November in a Nutshell

Year after year I'm amazed at how fast these semesters go by. September is settling in, October is midterms and November is prep for finals. This semester has been unique for me though. Instead of midterms and finals I've had presentations and papers...and visitors :) Jared was able to visit two weekends in November and dad will be treating me to the Leafs vs Habs game at the Bell Centre at the end of the month. But first I have two more presentations and two more papers to go! Thankfully that means I only have one final exam on the 16th so I get to have a four week and 5 day Christmas break! (minus the couple days of driving to and from Montreal to write the exam)

While Jared visited we were able to host Kinsey, Ryan and Katelyn for dessert and games. Roomie Amanda joined us for catch phrase too. Ryan also gifted us with his wonderful piano playing and Jared of course with his guitar and singing. It was a great night with friends. 

Our friends from church Morgan and Sam (who I lived with for the month of July) host Jared when he comes to visit and this time we were able to make a meal and bring it over to their place to enjoy with them. We had a hoot together. Those two are a riot! We blared Mariah Carey Christmas music and all sang along while playing Dutch Blitz, talking about and singing worship music and laughing at each other's crazy jokes.

Back at my place we put up our Christmas trees. Yes plural...we have two. I LOVE having Christmas lights. It makes the apartment feel so much warmer and cozier and my heart feel full and it reminds me of all I have to be thankful for and to look forward to. 

The only other thing November means is grad school applications. Dun dun dun... thankfully I don't think I'll be too stressed. I just have to get academic and clinical references, cite my volunteer work and write a little statement about why I want to be a speech pathologist. I'm only applying to U of T and Western so that narrows down my workload. 

So that's my November. Looking forward to two weeks of productivity, a break when pops comes to visit and then a month at home with lots of exciting Christmas celebrations! Yippee :) 

  

Romados Chicken Dinner

A few weekends ago Kinsey, Ryan and I got together after one of my intramural volleyball games and tried out a restaurant called Romados. This little place is literally 100 meters from my apartment and I hadn't tried it yet! Ryan, being the intelligent networker that he is, found out from friends that we should call and order in advance and we were glad we did! We probably saved at least 30 minutes of waiting in line by placing our orders in over the phone. They had something like a Disney Fast Pass line! There wasn't much seating so we took our dinners back to my place and enjoyed each others company and our food. We were so impressed with the huge proportions and the cheap price!

Can you believe there was an entire half chicken underneath that heap-o-fries!?

Apartment Pictures

Welcome to our humble abode. 

Come on up! 

First things first, here's the bathroom if you need it: 

And the laundry room's across the hall: 

Here's the hallway on the left. My room is the open door at the end. 

Now follow me into the living room! 

Which brings us to the kitchen! 

And finally there's my room: 

And there you have it! Thanks for checking out the new place! 

An old friend in a new apartment.

This weekend I was able to host my dear friend Katie as my first visitor to the new apartment (besides dad ;) ). Katie was working for the YMCA orchestrating a Quebec-Ontario exchange program and she was able to stay with me for the weekend after bringing her students back to Montreal on the train. Hooray!

It was such a treat to have her here. We met up on Saturday evening and enjoyed famous Montreal poutine(s) at La Banquise and then had a great day Sunday exploring and shopping and eating in the morning and baking and eating and watching Suits in the afternoon.

Katie and I have been friends since elementary school and went to the same church for a few years during high school and it was so great to be able to catch up. I don't always get to see her when I'm home and this was her first time visiting me in Montreal so I'm so grateful that it was finally able to happen!

My friend Katelyn and a friend of hers will be the next visitors to de Bullion! They are moving into their apartment next weekend and will be crashing at my place :) Luckily I was able to borrow the biggest air mattress ever from the spectacular Ryan Chan so my overnight guests have a comfortable place to rest their heads :)

It is sincerely such a joy for me to host so please friends and family, come visit me in Montreal this year! Can't wait to have you here!

De Bullion

I'm safely back in Montreal and have moved into my new apartment! Dad drove me up this past weekend and we moved my things from Tupper and from Morgan and Sam's to Rue De Bullion (between a couple bouts of rain). I'm sore now from all the heavy lifting and so.many.stairs (and maybe just too much stuff) but it feels so good to be settled into where I'll be for the next (and my last!) school year in Montreal.

I actually had not seen the apartment before Sunday. I trusted my new roommates though and I knew that the place was being renovated but when I walked in for the first time I was blown away! :)

 I don't have pictures to post yet because I want to wait until we've furnished it all but it's beautiful. The kitchen has all new appliances (including a dishwasher!) and tons of cupboard and counter space. The living room is huge and has two closets, one which houses a washer and a dryer (score!). The bathroom is entirely new as well and has a bathtub! My room is tiny but it'll be just right. I even have door leading to a little balcony and I have my very own closet! (this is a big deal because Tupper didn't have ANY closets. None.) I couldn't fit my desk in my room so it's in the living room at the moment but that's subject to change I suppose.

So I'm happy to be here, finally settled in to where I'll be for my final year at McGill. I'm figuring out (again) the bus routes and coffee shops and grocery stores and I'm excited for my new roommates to join me at the end of the month!

Ps. I had a wonderful week at home and I will post about that (with pictures) shortly!!

Back to Blogging - The Plateau Life

I'm back on the blog-o-sphere! It is the end of the Tupper-era. Sad, but true. Our lease was up July 1st and we've all moved on! This means the Tupper blog is unfortunately no more. I still have a lingering hope that Katie, Kinsey and I will get together at some point to "pen" the last few posts but in the meantime I'm back on my own personal blog.

In my first year at McGill I created the blog "Emily in Montreal" which seemed fitting at the time and was a way for me to keep my friends and family up to date. Now though, "Emily in Montreal" seems much too broad a blog title. After my two years blogging "Life on Tupper" I have now officially moved into a new section of the city, the plateau, and I think my blog name should reflect the change. And so, for the next school year I will blog about "The Plateau Life".

I've actually already been in the plateau for almost three weeks now. When our Tupper lease ended, friends of mine from church (Initiative 22) were kind enough to invite me to stay with them for a month before my next lease starts in August. So far, it has been a joy living with Sam and Morgan. They are two of the most loving, generous and honest people I know. I have already learned so much from them and I am so grateful that they would have me in their home. (PS. Check out Morgan's blog "me and my house").

In the past actually, my boyfriend Jared has stayed at Sam and Morgan's apartment when he has visited me, so Jared and I are no strangers to their hospitality and we are so thankful for their encouragement and friendship as Jared and I grow in our relationship.

Back to being in the plateau though. As sad as it is to leave Tupper and all its perks (30 second walk to the cheapest grocery store in the city, close to where I tutored, to my missional community, to the speech pathology clinic, to the YMCA, to all the shops and restaurants downtown) the plateau has it's own perks and I am still discovering them. I'm currently living right across from Jeanne-Mance park which is a dream. There are baseball diamonds, tennis courts, soccer fields, beach volleyball courts, open spaces...I love it. I also live basically at the base of the mountain which is a prime running spot so that's definitely a point for the plateau. There's also Parc La Fontaine and LaBanquise (the famous poutine place) so I can't complain about that! And as much as I miss the shopping on St. Catherines street I'm really quite close to St. Laurent, St. Denis and I'm on Avenue Mont Royal which are all great for shopping! Also, it's a super quick bus ride away from Place-Des-Arts which is the event hub in the summer time where I attended The Jazz Festival and Just for Laughs.

Now, speaking of bus rides, I am certainly learning the bus and metro systems better which I don't always love (for example when the metro is shut down on the hottest day of the year or when the bus is just plain late) but they do, for the most part make travelling easier and I hear the monthly fares are much cheaper in Montreal than in other big cities so I'm thankful for that!

And with that, here are a few pictures I've taken of the plateau with more to come I'm sure. I've got lots more exploring to do and I'm sure it won't take long for me to find my favourite spots!

Parc La Fontaine 

volleyball courts in Jeanne-Mance Park 

baseball diamond/my front yard