Random Memories -- My Experience Studying Abroad in Montreal

 MONTREAL 2014

I actually forgot that I had this blog, so when I was skimming through my old Word files and found this update that I never ended up posting, I got really excited. I just got back from vacationing in Montreal for my spring break, so I guess that helps renew and enhance my experience abroad there this past summer.

Without further ado, here’s a list of some memories that pretty much sum up the fails and triumphs of my adventure.

At the top of Mont-Royal

RANDOM MEMORIES

• Waving goodbye to my mom at the train station and feeling equally excited and heartbroken as I left her to embark on my journey

•  Falling asleep several times on the train and wondering why in the WORLD I hadn’t booked a flight

• Getting completely, utterly lost in Montreal on the first night while trying to find the IGA

• Not being able to get into my dorm because my key wasn’t working and feeling like an idiot as I tried to explain this to Ebru during our first time meeting

The OU gals!

• Freaking out about my morning class to the point of making myself sick and having Professor Law-Sullivan come to my room to try and calm me down

• Wearing flip-flops on the day of our tour of Old Montreal and wanting to die when I got back to the dorm

• Khayriyyah paying $6 for a merely so-so piece of red velvet cake at the little café by our school

• Literally running at full-speed back to class that day because it suddenly starting down pouring

• Everyone in my class going to said café EVERY SINGLE DAY during our break in the morning

• Karine getting sick one day and so Taylor, Khayriyyah, and the rest of their class sitting in on ours

• Talking with Travis, Tyler, and Zella about my Michigan accent and comparing Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin

• Ebru going “I don’t know what you’re saying” when she encountered my accent with the word “dollar” having a shorter, nasalized “ahhh” sound

• Listening to all of these Québécois music videos in class and privately thinking “wtf are these people saying?!”

Climbing up Mont-Royal with Mary and Taylor!

• Losing Mary at the Metro while going over to Mont-Royal

• Finally climbing up Mont-Royal and gasping at the view while bonding with Mary and Taylor

• Having a few group dinners with the OU girls and feeling ourselves grow closer with each meal

• Figuring out the drama between Ebru, one of our classmates, and this woman who nobody could understand because she was Mexican and spoke Spanish all of the time

• Ebru spilling her entire $10 porn star drink because she was talking too animatedly about Britney Spears

• Tyler and I basically babysitting Taylor and Ebru because we were at the club with some rowdy people

• Taylor twerking like a champ in the club, which caught the attention of a lot of crazy drunk guys

Taylor, Ebru, and I at Piknic Electronik on a lovely Sunday in Montreal!

• Playing cards with Taylor, Tyler, and Jacob until 3 am after we got back that night

• Trying to get drunk but not being able to even though Ebru and Taylor made me chug beer, drink liquor, and take shots

• Going into the Casino of Montreal with Taylor and Ebru just to get free coffee and pop because we were early for the Piknic Electronik

• Taylor and I literally running from China Town to the dorms to Old Montreal to the dorms and then back to China Town because we were at the Piknic Electronic on one of the islands and had to go back to Old Montreal for our OU picture

• Splitting a pail of vodka lemonade and having some Smirnoff beer at the Piknic and STILL not feeling the LEAST bit intoxicated

• Getting just a little tipsy from hard cider (of all things) on a random Tuesday and so giggling and rambling about my innermost feelings

Hard cider at a really cool outside bar!

• Going to the pharmacy with Ebru and some of the others to find something to pop her blister and then giving her moral support back at the dorm when she finally popped it

• Karine asking for my name on the last day of afternoon classes and me answering “Mindy” because I was honestly so amused and annoyed that she hadn’t learned my name after 3 weeks

• Ebru helping me find my contact when it fell out of my eye while we were walking to Old Montreal at like midnight

Ebru and I on her last night in Montreal

• Ebru and I desperately trying to find a cool place to go to that night and then having to take a cab to Tokyo Bar because it started raining and we were far away from it

• Taylor pounding on my door at 8:30 the next morning because I was still sleeping after going to bed at 5am

• Having our last OU family dinner on our last night and realizing that we’d all never felt so full on the trip

• Going into the sex shop next to our school with Alex, Mary, Taylor, and Khayriyyah and then giggling furiously at all of the decked-out stuff

• Walking to class every single day with Taylor and the others and chattering about our homework and upcoming tests

• Desperately trying to use up my peanut butter and so resorting to eating peanut butter sandwiches every day

• Refusing to buy coffee grounds to make coffee in our coffeepot and just buying it at a café every morning

• Taylor and I squealing Ebru’s name and hugging her almost every time she came back to the dorm

My colocs! We were such a wonderful trio.

• Taylor and I teaching Ebru American slang and expressions when we really should have been talking to her in French

• Taylor and I watching all kinds of crazy YouTube videos and laughing like maniacs

• Feeling just so completely comfortable and at home in my dorm with my roommates and not wanting to leave

• Taking in the ambiance of it all and feeling so alive for the first time in a long time

• Coming home and wishing I was back in Montreal

I truly had a wonderful time, and even though I recently went back to Montreal, it just wasn't the same. They say some things just truly touch your heart and stay there forever, and my experience in Montreal is definitely one of those things. As I prepare to study abroad again (though this time in France), I'll always remember my first experience and deep down inside, I know that nothing will ever compare to this first, sweet slice of paradise.

Pre-Pre Departure: The Nerves

In just 46 short days, I’ll be heading off for Montreal, and I’ll be running blindly into the utter unknown that is Québécoise culture. I know most people blog about these types of things and make a big fuss about how excited they are, but I’m going to do something different for this pre-pre-departure post: I’m going to talk about what I’m truly, sincerely dreading. It’s encouraging to start with the bad and end with the good, right? Isn’t it sort of parallel to receiving the bad news first and then being relieved with the good news?

MISSING HOME

I won’t lie: I’m nervous and scared to be away from home for even a few measly weeks. It’s not exactly a secret that it’s only my mom and I at home, and it’s also not a secret that I moved in and out of the dorms at OU within weeks of the fall semester. I just really love my house and my dog (and Mom, of course), and I’m a fool for comfort and for habit. I worry that my entire lifestyle routine will be off-balance during my trip, and I worry that I’ll emotionally be longing for home and won’t take the time to truly appreciate my experience. I know this is completely natural and expected of a 20 year-old who still lives at home, but it’s nonetheless something that really rattles my nerves.

BEING INADEQUATE

So, I’m also a French major, and I read, write, listen to, and speak a lot of French. However, even though I have all these “qualifications”, how does this fully prepare me for living and breathing French 24/7? How will my “proper French accent” fit in with all the crazy French Canadians? Perhaps more accurately, how will my “obvious American accent” affect how the crazy French Canadians treat me? These pangs of anxiety keep me up at night and make me want to obsessively study every day of my life.

GETTING LOST/MISSING MY TRAIN

This is another agony of a naturally paranoid person. I can’t help it: I’m afraid I’ll get lost on my way to Montreal and never even make it to my classes. I’m traveling with a group of my classmates which in itself SHOULD make the entire ordeal easier, but there’s still a multitude of things that could go wrong. You never know what might happen, and like most human beings, the fear of the unknown plagues my very existence.

BEING AWKWARD

I’m typically a pretty friendly person, but I have the character flaw of being awkward around people. I start second-guessing what I say, worrying about what I sound like, hating the fact that I occasionally stutter due to the previous reasons; I ultimately feel ashamed of being so nervous and weird and feel certain that everyone hates talking to me. People hardly are actually upset with me and I know that it’s all in my head, but these anxieties thrown in with conducting myself in a foreign language feels like a recipe for disaster.

As depressing as this first post may be, these are some of the things that truly make my heart sink. They’re not unique in any way; pretty much every single person studying abroad feels like this at some point or another. Through posting about this, I hope to release and eventually relieve these fears, and I hope to be able to read back through them when it’s all said and done and laugh at how pathetically paranoid I was.

My next post shall be the true pre-departure post about packing and whatnot, and since I only went shopping once and bought about 3 pairs of capris, I am completely certain that the experience will be an absolute nightmare. Mais c'est la vie, donc allons-y!!