More of the Pad

I've been a bad blogger as of late. It's really not my fault though - more, Montreal's. See, as I have mentioned before, all it does is rain here which puts quite a damper on exploring and wandering around the city. Steve was having coffee with one of his profs last week and commented that this fall has not been that nice. His prof's reply, "Not that nice - this weather is Sh*t!". Well, I second that! And, what makes things even tougher is that with the daylight savings out here, it's pitch black at 4:30!

But, Montreal is known for its shopping and this is one indoor activity that we have been taking advantage of lately. We have been shopping up a storm for our new condo and basically have everything up and running. Jennifer also now has the skill set to be one of the IKEA dudes that drives around an puts together the furniture for an extra $100 bucks after spending all of last week assembling a mammoth wardrobe!

So...here are a couple more pictures of the condo with some of our new acquisitions. We have a housewarming party next Friday and of course everyone is invited but so far the only on to RSVP is Amy. Appetizers start at 6pm, pre-party hosted by "Frank the Tank" at Chez Magnon starts at 4. We promise it will be a good one...

Old Montreal

Today we cruised around town and checked out some of the historical elements of the city. We started at Old Montreal and saw some neat stuff there! The blue bus is an Amphibus (how cool) as it drives around town doing tours and then cruises into the water and turns into a boat! I wanted to go for a ride but it was 30 bucks.

After Old Montreal we cruised over to our neighboorhood and refuelled with some delicious poutine! (it was a good thing I got lost running yesterday and ended up running for 1.5 hours!). Finally, we stumbled accross the oldest building in Montreal. This house was owned by Marguerite Bourgeoys and she housed the Filles du Roi (the Kings Girls) who came over in the late 1600s to marry the French-Canadian men. The Kings Girls were poor or orphaned Frenchwomen that didn't have dowrys. So, when they came to Canada they learned how to run a homestead and the King paid their dowrys when they married. Apparently the ratio was 12 men to 1 woman (a ratio that even Tom might not have been successful with).

The Pad

Here is our home sweet home. It's been really fun sharing a place with Jenn and Dom and we have been madly scrambling around these last couple of weeks to outfit our new digs. Since Jenn and Dom have been in Europe, Steve and I have taken the liberty to hang a couple of pictures without clearing it with the boss...Jenn we hope these meet with your approval! We miss you guys both and cannot wait to take you to dinner at this new little restaurant we found called Steve Beef! Also of note, Steve and I got our mattress this weekend and our new bedroom furniture comes next week so good-bye floor.

Out and About

Well, it's almost been a month so as seasoned Montrealer's we feel qualified to make some generalizations about the city now: 1) they speak French here 2) it rains a lot 3) they drive faster than my dad 4) you don't have to pay a deposit on wine bottles 5) there are a lot more people here than at home. We are also offering tours to anyone interested! Just let us know when you are coming. The pictures here are from different places that we have been to throught the city. The "castle like" structure is Steve's music building, the skyline close to our house, the Robin Hood flour factory (seriously they are one of our neighbours!), a parkclose to our house and the St.Lawrence River at the start of the Lachine canal (looks more like a lake here!). We miss you all!

Charlevoix

Jenn and Dom gave us a weekend away in the beautiful area of Charlevoix for our wedding present. Yah Jenn and Dom! Charlevoix is a district one hour past Quebec City (4 hours from Montreal) composed of tiny little town filled with farmers and artists. We stayed at the Fairmount Richelieu in La Malbaie. The hotel looked out over the St. Lawrence River which was so wide that you couldn't see accross it. (At this point the river has tides, smells like the ocean and is referred to as the St. Lawrence Shipping Way) We also went hiking in a provincial park called Hautes-Gorges where we hiked in an area that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. These are some of the pictures from our delayed but not forgotten honeymoon!

Welcome to Montreal

Despite that Steve says I have entered new nerdiness with the upcoming blogging, here goes...

Its been three weeks and counting since we arrived. I can now, in French, ask where the toilet is, order food and ask for the water/ salt/ etc to be passed to me accross the table! Oh, and I can also say that I got married recently. Not so great at understanding the fast French though. Last weekend Steve (what was he thinking) asked me what the waitress asked (she said something that sounded like soup to me, so I said she had asked if he wanted soup with his panini. Actually, she had asked if he wanted to eat in or take it to go. Who new...anyways, didn't he look like an idiot when he replied, no soup thanks!

Here are some pictures of the area in Montreal where we live.