Montreal (May 27-31st, 2010)

Although I was in Montreal for non-tourist reasons, I did get a chance to enjoy the city and some of the many things that it has to offer. Not surprisingly, it involved shopping, eating, walking (my legs were aching from the hills and I was already nursing a two days later soreness), and metro-ing (I find it strange that there isn't a chime before the doors close. Also, I realized that on acceleration there's a 1, 4, 8 triad that gets produced). The weather was lovely. I wore skirts and tanktops for the entire trip, which was a nice change from the chilly weather that we got the last time we were there.
I was really happy to have an opportunity to practice my French, which is slowly becoming a little bit more of a chore to keep up with. I'm glad that my comprehension skills are still quite good, but the processing time that takes place before I can string a good sentence together bothers me. I should probably go to Quebec more often if only to practice my French. I think it's a good skill to have in my back pocket. It often surprises people when I pull it out, and I'm hoping that it will be an advantage to have in my future.
One of the food stops on the trip was La Banquise. I like poutine. I really do. For some reason, I had it in my head that this place had gourmet poutines and even after I was told that it more of a post-bar snack kind of place I was a little shocked with the plates that were placed on our table. We decided to try two different poutines:
The first was the Poutine Elvis. With ground beef, peppers and sauteed mushrooms. I found the beef gravy to be a little dense, but the mushrooms helped to lighten it a bit. In general, I didn't think that there were enough curds in the poutine. The curds were nice and squeaky, but hidden under the mound of ground beef.
The second poutine that we got was the Poutine Galvaude with turkey and peas. I thought it would be a throwback to the TV dinners that I loved to eat growing up, except that the potatoes were in a different
form. I thought the gravy on this poutine was much better suited to poutines, but felt as though there was much too much turkey on the plate. It felt like I was eating a turkey dinner with a sprinkling of gravy, peas, curds and fries, whereas I think I would rather a poutine be potatoes first, with toppings of curds, gravy, peas and turkey. In essence, I love poutine for the original components of what poutine is, and the extras should be literally, extras.
The trip happened to coincide with free museum day, so we took a trip to the Montreal Science Centre. It was wonderful. It was so busy that we only got a chance to see two of the exhibitions. While waiting in line for the first one, we met AIBO. It was cuuuuuuuuute! It was very lifelike and I loved how it reacted to the different sensors on its body and was able to interact with its toys and the young visitors who crowded around it. I would have loved to abduct it to see just how much it could do, but obviously that wasn't possible. I'm not sure if the Science Centre organizes timed admissions on regular days, but on this particular day, they have massive line-ups to enter each exhibition and allowed a certain number of patrons in for a 30-45 minute visiting period. It seemed well organized, and although it took awhile to get in, the process seemed fair and you knew what you were getting into. In the long waiting gaps, we made ourselves comfortable on the hard, concrete floor. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The first exhibit that was visited was Science 26 which is probably what I think of as the model Science Centre exhibit. Lots of hands on activities combined with learning. It was in this exhibit that I confirmed that I'm good at letting my mind go completely blank and realize that reading in French spurned high levels of brain activity. I also made giant bubbles, which could have been bigger had I not been wearing such a poofy, but pretty skirt. We also visited the combined temporary exhibits about Sex (which was quite detailed and could have been a nice replacement to sex ed. class) and Glass (which was a disappointment).









So I didn't have tons of free time, but I did manage to get out to Atwater Market. The parking lot was transformed into a lush flower market. I would have had a field day if I had a garden to decorate. I want to get a couple indoor plants for my place and make my balcony a lot more presentable, but it'll take a little bit of time before I get around to it. I haven't had nearly as many fresh cut flowers in my place as I have imagined I would. I kind of neglected the transition period that I would have after moving in.
A side note: Montrealalers don't wear lululemon. Although there are a couple stores in the city and I'm sure that they do quite well, I did not see anyone wearing lulu during the entire trip. How wonderful. I have recently promised myself that I will not wear lulu unless I am going to/from dance class or any other sort of physical activity. I just don't think that lulu is appropriate everyday wear, and although I understand how comfortable their stuff is, I am sticking to the no-lulu rule.
Nothing else blog worthy that I can think of right now. Except for a Cirque show.
It was nice to get out of the city for awhile. I think I need a vacation. Or at least some sort of break. I know that my schedule isn't that intense as it stands, but it's constant. Of course I'm still plagued with the travel bug. I think I might have a little bit of a break at the end of the month? Well, now I'm rambling. I must be getting tired.