lonely sundays

I went on a crazy long walk today all over Montreal and I made a map to prove it. My bike seat and seat post were stolen a few days ago (well Zoe's bike seat and seat post) and it turns out that the seat post size is incredibly hard to find. Needless to say I'm reliant on my feet and the metro for the next little while. I was feeling kind of crappy today so I got up, went to have a coffee in Mile End, had some breakfast up there too and then began on my journey. I was trying to get to the cemetery which seems incredibly hard to miss but I ended up walking right around it as you can see in my map. I came home for a nap, some cookies and some Grey's Anatomy and now I think I'll lie low for the rest of the evening.

Hopefully I'll get to check out the cemetery sometime this week, I've always liked visiting cemeteries, ever since I was a kid. I don't know what it is about them but I'm sure Freud would have something to say about it. Here are a few photos from my trip to Ireland last year where I visited an amazing old cemetery on Valencia Island.

it's...so...hot...

Wake up to the sound of jackhammers a block away (thought I left construction behind in Toronto for 2 months), shower, sweat, try to find something that won't make me instantly hot, walk out the back door, sweat, get on my bike, pedal down the alleyway to duluth, sweat, make it to work, eat an apple, now it's too cold, put on a sweater, head downstairs to make boxes all day, lunchtime, go outside, sweat, eat at the japanese joint around the corner (a bowl full of rice, chicken and tastiness), back to the basement to make boxes, freeze, leave work, grocery store, bike home, sweat, get home, open all the windows and back door, start some laundry, get in the shower, scrub my birkenstocks (before and after pictures will be posted later, apparently scrubbing birks is a bad idea but they were disgusting), watch some "modern family", thunderstorm watching, sit on the back porch and read/write/drink wine, cook some dinner, talk to kyle, type this thing up, post some pictures from today...

Another month to go

Kyle left this evening to take a train back to Toronto, a very delayed train that is. The train was about an hour late getting to the station and it sounds as if there were further delays once they got going. I felt a little sad after leaving him as I'm homesick for Toronto right about now, so I decided to go out and buy myself a new dress and a blazer to make me feel better.

The blazer was a strange decision as it was around 30 degrees in Montreal today and this entire weekend has been really hot and muggy. I did more this weekend in the city then I have in the last few weeks I've been here. Kyle and I climbed Mount Royal, ate at Au Pied du Couchon late last night, walked all around the city and drank a ton of coffee.

I've committed myself to reading too many books while I'm here in Montreal this summer. I'm trying to work my way through "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" along with a history of Paris book Kyle got me for Christmas, a Susan Sontag book (Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors) along with "Narrative of the Life of Frederik Douglas, an American Slave", just some nice light summer reads.

Kyle is on his way here for the long weekend, I just got the text that he's about half an hour away so I'm about to get on the metro. I feel like I'm writing a letter here. Here's a picture of a cat to liven this thing up:

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this is what i want to see more of

can't stop, won't stop

The women of Montreal know how to dress, this makes me want to go shopping as I've come to the realization that my wardrobe consists of about 4 colours. I have been looking online for clothes, just to see what's out there...www.stylehive.com

It also snowed for most of the day today which kept things pretty low key. I went to an antique market this morning and out for brunch and then spent the rest of the day catching up on Grey's Anatomy and working through my french with Rosetta Stone. I plan to break out the bicycle tomorrow as the weather should be a bit better and maybe buy some flowers to brighten up my room a tiny bit.

100layercake.com

If I ever get married I want this to be my wedding dress, amazing.

Some of the great stuff I get to touch

from top to bottom: daguerreotype of an American architect in a metal and leather case, an autochrome stereograph (perhaps of a synagogue somewhere in Europe), an British ambrotype and a lovely tintype.

My days spent at the CCA involve sitting alone in a preservation room in the basement, listening to my ipod and sorting through the photo collection piece by piece in order to update the database. It's lonely but I have podcasts such as Wiretap, Freakonomics, Hatecast, Savage Love and This American Life to keep me company and the weather in Montreal has been so wonky lately that I don't mind the lack of windows. I'm not getting paid for this internship, or "stage" as the francophones call it, but I'm enjoying myself so far.

Some things I've learned from my first 24 hours in Montreal:
- food is cheap and delicious over here
- that park in the middle of the city is a mountain (I knew this before, I just seemed to forget about it)
- this city needs a great coffee shop
- french keyboards are difficult to navigate
- instant spellcheck on french computers makes me question everything I write in english (I have therefore started to type things out in french....kind of)
- skype is the greatest invention ever
- there are fewer obnoxious children in this city, and less women with babies strapped to them while pushing baby strollers and walking dogs (to experience this phenomenon just take a stroll up Roncesvalles Ave. on a Saturday afternoon)