Aaron's Adventures

[geometrymatters]

'Tis the season to be geometric.

This project isn’t about raising a fixed sum of money, rather, to spread science and wonder! A paperwork zine that explaines snowflake growth in the context of paper snowflakes.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800815304/scientifically-accurate-snowflakes/description

© Robby Kraft, 2014

[mathfuloctopus]

6 October: Hello, Fredericton! And happy birthday to me!

We woke up at 7:00 today (so early!) inside of a tent (awesome!) in the middle of a forest (doubly awesome!). Rather amusingly, we were not as far from a trail as we were hoping. Though we had certainly walked far from the one we left the previous night, we had set up camp right next to a different trail! This resulted in nothing more than awkward hellos to a kind gentleman walking his dog, while we were packing up the tent. 

After packing up, we each had a Cliff bar, and started the long march out of the forest (still with giant backpacks). The hike was absolutely unreal. Everything was so pretty! It was absolutely unbelievable and I wish that I could start every birthday like this. 

Hiked into city down giant hill, and ate breakfast at Cora's. Made a reservation at a Knight's Inn, and then walked around for a bit until we decided to take a cab because the Inn was a 1.5 hr walk from where we were. Super friendly cab driver who was really funny. Sketchy-looking in that was actually much nicer than many un-sketchy hotels I've stayed at. Dropped our stuff off, and then took a gorgeous nature trail back into the city. We walked up and down the two main streets (King street and Queen street) during the day/afternoon. Here, we discovered a café called Cinnamon which served shisha. 

We also found a store full of nerd things! What are the odds. Of note are their clever ties, Toki Doki stickers, and a game that my friend Kerry would like. 

By the time dinner came, we went to The Lunar Rogue (the best rated pub in town) for a birthday pint! The waitress was a little too friendly (or at least too much personal space invasion). Since happy hour was 17-19h and half price apps was 19h onwards, we left after a pint, and walked across a giant bridge to the north shore to watch the sunset. We spun poi and had fun while a gorgeous sun set over the gorgeous river, and then we went back for half price apps and scotch. 

Their nachos are unreal (totally worth the $7 we paid!), and their scotch selection was in a giant book!  Tried an Ardbeg 10 year and a Peat Monster

Cassie got a LaPhroaig Quarter Cask and an Old Pulteney. 

After this, we enjoyed a gorgeous walk back along the trail to our hotel. 

[mathfuloctopus]

5 octobre: on voyage à Frédéricton

Today, we woke up at a reasonable hour, went on a food-making spree while we hung out with Maude, and then planned our travels to the same gas station where we were dropped off. It is here that we would meet our new ride-share - David. 

He was really cooly - a Francophone born in Montréal, who wound up doing a Poli Sci degree and then joining the military (air force). He got a Master’s in public administration (paid for by the Military). He’s done tours all over the world - from Congo to Afghanistan and/or Iraq. He had very well-developed opinions about “the state of the world” as a result. Moreover, he took a very humanist perspective, which was much less top-level than what you ever here about or read about. Nevertheless, he still made it very clear how one connects the small-scale first-person with the grander picture.

We only stopped once along the way - Edmunston, New Brunswick. Here, we grabbed Subway for dinner. Since they had avocado and spinach, it was delicious. We quickly continued on our journey, thereafter, but not before grabbing coffee from McDonald’s and trying to take a selfie in front of the sunset (this never really works the way you want it to).

We arrived in Fredericton after dark, and it turns out that the Hostelling International hostel that we were hoping to stay at is actually closed forever! David was kind enough to drive us to Odell Park, where we camped out for the night. 

This thing is huge: a 400 acre park in the middle of the city! Moderately dense forest, super beautiful old rocks that are covered in moss, and tonnes of gorgeous hiking trail running through it. Getting to set up our [guerrilla] camp around 22h with our only light being our headlamps was really exciting. The earlier rain caused drops to fall from trees onto other leaves and the forest floor, making it sound like there were either bears or people nearby - fortunately, we knew this was an illusion! 

[mathfuloctopus]

4 octobre: la musée de la civilisation

Today, we went to la musée de la civilisation. The first exhibit, Frame x Frame, showcased Canadian animation and film over the years, from the foundation of the Canadian Film Board to the stuff that I remember from when I was a kid, to "the future of animation". There were lots of really neat things, from cursory explanations of rotoscoping and pixillation to showings of famous Canadian animations which focused on prominent social issues of the time. There were also interactive exhibits in this area; Cassie and I used the only working one to make our own stop motion animation (viewable here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suGHM6PgXRo ). It took a surprisingly long time to make such a short film. I certainly have even more respect for the people who do this for a living. 

The next exhibit was something that we were less interested in. This prompted us to get snacks, in lieu of imbibing nationalistic identity. From here, we went to the third exhibit, Les maîtres de l'Olympe ( https://www.mcq.org/fr/exposition?id=23566 ). The exhibit showcased the Museum of Berlin's collection of really old marble sculpture things that a whole bunch of Greek people made between 2000 and 2500 years ago. Their size, detail and how well they were preserved were the things I found most astonishing. There were feet and busts that were bigger than Cassie and I combined --- items originally belonging to 9 meter-tall marble statues, which have remained largely pristine/unbroken/uneroded over the past ~2000 years. Cassie remarked on how many of the 12th-15th century sculptures of Italians, British, French, etc. were nowhere near as well-preserved (their materials were not as durable). Neat.

They say you're not allowed to take photos, but they don't tell you until after you take them. 

In the afternoon/evening, we walked around Petit Champlain where there were tonnes of cute shops, galleries and other things. Mostly, it was nice to see how old the area was, since Cassie and I aren't all that big on the touristy stuff. 

Also, we saw neat art installations, where funny pictures were taken. This photo was taken while I galloped through an entire alleyway covered in orange and pink pool noodles. So much fun! See Cassie's sister blog for other ridiculous [fun] art installations around the city. 

We shared the tour of Petit Champlain with a whole bunch of tourists froma  cruise ship --- the Norwegian Dream or something like that. It will turn out that we also see this ship (and one other) in both Saint John *and* Halifax --- what are the chances!? Near the same area as the cruise ships was a cool art installation - clearly a tribute to Andy Warhol - which I really enjoyed. 

It was raining for most of the afternoon and evening, and I (for some reason) decided it was a great idea to wear sandals. So I got to feel more hardcore than everyone else and be a "good Canadian example" to all of the (mostly Chinese) tourists. 

In the evening, we wanted to go back to Bureau de Poste, but it was absolutely packed, so instead we decided to go elsewhere. We wound up at a Thaï Express again. But this time, we went prepared! Turns out the restaurant is Apportez Votre Vin! Enter: delicious Thai food paired with one of the cheapest reds money can buy!

We enjoyed our dinner for longer than expected and left the restaurant after it had closed. In our confusion, we then hopped on a bus that didn't actually go the right way. Getting off a little down the block in the pouring rain, we very quickly managed to find a board game café in which to take shelter! We played Roll Through the Ages and hung out until we decided to go back to Maude's and Alex's. I recommend this game :-)

[mathfuloctopus]

3 Octobre: Marais du Nord - Narshes of the Morth

Today, Maude offered to drive us to Marais du Nord - a conservation area about 20 minutes outside of Québec! It was a really cheap way of experiencing some of the gorgeous scenery surrounding the city; the conservation area had more than 8 km of trails, with cute informational signposts along the way :-)

Representing Toronto, we walked all 8 km of the trails in under 20 minutes and then went to a café to write on our Macbooks and talk about beard products. 

But actually, we stopped to read every single informational signpost (all written in French!), and sat at a few rest stops to consume left-over samosa chili. We saw minks, ducks, mésanges (tits) and squirrels; climbed a lot of hills; saw a lot of rocks; and tonnes of gorgeous trees baring their autumn colours. The day was a lot of fun! Tonnes of nature seeing, tonnes of fact-learning, and tonnes of goofing around. We also found our first Québecois Geocache (ou GéoRallye). 

A weird tree near the beginning of the trail. An example of how new stuff can grow out of old stuff. 

Cassie looking grandly into the forest. 

Cassie is happy to have coffee. 

Ferns are pretty!

Cassie staring grandly into yonder forest.

Forest + lake!

Forest + sky!

Pretty leaf.

View from the top of one of the trails. 

Cassie walking through trail.

Trees, yo. 

[mathfuloctopus]

2 Octobre: on n'a rien fait

Originally, there was talk of going to a museum, but we slept in too late for that. Realizing this, we decided to have a catch-up day. 

We bought tonnes of groceries from Provigo, made an even better incarnation of vegan samosa-inspired chili in the evening, and I have no idea what else we did in between! We probably also snacked on hummous and raspberries, but not at the same time, because that would be absurd. Probably. 

After eating lots of the aforementioned chili, we decided to make ourselves feel like we did something today... So we walked through gorgeous Québec to La Barberie - a local microbrasserie with ultra-delicious beer (and four different dark beers to choose from) - where we proceeded to drink all of their beer. 

Part-way through, Cassie demanded that we go on a mission to get Poutine, because (conversely to so many restaurants in Québec), the brasserie was "apportez votre aliments". Unfortunately, Québec is not very vegan-friendly (w/r/t poutine); fortunately, it's still possible to find super delicious fries at a random convenient store! The fries certainly improved the beer-drinking experience :-)

Maybe tomorrow will be more productive~

[mathfuloctopus]

1 Octobre: Une journée entière à Québec

For the first time in a month, Cassie and I woke up feeling refreshed after a very comfortable night's sleep - the hostel beds were stupendous! The hostel breakfast was a typical continental one --- can't complain; they had coffee. I poured myself a bowl of cereal before realizing that they would only have cow milk, so I mixed in oatmeal and hot water. It was tasty, but required honey and peanut butter to make it truly delectable. Give it a shot :-)

Auberge Internationale has a fantastic number of free services if you stay there. You can continue to use their Internet and kitchen all day long after checking out, and they also have a free locker room where you can leave your backpack. So, thankfully, we were able to drop off our heavy bags and spend the rest of the day with our day packs and flip flops (instead of hiking boots / cross-trainers). 

We checked out of the hostel, because Maude and Alex very, very, *very* graciously decided to let us stay at their place while we're in town. While Cassie or I may have met Maude once before, she is friends with Kendall, who put in a good word for us. The plan is to repay them in vegan samosa chilli, vegan pancakes and/or glüwein - hopefully they like these things!

We spent the first half of the day walking around new parts of the city. We walked down a lot of hills and stairs, until we came upon a very nice park with a pretty water installation. Then we continued further into the city toward St-Joseph, where we found a MEC and proceeded to spend a lot of money. Eventually, we came upon the Brûlerie - a coffee place with a very nice atmosphere, and three levels, which I found to be very neat. The café art was gorgeous (as can be expected from café art?). 

Street art that we saw during the walk from vieux Québec to downtown.

From here, we decided to walk to Parc Victoria to spin poi and juggle. We found a lovely spot by the river that runs through the park, and juggled and spun until we met up with Maude and Alex for the first time. The four of us hung out by the river until we each had to part ways to run errands, and decided to meet back at their place. 

Parc Victoria near Rivière St. Charles

We left the park to get our bags, but first had to stop to eat food - delicious food! On Maude's suggestion, we went to Bureau de Poste, where EVERYTHING COSTS FIVE DOLLARS. Cassie got a super tasty veggie burger which came with super delicious sweet potato fries, and I got a delicious Asian Noodle Thing (the menu basically said this). Oh yeah, their onion rings are da' bomb. 

Then we got our bags, took a bus, and obviously missed our stop. Fortuitously, they live right next to the last stop of the 28, so it was a 2 minute walk. (keep reading for an example of where we were equally inattentive, but much less fortuitous!)

It was really easy to spot where they live --- there's a psychedelic banner and giant smiley face with rave slogan which are both visible from their front window! Their place is super clean, very spacious, and filled with awesome things (especially cats). They each have their own collections of things they love: Maude, cybergoth clothing; Alex, Transformers stuff (games, figures, books, ...). Super impressed with their ability to make their space their own, and to have it look super cool (my places never look this cool). 

Also, they have a DDR mat, and basically every song collection for Step Mania//DDR. Cassie was ultra-excited. I had fun dancing on easy mode. Both Maude and Cassie are super talented at it; it was neat to see that they each had different styles / preferences for which types of dances they liked to do. 

[mathfuloctopus]

30 September: Nous arrivons à Québec

Today we woke up early to catch a rideshare from Métro Berri-UQAM to a gas station in Sainte-Foye Québec. We did so well for waking up that we were able to grab coffee before having to head to the subway for one last ride. While I'll really miss Montréal, I was ecstatic that I would never have to sleep on that horrible bed ever again, and hopeful that our future living spaces would be much cleaner. 

The rideshare was frightening - the guy swerved a lot, and we couldn't tell if it was because he was falling asleep (my guess) or in a lot of pain (Cassie's). But whatever, it was less than half the price of a Greyhound ticket to the same destination (and their driving may not have been much better). Upon our arrival, we went to a café to get our bearings. We had a reservation at Auberge Internationale in Vieux Québec. After eating something at the café, we took the 800 into the downtown area - St Jean. and d'Youville (roughly). We walked into *gorgeous* Vieux Québec (under giant stone gates demarcating the neighbourhood), and got lost (somewhat literally) in the beauty of our surroundings. After a brief detour, we found our hostel and solidified our sojourn in Vieux Québec by booking a private hostel room --- $35/ea., which included breakfast in the morning. The room was far nicer than many hotel rooms I've stayed in, and the decor was pretty. The room looked into a courtyard of many stone buildings that looked old, and was generally quiet and spacious (for a hostel, this seems unexpected, right?). We explored along St. Jean and wound up down along the river. We each remembered visiting the area as kids, but had each forgotten certain parts. After trying to invade Le Château Frontenac, we wound up at La Citadelle, and strolled along the trails on top of the walls for a while; snapped some pretty pictures, and then headed to find food. We wound up at a Thaï Express, because everything else was geared towards people who wanted to imitate carnivores, or people with bottomless pockets. Then we hung out in the basement of the hospital and coded for a bit / updated our blogs / created my blog. Overall, a super pleasant day! It felt very relaxing, and was nice to tour the area outside. 

"Fine, I'll let you take a picture"

Vieux Québec, Nouveau Cruise Ship

Le Château Frontenac

Une grenouille.

[mathfuloctopus]

Montréal

I really wanted to start writing a blog to keep track of my adventures while travelling, but apparently I was lazy during the month of September. So, I'll try to wrap up Montréal in a single post, and continue with the rest of the journey. 

3 Sept: My bus from Toronto arrived in Montréal at about 2200h. Cassie greeted me at the Megabus station with a smile, and promises of Unibroue beer when we reached our temporary new abode for my first time! The walk from the Greyhound station was a long one, but partly because we took a wrong turn once or twice. Fortunately, this resulted in our getting to see what looked like the King-and-John-Street-of-Montréal - later revised to St. Denis near Sherbrooke. 

Upon arrival at our new place on Rue Hogan, I was surprised with how spacious it was! A flat just "north" of Rue Ontario, it had two bedrooms, a living room and an enormous kitchen! There was tonnes of interesting looking deco; it was nice to see that the place was well lived in. 

4 Sept: In the afternoon, we visited Tyler in Griffintown. The lofts felt like a Montréal version of the Vulcan lofts in Oakland --- filled with tonnes of circus people, artists, and cool and interesting people of all types. As always, it was super fun to hang out with Tyler. We hung out in his loft for a bit and met his roommates, and then he showed us around while the sun set. We wound up on the roof of the loft (to get there, you have to climb the most rickety set of fragile-looking stairs I'd ever seen in my life), yielding an incredible-looking view of the surrounding area and the sunset, promising a surely fantastic place to spin fire [foreshadowing]. After hanging out on the roof for a bit and meeting more awesome people, we wound up walking to a nearby park on the canal to sit on a bench-thing, talking until it was time to part ways to sleep. 

A cool building just outside Lucien l'Allier. 

Park and sunset near the loft. 

5 Sept: On the Friday, Cassie's sister blog tells me that we explored the plateau region. I definitely remember starting out the morning by walking down Rue Ontario to Papineau, where we found a really pleasant French-style café: La Fabrique Arhoma. There coffee was super delicious, the barista super friendly, and their baguette très savoureux. From there, our mission was Montréal-style bagels! And where better to go than Fairmount!? It started to rain very heavily in the later afternoon, so we ran into the first place we saw, which turned out to be a bar with an - interesting - aesthetic (it was a cross between a metal bar and a country bar maybe? With a mechanical bull). 

In the evening, we made our way to John's place (I no longer remember where it is; maybe near Jarry?). It was a very nice place, with lots of cool knick-knacks. He made us a lovely dinner, and then we watched a couple episodes of Star Trek: TNG. 

Aforementioned bagels.

Also, there was some gorgeous street art outside our place that we got to enjoy every day.

6 Sept: It rained during the next day, so I did a bit of math, or something, while Cassie updated her blog. We then watched a couple episodes of DS9, at which point we got a call from Tyler around 1600h asking us if we wanted to go to "a thing where there's lots of lights in a forest". Sounding like it's right up our alley, we obviously said yes, and rushed over to his place. When we met up with Tyler, it was surprising to see that Katie was also there - someone I went to high school with!! Haley, you have cool friends! We also met Alisha, who turned out to be really fun, and very talented at silks. 

The forest-with-lights-thing was called Foresta Lumina. It was about 2.5h outside of Montréal by car, and was an immersive art installation that creatively envisioned a Québecois legend that exists in the area. Something to do with a devil, and some girl, and the girl has to bring a rock into a valley in order to make her wish come true --- which has to do with making happiness come back to the land, or something else like that. What I remember most strongly is the quality of the installation. The aforementioned valley was illuminated by projections of thousands of tiny dots, which shone onto the rocks and the trees and everything around us. Another part of the forest had bright white bars of light attached to trees, whose rhythmic flashes served to mimic lightning, to which there were accompanying thunder noises from other parts of the forest. 

Entrance to Foresta Lumina - tonnes of floating lanterns, with really neat signs that told the story of the Québecois legend.

A cool bird sculpture-type thing made out of sticks. 

Magical gateway, guarded by Alisha and Cassie.

7-10 Sept: I have no idea what we did after this, really. I remember becoming progressively more aggravated that my Bixi key had not yet arrived in the mail, because I felt progressively more "stuck" in the east end of the city (since walking anywhere took ≥40 minutes). In retrospect, I should have sucked it up and took transit. Oh well! It was a productive week, math-wise, at any rate. 

Oh, at some point, Cassie and I missioned out to MEC to get sleeping pads, and buy shoes. She also got her septum and nostril pierced, at which point I bought a pair of really cool-looking Octopus leggings (it's definitely not a squid.). Also, I got my hair cut at some point by Sarala, who we met at Tyler's loft on the first night. It looks amazing. Thank you, Sarala! 

Some pictures of a square in Vieux Montréal.

On the way home, we took a tour of the ports further "east".

Cassie's new haircut

My new haircut

11 Sept: I remember doing something fun during the day, but no idea what it was. In the evening, we made tonnnnnnes of delicious vegan chilli and then packed for Harvest festival! Cassie rented a car, and volunteered very graciously to tackle the 7.5 hr. ride to/from the festival (in Burke's Falls, ON). Accompanying her would be myself, Jay and Daniel. 

Potatoes for the festival!

12-14 Sept: On the morning of the 12th we woke up "early" to get the car, make breakfast and head off to the festival. It was a long ride, but altogether enjoyable. The countryside was very beautiful, and there was almost no traffic (only through Ottawa during rush hour, and while getting out of Montréal). We also got burritos just west of Ottawa --- what could be better!? 

I'm still loving how prepared Cassie and I were for this festival! Harvest is known for being extremely cold (northern Ontario in mid-September), and it was supposed to rain, to boot. Fortunately, I had found a new pair of shoes by this point (at MEC, go figure!) and was confident they would serve me well. They are Keens, and reviews stated that they were "Jeeps for your feet". They certainly were! My feet stayed dry and warm all weekend, as did the rest of me. Our tent is a very light, very well-designed two person tent that was big enough for just the two of us and our backpacks - perfect for keeping warm through the night (less ambient air to heat up). We also have -7°C-rated sleeping bags from MEC which are hella' comfortable. Actually, we joked (but were serious) about how we slept better in that tent than we did on the horrible "mattress" we had at our place on Hogan. More gloating: the amazingness of this tent also appears in its ability to keep keep dry, even when the ground is wet. This saved Cassie once in the field, and both of us at Harvest. We slept soundly until around noon, at which point we were woken up by people loudly lamenting how all of their things got wet. 

The Saturday was very rainy --- rained straight until around 1600h. As a result of this, the inside didn't get unbearably hot (like what usually happens at festivals). This made for a very comfortable experience overall. Upon leaving the tent, we adventured around for coffee, met up with friends, and then ran into a group of people setting up a Fraternity installation --- complete with kegs of cheap beer, and everything! They were really fun to interact with, but we eventually left to meet up with Dana, Roman and many, many others at their RV-thing for hot chocolate before the circus show. The circus show was unbelievable --- I knew most of the performers from either Tuesday night fire poi, or from CirQlar parties, but hadn't seen many of them perform before. It was really impressive to see the quality of some of their acts. Dan's stage presence and charm were fantastic during his fire eating routine; Wesley's silks routine was flat-out unreal; and Jasper's hand balancing act was very well put together.

The full Harvest festival experience was in full swing by the time the circus performance finished --- complete with Harvest soup, many stages playing many fantastic sounds and noises, and tonnes of general adventure! There was lots of running between fire pits, which also meant lots of potato roasting. Consequently, there was tonnes of great conversation with other Harvesters.

On Sunday, we hung out by one of the fires and drank coffee. A very cheerful and energetic woman invited all at the fire to her tent for crepes and music! Obviously we went. But we didn't want crepes. They were super friendly, and had very good music. Lots of fun to interact with. :-) The clean-up on Sunday was a breeze, since everything we brought fit into our two backpacks. Unfortunately, the parking lot had turned into a pool of mud over the weekend, and most people had to be towed out --- either by a pair of slightly disobedient horses, or by a tractor. Fortunately, Cassie and I lined up our path carefully, we she was able to make it to the far end of the parking lot with only a little pushing from myself and two very nice individuals willing to assist. Overall, despite the weather conditions, we both agreed that this is the best Harvest we'd been to (and some others said the same thing)!

The drive back was a long one, but we made it home! There was lots of loud music to keep us company, but both Jay and Daniel slept for most of the way. Actually, I think Jay slept for *all* of the way... The part of the trip that felt like the longest was probably after we dropped off Jay and Dan, and had to make our way back to our place --- on the other side of the city. At this point, it was getting quite late (midnight), and it was a little scary. But we made it 100% safely, with the help of way too much coffee (Mmm, coffee). Despite the absolutely horrid mattress, it felt incredible to lie down - fully showered and clean - after the long journey back from Burke's Falls. 

16 Sept: Today we had Peachy and his friend Emily over for a barbecue at our place! The food we made was absolutely incredible. We barbecued portobello mushrooms, beets (beets!), potatoes, eggplant, and most importantly: veggie skewers. The veggies skewers had pepper, half-cloves of garlic, onions, tofu, and maybe some other things. They were marinated, and then basted in a delicious "lemon-ginger-herb marinade using rosemary/thyme/basil picked fresh from the garden" marinade of Cassie's concoction. John, Annamaria (slept on our couch for a few days), Peachy, Emily and Sheena were in attendance (at various points) during the barbecue, each there at different times. John and Sheena came later, while Peachy and Emily left earlier so that they could get ready for school the next day. 

17 Sept: Today we went for Kouign Amann. Mmmmmmmmmmmm Kouign Amann. At this point, we also saw Max. Yay Max! We met him at St. Viateur for bagels and coffee. He then took off to move his car so he wouldn't get a ticket, while Cassie and I picked up Kouign Amann to take to Kendall's. There, we met back up with Max, and Kendall gave us the grand tour of her place --- which is huge, and is in the process of being re-done! The Kouign Amann was absolutely unreal. If there's one thing you should do in Montréal...

When we got home, we made samosa-inspired chili. It was super tasty! It featured peas and potatoes, as well as tandoori curry paste. Recommendation: always boil potatoes *before* adding them to your chili. We had to wait forever for them to cook. It was really, really worth it, though. See Cassie's sister blog for a recipe. 

18--22 Sept: During this period of time, I went back to Pickering to: see friends, bring a few things back to Pickering and most importantly, to attend my grandmother's 90th birthday party on Sunday. It was really fun to go back, even though I apparently missed a really incredible loft party in Griffintown. 

On the Thursday I went back to Pickering and slept in my supremely comfortable mattress, which I missed a lot! Even if I went back to Pickering solely to sleep on that mattress, it probably would have been worth the trip, given how awful the Hogan mattress is/was. But even better: I woke up on Friday, and got some studying done. Then I went downtown to meet up with Chris and Victor - we got delicious burritos (how I miss Burrito Boyz), and then we went to Victor's new place to play board games. I got to meet Isabelle and Ben for the first time. Isabelle is super cool and incredibly generous (with the amount of food- and space- and story-sharing that she does). I really enjoyed that she sings all the time. It's inspired me to sing all the time. I think I am slightly less bad at it now. Around 22h we went out VIP billiards at Yonge and Gerrard. It was in a basement that smelled musty, and maybe sort of like mould... But the pool was fun. At some point, Chris and I decided it was a good idea to play snooker... ahaha, it was super difficult (as expected). Fortunately, Anton came part way through, and helped us clear off the table! I hadn't seen him in ages, and it was nice to catch up. I hope I get a chance to see him sometime soon. On Saturday, I hung around for a while, and then hung out with Gaelan in the afternoon. In the evening, I visited Fractal Ocean - Eric and Ryry's Trance party, but had to leave early to catch the last train back to Pickering. On Sunday, I woke up early to meet with Bhautik for coffee in Ajax. Bhautik, you're the coolest. Thank you for coming all the way from Oshawa at 09h on a Sunday for hangouts over coffee. It was super pleasant to see you, and I really enjoyed our conversation! Afterward, it was 90th birthday partytimez. Both of my Aunts and Uncles were there, as well as most of my cousins (Matthew has been in Australia for ~ a year now, and may continue his travels for another!). My grandmother's friends (Pat and Clyve) of 57 years were also there! They hadn't seen each other in 4 years, so she was thoroughly surprised and delighted to have a chance to see them! Overall, the whole thing was lovely. In the evening, I went to the beach with my mother, where we played Scrabble over a cup of coffee, and chatted --- I feel like such an adult! When we got back, I started making a thing - a projection mapping thing. Processing seems to be a good tool to use, but it's like Mac OS X in that if you want to delve under the hood, it's difficult to find the more advanced documentation (and not all standard Java methods are shared with Processing). On Monday, I saw my father until it was time to go back. We had breakfast in Ajax, and then played three games of Snooker, and they all went pretty quickly (i.e., we didn't suck too badly)! Then commenced the long trip back to Montréal. I coded for basically the entire ride, and got a working prototype. It's far from being complete, but it feels good to have achieved a tangible goal. 

When I arrived in Montréal, I met Cassie in Parc Mont-Royal with Hunter, Iris and... someone whose name I forget. Cassie brought me "soup" she had made (it was more of a stew :P), I very thankfully consumed the delicious hot thing. Fire spinning was lots of fun!!

23 Sept: Today, Cassie and I explored McGill University, which was very beautiful. She finished knitting her hat today while we sat in a McGill library (so that I could study). Afterward, we went out for dinner at Lola Rosa. We each got their burrito, which was super fancy, and very, very tasty. From here, we hiked up the trail at the back of McGill to the top of Mont-Royal. An incredible view, as always. Except this time, I recognized more of the city, and it felt neat to be able to recognize certain landmarks. 

#mtlmoments

The view from above.

On the way back from Mont Royal we found an immersive art installation about labyrinths in the Village!

24 Sept: We went to the Botanical Gardens. They were unreal! So many beautiful, beautiful plants!! I loved the "usable plants" section the most --- everything from edible plants (Pumpkin, Eggplant, Corn), to herbs and spices (oregano, basil, 'n' stuff), to plants used for fabric (hemp, jute) and fabric dying (yellow dyes, brown dyes, and more!). There were also so many plans and herbs and stuff that smelled super delicious! 

The gardens were absolutely enormous. Towards the back of the gardens, there were forests of different kinds of trees: Spruces, Poplars, Maples, Birches of all sorts, and so much more. At the very back was the Arboretum or Tree House, where they had a lot of information about trees, as well as an adorable Bonsai garden, with so many cute plants! After this, we walked back through more beautiful gardens to get dinner at their restaurant. It was both super tasty and super fresh, as well as reasonably priced! From here, we grabbed tea/coffee, and went to check out the Japanese gardens, and Chinese gardens, where there was a Chinese lanterns exhibit which was really beautiful to look at. 

This day was so much fun. Exactly what I needed to take a break from studying, and from big city Mtl. Awesome idea, Cassie :-). On the way home, we explored the Olympic Stadium grounds. They were massive. They also had a really cool outdoor park-looking thing (giant obstacle course basically), but we never had to time to go back to try it out. Next time!!

A dahlia

Chinese Juniper

26 Sept: There was a sushi party this evening. I missed most of it so that I could study for the GREs. Sheena's friends seemed cool. We met some of them later at Tams on Sunday. 

27 Sept: GRE day!! To cheer me up afterward, Cassie and I went for brunch at Café Coop Touski. It was really delicious! Waiter was also super charming. And there was another server part way through who was unfathomably attractive. After this, we headed to the open house at l'Ecole Nationale du Cirque, where we saw several amazing performances from students, and got to learn some new juggling skills from a friend that we met at Tams, who works as an instructor at the school! After this, we went to a vegan food festival at UQAM, but it wasn't very good (it was too busy and the venue was too small). But eventually, we wound up at Dieu du Ciel on Laurier - the Unibroue home base! So many ultra-delicious beers :-) I got a stout and another thing, and Cassie got a ginger-y beer and the stout (because mine was so good). 

28 Sept: Today, we woke up and went to la Musée des Beaux Arts. There were many exhibits that ranged from 13th and 14th century works of art, to 20th and 21st century furniture design. The museum is laid out such that the top floor is the oldest stuff, and the bottom floor, the newest. We were led on a tour of the Romanesque period, through the Baroque, Rococo, Realist, Impressionist, and Neo-classicist periods (surely with some others in between; order may not be entirely correct). Then we got dinner at a nice vegan place downtown, whose name I forgot to remember. Copper something? It's on Bishop, just south of de Maisonneuve, I believe. From here... 

Tams!! The last one (for now)! It was super fun. Spun lots of poi and juggled quite a bit. Eventually Matt showed up, whom I hadn't seen in a really long time. We wound up trying to learn how to juggle three pins between us. It was really difficult, but we made fantastic progress and had a lot of fun. Can't wait to practice again :-) We hung out until evening, where we watched some of the fire jam that was going on near the gazebo, and then Cassie and I left the group to buy Fairmount bagels and get Froyo. We couldn't find a Froyo place, so we settled on Gelato (SO DELICIOUS) and split a "Bozo" bagel from Fairmount. It was enormous --- two bagels twisted together; one side sesame, the other poppy seeds. 

29 Sept: In the morning, I took Cassie to l'Oratoire St-Joseph. A giant church-thing on the "west" side of the mountain. The view is absolutely spectacular, and the architecture itself is incredible. We made it just in time for sunset!! Afterward, we went for dinner at a delicious Middle Eastern restaurant. The prices were great and the food was amazing. I think it was called Al-Amine near Côte-des-Neiges. 

After this, we went to Tyler's to visit him one last time, under the guise of having a fire jam on the roof! We ran into Katie on the subway, who was headed to the loft for Art Night. There were a bunch of people who were all really talented at drawing, and tonnes who were very talented at fire spinning! Overall, it was a fantastic way to end our time in Montréal. At some point, after one last goodbye, it was time to head home so that we could pack before having to wake up early for our ride share to Québec. 

A non-exhaustive list of things I'm happy to have done: • get much better at reading, speaking and conversing in French • Watching MLP:FiM in French and being able to understand almost everything.  • getting to strengthen existing friendships with friends I rarely get to see, and to get the chance to form so many new ones.  • learn more about what it is to live in a city with a different underlying culture, tone, set of values, etc.  • explore many neighbourhoods of Montréal, as well as shops, café's and pretty sights • have a list of things to see that has grown in size, to be looked at the next time I get to visit.  • I'm really happy with the amount of cooking I've gotten to do. It's been so nice to have time to invest in culinary endeavours, rather than running an optimization problem for (nutritional value)/(preparation time) • I'm really happy we visited Propulsion, a vegan restaurant in the village. Unfortunately, I forget which day we went, but it was also unbelievably delicious. We had a molé, which is a type of Mexican dish which has chocolate, chili and maple! So exciting, and so different :-) The server was a little awkward, but very kind. And, for the price of 2 dinners, an incredible slice of vegan cake, and two Americanos, it was cheaper than Lola Rosa (and more tasty). Highly, highly recommend. When we visited here, we also got to take a tour through The Village, which was very fun. Somewhere, I have a bunch of photos of a cool art installation that was somewhere along Sainte-Catherine. 

[mathprofessorquotes]

If automotion engineers designed like software engineers do, we’d have to carry a mechanic in our car during the first two years to make patches fixing things.

Logic professor to computer science students (via mathprofessorquotes)

[srsfunny]