SATC yes please thank you very much :-D

May 2008, 1 word: WHOOP WHOOP (ok maybe that was 2)

Fall Semester 2007

Soooooooo exams are over FINALLY after an amazing amount of proscratination.
My revision this year included:

• Ice skating romanticalness in the Old Port with Jenna
• Attending Christmas firework displays outside in -21 degree weather
• Drinking appropriate warm alcoholic wintry/Christmas beverages in the appropriately named "Bar d'hiver" (strongly recommend hot chocolate with maple syrup liquor dedans)
• Attending the theatre
• Fondu parties with the Frenchies
• Playing "how many countries of the world can I list in one go" with Rhiannon
• 35 hours per day on Facebook
• Watching seasons 1-5 of Sex and the City
• Going out with Quebecois friends on the Crescent where one intends on taking the last metro back home at 12am and instead one takes the first metro home at 5am

So all in all I am expecting very good results this semester after all the hard work I have put in.

Jenna has also been revising very hard; the fruit of her labour shown below in a video/slideshow thingy of our first crazy months over here. Please appreciate the credits at the end, personally my favourite part ;-)

Ps I just remembered that I also used to own Spice Girls body spray :-) 44 days!!!!

HEC

I HATE EXAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They made me eat snails!!!!!!

So I've spent the last few days speaking solely about the Spice Girls, one might say understandable ;-) Anyway the conclusion is that I was pretty obsessed with them. "Back in the day" Grandma bought me the Spice Annual for Christmas but my mum confiscated it on Boxing Day after she had read it and realised that it was just a sex annual (bearing in mind I was 11). I also used to collect these photo postcards and I had a t-shirt haha ohhhh and the first time I ever went on the Internet I searched for the Spice Girls fan page but all mum and I found were pictures of a topless Ginger Spice; that put an end to my Internet searches for another year. Helen had a discussion over MSN today for about 2 hours re what our favourite song is; conclusion STOP (it's the only one we know the whole dance routine for; practised for hours in Kilham Village Hall aged 12).

Lectures for my first semester in Montreal are officially over and exams have begun which is course why I have an abundance of time to waste writing blog posts and searching for random things on ebay. Stress levels rn't too high......YET......I only have 3 exams so chilled at the moment thus plenty of time for frolics. It's been a week of birthdays with an English pub session for Greg (21) on Friday and then an amazing french meal and shisha night for Elo (22) on Saturday. I would say that I enjoyed the meal however I was pinned down by four Frenchies and forced to try snails (another thing off my 101 list of things to do mind you) and I'm not sure what disturbs me more; the fact that I've eaten a snail, or the fact that I liked it. They also tried to teach me about wine but I was far more interested in downing it rather than swirling it round in a glass and sniffing it, ohhh how very English of me.

I'm feeling festive also.....yes I know how YUCK and disturbingly I downloaded Miracle on 34th Street and have now watched it 3 time in 2 days haha. I'm religiously opening my advent calendar every morning (thanks mum) and my neighbour has decorated his house with a giant inflatable singing snowman hehe.

Other news?? Me and Jenna went on a romantical date the other night lol. We decided to go ice skating in the Old Port on the frozen river lit only by fairy lights and it was amazing. 8pm at night -10 yes sounds like hell but the view made up for the fact I actually had an iceicle hanging from my nose (no word of a lie); it's probably the most beautiful view in Montreal and I had to share it with Jenna haha love you really darl.

Most of the immigrants are now counting down the days before they go home; most only stay for one semester. I am contemplating stealing every passport but I think it's quite a big solo job so I might have to recruit Jenpen and Scarl hehe. And not only are the immigrants disappearing but the snow is melting....does nothing I like want to stay in Montreal right now :-(

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

Jenna, Scarl, Kate, Rob and I just got tickets to see the SPICE GIRLS at the Bell Centre in Monreal on the 31st of January!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DONT THINK I CAN EXPRESS HOW AMAZINGLY EXCITED I AM AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME.

FEAR

My teacher said this to us today in class :aux étudiants étrangers : n'ayez crainte l'hiver n'est pas encore commencé ! How can 39cm of snow not class as bloody winter = "scared face"

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!!!!

37cm of snow in 24 hours; "most snow never on the ground in Montreal by December 3rd" whoop whoop whoop! I think it's about time I stopped denying that winter is here and my god I've never seen snow like it. A few pictures below to illustrate meee city under the snow, bit crappy light but you get the message, the one of my back garden of the table shows just how deep it was this morning yet its continued to build up all day and i now cannot see the table hehe. I don't know what it is about snow, but I'm now feeling sickeningly festive, mum sent me an advent calendar (the non chocolate variety like normal) and everywhere is decorated (including my irritatingly noisy neighbours who have embraced the inflatable Santa Clause concept) and the next thing you know I'll be downloading Christmas music DADADA!!!!!!! Apart from the imminent death of burrial by snow life is gooooood, rather stressed with work as I have like 3 million presentations and 5 million assignments in this week and cannot believe I spent nigh on 15 hours in front of my computer yesterday, Lorna = 1 mahusive geeeeeeek. Last Cafe Campus night out tomorrow with a few supprises in store before the exams...I cannot wait for the madness to begin!

Montreal: 7 Day Weather Forecast for this week
Monday -14°
Tuesday -8°
Wednesday -5°
Thursday -16°
Friday -13°
Saturday -17°
Sunday -9°

ARGGGGGGGGGGG IS OHHHH SO COLD!!

Bye bye Kate, hello hanogver

Sooooooo Jenna's sister Kate has been staying for a few weeks and finally last night decided to abandon us in MTR and head to to Mont Tremblant for the winter cos shes working up there while on her GAP year. So naturally we celebrated. Dinner at my favourite restaurant followed my cocktails at my favourite bar, perfection. Wakamono is the best sushi restaurant in the world that has all these crazy creations eg strawberry, sesame seed and salmon makis which sounds grose especially when they give you strawberry yogurt to dip it into it but its delicious. Then onto GoGoLounge for cocktails, this bar rocks, no other word for it. You get to sit in these massive chairs moulded into hands and drink expensive cocktails in Sex in the city esque glasses whilst groovin to the coolest DJ. My god i sound like a restaurant reviewer haha. Needless to say the 3am return home in the snow was "interesting." My god its freeeeeeeezing!

PLUS

EQUALS

LEADING TO........................

Bal du Siècle

Deja vu = two balls, two days, same people, same dress. Saturday night was round two of the frolics; the Bal du Siècle with some seriously good food and drink (aka chocolate and champagne).

This week sucks already and it hasn't even started - I HATE GROUP WORK!!!!!!!!!! and I have like 5 million presentations grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I even went to the library today, and no I am feeling fine but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I "heart" St Hubert

Between where Jenna and I live there is this amazing street called St Hubert and after last night's HEChange Gala we agreed to meet for some food TLC....but my god....little did we know about the fun we were in for :-). We spent the afternoon visiting Father Christmas, and attending an exhibition of vintage firetrucks, and eating our body weight in Subway sarnies...this excitement is beyond words! Ohhh and we bought an old lady cart thing to do our shopping with which we are planning to take round America with us when we go on our travels in May.

HEChange on s'mélange!!!

You know you're an exchange student @ HEC if :

1. Half your budget was spent on 7$ pitchers of beer at Café Campus
2. You know Danilo from HEChange for many reasons, the good, the bad, and heavy on the ugly. You've welcomed Danilo to your house party and he managed to finish your beer and pass out on a couch before the party ended.
3. Your first reaction when hearing the québécois accent was : awwww f**k...
4. You either love or hate poutine. Either way, its always an extreme position
5. You've been on a trip where the understanding was : What went on in ***** stays in *****!
6. You can relate very well to the movie L'Auberge espagnole.
7. Youve lost count of the amount of people you made out with.
8. You've concluded that at least 6 members of the HEChange comitee are most likely there just to hook up with exchange students

Why all the sentimentatilty? Well last night was the Fall Gala for all the exchange students. One amazing Moulin Rouge Spetcular.

Location : Salon L'Oreal...hardly the sexiest of locations (its like a sports hall for all u none HEC peops) and everyone was doubting how they would ever pull off an event there...but my god they managed it. An amazing emotional night involving too much alcohol (supprise supprise), games, awards, dancing and immigrant loving.

The decorations were great and they made this amazing video montage of all our parties and trips to music which was just wicked. Ohh and lets just say I did the Brits proud by winning the "biggest party girl" award. Soooooooooooo first of all i would like to thank my mum for giving birth to me, then i would like to thank the University of Bath Hockey Club for giving me the necessary alcoho training and then my final thanks goes to Jenna Appleby for always keeping a drink in my hand (or a pitcher) when dominating the Montreal skyline.

Photos to show all the lovin:

Thanks HEChange, it was an amazing night! I'm really gonner miss these guys :-)

Shaken not stirred.

This year is the 100 year aniversary of HEC Montreal (1907 - 2007) so it means history, AND PARTIES. Saturday night is the "bal du siecle;"

Its at the Chalet Mont Royal which is at the top of the mountain overlooking Montreal, it has the view of Downtown pictured below; une vue époustouflante non?!

Although it is suposed to be -8 on Friday how the hell do you wear a ball dress with snow boots??? Hummmmmm probably a good job the ticket includes alcohol!!!

Boston take 2

I have a few more favourite photos (stolen from Jenpen, Scarl and Marie) ohh and some interesting facts to tell you :-)

The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action by the American colonists against Great Britain in which they destroyed many crates of tea bricks on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as helping to spark the American Revolution. 45 tons of tea were poored into the harbour waters that day worth an estimated £10,000. THATS ENOUGH TEA TO MAKE 24 MILLIONS CUPS!!!

Famous Harvard drop outs are Bill Gates and Matt Damon however those that managed to graduate include 4 US presidents and T.S Elliot. Harvard's library contains over 15 million volumes making it the largest academic library in the world. Ohhhh and they created Facebook there ;-)

Wicked photo of my favourite english gals :-)

Boston

Sooooooooooo this weekend was spend in Boston with HEChange. And there is one thing about these guys - when they use the adjective "sick" to describe a weekend....they mean it.

Jenna and I helped the journey speed by with the assistance of a bottle of wine, however we soon discovered that stinking of wine was not a good idea for immigration so proceeded to eat 3 tons of jolly ranchers and a monster bag of ruffles. After a light assault from a few american immigration officers we arrived in Boston at 8am, grabbed a bagle for breakfast (hehehehe) and then hit the Musuem of fine arts producing a ton of comedy photos. The afternoon was spend walking on Boston Common and doing our own tour round the Senate - NOTE TO READER do not do what we did and try and walk into the office of a US state senator...not a cool move however it's a really cool building with possibly the funniest signs ever (see photos below). On friday night we went to Boston's comedy club and had a night of side cracking giggles.

Saturday was HEC's organised tour with Harvard as a highlight. And yes I bought a t-shirt so I can pretend that I studdied there. Then there was a bit of plastic indulgence as we "visited" Macy's, and Abercrombie & Fitch....WHAT??...its all about experiencing American culture ;-)

Boston was no different to the other trips I've taken so far concerning INDULGENCE. I've never eaten so much in the space of three days; clam chowder, cream puffs, smoothies, cheesecake, ribs etc etc ohh and lets just say Jenna's Quebec City sick crown has been reawarded as someone topped her efforts in a Boston night club on Saturday night.

Anyway I am now a huge fan of Boston, it's such a cool city with a really nice vibe...but lets just say we wont be allowed back into any night clubs unless we dye our hair and have extensive plastic surgery.