we can't stop...
No seriously.
I'm not just quoting Miley Cyrus with this blog title - I literally feel like I have not stopped since I got here. Fuelled by a mixture of obscenely large meal portions, Starbucks and this enormous bottle of Coca Cola I bought yesterday, life seems to be super busy at the moment - and I haven't even started work yet! There just seems to be an endless supply of things to sort out...
Probably because there is.
I fully appreciate that the most important thing to tell you is that, whilst I'm still without an actual bed, I have bought two excellent cushions and a throw. So I am beginning to feel slightly more like a human being - though admittedly, I'll be better when I'm an extra foot and a half off the floor to sleep. Two more sleeps until that will be the case... if all goes to plan. This is my little bed at the moment anyway.
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Right, tales of the day.
What will surprise most, if not all, of you reading from back home is that I am suddenly incapable of sleeping in. I can almost hear my mam and dad laughing at that, as well as anyone who lived with me last year and knows just how good at sleeping I am. Apparently no longer - every morning I struggle to even stay in bed past 8. I imagine this is because my body clock is as confused as I am at the moment, but all the same it does mean I get the most out of the day - and also it means I live like a normal person rather than a Netflix addict who watches too many episodes too late at night.
So as you can guess, this morning I shuffled out of bed this morning at about half 8, after half an hour of desperate attempts to go back to sleep. Alice is clearly suffering from this same issue, as she was ready around the same time. Making our plans for the day, we decided upon the almost inevitable - a busy day like today needed Starbucks. We can walk to Starbucks from our place - this is probably going to cause a major caffeine addiction, but as we forgot to tip (oops), we may be frowned upon next time we go. And of course, the inevitable really did happen - when asked for my name at Starbucks, despite the emphasis on the H of Hannah, this is what turned up ...
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Ps. Alice and I are planning to go see a hockey (ice hockey to anyone outside of Canada) match between the Montreal Canadians and... some other team that I can't remember, which rather cryptically is not being played in Montreal, but in Quebec City. Will update you on this if we end up getting tickets.
I'm not just quoting Miley Cyrus with this blog title - I literally feel like I have not stopped since I got here. Fuelled by a mixture of obscenely large meal portions, Starbucks and this enormous bottle of Coca Cola I bought yesterday, life seems to be super busy at the moment - and I haven't even started work yet! There just seems to be an endless supply of things to sort out...
Probably because there is.
I fully appreciate that the most important thing to tell you is that, whilst I'm still without an actual bed, I have bought two excellent cushions and a throw. So I am beginning to feel slightly more like a human being - though admittedly, I'll be better when I'm an extra foot and a half off the floor to sleep. Two more sleeps until that will be the case... if all goes to plan. This is my little bed at the moment anyway.
.JPG)
I hope you appreciate my cute little cushions - I doubt they'll help when I get homesick, but I really liked them. And the throw is so fluffy and also cute - I'm sure it'll come in handy in winter.
Right, tales of the day.
What will surprise most, if not all, of you reading from back home is that I am suddenly incapable of sleeping in. I can almost hear my mam and dad laughing at that, as well as anyone who lived with me last year and knows just how good at sleeping I am. Apparently no longer - every morning I struggle to even stay in bed past 8. I imagine this is because my body clock is as confused as I am at the moment, but all the same it does mean I get the most out of the day - and also it means I live like a normal person rather than a Netflix addict who watches too many episodes too late at night.
So as you can guess, this morning I shuffled out of bed this morning at about half 8, after half an hour of desperate attempts to go back to sleep. Alice is clearly suffering from this same issue, as she was ready around the same time. Making our plans for the day, we decided upon the almost inevitable - a busy day like today needed Starbucks. We can walk to Starbucks from our place - this is probably going to cause a major caffeine addiction, but as we forgot to tip (oops), we may be frowned upon next time we go. And of course, the inevitable really did happen - when asked for my name at Starbucks, despite the emphasis on the H of Hannah, this is what turned up ...
.JPG)
It was always going to happen, let's be realistic. STILL THOUGH. So anyway - fuelled by coffee, we attempted to open a bank account, only to be told there was no one available and I had to make an appointment. Which was a bit ridiculous, but I did get it sorted at 4pm. Thank God Alice came with me for back up - the entire process was in French. There are several things I really hope I never have to do again in life - Opening a bank account in French is one of them. Whilst I understood the majority of what she said, it was a lengthy, pressured situation which left me wanting a large glass of wine. All the same it had to be done - much like the other missions of the day; food, and a mobile phone. Surprisingly the mobile phone issue was pretty easy to deal with - it cost me 80$ (plus tax, of course - as ever!) for a Samsung Discovery. I top up 20$ a month to get 25 minutes and unlimited texts - it connects to WiFi and it even has apps. It's a bit more hi-tech than I was expecting for 80 bucks to be honest - WIN. Alice and I have matching phones - stay tuned in the future for the awkward situations we'll no doubt get into with phone mix ups.
TIME TO TALK FOOD.
Okay so you go to North America, land of Pop Tarts and Lucky Charms, of ice cream sandwiches and Oreos, of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup. And you know what? You realise you can't afford any of them. Food here is not cheap. Cheese is literally ridiculously expensive, and this saddens me. They have every kind of Philadelphia you can imagine - but it's like stupidly priced, and also, they don't do any cheaper brands either. Niche in the market my friends; someone provide cheap soft cheese to Quebec and I swear down - goldmine. Meat, similar story. I visited three shops today and ended up with only a watermelon (Dirty Dancing quotes welcome), loaf of bread (staple), hummus (surprisingly cheap), Frosties (though people seem to be pretending they're called Frosted Flakes here - erm no), fresh herbs (optimistic), garlic (well it is FRENCH Canada), milk (for the "Frosted Flakes"), bagel pizza slices (for when I really cannot be bothered to cook), pasta (obviously), tomato passata (or something that looks and tastes a lot like it), and cereal bars (early mornings require breakfast on the move). Not sure how long this is going to keep me going for really, though I made a decent enough pasta tonight. It wasn't exactly Gordon Ramsey standard, but it was edible. And I used fresh herbs, so there. Once I start getting paid, I'm going to start being able to buy other things too. Like you know, meat. Cheese. Ice cream sandwiches. And now that we've established that we do in fact have a microwave, perhaps some porridge too.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some stuff planned to do in school - I'm supposed to be planning ice breakers to introduce myself to the kids. Not sure how to do that without coming across as a bit of a tit to be honest - the Year 7s I met were all nice and polite, but I'm not sure the 17-18 year olds will be quite as interested in my rant about the Queen, Shakespeare and Harry Styles. Hopefully tomorrow will be as productive as today has been.
I'm going to stop writing, because I'm starting to make some really bad typos like 'today will be as productive as today', and clearly that's a sign to stop. Hopefully will have time to write tomorrow - I'm quite getting into this blog thing.
Ps. Alice and I are planning to go see a hockey (ice hockey to anyone outside of Canada) match between the Montreal Canadians and... some other team that I can't remember, which rather cryptically is not being played in Montreal, but in Quebec City. Will update you on this if we end up getting tickets.
Pps. Watched the first episode of Breaking Bad. Decent enough to watch another episode at some point, though not mind-blowing enough to completely devote my evening to. So far anyway. Don't hate me, I'm going to keep watching - like I said, it was decent.
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