Butt.Lunch.

A picnic and a few bottles of wine after a short jaunt up to the cross on Mount Royal. I love that there is a "mountain" in the middle of this city, it's incredible.

Cheese, baguette, chocolate, cured meat and wine = muffin tops.

These things I do

Almost every time I speak to my Dad he asks me "What can you do with your degree once you're done school?" and then he makes a joke somewhere along the lines of my BFA allowed me to get a job where I ask "Do you want fries with that?" where my MA will get me a job where I can ask "DO you want cheese on that?"...supportive. It's like I have to constantly reassure him that my decision to take out a student loan, quit my job(s) and move to the states was not done in haste and that I can (most likely) get a job with a master's degree in photo preservation.

Being on my own a lot lately has made me think about a number of different things, one of which involves recognizing and understanding this sense of jealousy I have towards people who have found their true calling. For some of my friends this calling is art, music, food, law, urban planning or even turn of the century woodworking tools, I however feel as if I can't stay interested in something long enough to really invest my time, money and love. Then I got to thinking about the things I am truly interested in and realized that I am doing the right thing by being in this program (even if I can only get a job where I have to clean out a deep fryer every week) and that I kind of do have a calling, in some sense. I might not be saving lives or making headlines but if the work that I'm doing at my internship is any indication of what I can look forward to as far as a career then I am content.

How deep.

This week

Only a few more weeks left here in Montreal and I feel like I've seen a lot of the city. I was feeling under the weather today after a yoga class, a coffee and some shopping so I think I'm going to lie low tonight and stay in and read. I started working on a new project this week at my internship that has to do with cataloguing some Linneaus Tripe albums from the mid-19th Century (I'll post a few pictures in another post). I found myself a dress for a couple of weddings I'm going to this summer and I also bought some bright red nailpoish this week which is a colour I never thought I'd dig but it looks great.

Annie sent me a package which I recieved yesterday evening and it made my day. Check out the bracelet, I'm not sure how she did it but it really brightened up a kinda crappy day.

Also note the weird Japanese candy, I tried a few before photo documentation.

Tomorrow I think I'll go to a noon yoga class, hop on a bixi bike and try to find that cemetery I posted about last week. If the weather is nice I might end up reading in a park as well, tres exciting.

I still have a few things to do in this city which I hope to get around to next weekend:
- Old Montreal (especially to check out the pastry shop "Olive and Gourmand")
- a few art galleries such as DHC/ART, the musee des beaux arts and the contemporary art gallery
- climb the mountain and hang out at the cross
- check out little italy and maybe china town

I think with a bixi bike, a map and a credit card these can all be done by June 30th, fingers crossed. Here are some more pictures...

Late-night Bonaventure metro


Friday's walk home from work along a mount royal path


out of focus poutine

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