By angusmack101
I've only been doing four subjects this semester. I figured I'm only in DC for half a year and I didn't want to lose too much of this precious time to assignments and readings. It's turned out to be a pretty solid decision so far; I've had more than enough time to explore the city and enjoy myself while comfortably staying up-to-date with uni work. My cruisey first half-semester seems to be at an end however, as all four of my professors have dropped major assessments over the fall break. This would be manageable if not for the fact that I've left DC to spend a week in Montreal and haven't started any of them. But Montreal is fun, so let's focus on that.
Being the thrifty student I am, I opted for the cheapest possible tickets available to fly in over the break. That meant a 3 p.m. flight out of DC with a four-hour layover in Toronto, which I figured would give me ample time to start some of that work I'd been putting off. This didn't exactly go to plan however, as the lightning-fast WiFi and complimentary snacks distracted me for the entire break prior my second flight. My Australian girlfriend Alice is on exchange at McGill, so I caught a bus downtown and found her just before midnight. I had yet to touch an assignment.
You know normal countries don't make you take off your shoes, right?
Montreal itself is a nice enough city. Day one was sunny enough to warrant hiking up Real, the city's titular mont, and by that evening I'd met up with a bunch of exchange students at McGill to watch the hockey. Ice hockey doesn't really exist in Australia, so this was the first time I'd sat down to more than a few seconds of it and I've got to hand it to the Canadians—it's an excellent spectator sport. I'm a firm believer that having too many rules is the enemy of entertaining sport, and I was glad to see the players echoing that sentiment with their casually aggressive attitude to violent play. Combined with cheap Canadian beer and a constant fear of being smacked in the teeth by a rogue puck, ice hockey is a truly brilliant experience.
Honestly the most satisfying part of the game
The rest of my trip so far has been composed of touristy expeditions to museums and landmarks, as well as a particularly good jazz bar in Old Port. I've tried my best to sample as much of the local cuisine as possible, and it's been generally enjoyable. The local practise of dipping rather than smearing bagels in cream cheese is a curious and welcome change, and an unassuming Mexican bar in Chinatown turned out to have some the best tacos I've ever tried. I was sorely disappointed by poutine however, it just doesn't live up to the hype. The UK has had chips and gravy for decades; don't try and tell me cheese curd is enough to turn it into a cultural icon.
Canadian poutine vs. Australian HSP. Tell me which one looks more appetizing…
My record: 46 seconds
attended many conferences about life in GWU and DC, academics, housing, health, registration… We also had many trips to Target, banks, phone providers. Having these activities was really helpful especially when you don’t know anything about the life in the US. But I bet you don’t want to know more details about these so let’s move to the fun part of the orientation. We had a US Capitol tour, the White House and moonlight monuments tour. In Morocco, we didn’t study anything about America in any of our high-school history classes. So, I really loved being in the heart of the American history and getting to know more about the culture and the stories of previous presidents. (FACT: Did you know that a bathtub where a certain president died is still in the Capitol).
