of the McGill Best Buddies programme and have been tutoring two seven year old sweethearts from an elementary school in the suburbs. Doing bits like this have got me out of the Downtown bubble, which I'm really loving to do. Speaking of, I've been back to Jean-Talon market for brunch with some class friends - I bought a spaghetti squash there. Okay, this isn't very exciting so I won't keep you long. Basically the squash roasts down so that the flesh forms spaghetti-like strands. SO TASTY. I swear North America is squash-central. (Although *not very* fun fact - squash as in the drink doesn't exist here, people are plain baffled by the concept!)

Finally, HALLOWEEN HAPPENED. I put that in caps because oh my goodness is it a big deal here. Students at 10am were rocking up to class in costumes, and this wasn't just a university thing. Adults a-plenty were wandering the mall in their regalia, too! Montreal also had a zombie walk last weekend - not for any cause in particular, just for the sake of dressing up spookily. And what did I wear? My costume wasn't really a costume at all. Having said this, I spent just short of three hours making up a lot of pals ready for Stu's 21st/Halloween party hybrid. We had The Joker on dress down Friday, we had a zombie, a pretty/scary Snow White, Hermione and a spidery man. I love doing costume make-up so was in my element and the party was a good time, too.

Right, I have to go. Exam in the morning. Baah.