shapes & shadows

It's been a rather insane work week, so doubly glad to see it winding down.

The birthday cards continue to arrive~filling the end of my day with good cheer.

Beautiful November.

yo-yoing

Always tough to go back to work after a holiday~and today's traffic didn't help that. Surprised that my emails weren't crazier, but if there had been another 6 in that icon, I would not have opened them. 

Some snarky pencils from a colleague (one who disappeared mid-day with no explanation. Ended up filing a missing person's report with the police by EOB. Turns out her meds had been changed and she remembers nothing of this day. We are all relieved that she drove safely somewhere and slept. V. exciting to have to call someone's emergency numbers and ask if they know where the person is.)

Beautiful bracelet from Adriana~while she didn't make it, she told me that it's traditional Colombian beading.

Truffles and these fun mugs from another colleague~one who does not of this blog! I was thrilled to find joyeux.

Maybe my new hat needs to celebrate my next year in France?

that moment when

a friend sends you a hat so marvelous, that you must grab your passport and take the jaunty bow on a trip.

Wait. What? I have to go to work. Bah.

feet on the ground

Pretty much the perfect birthday~a bit of sleeping in, shopping at Trader's, lunch with my favorite blondes (the littlest niece also has black suede boots), the briefest of naps while my middle niece watched a movie, and then dinner with the entire family.

A present with googly eyes!!!!

Five new wishes.

The 'phew was introduced to spray whipped cream tonight, so he had to serve everyone. Hilarity.

Came home to many cards in the mail and a plethora of wishes from students/friends from around the world. And best of all, this quote from a card:

"I still have my feet on the ground,

I just wear better shoes."

~Oprah Winfrey

Here's to Act II.

those surly bonds

One last walk around the very chilly block before hopping into a taxi.

One block over from Rue St. Nicholas.

The French-speaking to me is not hat specific. I wasn't wearing it today as I knew the airports would be vastly overheated. I am standing ON the curb with my gigantic suitcase beside me and a couple comes up and asks me where their doctor's office is. While I didn't know the specific address, I did know where the huge hospital was and guessed that individual offices were in that block. I sent them on their way~hope they made their appointment...

I think it's a chipmunk?

I would like to drive somewhere where it's kph (yes, I know it's listed on my speedometer, but it's tiny print). We blasted to the airport at 125. It's odd to me to sit and watch the propellor spin (where the free seats are) on these tiny planes. 

Flying in/out of Toronto, you spend a great deal of time pondering how chilly and how vast Lake Ontario is. Remember those photos of Niagara freezing over?

There's something both exhilarating and tortuous about air travel~one moment you are marvelling that you are crunching away on your snack so far above the earth. And the next, you are ready to stab your seat mate who is man-spreading all into your space (and this was a tiny woman, so really no excuse for her.)

I sailed through customs and my checked bag was waiting~only 20 minutes from plane to curb.  Found my car and rememebered vaguely how to drive. Came home to kiss every inch of my top-floor flat; looking forward to sleeping in a quiet, modern building tonight.

Here's to the second half of my life!

bien manger

 

Loved this ad/art/poster.

Forgot to add that I tried cacao juice at my chocolate tasting on Friday. It was...strong. Had flavors of lychee and/or pineapple...and something like 45 grams of sugar.

Don't know if it's winter, but the cafes in my 'hood seem to have whimsical hours, but I finally got into the closest crepery. When they say that they've won national awards for their latte art, they are not joking. 

Joie & I were thrilled to have a magical sea horse on our coffee. 

It's going to be hard to leave all the food in this city; there's definitely a French obsession with good flavors.

The bells started ringing just as I climbed the steps to attend a liturgy at Notre Dame~the organ and the choir were lovely and I managed to keep up in French.

Odd to see the Virginia art motto here.

I thought it was my darling felt with the jaunty bow hat that was prompting all the French spoken to me~even the shop keepers and wait staff use it solely to me. But. I discovered that Rue St. Laurent (named after the river, natch) splits the island into an English side and a French side and I'm staying on the French side.

I've a new appreciation for the mental exhaustion that all my ESL students live with using a bilingual brain. 

charme et enchante

Just back in my flat after six solid hours of walking. A gorgeous sunny day and a charming local tour guide. I will post my own photos when I'm back in the US and don't have to pay roaming charges to upload them off my phone. (okay, I caved~I really wanted to see all my photos.)

We kicked off the tour with a falafal sandwich. Next was another chocolate shop with caramels and chocolat chaud~which was needed. Our guide was full of interesting tidbits about geography, history, architecture, etc. But standing in the briskness of -13, it was hard to absorb all of it.

Since the door was unlocked, our guide took us into the Theatre Rialto which you may want to Google if you're interested in architectual history. Am too lazy to embed links right now.

Then, we had an incredible bagel. I will admit that of the list of foods we were having, I wasn't very excited about this stop. But my mouth was blown away. Montreal bagels are different from New York's variety, but this particular shop bakes them in a wood-fired oven and they have that perfect crust that comes from that.

(This will be far more interesting with photos.) Next up was gnocci with sauce so fresh, you'd think you were eating a tomato in August. We huddled in the factory to eat our treat as it was a kiosk stand.

We then hit a chacuterie where I enjoyed extra cheese instead of meat with some snappy cornichons.

We finished with chocolate bread~which is an item, I would have never chosen out of the boulangerie. It looked like a dinner roll, but it was a party in the mouth.

While I am done with the sliding around on iced-over sidewalks, the charm of Montreal has won me over.  Which is good, because when I win the lottery, I will come to do my doctorate at McGill and live on the divineness of good bread.

out/aboooot

Made it to Hippi Poutine~one of the few places that makes a vege version. As I said~all the elements are delicious, but together I find it strange. French fries in brown gravy, yes. And I love the squeak of eating cheese curds, but am not sure I like them in this dish. But I can see the deep appeal of this in a cold climate.

Anyway. It was nice to order in French, and sit in a crazy cafe watching the huge snowflakes go by and to hear American rockabilly playing.

Continued my outing today with a chocolate tasting at this new beans-to-bar shop. No one else showed up, so I got to have a private tasting all in English. Lots of fun and some delicious chocolate enjoyed.

I guess I was in a non-touristy area today~had French speakers coming up to me to ask directions. I have zero idea why. Maybe because I get into my city-walking mode which is mostly New York in attitude. And, forunately, I know how to say: Je suis desole, mais c'est mon premiere temps dans ce rue et je ne sais quoi. Montreal is quite navigateable with the St. Laurence on the east and Mont Royal smack in the middle of the city.

Tomorrow brings a lovely walking food tour.

on the third day,

tourists are asking me for directions. Bits of snow are blasting, so the outdoors was only briefly visited. It's an excellent day for hot bread and tapinades and cheeses and, best of all? The time to read an entire book in one afternoon.

Finally in vacay mode where it's blissful to simply sit and stare out the window.