That's it for Canada.
The beautiful sun on the sparkling snow is over, we're back in car pollution and in the middle of wanna be celebrities...

This last week-end was spent seperatly for Mike and I. He hung out with my father and also went roaming around downtown, and I was spending a week-end in a village of the eastern counties for some personal stuff which did me a lot of good!!!

Next trip is Mexico, where we are getting married. I don't know the state of internet cafes on the little island of Isla Mujeres, but we always find ways to post here!

We'll be going from February 28th until March 9th.

Cheers!

The last few days have been spent in several daily tasks such as grocery shopping and other things that take up time!
Besides that I managed to fit into my osteopath's schedule again so she could finish what she started last week. I tried on a very close model of the finished wedding dress... It's sooooo beautiful, I love it! Can't wait to post the pictures of the wedding where you can see the dress, but it will have to wait until March!
I also completely reinstalled everything on my mom's computer, we printed the announcements for the wedding, we bought a few knik-knaks for the wedding again, and of course we did the necessary chilling and chating with the family.

Today was different in that we had goals! yes, that's right, goals! Can you picture that? hahaha
Well, they were pleasant and easy!
First we went to Chinatown to get haircuts, so 6 of stepped into a salon and in a half hour we were done. we all go cool haircuts but Mike asked to keep the top of his head longer and frankly, he kind of looks like an anchorman, or a weather boy, I'm not sure... >-}
Either way, we were in Chinatown and there are some vietnamese joints which we can't avoid because after all, blood speaks! So we went and had pho and Bun (soup dish, and noodle dish)!
Now for the more interesting part. We left Chinatown to go see a friend of my mom's who works at the McCord Museum. She grew up in her tribe (I can't pronounce the name of her tribe, much less write it, sorry!) and has a lot of very interesting insights in the relations between the different tribes and the current government. It's sort of different from the US, but also very similar in that they are definitely put aside and as she puts it it seems the project for the government is either "assimilation or extermination"... It's such an interesting subject!
Anyway, I don't know much about it, so I won't go into details about things I'm not sure about, but this museum is mostly about the history of Montreal and therefore has a permanent exhibit about the region before colonization.
I think I need to read more about it, not only about the indigenous population here but also in California.
I was so ashamed to not be able to answer when she asked me which tribes were there... But besides knowing there are casinos an hour away from LA, we don't really know much about the history or current situation in California or other states for that matter. At least I don't! And I am very ashamed that I don't! But at the same time, it's nice to read about all of this, but I don't know who writes about it, and especially who is worth reading because I know of books or articles that are written by people who have no clue what life is like in a reservation but have an opinion nonetheless!
My mother's friend recommended a little book provided by the Quebec government here, so at least I will be able to read about that.
I need to now find something about the tribes in California... To start with!
Maybe we should visit, there might be more information in the reservations themselves. We'll see how much time we have before the wedding!
If anybody who reads this knows anything they think I should know, please feel free to comment or contact! I always appreciate that!!!

Interesting scuplture and models in a room where the life of indigenous tribes is depicted from 10000 years to about 6000 years ago, and how they depended heavily on fishing and furs:





The McCord Museum:



Also yesterday was way above the average temperature for the month of January, and today was even warmer... 8 Celsius!!!!
So everything has melted:



My sister and brother in law posing like dorks!

Don't make fun, I turn a year older today...
oh well!

It was fun, we did nothing all day, it snowed a lot so it was all white and pretty, and we had a diner with my sister, brother in law and a friend of theirs, Jake.
My mom made my favorite dish, a Reunion Island rice and beans with chicken and hearts of palms thing, and we had really good wine and champagne.

So voila, we had a nice evening, my parents are cool and they don't impose the candles on the cake thing that I don't like so much, and they also avoid singing to me, which I really appreciate!!!!

Nephew:


Nephew TV-Hypnotized:


Before diner we have an "aperitif" which is when us frenchies have apetizers and wine (or other beverages). Generally french people have an aperitif before going to the table to have diner... It's just a thing, but here are some pictures of that. We were in the living room, the little devil helped open presents and everybody was just as dorky as ever in this crazy family!

Stud brother:


Family:


Personal Mommy-Chair for the nephew:


GrandPa and little guy:


Gift opening:


And since we have a baby in the house there was a..... wine spill!!!!
YEAHHHHH!


And luckily this baby has a good daddy:


Still, after such high emotions (oh what a hard life! :-) ) we had to compensate by eating a rich diner:


Chicken dish:


Shrimp dish:


Beans:


Heats of palms:


Mike's plate (he likes it all mooshed together):


My plate (I like it also all mooshed together!):


I prefer tarts than cakes, so hmmmmm:


And since I've been coughing like crazy for the past three days, to the point where I can't sleep, my dad made me some thyme tea:


It was a great evening like I love, no stupid drunken raves, no crowds, no candles to blow, no singing the usual birthday song which I consider to be very cool for kids, but I'm slightly over it at this point, and all things relaxed!
Love it!

My parents rock!

I know! I'm late posting! It takes time to download the pictures then optimize them, then write the text for the day, then upload the pictures! AND I'm sick!!!!hahahaha
Everybody is sick... Even Chuck! BTW, get better Chuck (and the rest of your family too!), and thanks for the update on your holidays, I'm glad you had a good time!!!!

Yes, so here is January 7th....

I got new socks!!!!! People who know me know that I love socks, I love funny socks especially, colorful socks! hmmm... My favorite color is yellow, and I love orange too. So there my socks rule!





Anyway, before this big event we had to have our cajun food court food, so we went to the mall... Again people who know us know that we hate crowds and we especially hate the mall, but this mall is different... I assure you!!!!



It was so beautiful today, only in Montreal can you have pretty days like this in the winter... well, maybe not just in Montreal but I remember Boston and New York City when I lived there, and it was often grey and rainy when not snowing... but not here! Well, not everyday at least... hihihihi



In our supremely interesting day, we also went grocery shopping with the parents so that my mom can cook the dishes I love...



Isn't our trip so interesting for you all?
hahaha
I feel dorky today... Can you tell?

Well, I'll just leave you guys with our little canadian:

Well well... I'm still sick. I've been waking up the past couple days with absolutely no voice and enough need for tissues to fill a whole recycling bin!
That sucks! I'm never sick like that!!!!!! WHY!!!!

Ok, enough drama.
We had another chilled day (literally! heyhey)... surprise surprise!
My parents are funny, they totally love this mall called Rockland. There is a food court there that is in no way like the food courts we all know and hate. They have choice, but not choice between McDonalds and Burger King with a hint of Subway. No!
The choice there obviously has a burger king type thing with a pizza joint, but next to that it has two really nice healthy sandwich type places with salads and other types of healthy stuff that actually tastes good (for real!), and there is a lebanese place that has really good hummus and shawarma, another place that has cajun dishes that totally rock! So we have been there for lunch the past 3 days because we have been getting the TV and then we had to get something else from that electronics store, then today we needed to get my brother's broken PC which was in a shop for repair there too...
So here we go again, my funny parents who love their food court and us trailing behind!
Sounds horrible on paper, but it's actually quite cute and fun thanks to my funny quirky parents!

We did spend the day mostly chating and helping with electronics set ups of every kind! That's what kids do these days when they visit their parents! These products are just not designed for parents! haha






BEFORE:




AFTER:

January 4th, 2006

Mike and my dad installed the plasma tv on the wall today.
It looks awesome!
Nothing eventful happened (I told you it wasn’t going to be as exciting as Costa Rica!) but I did go to an osteopath appointment, and I also saw the seamstress who took all my measurements and the fabric for my wedding dress.
VOILA!

Mike is feeling better, I’m feeling so so with a cough starting… we must have caught something in the plane… I hate the plane!!!! ARGH

January 3rd, 2006

Aahhhh, plasma…. My parents got a plasma HD TV!
Woohoo!
So today was all about going to 3 different shops to compare prices, and we got a really good deal for a Pioneer 42 inches. I don’t think my parents ever had a good TV, always something somewhat small and stupid. Finally as many people get nice cars, they get a nice TV! Finally a time in their lives when they can do something for themselves instead of thinking about us kids!
AND my dad registered for school (he’s doing a naturopathy degree) and my mom has been working on setting up her practice (therapy)!
From diplomacy to doing what you want to do, it’s a big change, and a Plasma TV totally helps the transition! Hahahaha



Unfortunately Mike and I have been sick the past couple days, so we haven’t done anything too exciting.
Although we did find great fabric for my dress, and I can tell you right now, it’s going to be very beautiful! In a golden tone!
VOILA for today.

January 2nd, 2006

Chilled again today, we had a nice day. In the evening, Raphael brought his new girlfriend home to introduce us… first one ever! She’s cute, her parents are from Nicaragua and she speaks 4 languages. Smart one!




So we spent the evening snacking on hummus and other dips and had a great time meeting the new girl and another friend of my brother’s.

January 1st, 2006

It snowed today, and nobody really felt like going outside, so we took a long time having breakfast, then my mom and I looked at some of my grandmother’s notes where things my siblings and I said when we were children. That was a riot! My brother was such a funny little baby! He still is, but obviously at 17 years old, things are always a lot more serious! Hahaha
Then we chilled some more, Mike watched TV pretty much all day and is nursing himself a little so as not to get sick, really, as he’s feeling borderline strepthroat-y… BUT my mother has the best homeopathic remedies and he already made plans to go see the Narnia movie with my brother tonight!
I took a nap in front of the TV, my mother is out getting some cakes or something, my dad is supposed to register for naturopathy school (yeah, retirement is boring him!), and my brother is out with some friends. The other family, my sister her husband and our little nephew are downstairs in their apartment probably doing the same thing!
There is our 1st of the year, we hope you had the same chilled time with all your families, and again a very Happy New Year to everybody!

Here are some pictures of what ice does to a window:

December 31st, 2005

Today is a good excuse in my family to eat well! SO, we have a big chicken (in French we call it a chapon, it’s not really a chicken, but a bird in between a turkey and a chicken… excellent!), smoked salmon a gogo, pastis flambee shrimps, nice potatoes and green beans and excellent champagne and red wine.
Also, I had arranged to have Mike’s birthday present here so I gave it to him, but since our gifts to each other was the Costa Rica trip, it was nothing big, a swatch watch (skin chrono to be precised), he seems to dig the principle of knowing what time it is from now on… hmmmm.








So we had a great evening, nice diner with very full stomachs all around!
It was a nice New Year’s eve, very tranquil and chilled. It was nice to be there for this with my parents as I hadn’t in the longest time!
Happy New Year to everyone out there!!!!!

December 30th, 2005

We’re ready… well, as much as we can! The luggage is packed, we stopped by Beth’s party for a second, we said good bye to Mike’s parents and Mike is backing up his computer, upgrading his Ipod and it’s really late in the night, so we don’t have time to sleep because the cab is coming to get us at 4:30am and the neighbors downstairs are so loud below our bedroom that we couldn’t possibly take a little nap.
Oh well….
Hopefully we’ll sleep in the plane~! Yeah right…
In the series of plane connections and waits here are our legendary selves as we’re waiting for the cab:





Later…

The plane ride was ok, as the title of this journal mentions, we hate flying! And for good reasons, we can’t really sleep in there as opposed to some lucky people. Plus we had a connection in Chicago of about 30 minutes but somehow we were placed in the very back of the plane going there… hum hum… Well luckily we had a really nice lady who helped us get out first and we ran to the other gate where we caught the second plane right on time, and very nicely not having to wait for it 6 hours like we had in Miami going to Costa Rica.

SO here we are in Montreal, there is a bunch of snow, a bunch of ice, and it looks beautiful!