Meditation au Parc Mont-Royal didn't happen today, partially due to my passionate love for sleep and partially because it was cold out. Okay, it wasn't COLD, but there was just enough of a chill to make it uncomfortable without a sweater. I can't meditate in a sweater.

Elfi and I saw Inception, and as much as I'd like to be the one single person ever to see it to give it a terrible review, I cannot. I thought it was well done across the board. The worst I can say is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is generally just a big doofus (Third Rock From the Sun to 500 Days of Summer to Inception? Really?). And even he was good! Come to think of it though, I just remember the bulk of his role consisting of wrestling men in suits in an anti-gravity hotel. But I won't ruin it for you, you really have to go see it yourself. But if you're in Canada, go to Burger King before you go see Inception. Don't get excited TJ, I'm not promoting BK's food. I'm letting you know that (in Canada anyway) with the purchase of any meal, you can get your ticket for $6. It's usually $13 per ticket here, so it's a pretty big discount. Especially if you get whatever meal is $4.50, it's the cheapest one on there. Did you know Canadian BK's serve poutine? The culture is overwhelming!!!

Almost spent the evening at home, but then I went to Reservoir with Taurean and his friend Taylor to celebrate Taurean's birthday. The two of them went to PSU together, and somehow both ended up in Montréal. Taylor is absolutely wonderful. She was telling me about why she left Portland for MTL and how she taught in France for a while and how she learned French here by just putting herself out there and and everything she said was everything I've thought and wanted to do out here and she got me incredibly stoked on life. We're planning on watching all these classic Québécois cult films (like Les Boys, Les Voisins) and she gave me a list of things I can check out to work on my French (magazines, podcasts, pickup lines hahaha). She told me about all the opportunities she's discovered, paid internships and the like. Basically a bunch of discussion that got us all amped about being in Montréal... which eventually led to us walking to La Banquise for poutine. I've had poutine at Patati Patata, Frite Alors, and now La Banquise-- the latter is undoubtedly the best. I ordered the Rachel, which came topped with poivres, oignons frits, et champignons. Champignons! :) Besides the poutine there being incredible, the music they played was quite interesting. We waited for a table to Alice Practice by Crystal Castles, were seated to Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, ordered to Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye, and ate to Sexy Bitch by Akon & David Guetta and You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl) by The White Stripes, among others. Basically a ton of really nostalgic tracks from my past few years.

A lovely, lovely day overall.

Meditation tomorrow or Sunday. Sunday will be warmer. We'll see.

Bedtime! Bien dormir. <3

P.S. I started an art project today. I'm incredibly excited about it, and I think a select few of you will be equally as thrilled with the final product. It's a surprise, but all I can say is... God it's so whacky!

The cats have finally warmed up to me I think. Every time I come home, there's at least one curled up on my sheets. Mignon.

Pretty relaxed day today. I did laundry* and cleaned up the apartment a little. Then I walked to Will's for some stir fry/Rickard's/Mom-Skype/Cowboy Bebop/Ableton/YouTube action. Theeeeen I walked home.

I think tomorrow calls for some meditation at Mont Royal. Mhmmmm

*While waiting on mah clothes, I found more alley art.

Sweet artwork, but bycicle? Really?






MRS. POND STRIKES BACK

Taurean and I went to a free movie at Parc La Fontaine on Monday. It's Pride Week, so there are all sorts of things going on down Mont Royal. The movie was J'ai Tué Ma Mère, en anglais that's I Killed My Mother. It's written and directed by the lead actor, Québec's own Xavier Dolan. I didn't understand all of what was said in the film, which is probably why I didn't like it. I thought otherwise it was too long and the acting sub par and the sex scenes a little much for a free, all-ages film being shown in a public park, but everyone else seemed to love it and laugh at every other line. Maybe the dialogue was witty! ...or something. Whatever, I feel better knowing Taurean didn't like it either. He understood it all.

I spent most of the day Tuesday getting lost in the underground malls and meandering about aimlessly downtown. During the evening, Taurean and I hung out at home. He made an excellent spicy curry with tofu and I Skyped with Alyssa for like an hour and a half. Aaaaand then I walked to Nick's to hang out for a minute. Quiet day.

Yesterday I spent the day wandering down St-Laurent to Sherbrooke, and then over to St-Denis to buy a good pair of shoes (THX MOM<3). I came home in the evening to shower and relax for a bit. Later that evening, Will and I met up for Bassdrive at Koï. We were there dancing (and destroying the ATM with an invisible sledgehammer, lulz) until about 1:45am, at which point we met up with his boss down the street at Tokyo. Tokyo is a 3 story (ish) lounge, the bottom floor having two bars and a DJ, and the next two floors being outdoor terrasses with bars and no music (due to noise ordinance). We decided the bar cafeteria (because of the lack of music) on the top floor was unacceptable, so Will, Greg, and the two girls he was with (hahahaha yep) went down to the first floor where the music was. The DJ was really eclectic and terrible. I mean, the songs were alright, but the actual DJing part was awful. Who spins Interpol and Blue Shocking in the same set? Really? Anyway we were the only people dancing for a while. Greg and the ladies disappeared, so Will and I thrashed about like retards to The Talking Heads and Pat Benatar until they closed at 3am.

Aaaand now I'm here! It's nice and cool today, and sunny. And gorgeous. I might get out and do my laundry, but I'd feel strange not doing it during a torrential downpour. Whatevz. Elfi is returning from her Euro trip at 4pm today, with her brother I believe. Then there's a French couple moving in on the 2nd. So much French in the apartment. I'm pumped. I'm Skyping with Mom later, and then going with Taurean to hang out with some English folks or something. He didn't really elaborate, but he asked me to accompany him. So I guess I'll go.

Planning to hit up Québec City not this weekend, but the next. La Nouvelle France Festival will be going on, it should be wonderfurrrr.

Brunch and laundry time!

bonjournée!

Ottawa was awesome. It's been the most quiet part of my Canadian experience so far, kind of like a little vacation from...the place at which I'm vacationing presently. Friday night we went out to bid Fran and Mekkin's friend adieu, as she's leaving to study in Mexico for a year. Saturday consisted of cooking a fantastic dinner (teriyaki pork tenderloin with coconut milk rice and grilled portobello mushrooms yes PLZZZ) and kicking it at the house. Sunday consisted of cleaning and driving to this part of a park nearby that overlooks like, ALL of Ottawa. It was gooorgeous. Then we took the Greyhound back to Montréal, and now I am here writing. Yes yes yes. Not sure what's in store for this week, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out! :D

Some photos for yewwww!


Here's Fran's casa:





Here's downtown Ottawa:


House of Parliament!








That lookout point overlooking Ottawa.
Actually the left bank of the river
is Québec and the right is Ontario. Wooo!

Jesus I've been slacking on this thing. Allow me to update you on this past week in a really tiny nutshell.

Bassnectar was at Picnik last Sunday (the day of my last entry), and it was absolutely incredible. I met up with Li and we took the Métro to meet up with his friends at Parc Jean Drapeau, where Picnik was being held. I sat in the back with him and his friends until Bassnectar started at which point I ran to the front to retrieve some proper footage for everyone back home. I'll post them later. I made friends with some people up front who freaked out with me when the Sigur Rós remix came on. It turned out that they're friends with Li, and we ended up hanging out after the show. While hanging out, we discovered that we have virtually the same taste in music. Sooooo we decided to meet up the next day for a mass music exchange. So Monday we met up and went to Ashlin's (from Vancouver) and I gave them a ton of music off my hard drive (I'm getting their music soooon) and drew with pens and drank homemade ginger iced tea and kiiicked it. That evening, Fran (from Winnipeg, a student at the University of Ottawa) and Jeff (from Winnipeg as well) and I picked up stuff to make curry chicken and went to Laurent's loft further up Mile End to cook for everyone from Bassnectar. This loft is in an old warehouse adjacent to a kosher, seamless underwear factory (if you recall, Mile End is a neighborhood of orthodox Jews). So that was interesting. Oh and also there's a DJ box in the loft, where their good friend (and really awesome DJ) Bus spins at pretty much all times. The curry was delightful and they walked me home after. On Tuesday I met up with Fran and Kyle (from Vancouver) and we walked up to Mont Royal to go slacklining and picnic a little bit. We walked over and hung out at Ashlin's for a while, then made that fusilli & spicy Italian sausage dish I love so much (plus white and green onions, and portobello mushrooms) back at Nick's house. Fran's friend Mekkin (a student at Carleton, her family's Icelandic and apparently one of her relatives is married to someone in Sigur Rós!) Wednesday I did some laundry (and it rained accordingly) and met up with everyone again at Nick's. We drew on some big white panels with Sharpies (apparently we're all pretty aRtSy!1!!) until Fran and Mekkin's friend Zach drove up from Ottawa. Once he arrived, we went to Bofinger for BBQ (whaaat) and then went to Koï for Bassdrive. We came back to the house afterward, where some crazy drunk guy had waltzed in and had decided to hang out with us. And then yesterday, I was invited to spend the weekend in Ottawa with Fran and Mekkin and Zach! So we drove out in the morning and got to Fran's and napped. Then Fran gave me a long walking tour of Canada's capital city... theeeennnnn we met up with Mekkin and Zach and more of his friends from school and went to St. James' street and Ritual. We went back to Mekkin's to watch It's Always Sunny, then we crashed at Sam's. This morning we went grocery shopping and made sloppy joe's and watched Pan's Labyrinth and Kenny vs. Spenny and now we're watching South Park for another hour before we go to his friend's going away party because she's going to Mexico to study for a year or something. *BREATHE* And I have a ton of pictures but I left my SD card adapter at the apartment. Sorry. I'll add lot of stuff once I get back to the apartment on Sunday.

Much love!

THIS ENTRY HAS VIDEOS, but I don't have them on me. Stand by.

I went to the laundromat and while my clothes were in the wash, I walked to Olimpico for coffee. When I returned to the laundromat, the door was locked and the lady had left. Whooops! She came back after about 10 minutes(ish), and let me in to get my clothes. It had been pouring this entire time, and I stayed in the laundromat until the rain quieted down enough for me to take my clothes home. I was about halfway there before it started pouring again, and I took shelter under a balcony and was stuck there for a little over 20 minutes until the rain lightened.

[video here!]

Our neighbors finally fixed their internet to where we can't use it. So Lou Lou (Nou Nou? I have no idea what this cat's name is) and I played with Photo Booth while Taurean played video games.





Once that got old, Taurean and I decided to walk to Le Cagibi (the rain had finally stopped) for coffee/access to the innerwebz. We arrived to discover their power was out, so there was no wi-fi and all they could serve us were croissants, muffins, or lukewarm tea. Mmmmm. So we walked to this place called "Caffe in Gamba" (or something) and got our espresso and internet fix. We both really wanted to do something last night, but there were seemingly ZERO options for free entertainment. But my internet-scouring had proven otherwise. This is where I come clean and tell you that the evening to follow was absolutely awesome, and it was entirely my fault. I've learned how much taking initiative and being a little outgoing can make things interesting. I'd found (via rigorous Google-ing) that some random bands we'd never heard of were playing a house show downtown. We decided to check it out.

SO,

we were almost home from inGamba (or whatever), and I realized I'd lost my keys, so I walked all the way back to the café, and came home to an angry neighbor accusing us of keying his car. Buzzkill. But then we took the Metro downtown and found our way to the address of the house show, and it looked... sketchy, to say the least. The house number was painted on a graffiti-covered door squished between a closed-down Vietnamese restaurant (I think?) and an Indian supermarket. We heard no music, there were no people entering or exiting, but the door was unlocked. We sat outside and mulled over our options for about five minutes, and decided whatever it could be would be more interesting than sitting at home. Sooooo we walked in the door and up the stairs, and found several doors to several apartments, none of them labeled and none of them emanating the noise usually found at house shows. I was pretty sure it was the door with people talking on the other side and with the sign on it that looked like a "beware of dog" sign (RAMNATH!!), but it had a puppy on it and it read "DANGER: JE SUIS PETIT MAIS JE CONNAIS LE KUNG FU". Taurean refused to knock on the door, and finally I opted to man up and do it myself. The people inside opened the door and invited us in and introduced themselves and confirmed that we were in the right place. The music was pretty good,

[videos here]

and we met a lot of really cool people, and overall had a hilarious and fantastic evening.

[more videos here]

AAAAAND I'm sorry I'm cutting this so short, but Bassnectar is today and I have to go get ready.

bisous!!!

<3

After that entry yesterday, I did some writing and had coffee at Olympico with this kid named Paolo. He's the quintessential Italian-- short, loquacious, loathing of all things natural, and one quarter bottle of hair gel less of a guido. But he was super nice. I went home and spent the evening chatting away with Taurean, Mary, and Sam. The evening ended with a stroll to Fairmount and my arrival to the conclusion that Fairmount bagels are indeed better than those of St. Viateur. Whoooosh!

I'M BEHIND, I KNOW. But I'm fixing that now.

Tuesday I started the day off by going to Ramados. I figured I should try some Portuguese food since I live in a Portuguese neighborhood. Best decision EVER. $5 for the most amazing grilled chicken sandwich I've ever had. I'd recommend it highly. Afterward, I walked around downtown and China Town with Li to take pictures of more street art, since it's so ridiculously awesome.














Theeeen it started POURING on us, so we took shelter in the underground mall thing. Apparently Montréal has an underground network of like 6 underground malls that span under all of downtown. One of them has an ice rink inside. O, Canada eh! I bought some cheap pastels and paper from this little art store in Concordia. After that, we went to his house and watched Black Dynamite. ("Your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrification is only outmatched by your zest for kung-fu treachery!")

Wednesday I took the Métro to Jean-Talon to check out the farmer's market. I bought a crap-ton of fruits and veggies and noodles and stuff for less than $20. That's DEFINITELY my new favorite shopping destination. Ah it was wonderful! That night I went to Bassdrive at Koï with Li. I met some more of his friends, they all seem legit. I ended up leaving early though, as I had the most ridiculously terrible headache EVER.

Yesterday I made some delicious asian noodles with egg and red and green peppers for breakfast and watched Inglourious Basterds. In the afternoon, our new roommates arrived. They're staying through the end of the month. Mary is from Ontario and her boyfriend Sam is from England, and they're both reeeeeeeally cool. Last night, Taurean and I had pizza and 40oz of Black Bull (10%, it was TERRIBLE) because we felt that we needed to do something American with our summer. Sam and Mary came home from grocery shopping and we all sat outside and talked for a while until I left to meet up with Will a few blocks down at Daomé. His friend/boss was spinning there, and I only had to pay a dollar cover (thx for the +1 bro). Much dancing ensued, and then he walked me home.

Aaaand today I woke up and made asian noodles again, and now I'm here at Cagibi drinking tea!

Yay, I'm caught up on teh blawg!

I can finally put my hair into a ponytail, which is great in this weather (it's getting hot again)... but it looks like a stupid paintbrush since my hair's still kind of short. Baby steps, I s'pose.

I'm sooooooooo excited for Bassnectar on Sunday.

Miss you all! <333333333

Didn't do too much today. Slept in and relaxed, went walking in the rain, went to Bifteck with Chris.

It was a pensive one.

Yesterday was my first Sunday in Montréal. I've been hearing a lot from everyone about what Sundays here entail, and I decided to meet up with Will (de Philadelphia) and check it out. I took a billion pictures, but I'm only posting about half. I don't feel like uploading all of them...

Hokay, so. Every Sunday, hundreds upon hundreds of people of all kinds (families, hipsters, elderly folk, bros, super goth-y kids, stereotypical hippies, the list goes on) congregate at Mont-Royal. The primary event is called Tam Tam (though it's only a small portion of the mountain's festivities), and it's like a community drum circle where everyone brings something that makes some sort of 'organic' noise, and they smoke weed and jam and dance their faces off from early morning to late evening. I had no idea Montréal had such a thriving hippie culture. Holy crap. (More pictures from this at the end of this entry...)

Further up the mountain, you will find more people sitting in groups, hula hooping, slacklining, and LARPing furiously. (LARP: Live Action Role Play) I'd only seen this on Role Models, so it was really hilarious to me. Didn't think this was actually a thing. SO FUNNY.

This is about as metal as it gets.

The face of defeat:

We walked around Mont-Royal for a couple hours before deciding to walk downtown to check out this art festival in the Village.

This pink thing was rapidly speaking to us in French, promoting next week's comedy festival. She caught us so off guard, all we could think to do was dance at her.

The street art here is amazing and incredibly abundant.

ALLO?

Don't look in the queen.

He had business cards.

We helped promote this tattoo parlor for a little while.


Nothing goes better with Ed Hardy than a tribal tattoo.

It was trying to iron that woman.

The evocative "tangled-up-in-neon-green-twine-and-furiously-demolishing-glass-in-heels" dance was one of the most prominent pieces in the art festival. Wait, what? Here's a video, with Will's commentary. (She never did free herself. Some troubled-looking teenager with his head shaved (except for really long bangs) ended up releasing her. Anti-climactic much?
There was no escaping the celebratory honking/yelling/vuvuzela-ing by the local Spaniards.

Around 6:30pm, Mont Royal was still full of people.

And some guy was spinning grime!

I've been seeing this stupid hairstyle EVERYWHERE. What are they thinking?!

Will joined in the drum circle playing the cheese grater, while the creepy Texan drummer posed for all my pictures.

There was this guy...

Oh and then there was this woman. As Duncan said, "She needs some deodorant. And a bra. And probably a cat."

Not included in these photographs: the AIDS prevention lady giving us pamphlets and flavored condoms (and bidding us adieu by saying, "Enjoy your meal!" LOL); the huge topless gay rager on top of this hotel (Paul, Nate, TJ, Max, everyone, you'd fit in really well here :D) ; a multitude of incredibly bizarre dancers at the drum circle; more vuvuzelas.

Yeah yesterday was interesting, but in the best way possible.

Last night I went to Blizzarts with Li and his friend Tash (she's a contemporary dance major at Concordia I believe), but left early due to the crappy music/extreme fatigue.