In no time at all this portion of the adventure is coming to a close. This week has been tough, the last week in Montreal.
The last week with all my pals at Eco-Quartier NDG, I'm gonna miss my car rides with Billy, my workshops with Giulietta, running through the streets of NDG, stickers in hand, with Qamara, and every great moment at the office with Adina, Nika, and Nikki. I will miss them. My last day at work we had a great potluck party, and it was pretty difficult to not know when I will return, but it helps to know I will, someday.
This was the last week to see my wondrous billet sister, Arianne. I had the fortune of getting to see her on Monday for a bit of time, just enough to get the hugs out, and share this very blog with her (HI, ARIANNE!). I wish her luck in Malawi!
Sadly, this was also the last week with Etienne. It's like loosing a big piece of the group. Etienne was a real asset to life in the Katimavik house and he played a big role in making this experience as wonderful as it was. On Sunday we held our Katimaoscars were we voted for special people in the group, and Etienne created categories for everyone. Marie-France won most improved language. Francois, best cook. Val most creative. Andrew won most engaged and best quote. I won best sense of humour. The categories Etienne made were really cute, I won "Best Friend of the Stairs" along with some muscle relaxant cream. Andrew won "most Italian". Tiffany won "Best hugs". Cody won "biggest Hockey fan". Kyle, most obviously, won "Best Bread".
After the Oscars we had a big bowling party with Etienne, our last night with Etienne. He had to leave us later that night. Wow, "Visage Triste". There were a lot of tears. Esspecially when we watched him walk out the door with all his belongs on his back. Etienne will come back to see the card we worked on. It's the paper cut outs of us, each has a speech bubble where we wrote a little message to Etienne. So sweet. Etienne was, is, and will continue to be a really great guy. I think Katimavik as a corporation should feel particularity privileged to have him as part of their staff.
I was reading one of my early posts fretting about French, seems really silly looking back on it. The group communicates in a nice mash-up of franglais, and we really make the effort to be understood in both languages. I've had my facebook language set to francais for over two months now, no plans to change it either. Marie-France and Jessica help to keep the French language alive and efficient.
A picked up a long-time longed-for Montreal souvenir this weekend. On the way to our last big French class at Ville-Ray I got of at Saint-Laurent Metro to buy a really special T-shirt. In the old blog "Katimaparty", I mentioned it took us far too long to find a bar and we got a little lost. On this journey I walked past a store with a T-Shirt displayed in the window. It was black with the Montreal Metro map, and the train going by at the bottom. It was for sure the sounvir I wanted, but I lost the store like a balloon at Lynn Valley Days. The thing about those balloons is, you know which direction they went, but you can't get it back. Oddly enough, by Saturday night of this week we were once again trying to agree on a bar, when we found the wrong on. At Saint-Laurent, we found Foufouns Electrique, where we were supposed to meet the rest of the group. That was, until a drunken monster began to pick a fight with Andrew in the bathroom downstairs. So we left quickly. Two doors down from the evil place was Le Rock, and in the window of this store was my shirt, the very same store. The special part about it was the metro train displayed on the bottom left hand corner was going in the direction of Angrignon, the metro that take me home.
There's a lot I'm gonna miss from Montreal. Obviously the smoked meat at Schwartz's, and Yagel Bagel Curry near work. I'll miss riding the metro with my Katimafamily, especially when were acting weird, or in our pajamas. The economic freedom to buy what you needed. The social freedom to join the others at the bar. The people here are remarkable friendly, not exactly Nova-Scotia-Friendly, but very welcoming. I think a lot of people will write-off Quebec as a place full of angry French people who won't listen to your English, as least those are the naive assumptions I heard a lot of before Katimavik. There was the guy at Foufouns who was a hot headed jerk, there was a couple bad apples on the metro, there were some crazy McGill students, but I wouldn't let that tarnish the beauty of Montreal. Looking back on my original thoughts on the city, I'm glad I didn't know what I know now, because the surprise was the best part.
And tomorrow we fly out of here. We fly to Toronto and then to Thunderbay and then we take Bear Skin Airlines to Sioux Lookout, Ontario. I know it's the right time to leave. The house walls have been stripped, and the stuff has been packed up, and the tears have fallen and dried. It's sad to leave this behind, but at the same time we need to give Sioux Lookout a fair chance, and we need to go in with an open attitude. So tomorrow morning at 9:00am we leave our newest home, to fly blindly all day into a community we hardly know. It's an adventure.
Now that I've bought fresh batteries for my camera I can be sure to update these blogs with much more picture that weren't just stolen of facebook.
Finally, I have some update on the Apathy is Boring event. My picture and hug with Michaellle Jean is proudly displayed on their website:
http://www.apathyisboring.com/fr/the_facts/news/thank_you_call_to_action_montreal_2011
My speech is also up there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-XDvbcY_s&feature=related
and...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpupfT1mGAA&feature=related
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