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)

When you open my front door, this is what you see. The construction on Roncesvalles is the worst and there's still one more year left of it!

Loverly

www.modcloth.com

When I live in the US this fall the online shopping will get out of control.

Crayola Colour Chart 1903-2010

http://www.weathersealed.com/2010/01/15/color-me-a-dinosaur/

Tintype Necklaces Galore

www.ericaweiner.com

Tintype necklaces by Erica Wiener, perhaps an end of semester gift to myself?

Done!

A few early 20th century photos from a friend's family I did some research on this semester.

Yesterday I hit the "send" button on an e-mail to one of my profs and successfully submitted the last assignment to complete my first year of grad school!

It's been pretty crazy since September with school and surgery right before Christmas and then back to school but it's over for the summer and soon I'll be off to Montreal.

Wasting some time

Oh Devendra Banhart if I could hang out with you it would probably be awesome.

I am horrible

So it's almost the end of March and it seems that I can't even commit to posting a monthly playlist these days. Sigh, I used to be so ambitious and now I'm just a crappy blog keeper, I guess the good part is that I don't seem to be disappointing anyone.

It turns out I'll be spending the better part of the summer in Montreal at an internship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. I am super excited as the CCA was my first choice for my summer internship (required as part of my degree) and it looks like I've already found a place to live in the Plateau. I only know a handful of people living in Montreal so I anticipate some lonely days so I've come up with some things I'd like to get done this summer.

- Brush up on my french a.k.a actually learn how to speak french
- Finish my crochet granny square blanket which exists as a few squares shoved in a bag right now
- Work on a new art project in the same vein as my dead rapper cross stitches
- Read a whole bunch of books (including but not limited to: The Book of Negroes, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, The Scarlett Letter)
- Ride my bike around town
- Fly home by myself, although not the most affordable option it should be noted here that I have a horrible fear of flying and it's about time I get on an airplane by myself!

Before all this I have to get through this last chunk of the semester and stop procrastinating....

January Playlist

film from the summer

Waiting for snow

Some great Camper boots I just fell in love with..."procrasti-online-window-shopping"

love it