Thursday evening (day 12 continued!) our classmate (the one with the crazy job) invites a few of us over to his boss’s apartment where he’s staying while he’s in Montreal. When we arrive, there’s a sign taped to the door “A partir de maintenant, espangnol et anglais sont interdit” (sic). French only!
Walking into the apartment is a bit surreal. It’s straight out of a magazine. A very modern and open concept bachelor pad. Two of the walls are only windows with floor to ceiling curtains and remote operated blinds. The shower is open to the rest of the apartment. There’s funky furniture and decor everywhere, including real fur throws (ew) and a giant fur teddy bear complete with an S&M leather harness. Bizarre! We drink wine and talk French and laugh for a few hours, then head back to the residence to get some sleep.
day 13
Friday = test day! The test is very easy so I feel like I’m conquering relative pronouns. For the second part of the morning we discuss the poem “Speak White.” It’s a poem that’s right up my alley since it has themes of post-colonialism. Then we have another grammar lesson that is very confusing so I won’t go into details.
I have a quick nap after class and then go shoe shopping again, without much luck. I guess I’ll just have to make do with what I brought with me for the fancy nightclub. We head over to Club 737 around 10pm, and then wait outside in line for at least 20 mins. Once we pass the first set of bouncers, we wait in another line where a guy checks the “guest list” to make sure our names are on it (we had to sign up before hand through school). After that check point, we get in an elevator that takes us up, up, up to the top of the building. Here there’s another check point, where you hand over the tickets that the name checker gave you. The girls get a plastic red cup since drinks are only $2 before 11pm. Very strange procedure. Then we take our red cups up another elevator that opens into the club. Only one of the bars in the place will sell you the $2 drinks, so we go up to another floor for drinks. Whew. There’s a huge rooftop patio area where you get a breathtaking view of Montreal at night. This is where we hang out most of the night. After a little dancing and a little drinking and the night comes to an end. Not really a place I would want to go to again. After 11pm the drinks are very expensive ($7.50 for a bar shot, $6.50 for the cheapest beer). But it’s fun to see all our classmates in various states of inebriation dancing up a storm.
I would definitely recommend this type of immersion program to any university student. It’s a great way to make friends from all over the world and to learn a second language in a great city. For people who are a bit more serious about the language learning aspect of the course, this probably isn’t the best choice! I don’t regret taking this course, since I’ve had a lot of fun experiences so far, but I think I could have learned more in a different type of course. There’s always next summer!
day 14
Sleeeeep. When I went to bed last night the sky looked very strange; it was blue. Oh! that thing must be the sunrise. I wake up at 2pm and can’t believe the time. Lazy day of pjs and online tv. The rest of my roomies are gone to Ottawa for the day so I have a very peaceful and relaxing afternoon. Tomorrow I’m going rafting at the Lachine Canal. Can’t wait!
(Pictures I stole from Facebook)
