St. Patty's Day Parade!

These pictures are from a little while ago (2 weeks?) It took place on the sunday after st. patrick's day. Quebecers are crazy!

Break n'Such

Salut,

So I had a fantastic break, followed by a not so fantastic "stay in bed for a week because you're sick". Over break, I stayed in and lounged around, which was nice...in addition, I made some Cookies'n'cream Vegan cupcakes from the world famous "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" Recipe Book. They were So Delicious!

The Weekend before break was over, there was a HUGE 'festival of lights' called "Nuit Blanche" (or translated into All-Nighter in French). Nuit Blanche is a chance for all of montreal's artists to come out and show there work in an all night festival of madness! There were events all night long ( stayed up until 6am). I had a blast, but briefly after, I came down with a flu-like sickness that kept me in bed all last week. I am feel much better now, but I'm swamped in schoolwork for the next month!!!

Last night, a few friends and I went to the Ste. Emelie Skillshare. The skillshare is basically an art studio/work space where people can come and work on anything they want. or learn a new skill! Last night, they were having an event called "chosen family photos". We got to dress up in costumes that they had available and take pictures with friends for super cheap. I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Not much else new is going on currently, but it looks like the weather is cheering up! I can't tell you how excited I am to go outside in just a sweatshirt and ride my bike to school. I just want to be able to hangout OUTDOORS for once. I'm getting very eager.

More news soon

-courtney

Spring? break.

Hello lovelies!

I am now officially on what I would call at home my "spring" break, but it's in winter. I am so happy to have a break from school...but there's a catch because I still have tons of schoolwork to do over the break! I really wanted to go down to new york (and maybe see uncle kevin and aunt anna) but I do not have the sufficient funds, nor have I expressed this to my relatives :) haha. It will be nice to relax for a little while. I think I am going to try and go to a few places/restos that I haven't been too.

This week I had 4 midterms! It was insanity. In celebration of finishing, I decided to make some delicious, vegan baked goods. I got a recipe from one of my favorite vegan books called, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World". I made the Cookies'n'creme cupcakes....and let me tell you that they were a hit! I still have a few left that I definitely shouldn't eat. I'm sure I'll pawn them off on my friends :) I will post a picture of the cupcakes next time around.

Here are a few pictures from when Navid was visitng. That gross, sloppy looking plate of brown mass is what we like to call "poutine"...which is a traditional Québecois food. Fries with cheese curds and gravy on top (and other things if you're feeling like you can stomach it). The other girl is my friend Nicole, about to dive in to a 2:30am poutine.

There is another picture of me, studying child development in our coffee shop, java u.

The other picture is of Navid right before he dove into another famous Québecois food, smoked meat sandwich....from the famous "Swartz"

That's all I have for now. A bientot!

Pictures

Hey guys,

here are a few more pictures that I didn't get chance to upload! Some are from Quebec City and the others are from Lauren and Paul's visit.

Cheers,
Courtney

friends

Hey gang!

Thanks for waiting ever so patiently for my next blog update! I've been a very busy kid! So to pick up where I left off, here are a few pictures from when I had guests come to visit! While Pilar and Kristian were here, we went to a tea place in old port called "salon de thé" which had a traditional japanese tea drinking style. We each order different teas (as seen in the picture). We also got to go to an IMAX 3D movie about the ocean. It gave me a little bit of a headache, but it was worth it! We also went to the Basilica Notre Dame. It was beautiful inside! I don't have pictures of Paul and Lauren visiting right now, but I will upload those very soon!

Right now, Navid is visiting me. This past weekend, we got a chance to go up to Québec City to Winter Carnivale. We had a blast! Jenna came with us as well. There were so many things to do. I never thought I would be outside as often as I have been during this cold winter, but it has been so amazing. At the festival they had snow sculpture competitions, lumberjack acrobats, sledding, dogsled racing, an outdoor danceparty, ice slides, and everthing winter related that you could imagine. It was a perfect weekend get away. Québec City was GORGEOUS and I really hope to go there once more before my return (hopefully with Mom and Grandma!) I don't have enough room to post the Québec pictures today, but I will put them up in my next posting! homework awaits!

until next time,
courtney

Getting back into the Swing

Hello all!

School has started back up again and I am well overdue for an update.

I had pretty much all of December for holiday. Pilar and Kristian came and visited for 9 days and Lauren and Paul came to visit for 5 days. It was definitely nice to see them. I took them to all of the awesome places in Montréal. Hopefully they had a good time! Most of the things that we did involved food, but I don't think anyone complained! We got to go to Basilica Notre Dame. It was absolutely gorgeous inside. They had an organ with the biggest pipes ever seen in my life. It has been very white and snowy lately. Lots of wind and cold temperatures come with it.

I was definitely enjoying my time off. Hopefully I can get back into the school flow. I'm used to going back to school at the end of january so it feels weird starting so early in the year. Hopefully I can really focus this semester on school. I felt like I didn't do as well as I should have last semester.

Navid is coming at the end of this month. I am very very excited. We plan to go to Québec city for Winter Carnivale. It's a festival that celebrates winter. Dogs sled races, Ice sculpture competitions, Outdoor dance parties, and more! I think it will be a lot of fun.

Anyway, I've got to clean up the house before Ali gets home!! Pictures to come soon!

winter is a creeeeeepin'

The snow is here and so is the holiday cheer!....well, sort of. So it's been snowing quite a bit lately. There was about 1 1/2ft of snow a few days ago. Montréal is looking quite beautiful, christmas deco everywhere, but I can feel people's irritability from the cold. I've been staying inside a lot more lately, drinking tea and watching movies. I'm so happy to be done with this semester. Now, I am preparing for my visitors! I'm still trying to brainstorm on what we will do when they are here, but i'm sure I will come up with something.

Because It is getting into winter and it's holiday season, I am a bit homesick. I feel like it will be a good experience for me, regardless, but I get a bit sad when I think about everyone getting together and watching A Claymation Christmas with the California Raisons. I also miss sitting in front of the fireplace and watching movies with everyone. I'm sure I'll get to webcam with everyone on christmas day, which would be cool. At least I get to see their faces!

Ali is leaving in a few days and won't be back until the 6th of january. I'm gonna have the place to myself! I'm sure it will be a very quiet apartment while she is gone. maybe i'll host a movie night!

I've been making a LOT of winter soups lately. There's just something really awesome about hot soup in the winter. mmm. My friends and I plan on having a winter picnic soon. We are going to go over to mount royal, go sledding and then have a picnic at the bottom with some hot soup and perhaps some hot cocoa/cider/coffee. It's mind boggling how when it first started getting cold here, I was freezing my butt off (I think it was about freezing (32 degrees) ) but now it's a lot colder and when we get those special days when the temp gets back up to 32 its awesome. So if any of you are visiting during the winter, you're gonna need to bundle up!

Hopefully In my next update I can add some more pictures (perhaps from sledding?)

more to come!

Thanksgibbins

Today has been crazy intense! I got four hours of sleep last night. Je suis TRÈS fatiguée! Woke up bright and early to go to Français to review for the final exam, then I ran straight to the library and spent countless hours (4 or 5?) writing a paper that ws due at 6pm! (okay, okay...i took a little study break and ran over to this place next to campus called Burritoville, not only is it delicious, they are very vegan-friendly!) Theeeen, I went to the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy across from campus for thursday nights "Mother Hubbard's Cupboard" which is a by-donation dinner. It's actually pretty similar to People's Potato (but i think P.P. is better! shhhh.) Then I rushed over to class to turn in my paper/take notes. Luckily he let us out early because I am now cramming for a test in my Education class in about 15 minutes. Let's just say it's been a pretty long day. After, I get to go home and Webcam it up with the fam! woooo. I'm glad they were understanding and let me re-schedule. I didn't have ANY time to start making the cranberry relish for tomorrow's feast (all the american kids AND canadian kids are all getting together!) so hopefully i can wake up early enough to get everything done! Wish me Luck!

p.s. thanks for the thanksgiving card grandma!

Aujourd'hui, Je parlerai de ma régime. Je suis végétalienne. Je ne mange pas rien qui vient des animaux. Je ne mange pas la viande, les œufs, ou les produits laitiers. J'ai été végétalienne pendant sept mois. c'est facile pour moi parce que je suis allergiques aux lactose. Je mange beaucou des légumes, des fruits, des noix, des haricots, et riz. je suis pas comme certain végétaliens. Certain végétaliens taquinent d'autres parce qu'ils mangent les produits animaux. Je ne pense pas qui est gentil. Je suis incertain de combien de temps je serai un végétalienne, mais j'aime mange comme ça. Je suis végétalienne pour raisons personelles. Il y a beaucoup d'options et restaraunts agréables pour des végétaliens à Montréal. J'aime faire du benevolant chez "People's Potato" une service qui cuisine des repas végétalienne pendant la semaine. Manger chez "People's Potato" mes sauve d'argent et les repas sont delicieux. Surtout, être végétalienne est super!

Okay, So I had an oral exam today. I think I did pretty decently. I had to memorize what I wrote above. I don't think I did too bad. Sorry for the terrible grammar (for those who actually know French). I didn't actually have to write it, I just had to say it. Basically, I talked about my "dietary habits". Obviously, the sentences start to get a bit repetitive, but it's because I'm probably at the level of a 3rd grader. Which is frustrating, but it's all I know.

Today, at people's potato, I made the croutons and the dressing. It was awesome and everyone seemed to like it. I made a garlic-y oil to put on the croutons for the oven and I made a balsamic strawberry basil dressing. I served some of the food afterward, and then I ate. It's amazing how willing you are to volunteer, when it's something you are passionate about. I don't really even think of it as work. It feels more like a place to unwind, listen to some jams, prepare food, and talk to friends. It's even more awesome/intimate because we get to share a meal together. It makes me feel like I have a family away from home. Even though there are still a lot of people whom i can't remember the names of, but for some reason it doesn't really matter. I like to learn everyone's name (and i'm almost there!) but it's not totally necessary in order to enjoy one another's company.

*side note*-for those just chiming into my blog, the "people's potato" is a free service provided by the university where people provide free meals (with donations accepted) every school day. The meal is vegan so that everyone can enjoy (no matter their religious background or food restrictions). **

I'm really sad because I can't go see No Age this weekend because I already made plans. BUT I am excited because I get to go to Nico's house for a potluck (AGAIN!) and after that, I am going to a "my little pony 25th anniversary" party! I think I'm going to dress up, I'm not sure how, but I will. I have a few REALLY big papers I have to write before the semester is over and 2 big finals, French, and History(?). But I should be finished by early/mid December. I am REALLY excited for my friends and my sister coming to visit at the end of the year.

I'm really sad because I looked out my window and I saw a dead Siamese cat. I've seen it before (when it was still alive) and I think it might be the neighbors. I'm thinking about going and putting a note on people's doors about it. I don't want the squirrels to get to it (because the definitely will).

Anyhow,
That's all for today. Tune in next time for some pictures (of food probably) and anything else that is radical.

cheer up charlie.

I finally got to see my family for the first time in 3 months. I finally set up my webcam stuff. It's always a little weird doing webcamming, but whatev. I have two tests this week and I am officially stressing out hardcore. I have a written french test tomorrow with so many vocabulary words I could spit. My oral exam is on thursday and I don't even know what I'm going to talk about yet! I went to Java u (the coffee shop on campus) today and sat and worked on making flash cards/ doing my feminist homework all day. It felt good to get out of the house, but it's not getting any warmer. I swear I talk about how cold it is every single entry, but seriously...I'm so jealous of the California weather right now. Here I am in longjohns and there's my mom going on walks in shorts! how can we even be on the same planet! I am so ready for this semester to be over!!!

Hey Friends,

Please forgive me for the lack of updates lately! I've been a busy kid! This Halloween, I got to go to see one of my all time favorite bands, Broken Social Scene. It was fantastic, as usual. After the concert, I got to go to a Loft Party. There were lots of people there dancing and having fun. For Halloween, I was a Teabag! I got some sheer material from salvation army and Ali sewed it for me. I put some leaves inside of the "bag" and then I made a string and attached a card for the tag. The second night, I met up with my other friends and we went to another little party/house show. Some bands from Vancouver played and I dressed up as a lumberjack. The picture at the bottom shows what I look like. I am also standing next to my friend Thea. She was Boba Fett from Star Wars. A little before Halloween, I invited some people over to my house. We made burritos, carved, pumpkins and watched a terrible 80s movie on vhs called "Fright Night". Jenna and I carved the pumpkin (in the picture) together. The second picture of the pumpkin was after I left it outside for a single day. It got mauled by the CRAZY squirrels! I california, I'm worried to put things outside because of the raccoons, but here....it's the squirrels.

The week of halloween, I also got to go see a band from houston, texas called the octopus project. They play in California a lot, but the put on such a great show! The had giant ghosts that the put on stage for halloween. Jenna agreed to go with me, and I was very grateful!

Last week, I went to an Election party. We had a potluck and I made pumpkin curry soup! It was a big hit. We watched the elections on the big screen and the Canadians were just as excited to see the results as we were! I love them.

This week, I don't have too much planned. It's getting a lot colder lately. It snowed a little bit today. I didn't have school today, so I made some lentil soup and ali made biscuits. So yummy! I got invited to go see a concert tonight, but I decided to say no because I have french in the morning and it would probably be pretty hard to catch the metro back. Cabs are so expensive. I've been watching a lot of vhs lately. Right now, I'm watching "Fletch" a movie with chevy chase. It's quite ridiculous. Well, I must do some history homework now, But I promise to update soon!

love,
court

My new family!

This is a picture of our Cat, Igor. He's one of the strangest pets I've ever had.
And, This is my lovely roommate, Ali. She's Rad.

New Haricut!

Great weekend

Hello all!

Sorry for the delay on the updates. Last week was crazy. I had midterms last week and it was awful. I had an oral exam en francais, and I received an 85 on it, which I think is pretty great. But the test that wasn't so great, was for my Canadian history class. I haven't taken history in soooo long, not since junior year of high school. so, four years ago? Anyway, the teacher never told us what to specifically study for, which is frustrating. He basically just said "study everything we've learned". oh how I hate vague people. He's actually a cool guy, but man, give me a ball park here. Anyway, I did absolutely terrible, although I haven't gotten it back, so I'm not quite sure how severe it was, BUT that midterm was 25% of my grade.

I met a new friend this weekend. Her name is Thea and she also goes to Concordia. I like her and her friends a lot. They are great company. This weekend, I got invited to a concert. So, I went with Thea and her friends, as well as my girls. They were pretty good, but it was mostly one of those "hey, I'm going to support my friend's mediocre band tonight, want to come?" type of thing. Apparently Perez Hilton talked a bunch about them on his blog, so perhaps they'll get bigger? not really sure. Anyway, they are called "said the whale". We ended up hanging out with the band afterward and it was really fun. The lead singer invited us to go see a few other bands the next evening (last night).

So, last night, I went to this venue I hadn't been to yet called "zoobizzare" and it was great. It was very small, but it was in (what we like to call) a cave. The ceiling was arched and it literally looked like a grey-bricked, medieval cave. We saw 3 bands play: Crystal Antlers (from L.A.), The Awkward Stage (from Vancouver), and Hot Panda (from Edmonton). They all played really well. I especially liked Hot Panda. They had a chick drummer, some kazoo playing (as well as melodica), and the lead singer must have gotten his vocal influence from Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. They were really fun and the music was very danceable.

I also got a haircut this weekend at this great salon in mile end called "osalon". They were the nicest people (very funny as well), the give you a scalp massage (as you lay on a bed that leads up to the hair-washing sink), and they gave us some coffee to drink while we were getting the cut. Talk about hospitality! I will definitely be going back and telling all my friends to go there, not to mention I have a really sweet haircut.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and still have lots and lots of reading to do. Hopefully, my next entry will be a lot sooner!

A Bientot!

blurb.

Hey guys,
Just a little update before I go to my Theology class.

Usually I am partial to the late night, 2 dollar chow mein on st. laurent called "chez mein". I mean, how could you possibly beat that at 3am? Well, getting a little burnt out on peanutbutter noodles, Jenna and I decided to go to "Frites Alors!" Where we got an order of fries....and I must say, WOW. They were so good. If you know me, something you will pick up is that I love condiments with my food. It just makes things taste better. Well, At Frites Alors, they have about 10 different sauces or "dips" to choose from for the fries and seriously, I thought I was in heaven. It's been crazy, the amount of good foods we've come across. Yeah, It may be a dollar (loonie) more than the 2 dollar (twoonie) noodles, but I think it's worth it....

something else i've noticed.....
is this turning into a food blog? It might as well be. Just about every entry has mentioned some place i've eaten. That's pretty ridiculous.

On another note,
I really couldn't decide who my favorite acts for POP Montreal were...they were all so good...accept for The Dears. I kind of decided that I got a really weird vibe from that show. I mean, I guess they performed well, but I just really wasn't as in to it as I thought I would be. The Dodos were AH-MAZING. Meric looks incredibly similar to my friend Jordan at home....kinda weird. I was also blown away by Ratatat. I wasn't AS excited to see them as the others but it turned out that they put on a fantastic live show. It was cool to see how they actually play their music. It seems a little hard to imagine because of the way it sounds, but it was great. They closed with "Seventeen Years" and I was very much satisfied.

Volunteered at school again. Met some more cool people, cut some carrots, danced to some sweet jams. I'm likin' this place BEAUCOUP. =)

A long and drawn out story about technical difficulties.

So, Everyone's been going to yearbookyourself.com and I just couldn't help it. I this picture totally makes me look like my mother when she was in highschool! Pretty silly, eh?

Anyway...
This last week has been insane. All the shows at Pop Montreal were sooo lovely. I still have a bit of a cough, but hopefully that will settle down now that Pop Montreal is over. Just to let everyone know, I feel ridiculously accomplished because On Friday, my computer totally crashed and I fixed all by myself.
*Note-skip this paragraph if you don't feel like reading about stupid technology stuff*

It was very, VERY frustrating. It all started out when I was trying to do a security update. After that, the next time I logged in, I wasn't able to get to the long-in screen. I went to the genius bar at the apple store and they did what they could, but they said I would have to re-install all of my software. I was like "oh GREAT, too bad my software is in California, who knows how long it will take to get this 'fixed'". Then, I got the genius idea to use Ali's software....which worked, but THEN it told me I didn't have enough free space to install.....and then all I could think was, "Now what?!" How am i supposed to "make room" when I can't log in? So I resulted to calling applecare. They only kind of helped. They told me I could try to delete files via firewire through someone else's computer. So at 8pm, I made some phone calls and biked up to James, Chris, and Arthur's house. I got the firewire, and figured out how to go into my hard drive as an external through ali's computer. I was finally able to reinstall everything and keep my files! I was really worried there for a second. I really need to back up everything. eggh. After that entire ordeal, I felt relieved and accomplished. I did it all, like a big girl. hahaha

*pick up here*
So, I've got another French test this week. I've been using my Rosetta Stone and it has been helping. More so with pronunciation and a little less with the grammar, but perhaps it's because we are further along with the grammatical stuff in class. I actually really like Rosetta Stone-believe it or not. It's a bit embarrassing with people around, but hey, it's kind of fun.

I volunteered at People's Potato last week. I really like it there and I've met a few pretty cool people. I also got to take extra food home, which is totally awesome. Speaking of food, today Jenna and I went to this really delicious Indian (or "Indienne" as the French would say) food restaurant called "Pushap". We got samosas, curry, rice, bread, and tea for 5 bucks each. It was ridiculously cheap and they had generuese portions.

mon français améliore

This weekend was tourist weekend! I got a pass from the ISO that admitted me to 5 different tourist places in montreal for free! I got to go over to the Biodôme (which is a place that has a bunch of different ecosystems with animals and plants. It was awesome. I also go to go to the Jardin Botanique (botanical garden) and the planetarium. I looooved the planetarium. The exhibit was about the milky way, i'm really fascinated by stuff like that, I wish I had more oppurtunity to take classes like that. Anyway, The Jardin Botanique was very pretty. It was so massive, we weren't able to see all of it. I definitely plan on going back, it's a very peaceful place, far away from all the business of the city. School has been ok. I have a test in History this week and I have so much more reading to do! Unfortunately this past week I didn't get a chance to volunteer at people's potato, but I'm going to work extra hard to make my way in there. I'm really excited for this coming week because it is POP montreal! POP montreal is a music festival (much like, if not EXACTLY like Noise POP in san francisco.) I plan on going to a show every night starting from wednesday all the way until sunday! it's going to be fantastique! haha. Luckily, it doesn't interfere with any of my classes either. I get to go see:
You Say Party! We Say Die!/Winter Gloves/Beast
The Dears/The World Provider
Ratatat/Panther/Erock/Heidi Mortenson
The Dodos/Passion Pit

It's gonna be great. I also plan on seeing:
Of Montreal
The Rumble Strips/Birdmonster
Broken Social Scene
Okkervil River
Octopus Project

in the end of octobre!
Luckily all the shows are relatively inexpensive!!

and in novembre:
Matt&Kim
No Age
M83

J'aime Montréal.

P.s. Mom, I thought you'd get a kick out of the Cotton-top Tamarin Picture (and yes I saw some and chuckled to myself)