Called out

Peggy informed me that no, it does not count as a blog if it's never updated so I shall endeavour to do better in the future!

It's been a busy month, as always, but I'll go back to my last message and try to start from where I left off!

Towards the end of October I made it to the Halloween Haunt at Canada's Wonderland. It was amazing and so scary I almost pulled my friend's arm off! He was very staunch and never jumped, which was an excellent counter to my over-reactive non-stop freak out. There were ten houses and each was themed - fairy tales, steam punk, zombies, corn maze, swamp, asylum, pirates, vampires, knights and castles... The last three were the scariest for sure - I screamed and spun in circles and grabbed for a human shield. The pirate one was sneaky. I would check the dark corners for nasties and think I was safe, but they'd made it well so you couldn't even see the person in there! I'd look, relax, then be jumped at! It was overwhelming and a lot of fun, I'm definitely intending to go back. You can also go on the rides so we hit up Leviathon, which is the new rollercoaster with a crazy drop that feels amazing.

I've started taking a public relations course at the University of Toronto. Long term I'm very interested in corporate communications so I wanted to make sure that I would have the knowledge necessary for whatever role I find. The course has been very good in that way - lots of practical and hands-on lessons. We have a group project due in a couple weeks so that's been a focus (to the detriment of other things, like my social life.) I got lucky and my group is awesome - we're all working hard and I think we're on top, or even ahead, of things.

The first few weeks of November were very exciting, with two stand outs: I met Patrick Rothfuss and I went to Montreal.

Patrick first: For those not in the know, Patrick Rothfuss wrote an amazing fantasy novel called The Name of the Wind. Then he wrote an amazing sequel called The Wise Man's Fear. Stop reading my blog and go find the first one. No, really, it will be much more rewarding than listening to me ramble! Patrick was in town for a convention and made it to a local bookstore for a signing. He read stuff and answered questions and was generally entertaining and warm and fuzzy and nice and shiny. It was great, AND I got him to make a little video for Peggy AND I got a photo with him for me so it was overall an amazing experience.

Last weekend I went to Montreal with a (special) friend. I took a long weekend so we left on Thursday night. After a bit of an adventure finding our hotel we had three days to explore the city. Day one was an adventure around Old Montreal. With the cobblestone streets and alleys, and the view across the river - it was like a little piece of Europe. That night we went to a bar in the basement of another hostel for some dancing/drinking/socialising. They had live music from a band called Descalso, which was very good and I'd recommend looking them up.

Day two was the St Joseph Oratory - a lovely surprise that looks like a traditional basilica from outside but inside is delightful modernist architecture and art. The stained glass windows were beautiful and we had excellent timing to see the sun recreate the pictures on the wall next to them. From there we walked through the cemetery - reported to have more than a million people buried there! - which was beautiful. The historic section was interesting because usually those parts of graveyards are run down and a bit forlorn, but the Montreal graves were immaculate. I suspect there is some kind of city program to keep them in order, which is a lovely sentiment and I wonder how long they will maintain it. The look out in the park was next, watching a tour group of some sort do the pre-requisite "gangster style" and "jumping" photos.

After lunch, we hit the Museum des Beaux-Arts. Lots of great pieces, although I was marginally disappointed that they mention El Greco in the brochure but only had one painting, a portrait that didn't really show his distinct style. The Impressionist exhibit more than made up for it - a beautiful, almost chronological exhibit showing how the style developed. I'm a sucker for Degas so it was great to see so many of his works there.

That night we had poutine for dinner, it is a required activity for a tourist in the city, I believe. It was delicious but too much food. I think I ate the equivalent of two or three big potatoes, and I didn't even finish mine. Drinks at a lovely bar called The Piano Rouge (it did indeed have a red piano) which had a lovely bartender and I tried a few too many gin cocktails (pfff... no such thing as too many.) The big UFC fight was on, and it was important to my companion to see it so I spent half an hour watching half naked men try to dominate each other. I can think of worse ways to spend an evening but it would have been better if we had been able to get inside where it was warm!

Sunday was our last day so we went on a mission to a famous bagel place called Saint-Viateur for lunch. It lived up to its reputation and we picked up some bagels to take home with us. I didn't get to sleep until about 1am, which made Monday somewhat painful.

This weekend I have study group and a movie night, so it won't be quite as exciting, but I do need a break so I can ever buy groceries and do laundry!

Hope you're all well and starting to get amped up for the holidays. I'm very excited and just posted gifts for my family. Not entirely sure how/where my Christmas/New Year is going to line up but I'm excited regardless - and very grateful that it hasn't snowed here yet!