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Published: September 12th 2006
Montreal at Night
The building on the right is the actual tallest one in MontrealIts 3am, I'm drunk and the wind is blowing through my hair (I need a haircut), I'm about 2m from a huge speaker, and those city lights are twinkling below me. The overriding thoughts running through my head are, Montreal is awesome, exchange rocks and where can I get a kebab.
I'm on top of the 2nd tallest building in Montreal, I though it was the highest, that attractive Dane girl was right damn it, and I can see Montreal laid before me all dressed up in lights. There is something beautiful about a city at night, especially when you are high up, you can look down and it looks almost as though the city itself is alive. I am in Club 737, an average club with a silly name, expensive drinks and offering one of the best views of a city that I can think of. I have been here two weeks and exchange is great, there is an awesome group of Aussie's and a couple of Poms that have bonded over beer and a shared sense of humour. I have been having a blast, Montreal is an awesome city.
But I will back track for a moment
Montreal at Night II
In the flesh that view was amazing to when I arrived and share my experiences of arriving in a city with a backpack containing everything that I have with me for the year ahead. It was sunny, almost too sunny, if you know what I mean. Anywho I arrived on this perfect day, got to the hostel and went exploring around Mcgill campus where I will be studying for the next 8 months. The campus is beautiful, a contrast between old turn-of-the-century stone architecture and large concrete and glass modern buildings, all interspersed with beautiful green fields and large open areas. It is very similar to UWA in this respect. Having just started classes I feel as though I have returned slightly to the real world after being on holiday for 2 months. A couple of classes are interesting so it shouldn't be too bad but I'm there everyday, unlike certain other people I know who are supposedly "studying" at "University" in Vienna.
I found a house to live in after a few hectic days of searching and walking bloody miles. It is in an area of Montreal called the Plateau, a really cool area with a lot of character; all the vital services such as
Sky
The deep blue Montreal sky, there have been some incredibly beautiful days while I have been here. a bottle-o and the pub are within easy walking distance, which is good for winter😊 There is always something happening and something going on, the people of Montreal are making the most of the remaining sun and warmth I have no doubt. People I have met have been scaring me with tales of -40 deg C temperatures and being trapped in the house for days at a time as it is too cold to go outside.
The house I am in is pretty cool, it is also slightly dirty and bare due to lack of furniture, my room has a mattress (found on the street, free), a bedsheet (stolen from hostel, free), a pillow (bought) and some shelves which I have yet to put up (bought). Still on the list is desk, chair, chest of drawers and various other nick knacks, which I will no doubt put off for as long as possible due to me burning money like it is going out of fashion. I live with 4 other very cool and very interesting people, two girls Arabella (Ari) from Oz and Berengere (Be Be) from France and two guys Hannes from Germany and John from Turkey. There
My Little Green Room
Note the lack of furniture and how everything has migrated out of my bag and onto the floor. I have actually vacuumed it now so it is not covered in dust, this should last about 3 days. will be adventures and fun times no doubt. Though I have known them all for only 2 weeks they are some of the most friendly, interesting and cool people that I have met.
No sooner had I dumped my meagre belongings in my lime green room than all the Frosh (freshers) activities started up and I signed up for the engineering frosh and the main SSMU (Student Society of Mcgill University) frosh. In essence I got very drunk for about 5 nights in a row. One night there was a toga party, which was awesome everyone got into it and the place went off. I ended getting a taxi home at 5am wearing my filthy toga as a blanket against the cold and rain, the taxi driver was pretty amused. I went out to a few of the clubs as well and that was good. It was kind of weird doing all the frosh stuff with freshers and sort of descending back into that frame of mind. You know the one, "I am now at university and because of my new-found maturity I will spend the next 5 days getting astonishingly drunk". It’s especially crazy here as a lot
The Upper Fields
That beautiful castle-like building house the Mcgill generator. Hmmmmm, practical of them are from the US and states in Canada where the drinking age is 21 and 19 respectively. So you get all of these 18 year olds who have just moved away from mommy and daddy and can suddenly drink legally, they tend to go a bit mad, and I followed them down that slippery slope😊 Frosh here is an incredibly well run thing, they have money to burn. For example for 2 days there was free food and free beer down on the main fields, it was awesome.
One of the best things about frosh was that I got the chance to go white water rafting again. I have been a couple of times, in Borneo and in Bali and I had thoroughly enjoyed it so I was looking forward to it. I rose late however due to the previous nights excesses and went over to uni where there was no-one around, there were 2 people waiting for the bus and they needed 12 to go. I wasn't hopeful of going and was kicking myself for getting up late but eventually after about 40 mins we got the required numbers, hell yeah we were off. The river
Main Entrance
Taken from the Arts building looking down towards the Roddick Gates and the downtown area. we went on didn't look too conducive to rapids but apparently it is one of the fastest flowing rivers in the world and the huge amount of water gets churned up to produce the rapids from the rocks about 10m below the surface. We went through them all and had a blast, we all got soaking wet and the old adrenal glands got pumping a bit. Rapids are rated from class 1-6 with 6 being the biggest and can only be navigated by kayaks and not the large rafts. The biggest rapid we went through was a class 4 so it was pretty big, about 3m if I remember properly. I could see myself being a rafting guide for a summer, it would be exciting and those rafting guys tend to party hard!
And this takes us back to the present, a Sunday, again a late rise after Club 737 the night before. I went to Mont Royal Park where the Tam Tam's were happening. Tam Tam's is very hippy, very open and pretty cool. A large bunch of people stand around in a semi-circle tapping their drums getting a pretty complicated rhythm going, then anyone who wants just
The Lower Fields
Looking up towards the Redpath Museum and with Mont Royal in the background "dances" to the beat in the middle in a mass of jumping and swaying bodies. It was pretty nice just to sit back and chat with some of my friends and let the beat just wash over you.
The other thing they had in the park, which completely contrasted with the peaceful nature of the Tam Tam's, was a full on medieval battle in which anyone could compete. Now in case you are wondering that is not a typo, there was a medieval battle going on with organised rules and everything. For a couple of bucks we hired some foam swords had a bit of a practice swing and jumped right in, I was then promptly killed by a small girl! Before I go on I should explain the rules, you have 2 life points, if you are hit in either arm or leg you lose the use of the arm and 1 life point, any other hits and you're dead, if you are hit in the chest then you are dead. There were people there who took it way too seriously and were all dressed up in leather and armour and such like, there was even a klingon
James Mcgill
Founder of Mcgill University, also a colonel in the local militia and a fur trader and a wolf😊 It was pretty cool and I took part in a few battles, at one point I swung at this kid's legs and knocked him on his face, HAHAHA, that was funny. A very interesting experience to say the least.
Apart from that I have just been bumming around and trying to organise my life for the next eight months so I haven't really had time to explore, but soon. I have bought a copy of the bible (Lonely Planet: USA and Canada on a Shoestring.) So some trips are definitely on the horizon. Some furniture may be helpful first though!
Speak to you all soon
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anonymous
non-member comment
haha awesome man, canada sounds kewl. you got furniture yet? ur uni's hotter than mine, i'm jelous. i don't remember there being any river rafting on o-camp...of course that doesn't mean it didn't happen... anyways much love from our side if the world. bry xoxox