Au revoir, Montreal - I'll be back

I leave tomorrow to go stateside, and I'm torn. I have had life-altering experiences here, but I miss home and the people there. Here's a brief summary of what's going on in my head right now, subject to change with more thought later:

Things I'll miss:

• Hurley's
• being legal to drink alcohol
• hot Canadian men
• eh
• easy access to great music
• beautiful architecture on every corner
• having sleepovers every night
• "SO bad"
• playing piano when the mood strikes me
• city lights
• staying up til sunrise
• authentic gourmet French food

Things I definitely won't miss:

• walking tours
• not being able to understand French
• immaturity
• being horrible at piano
• not having A/C
• weird breakfasts at RVC
• not knowing whether the shower will burn or freeze me next

Cheesy as it sounds, "Leavin on a Jet Plane" is playing in my head. I really am leaving on a jet plane, and I really don't know when I'll be back again, and I really do hate to go. I'll be back someday, I know it. It won't be the same, but then again nothing ever is.

Au revoir for now, Montreal.

Canada Day in Canada

When I first saw the itinerary, I was really excited about the timing of the trip because we got to be in Canada for Canada Day and the program ended on Independence Day so we could be back stateside for fireworks. Baller, right? Too bad all of Quebec pretends Canada isn't real. Canada Day here was actually Moving Day, which is when literally EVERY annually renewed lease ends/begins, so there were mad crazy amounts of people with moving vans blocking all the roads. Good thing we walk everywhere, or it might have actually bothered us.

I was very disappointed that there would be no occasion to wear my new Canadian flag as a cape and smear paint into the shape of a maple leaf on my face, so I settled for going to Brutopia for the organ jam once again. The guys bought shots in bulk and I tried a honey beer and watched them down their shots in rapid-fire mode. Here's the aftermath:

After a little liquid courage, Evan sat in on drums in the jam and did JMU proud!

This is the organ, complete with a monitor so that we could watch what his hands were doing - pretty cool, minus the Habs flag on the ceiling. I kinda wanted to burn it. Sorry not sorry.

This guy... rocking the guitar but far too much grease in his hair to be intentional.

... plus he was basically wearing bowling shoes. Oops.

Two raspberry blonde beers later, I looked outside to the bar across the street, and lo and behold - Canadians celebrating Canada Day! Mike and I ventured out, and I explained that we were Americans and we were SO happy that they were celebrating this most important holiday, and that documentation of their awesomeness was necessary.

Canadians love alcohol, and they love their country.

All in all, top night. Thank you, Canada/Moving Day.