Mosque in French

We got a wrong number last night, and since Lea doesn't speak any French, she handed the phone to me. The man asked for Monsieur Blahrdi Blahr and I simply said wrong number and hung up. That's when Inna informed us that the man may have been asking for the mosque in French.

Turns out our number is listed somewhere as the phone number of Montreal's mosque. So from time to time, depending on the holiday all the Islamic Montreallers will call us. This month happens to be Ramadan, the month of fasting, so the calls are a' comin'.

I haven't had a phone number this great since I lived on campus and had EXT. 6666! An extra 6 for extra evil! But this time people will call asking for God instead of asking for Satan. There is something to be said for symmetry...

Clean Thoughts

So I finally got around to dragging my laundry to the laundromat/café on the corner. Initially I loved the idea of a super cool café to hang out in while I'm doing something as boring as laundry, but I've given it more thought and it doesn't seem to be the great idea it once did. Here's why:

1)It's super cool and so are the people who go. Do you really want them to see how old/dirty/worn out your (insert embarassing laundry item here) is?

2) This is not the place to wear your laundry day clothes. This means I now have to plan what I'm going to save for laundry day and/or wear something dirty and forgo it's cleaning for a week.

3) When trying meet people in a new place (and this one is apparently the place to meet folks), there isn't anything sexy about laundry unless you left your old/dirty/worn out (insert embarassing laundry item here) at home.

4) Not everyone goes to do their laundry. Some just go to hang out, thus making it awkward when you walk in with your dirty laundry, leaving a trail of underwear by their table.

It all adds up to a headache I just don't need. Maybe there is another laundromat equally as close...Um...nope. Blanc de Blancs it is.

I Heart Goats

I've made a discovery about myself. I love goat. Apparently, I love all goat products. I had a goat meat curry the other day and loved it. Today I ordered a goat roti from the Caribbean restaurant around the corner. Delicious. And then there's my recent discovery of goat cheese...I just never knew that I could feel this way about a dairy product. It's beautiful thing.

Ch...Ch...Changes

I've been tooling around on the computer in an effort to avoid the cold and/or the grad school admissions process. End result? I gave the blog a slightly different look and after a year finally figured out how to add some links!

Here's a quick rundown--

Two Dollars a Day: Molly's in the Ukraine with the Peace Corps. Live vicariously, I will!

I'm a dork: Meredith gives us the dish on life's oddities and other random cultural hiccups.

TheMikeDubose: building only the finest TheMikeDuBoses, since 1971. He likes beer, food, sports, his wife, and cultural theory. The Man Show for the thinker. He also happens to be the best person to ride a roller coaster with!

Head Full of Sermons: Love of beer and good music, divinity student style.

Listen To Me!: Eoin spews venom like no other. All things that piss him off, watch out!

I suppose I really should get to writing those essays now.

Wandering Fool

I'm still getting to know the neighborhood, but so far I've found a great place to get some Caribbean grub, a wine shop, a bank, place to get cheap clothes, places to get expensive clothes, the nearest metro and bus stops (and a handy-dandy map to get around with), and a video store.

The local coffee shop is killer! Lots of windows, cozy couches, great music, good food and super coffee. My roommate Inna works there so it already feels familiar. It's a café/laundromat so it's mulitfunctional too! I'm not really sure what else I could ask for in a coffeeshop that's only a block away from the apartment. I lucked out!

And as everyone says Montréal is beautiful! And by that I mean that everyone in this city is gorgeous. I'm not sure quite how it happened, but the people here must have been making beautiful babies for generations. It's remarkable.

I've been job hunting and wandering around, pretty much just looking at all the shops with a bag full of resumés while trying to keep my eyes in my head while passing hot man after hot man. In what luckily didn't turn out to be a situation as embarassing as it might have been, I caught myself inhaling deeply as a good-looking guy walked by. I did it totally subconsciously, but I was trying to smell the pretty man! Unreal. :)

First Days

My parents are fantastic! They drove all the way up to Montreal, helped me unpack, and then drove back the next day! They gave up a whole weekend to get me settled. No one seemed to be able to believe that they were willing to do it. So thanks to Bob and Debbie!

I've spent the last few days unpacking, updating my resume, and trying to find stuff in the neighborhood. Soon I hope I'll be making my way around with a clue about where I am, where other stuff is, and where my apartment is in relation to it and possibly even have a job to help pay for it all!

It's really exciting to be using French again, if only just a bit. I'm not having too much trouble with the Quebecois accent, but at this point I'm not sure if I'm not getting all the words because of the accent or because I haven't heard or spoken French in so long.

Hopefully soon I'll have some good stories to impart!

On My Way

Well, after a good look around and seeing some old friends I'm on my way again. This time I thought I'd try that greatly overlooked neighbor to the north, Canada. Lest I actually move to a country in which the majority speak English, I've opted to move to the French-speaking bit, Québec.

Tom has been teasing me mercilessly about the Québecois accent, which apparently is entirely reproducible by making nasal sounds and srunching up one's face to look kinda angry. I haven't spoken French in a while so I imagine I'd have a hard time no matter what French-speaking country I tried, so I figured why not move to one that isn't across an ocean. Luckily, I've already got a place and I get along really well with at least one of my roommates (I don't know the other so that remains to be seen but I've got a good feeling...)

Some of you may recall a previous post about the disaster of an experiment called "tri-packing." In an effort to move from my old apartment in BG to my parent's house shortly before going on vacation and then directly on to Taiwan, I attempted to pack for three separate events all at the same time. It didn't work. At all. Now, I'm dealing with the consequences as I try to sift through the mess and figure out what I want to take, leave, keep, pitch, donate, find a new home for, etc. I do not recommend attempting tri-packing at home. It may raise blood-pressure to dangerous levels.

Wish me luck because this weekend is the move. Yippee! I love new adventures!