sappy sappy sappy

I'm not usually one to share this with the whole world, but it's been well over a month & I still have well over a month to go. he left for europe this week & my world is a whole lot lonelier. i made him this, like the big, sappy, romantic sucker that I am sometimes....

I'm not very good at not being jealous.



I need to work on this.

ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall...

& so it begins... The season of (outdoor) festivals in Montréal, that is. Every person I've mentioned the fact that I'm spending my first summer in Montréal to has had more or less the same reaction: You're going to love Montréal in the summer!! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited for all this city has to offer this summer & hope to experience as much of it as humanly possible. That said, I kick-started things with the annual Mondiale de la bière. Given my love of beer & train stations, I'm was pretty impressed with this festival (although the emphasis is much more on the beer than on the fact that it was held in gorgeous Windsor Station). 
The festival ran June 2 to June 6 & I had the opportunity to attend twice. First with the roomie for a couple after-dinner beers Thursday evening & then with a co-worker on Saturday Night. Thursday, we sauntered in around 8:30, waited in line for our beer tickets & glass mugs & tasted a few delicious brews. 

Saturday wasn't quite the same story. We headed down around 5:30 once Deanna had gotten off work to find a line that snaked around the side of the building. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought a beer festival was a great way to spend our Saturday evening. Seeing as neither of us had any other plans & we'd been excited about it all day, we decided to try the line....at least for a little while. We ended up waiting a little over an hour, sticking it out in a torrential downpour that soaked our shoes straight through. At least we had umbrellas.    

Finally we got in & waited in another line to buy tickets & a mug for Deanna. Once we had all the necessities it was beer tasting time. We each had about 12 tickets ($1 each) & beers were usually 2-3 tickets, with a few slightly pricier ones. In the end we probably had 5 beers each. I tried to stick to micro breweries & beer that I can't get on a regular basis. Some of my favourites were Muskoka Cream Ale (which Deanna was very excited to find, being from ON & familiar with this smooth cottage beer) & Ma Première Blonde (a play on words: Blonde can mean both girlfriend & beer). The evening wouldn't have been complete without a large poutine, which we enjoyed with our cottage beer, picnic-style in the courtyard.

We parted ways & wandered home a few hours later, leaving me even more excited about the upcoming summer of festivals. 

my shoes however, might not be quite as ready...

my poor shoes are even more worse for wear....water now leaks in everywhere

Summer Lovin

Summer has arrived to Montreal, or so it seems at least. Last week the city felt like a sauna. It was the hottest weather I've ever felt in Canada & it's only May. I'm told it will only get hotter & more humid so now I'm not entirely sure what I've signed myself up for.  I will, thankfully, be taking a two and a half week break to head back to the dry heat of the homeland. Yes, I am going home for some Stampeding, among other things. A second thing I should be thankful for this summer is the AC in my new apartment. Yes, folks, I found myself a new apartment so you needn't fret about me living on the street on setting up a permanent cot in the lifeguard office. And yes, it has AC - an almost foreign concept to me. No one has air conditioning in AB, at least no one I know. So, I'd kind of laughed it off as an unnecessary perk when I signed the lease. That is until last week when I thought I was going to melt. Our current apartment was a bit of a sweatbox. & not just because it doesn't have AC. Despite the rest of its lovely features, it lacks 2 sets of screens. I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of one of the screen-less windows. The other is in the living room. Sorry, apartment, I still love you, but this is one of your serious downfalls. I know this seems slightly absurd, but I'm fairly certain our landlord has just forgotten about these two missing screens. In fact, I distinctly recall him saying he'd put them in come spring. but now that we've told him we're leaving, I feel awkward bringing up the oversight. It's silly, I know, but I really didn't think we'd hit 38 degrees before Canada day, never mind in May! But enough about my current apartment. Let's talk about my new one, as I'm sure you're all dying to hear about it.

It's 3 or 4 blocks closer to both workplaces & school. So now, I can cut my 20 minute routine down to 15 minutes for Starbucks in the morning OR I can make myself presentable with makeup perhaps from time to time (ok, let's not kid ourselves here, we all know I'll never choose makeup over sleep at 5:45am). It's above a Tim Hortons (which at first seems unappealing, but brekkie on my way to the Y? yes, I'll have time now). The building isn't anything special from the outside, but the interior is newly renovated & has some pretty high tech security. The landlord seems to be a doll, as well. My apartment itself, is on the 4th floor. It's a 2 1/2 (in the rest of Canada we'd call it a bachelor) & everything it is is brand new. It's been totally renovated - hardwood floors, new appliances, new tile bathroom. & it has a patio! All in all, it's a pretty sweet place, exactly where I wanted. Crisis averted.

& it only took me a month and a half to find it.

Lyssa is up early baking cheese buns and strawberry-rhubarb pie :)

Alanna officially has a place to live come July 1! & it's a better than decent place at that. Such a relief after my (overly) melodramatic meltdown on Tuesday night.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

At least that's what they say, & sometimes my photos seem to do the talking a little bit better than my words. I guess I'll have to work on that. Nevertheless, here are the photos I promised from the night the Habs won & I took my flashy camera for a walk down to Crescent. Unless you're living under a rock, I'm sure you're aware that the Habs won the semi-final series against the Penguins last week as well & Montréal was once again a crazy (awesome) place to be. The roomie, the boyfriend & I joined the revellers briefly, but managed to avoid tear gas & the looting. There was however a car set on fire (& burnt to a crisp) near our street. Exciting?

First Round: 

               The street wasn't closed off during the first round. Intersection of Guy & St Catharine's.  

Car surfing is always safe

Round 2:

st catharine's in front of the faubourg. 

making our way through the crowd as we approach crescent

sea of people at crescent

& to cap off the evening: slightly difficult to see burnt car.