Four days and counting...

Greetings from the Westmount Starbucks! Neither the Lacey's nor Ang and I have internet access at home yet, but I have discovered that there is a Starbucks just 7 blocks from our house where I can get free wireless access. So... here I am, sitting in a comfy chair with my laptop, drinking a tea, updating my blog, and checking my email. The place is packed right now and probably half of the people in here are intently working on their laptops.

Anyways, this is actually quite relaxing! I could handle making myself a Starbucks regular until we get internet access at home... as long as I never get anything more expensive than my $1.94 tea (which is relatively affordable for my currently unemployed budget).

So, I have now been in Montreal for 4 days since I arrived on Tuesday evening. Let's see if I can recap those 4 days for you...

Wednesday:
Once I eventually got out of bed (I was sooo tired from Tuesday's adventures), I went over to my new apartment with Ang, Rachel, and the girls and brought the suitcases that the Lacey's had brought back to Montreal for me. Then Ang and I went to check out IKEA. I didn't actually buy anything though because I was so tired that I wasn't really thinking clearly enough to make any decisions. Ang did buy a kitchen table and chairs from IKEA, so we put together the chairs before we got really hungry and needed to eat.

I hadn't seen Guy yet since I'd been in Montreal, but I talked to him on the phone and he explained to me the reason for all of Tuesday's delays in the Toronto airport. The APU (auxiliary power unit) in the plane wasn't working, which was the cause of most of the delays (except for the crash of the computer system). It all made much more sense once Guy had explained everything to me. :) For those of you who don't know, Guy is a pilot with Air Canada.

For dinner, Ang made one of her favorites... for HER birthday dinner. Yes, it was Ang's 23rd birthday and she made dinner for me! I know that doesn't make sense, but I didn't have any groceries and I was REALLY tired and out of it by that point. After dinner, I went back to the Lacey's, chatted with Rachel until midnight (I must have gotten my 3rd or 4th wind to be able to stay up that late) before going to bed. I slept at the Lacey's again because of my continuing lack of a mattress and bedding.

Thursday:
All of the boxes that I had shipped from Victoria to Montreal arrived, so Ang and I spent at least an hour carrying all of the boxes up the 3 flights of stairs to our apartment. Nope, we don't have an elevator, so it was good exercise, to say the least! Afterwards, Ang and I put together her kitchen table, but the glass table top was scratched so it was still in an incomplete state... By the way, I think that IKEA's “some assembly required” statement is a bit of an understatement!

In the afternoon, Rachel, the girls, and I went to the library, which is only 2 blocks away from where we live. Half of the books are in French and the other half are in English, so Taylor got some books to help her learn the French words for different things. Then we went to check out la piscine (the pool) that is just down the street from the library. Imagine our surprise when the guy at the pool told us that it is free to use the facility! Yep, it's free! How sweet is that, eh? I love doing laps, so I could go to the pool almost every day to do laps if I wanted to.

For dinner, Rachel and I took Ang out for her birthday. We went downtown to St. Catherine's Street and walked around until we found somewhere to eat. I seriously can't remember the last time that I was that cold! A couple of times we had to duck into stores to try and warm up for a few moments before continuing on in our search for a restaurant. Once we found a restaurant, I think I was defrosting for most of the time that we were there. I had the weirdest feeling in my legs while they were warming up... almost like pins and needles but much worse!

Friday:
Ang and I spent the afternoon shopping at IKEA and Wal-Mart and I bought a bunch of stuff that I needed. Afterwards, Ang wasn't feeling well, so she went to bed and I spent the evening hanging out at the Lacey's house.

For dinner, Taylor made really good nachos, which was quite impressive! Taylor had even gone shopping for all of the groceries with Guy. After dinner, Taylor and I did the dishes and chatted. I don't think that Guy could believe that Taylor had actually enjoyed doing the dishes, but she really did. :)

The Lacey's let me borrow Taylor's foam mattress, so I took the mattress and all of my luggage back to my apartment and slept in my new home for the first time.

Saturday:
The only way to describe today is as a day of laziness. I just hung out at home and really did very little at all. In fact, I didn't even get out of my pyjamas until 5:00 pm! Then Ang's parents arrived with a van full of furniture for our apartment. Ang now has a bed and doesn't need to sleep on the floor anymore, I have a dresser and a desk, and we have some living room furniture. Hallelujah, we don't need to sit on the floor anymore!

Ang's parents brought a mattress that they are going to sleep on in the living room for the next two nights and they are going to leave it with me to use until they come back in the summer. So that's awesome because I don't need to buy a bed right away.

Well, that's all that I can write for now because the Starbucks is about to close! And this is one looong blog post anyways... I'll update again soon, with more details about life in Montreal and the first gathering of Victory Heights International (which is tomorrow).