Bonjour, Montreal!

Those gloomy days are finally here. My favorite kind of weather indeed, cool and overcast. Trying to make the most of my school break, which is going to be over in 3 days. So sad. House is crazy dead this evening, perfect time to focus and write again. Spent all morning getting oil change and radiator service on the car. I don't think I am going back to the damn place. I hate gimmicks. They got this advert saying that you can get an oil change for $19.99, and I got charged $29.99 (before tax. of course); the mechanic told me radiator service would cost $89.99 and when they handed me the bill, the dang service was priced at $99.99. Bill came out a little over $130. Not gonna argue. The business needs the money to feed their employees, doesn't it? But rest assured, I WON'T GO BACK. I should have gone to the usual Vietnamese place in Gresham I go to for car maintenance. That guy is so honest that I had to literally force him to put on new brakes last time. He kept saying the brakes were still good. His prices are also half -and even 1/3, often times- of what other places would charge, for MOST maintenance services. I was too lazy to drive that far this morning, and now I'm paying the price for being lazy. UGH.

Was such a nice day for a drive. Feeling so content just cruising, putting on a CD and singing along to it. Just realized that I had not gotten a chance to play the Michael Learns to Rock's Paint My Love CD that my cousin gave me for my birthday in 2011, until today. It's been over a year. I love that CD. Reminds me of my time in middle and high school. Not my most favorite time of my life, but if I could make a wish and go back to the time for just one day I'd go for it.

Oh, I didn't tell you yet that the school that I attended had a really nice gym. Regular membership for general public is $75/month. Fee is included in the tuition money so students don't need to pay extra. Had a great work out today. Trying to put off the holiday weight that I gained. Actually, I didn't even gain weight. Weighed myself this morning, and I was only two pounds/ 1 kg heavier than before vacation. Right after gym, I got to hang around downtown with a friend (yep, I am making friends in nursing school! And this may sound scanty, but I've got one good friend, of whom I am talking about now, and that's all I need ^^), grabbed some lunch, and talked. They said that you'd meet the best people in nursing school and make friendships of a lifetime. And I already see this happening to me! Priceless :). I never really thought of how much this meant to me, not till I moved to the States and experienced so much time being alone. Don't get me wrong, I think I've been pretty happy with my life (as I believe happiness is a state of mind, rather than success/accomplishment/material things). Happiness to me is as simple as drinking boba (yes, I am a cheap date); and in a higher extent is to pass time with loved ones: family & friends; and ummm.. to see my parents again. At the end of the day, I feel that life is short not to be happy, not to be kind, or to sweat small things. Ohhhh, how wise.. :D, hope I will not forget these.

Montreal Art Museum

Ah, sorry about the rambling. If you know me, perhaps you notice that I have a slight tendency to do so. The main focus of this post shall be my latest trip to Eastern Canada! Went away for 10 days. Spent 4 in Montreal, 6 in Toronto. Landed in Toronto, got two nights down before leaving for Montreal on a bus. It took 5 hours to get there. Nice bus, and the free wifi worked alright.

The Old Montreal

Got a good deal on hotel from a web called hotwire for our Montreal trip. Me and my bestie spent three nights at Le Meridien, and my favorite factor about this place is probably the gym, apart from it located right downtown. One surprising thing about Montreal was that the atmosphere's quite distinct, much much different from Toronto's despite that both are relatively close to each other. Montreal, the Old Montreal in particular, is much like Paris: those stone walkway with old tall buildings situated along the pavements. And the French-speaking people. The Asians speaking French at the Chinatown blew me away. I wish I spoke a third language. Well, I consider myself understand a little Korean. But I want to do more than just that. I want to be fluent.

Outside the Art Museum

Boba shop in Chinatown :)

The highlights of my Montreal trip were probably Chinatown: so many neat-looking pastry shops, restaurants, and bubble tea shops all in Chinese and French!; The Old Montreal: those European looking building; Schwartz's: the world-famous pastrami sandwich place.. am not a big fan of smoked meat but I gotta tell you that this thing was good. The place was jam-packed that we had to do a take-out instead of dine-in. All we did when we were there just goofing around and eating out. Sooo hard to avoid the latter one, when on vacation. But I managed alright. Very pleased with that!

Modigliani's

Paid the art museum a visit as well. I recognized Picasso's (love his cubism) and Modigliani's right away. With the latter one I can't really explain why I like his paintings. I believe it's the uniqueness. I'll let you have a look of one of his here and let you decide.

Montreal city view

Montreal is also famous for its McGill University, Universite de Montreal, and its bagel. Visited the first two during our city bus tour (the tour cost 45 CAD/person, what a rip), but could care less with the last one. I've never liked bagels that much to begin with.

Contradicting myself here about the eating-out part, gotta say the one of the things I enjoyed about this trip was devouring the Asian delicacies: pho/beef noodle soup, Cantonese chow mein, and sushi to name a few. We pretty much had Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese food the entire time. There were only two meal times that we had Italian and the pastrami sandwich. I don't think I can live without Asian food.. and nothing or noone should deprive me from that! XD

Don't ya deprive me from my pho!:D

Got together with hubby's friend and our cousin upon returning to Toronto. Excited about the possibility of returning to Ireland end of next year. Hubby's friend, RY -let's just do his initials- showed his interest in going golfing there with hubby (yep, Ireland is the mecca for golfing!); and if he doesn't change his mind we'll definitely go. Oh wait!..  if I get a job right away after graduation, though, I'll have to pass. We'll see.

Spent an hour already writing this thing. Off to do some scrap-booking now, and probably get something to eat too. Gotta feed the hungry stomach.

Talk to ya next school break, I hope! :)