South of the border: a photo essay

I said my next post would be about my commute in Montréal, but at the moment, my commute is far from my mind as I spend a few days in South Carolina. Here's a look:







All of the above pictures were taken at one of my favorite Hilton Head restaurants:



Here's a new friend I met on the golf course...he's a little guy.

Boxing days...

Happy 2008!

I have had some settling to do recently, which I’ll tell you about in just a moment, and I haven’t found the time to write about it until tonight.

First of all, Bo and I traded our Urban Arbres for Face au Fleuve (see future entries...). We moved just before New Year’s with the help of a small friendly moving crew and many of our local friends. (Merci Alain, Renaud, Pascal, Alexandra, Isabelle et François!!) Our new apartment is cheaper, closer to my school, and has a much better layout than our previous apartment (much more storage too). The photo will show you why most Montrealers move on July 1st. Still, it could have been much worse!



Less than a week later, work permit in hand, we went to my storage unit in Plattsburgh and my parents helped Bo and I to empty it! (Thanks Mom and Dad!) A truckful of my personal goods crossed the border with no problem at all. For the first time, Bo’s and my possessions were all under the same roof—which suddenly seemed like a very small roof! We’ve spent our weekends arranging furniture, hanging shelves and pictures and placing things in their rightful places.

My new commute is about half as long. I travel by public transportation and it takes right around 45 minutes (the same that it took with my car from the old apartment). The commute doesn’t seem long at all and while riding the bus, or subway, or waiting for one or the other, I actually read an entire book for pleasure this month for the first time in a long time (I’m ashamed to admit how long...). I also read passages for school. The next post is about my experience in public transportation (transport en commun). I wrote it before the move, but never posted it, and it’s still a glimpse into the routine. I personally used my car yesterday for only the 3rd time since I went back to work after the holidays.

My professional life has been busy too. There have been many special events at school (Mardi gras, Open House, and before the holidays, my class performed a play, I performed in a play with my colleagues and there was a huge parent assembly). Recently, a friend of Bo’s, who works at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), invited me to give a pair of lectures to her education students. That was a new experience for me, something I had been wanting to try. I was nervous, but I think I did pretty well. We are already discussing dates for next semester, so I must have done all right.

Here is Chico's impression of an ostrich on moving day (if you look closely towards the bottom right of the bike rack, you can see his two little ears...). Because his face was hidden, he thought he was invisible. Cats are troopers though, Chico adjusted very quickly to his second move in six months. (By the way, I looked up Chico on Wikipedia yesterday and learned that Pope Benedict XVI's cat is also named Chico...great minds think alike...but maybe that means I need to change Chico's name to Chico II).