Before I write about day two, let me go into more detail about yesterday.

Firstly, it took me about thirty minutes of walking around in ridiculously hot weather with all my stuff trying to locate the apartment. It's located kind of on the border of the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood, which is primarily Portuguese, and the Mile End neighborhood, which is primarily orthodox Jewish. I'd relate it to Cap Hill in Denver though, only because even if you combined the Portuguese folk and the Jewish folk, it would not amound to a fraction of the hipsters that roam the streets around here. Anyway, right as I arrived, it was into the shower and off to downtown with Taurean. We were supposed to meet his friends at an "upscale hipster bar", but they had closed the terrasse for some reason so we meandered elsewhere. The girl we met up with (Jen? God I'm terrible with names..) is from Melbourne and had arrived four days earlier. Once her boyfriend flies in from Paris this week, they're renting a room downtown. She's done a ton of solo Couch Surfing all over the world (that's what she's doing now) and apparently she's staying with a young couple who film porn recreationally. Hm. Anyway, we sat on the terrasse at Le Saint-Sulpice talking about music and travel over a plastic cup of sangria. It's pretty great that I'm of drinking age here, but alcohol is expensive. Also Taurean says that most places make weak drinks. Also we're at a much lower altitude... It's around this time that the fatigue from traveling all day and walking around and not sleeping the night before and not eating a decent meal, starts to set in. I sort of wanted to crash, but they talked me into going to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal just outside the Musée d'Art Contemporain. There were easily a few thousand people gathered in front of the stage. On the stage were seven dad-types in probably their late 40's; one wore a bright blue, full body unitard with bat wings spanning from his knees to his wrists; one had a top hat and cape; one was dressed as a pilot (or something), and the others looked kind of normal. In addition to the usual guitar/bass/drum combo, there was a tuba and an accordian and a saxophone. I found out later that they're from the former Yugoslavia called Emir Kusturica & the No Smoking Orchestra. I thought most of the songs sounded the same instrumentally (reminiscent of Gogol Bordello, kind of a gypsy/punk air), but the lyrics are what really struck me, specifically when he shouted, "ARE YOU AGREE?" and the few thousand people in the crowd replied, "FUCK YOU, MTV!" for the entire duration of a 15-minute song. Yeah. They played for a good 2 or 3 hours straight with the most energy I've seen of any band, ever. Kudos to them. Taurean and I took the Métro home afterwards and I fell asleep immediately.

This morning I woke up around 10am in a pool of sweat. Elfi was washing the dishes, and offered to show me how to do the laundry. After showering (cold showers are the only way to go here, otherwise you'd probably die from the heat), we walked a few blocks to the self-service laundromat and threw a couple loads in the washer. While we waited, we grabbed a coffee (iced for me, the weather still won't permit me to eat anything warmer than room temp) at her favorite coffee spot. We brought our clothes back to the apartment to line-dry and went on a shopping adventure downtown. First, we went to Patati Patata for poutine. I'd never had poutine before, but I'd heard it was a local specialty. When the waiter brought it out, all I could think about was how TJ would order this every day if he could. It's a huge plate of french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. My arteries didn't agree, but it tasted pretty great. Afterwards we walked to this place that looked like Aldo, only everything was either 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 for $10. It's good when you need three pairs of earrings or ten headbands and only have $10 and some change. Then we walked to this REALLY awesome eclectic, bohemian thrift store, which although kind of pricy, was totally worth it for the free lemonade and hilarious storefront. I took pictures but I left my camera/SD card at the apartment and I'm using the internet several blocks away). We took the bus back to the apartment and I napped for a couple hours. I did my first solo grocery store trip without getting lost (score!) and came back to the apartment, and now I'm at Café Cagibi. I'm probably going to be here a lot for the next couple months because Elfi's wi-fi hates Macs and the internet is free here when you order food/beverage, and tea is $2. Also this café is absolutely adorable and has live music nightly. Definitely my new favorite place.

Um, oh yeah! So earlier today I saw a guy carrying two vuvuzelas. I'm sternly determined to find one, because I'm pretty sure we walked by several stores that could potentially carry them.

Also, in case I didn't make it clear, it is really hot here. The weather says about 86ºF-90ºF, but with the sun and the humidity, it's outrageous. We're pretty much dripping sweat at all hours of the day/night.

A band just set up behind me in the café, I'm pretty sure they're American. Early twenties. It's a guy on an electric guitar, and a guy with a trumpet and a synth or something. They're now improvising some really interesting experimental stuff. I can't decide how I feel about it yet, but from eavesdropping on them when they got here, they seem pretty funny.

I'm missing Streetlight in Denver tonight. I hope everyone has fun!

Also missing Andrew Bird down the street (so expensive!) and everyone back home. <3

I'm halfway through A Farewell to Arms. Newfound love for Hemingway? I think so.

Time to go home and take a cold shower.

But first, a photo (not mine) I found!



bonsoir!