Reflecting on 2014.....

Blogging used to be something I really liked to do. Then life got in the way, I became way too busy, and suddenly blogging was no longer a priority.

And I honestly don't miss it as much I thought I would. I'm not planning on picking this up regularly like I used to either. I no longer feel the need to write about what I did last week or what kind of books I'm currently reading. But as 2014 is rapidly coming to a close, I've had too many thoughts that I just needed to write down somewhere.

2014 was an interesting year. I changed this year. Like, a lot. I'm not the same person I was at the beginning of 2014.

Sure, certain aspects of my personality remain the same and my faith/beliefs haven't changed much over the year, but the direction of my life has changed.

I started out this year with a lot of unanswered questions. There were a lot of things that I would "cross that bridge when I got there." In other words, I didn't have a lot of things figured out, but I assumed that I would deal with them later.

And now it's the end of 2014, and I've never been more happy or sure of my life before. I came into this year feeling like I was in the middle of a busy train station with a very vague idea of where I wanted to go but no idea how to get there. And now I feel as though I am on the right train, full speed ahead. The pieces of my life have really started falling into place this year, and that's why this has been such a year of change.

One of the biggest things that has changed for me during 2014 has been my attitude towards change. I used to hate change. I put up a fit when my family decided to go to a difference mass time on Christmas Eve a few years ago ;) I kind of hated graduating high school and having to say goodbye to that period of my life.

And although I still would not say I have totally mastered accepting change, I'm gotten way better at it.

I changed my major this year. I started off in finance, but was never passionate about it. I don't really care about annuities and perpetuities or the stock market. I switched to Operations Management and have found that I actually enjoy it. I took my first OM class this past semester and was so relieved that I found the class extremely interesting and that the material came naturally to me. Do I know exactly what I want to do with OM yet? Nope. But I can feel that I'm in the right major, and that's one of the best feelings ever.

It's also funny how quickly your mind can completely change its outlook on certain things.

When I started college, I wasn't totally set on my major. I didn't know what organizations I wanted to be involved in. I wasn't sure which study abroad options I wanted to do. But the one thing I was sure of? I would be living at home all 4 years of college.

I laughed at the idea of "the college experience". My high school friends would talk about finding roommates and buying things for their room. I would see pictures of them moving into the dorms, and I was never felt even a teeny bit jealous. I never wanted that - any of that. I live close to campus, so why on earth would I need to pay a bunch of money to live on campus or within walking distance?

I joined a sorority with a 1 year live-in requirement. But being the numbers person I am, I knew that there would be more girls in my pledge class alone that spots in the house, so I assumed that there would be a way (if the house filled up on its own) that I would not have to live there. It was one of those things that I figured I would deal with later, but that I might be able to get by without actually living in the house.

And now I'm moving on campus into the Kappa Delta house in less than 2 weeks. As I'm writing this, I am actually laughing at myself and how I've done a complete 180 degree turn.

I can't pinpoint a moment when my mind changed either. I guess it was kind of a gradual thing. It started at the beginning of the semester when we had our Spirit Week, and I had to be up on campus every day preparing for recruitment. Then we actually had recruitment, and I felt like I lived at the house anyway with the amount of time I had to spend there.

I was Assistant VP-Finance and was over at the house helping with things for that. I got a lot closer to girls who lived in the house. I spent time there crafting for my little. And then going home every night became inconvenient. I would be at the KD house until 11 or 12 at night, and I hated the fact that I had to drive home just to go to sleep, wake up, and drive back to campus early the next morning.

Over the course of the semester, I got more and more involved in Kappa Delta, which meant I was spending more and more time there. Fairly early in the semester, I made up my mind that I would be running for VP-Finance. I was already the assistant and felt like this was going to be my way of taking on a large leadership role in chapter. Council members are elected at the end of fall semester for the following calendar year and are required to live in the house for the following school year. However, I decided that if I would be elected as VP-Finance, I would want to live in the house starting in January.

I knew that being on council requires an even greater time commitment to Kappa Delta, and I was already at the point where I was tired of driving home every night just to sleep. So I emailed the woman in charge of housing and was told that I would be on a waiting list if a spot opened up. For weeks, I was nervous that I would end up not getting in.

There was one week where I spent the night at the house 3 nights in a row, and I remember driving home thinking how much I wished I could just live there already. It was so weird because a few months before that, I had never wanted to live anywhere but at my house.

The day I got an email saying that a spot had opened up for me was one of the weirdest days. I was so happy, but it was still strange to me that it was something I wanted so badly.

Now don't get me wrong, living at home and commuting was great.....my freshman year. I do not regret it AT ALL. In fact, if I had to do my freshman year of college all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. But this year has just been different because I was always at school anyway. Fifteen hour school days were not uncommon - they probably happened at least twice a week or more towards the end of the semester. I felt like I never even saw my family anyway because I would often come home after they had gone to bed.

And I did end up becoming VP-Finance. Which even that is something I laugh about because I never used to see myself as a leader, and now I'm in charge of the finances for an organization of 130 women that pay substantial dues every semester ;)

So in 2014 I changed my major, took on a major leadership role in Kappa Delta, and made the decision to move out of my house for the first time.

But it wasn't all just big changes - I also traveled to Charleston, Montreal. Alaska, Georgia, and New York City.

I made a lot of real friends. The type of friends who you always lose track of time when you're together, who you can laugh with over movies, but who will also really listen when you have a problem.

This year was truly great.

But I'm more excited for 2015 than I ever have about any other year. 2015 is going to involve some pretty big changes as well and it will be a very different year, but I am so ready it hurts.

2015.....I can't wait to see what you have in store......

Back to School

Today is my first day back to school. I feel like I have a love/hate relationship with the first few days of school. You don't really have any homework yet and it's a lot of just going over the syllabus.

I'm a little happy to get back into a routine. Although I've loved the laid back do-nothing days of summer, I also like feeling productive.

However, the homework, the tests, the late night study sessions? Not really looking forward to those.

I've always been a good student, so I'm not too worried about handling the classes. I'm just worried about having too much to do.

I'm not one of those people who signs up for everything. I like concentrating my time on just a few things. I know myself, and I need a good night's sleep and time to relax throughout the day in order to keep my sanity.

But looking at my planner, at least for the first month of school, I get a little overwhelmed with everything I have going on. Classes, homework, sorority recruitment, Homecoming events - it's a lot.

And I may be tired already, and I may be slightly stressed out, but then I remember how I'm already 1/4 of the way through college. In reality, I always think to myself how I don't want college to end because college can be pretty darn awesome. Sure, you have stressful weeks and late nights finishing up homework, but that doesn't seem too bad when you think about all of the fun things about college.

Yes, I'm a little nervous to go back to class today. But I'm also excited for another year of college memories.

A Different Direction

When I started looking at colleges, it took me a lot longer to figure out what direction I wanted to go in major-wise than it did to find the school I wanted to attend. I never had a job I really wanted to do growing up. You sometimes hear of kids saying that they really want to be a nurse or a teacher, but that was never me.

For the longest time I had no clue what I wanted to do. I started looking at my strengths, and I have always been really strong at math, so I thought that maybe I would do something math related. Calculus was, after all, my favorite subject in high school. Ha!

But I also didn't just want to be a mathematician. You can major in math, but what on earth are you going to do with that? There were a lot of things I learned my senior year of high school in BC Calculus that I had no idea why it was relevant to anything. So I thought I should go into something that had a little bit of a math foundation, but that would actually get me a job once I graduated.

That's how I wound up with business. There are a lot of aspects of business that are math oriented, but it's not just sitting down and solving differential equations all day ;)

Then I got accepted into KBS, which is a business honors program, and that pretty much sealed the deal.

I also had no idea what I wanted to major in within the college of business. So I picked finance. Why? Because I like math, and finance seemed more math focused than most of the other majors. Basically, I had no reason for picking finance other than the fact that I felt like I should pick something.

I still have yet to take a finance course, but over the past year, I've pretty much figured out that finance is not me. Whenever someone would ask me my major, I always felt stupid saying finance because deep down, I had absolutely no connection to it. The other finance majors in my KBS class talk about how much they love following the stock market. They discuss IRAs and venture capitalists. And I honestly have no interest in that stuff. Do I have money invested in the stock market? Yes. Do I think it's important to start saving money early for retirement? Absolutely. Do I want to talk about this kind of stuff for the rest of my life? No thank you.

So a few weeks ago I made an appointment with my advisor and changed my major to Operations Management.

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There were several reasons why I decided to go with OM. For one, the head of the OM department came into one of my freshman classes and talked about the major. She described the type of person who typically majors in OM, and I felt like she was talking about me. They are typically the type of people who like to plan and organize things. They're the list makers who sometimes write things on their to-do lists after they've done them just to have the satisfaction of crossing it off. That's totally me.

I also had to do a career assessment test for business majors. It asked you a bunch of questions based on your interests and strengths, and it came back saying that my interests and strengths best matched up with Operations Management.

So apparently my personality matches up well with the major. And I can actually see myself doing well at that kind of job. OM majors typically take jobs managing supply chains and organizing business processes in a way that maximizes efficiency and minimizes costs.

Right now I'm an OM major. I have no idea whether I'll actually graduate with a degree in Operations Management, but I feel like I have at least taken one more step in the right direction......

.....and for now, I'm happy with that.

BIG Project News!

Hello! Today I've got a fun little announcement to make.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I bought a book called The $100 Startup for an Honors project.

I also posted this picture of a book I've been reading for the project.

Well, I am in the Honors program at school, and we have to do five "experiences" by the time we graduate. You can fulfill the experience requirement by either taking Honors seminars, doing a pre-approved project, or proposing your own project. Since I am not in class this semester and I'm not working full time, I thought this summer would be a good time to get an Honors project knocked out.

I decided to propose my own project because I had been required to write up a proposal for practice my first semester, and I had been encouraged to actually submit that proposal and to complete the project.

This project idea has actually been a long time coming. I've tossed the idea around for several years but was always a little nervous and afraid to actually do it.

So, I am happy to say that by the end of this summer, I will finally have.......

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......my own website/Facebook page for my baking business!

I am really excited to get this project off the ground. So far, I've been doing research on effective marketing strategies and just how to set up your own small business. I figured that this project is perfect because it fulfills an Honors requirement, will be a great thing to put on a resume, but is, most importantly, just something I've been passionate about for so long.

I've had so many people over the years tell me I should start my own bakery or get a website, and I can't wait to actually see it all put together.

I've still got a lot of work to do for the project, but I think it's going to be great. My next steps are to come up with a name and logo, then start writing the website content, and actually setting up the site!

I'll definitely keep you updated on how it's going and everything as it gets closer to the end of the summer.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this project is a success!

Two Things I've Learned In College

The title of this post is a little misleading. I've obviously learned way more than two things since starting college. Things like how to account for credit card sales, ways in which the Fed can control the money supply, and how exactly the Internet works. But those things are facts that don't exactly lend to interesting blog posts.

Even though I've learned many business things in college, I've also learned some life lessons along the way. I've found that those lessons are more interesting to read about ;)

The first really important things I've learned is about working with other people. It's inevitable that you're going to work with other people for the rest of your life whether you're employed in the traditional way or not.

And working with people can be a real challenge. I can't even remember how many group projects I did this past year because there were so many. I had to work with lots of different people who didn't exactly work the same way I did. However, I think I found one of the keys to working well with just about anyone. If everyone took this advice, working on school group projects would be a breeze!

You don't have to be extraordinary or super smart, but if you do your work ahead of schedule, you'll impress just about anyone.

For example, I was in a group project where we had to write a business plan. We divided up the work into sections and had a designated editor who would put the paper together and make sure everything flowed smoothly. We laid out expectations and due dates by when each person had to send their finished part to the editor.

I wrote my section while I watched a movie over spring break. I did a fair amount of research and put some real effort into the piece, but it wasn't the best business plan ever written. BUT, I turned it into our editor several days in advance, and I can't even tell you how grateful she was to have it a little bit early.

You don't always have to write an amazing paper filled with great vocabulary words. Just do your best and get it done a little early than is expected of you, and it seems like people get really impressed by that. I am definitely going to continue to use this lesson when I start working for real - just imagine how impressed your boss would be if you finished a report a day before it was needed!

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Another lesson I've learned has to do with my job. I work in an office where all of the full time employees dress business casual. Since I'm a student worker and I work in the back of the office where no one would even see me anyway, I don't have to dress business casual. In fact, there isn't really a dress code for the student workers as long as you don't show up in something super skimpy. We're allowed to wear shorts, yoga pants, gym shoes - basically anything we would wear to class.

Don't get me wrong - there have been plenty of times this past year where I've gone to class and work in yoga pants and a sweatshirt. However, now that it's summer, I'm not in class, and I'm not working a ton, I've been really trying to dress a little nicer than I'm expected to.

It's kind of like the saying "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have." Although I don't 100% agree with that statement, but I do think that dressing up a little more than necessary can be a good thing.

I can't tell you how many times I've been stopped by other people in the office complimenting me on my outfit. It's not like I'm getting super dressed up either - oftentimes I wear a skirt and a shirt, a dress, or a pair of capris with a nicer shirt. It's nothing over the top, but it's enough to stand out a little.

Sometimes the simplest things - like dressing a little nicer than is expected of you - can make you stand out.

Not to mention the fact that it's just fun to dress nice. I mean, who doesn't like to feel a little extra pretty even if it's just for a day at work?

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Two of the lessons I learned my first year of college that I will definitely be using in the future are so simple, but I think they can truly make a difference in the way people see you - just go a little above and beyond by getting things done early or dressing a little nicer, and it seems like others will be much more respectful of you.

Montreal {Part 3}

I'm finishing up today with my last post on Montreal (Part 1 and Part 2).

Tuesday was hands down my favorite day in Montreal, and actually one of the best days I've had in a while. It was just so much fun!

On Tuesday morning we were supposed to have another company visit that ended up getting cancelled. Our professors scrambled to put something together, and we ended up doing a cultural immersion exercise. They broke us up into groups and assigned each group a cultural community. Our task was to visit the part of town where this community of people live and learn some new things about that culture through visiting their churches, eating some food, talking to locals, etc. Then we would present our findings to the rest of the group the next day.

My small group was given the Haitian community, so we headed off into the part of town our professors told us we could find the Haitian community.

We got off the Metro stop on the other side of town and immediately found a 24/7 fruit stand (seriously, who goes and stocks up on fruits and veggies at 3 AM?!). We had been given a street name as a starting point and got directions there from people in the fruit stand.

We got to the street and it pretty much looked like nothing. There were a few cops standing around on the corner, so we asked them if they knew where the Haitian community resided, and they told us they had no idea. That's when we started to get a little nervous.....

So we just started walking around the area. We found a student from the University of Montreal who said that she was unfamiliar with any Haitians in the community, but she was able to point us to the community center. Wahoooo! Surely the community center is going to be able to tell us about the Haitian community. Wrong. The woman there told us that there were no Haitians in the area, but that they were probably in a part of town on the other side of the city. Bummer. At that point we were out of time, so we pretty much went back empty handed.

When we were on our way back to the hotel, we thought that maybe our professors had given everyone the wrong directions in order to force us to problem solve and learn some other lessons. They didn't - we were the only group that ended up not being able to find their community. Ha!

After that adventure, it was time for lunch. Our professor had told us the night before that we were going to be eating at an Ethiopian restaurant and that she was so excited because the food is fabulous. I honestly didn't believe her and had pretty much accepted the fact that I would be leaving the restaurant hungry because there was no way I was going to like Ethiopian food. I can be a bit of a picky eater.....

When we got to the Blue Nile Restaurant, I was at least impressed with the decor. The restaurant was kind of upscale and everything was very modern and African themed. I absolutely loved the zebra print chairs!

When we were seated, we found out that you do not use utensils at an Ethiopian restaurant and instead just use your hands. So they brought our warm wet towels to clean your hands off before bringing out the appetizers. All of the food was brought out on a large plate that you shared with a total of 3 people.

The appetizer was a plate of diced tomatoes, chick pea hummus, and grilled vegetables. They also brought out several rolls of what is called injera. Injera is a doughy bread-like substance that serves a similar purpose of a tortilla. It doesn't have a whole lot of flavor but is kind of spongey and very light. You tear off little pieces of it and use the pieces to pick up your food, and then you pop it all in your mouth.

Well.....turns out I LOVE ETHIOPIAN FOOD. Who would have guessed?! Out of the appetizers the chick pea hummus turned out to be my favorite. I am still in shock considering I don't like a ton of different foods to begin with.

This was our main course. I can't even remember what some of the stuff was because I just stuck to the meat since it was so yummy. The meat we got was lamb, filet minion, and chicken. That was my first time trying lamb, and I was once again surprised by the fact that I liked it. I'm not sure if I have ever tried so many different kinds of food at one meal before - ha!

We also got dessert, which was phenomenal. I can be a bit of a snob about my desserts, so I was a little disappointed with the desserts we had at some of the other restaurants, but this one made up for it all. It was a little chocolate raspberry cake/mousse covered in chocolate on a stick. Delicious!

I just still cannot get over how cute and wonderful the Ethiopian restaurant was. Now I want to go to Ethiopia! Definitely the best meal we ate in Montreal.

We had a free afternoon, so a few of us went over to the part of town the woman at the community center said the Haitian community lived in. We were hoping to at least get something about the culture to present on. When we got off at the Metro station, we realized pretty quickly that we were not in a very nice part of town. Let's just say that we did not feel super safe, so we walked around one block, did not see anything that resembled the Haitian community, and got out of there.

We then met up with some more people back at the hotel and decided to go back to Old Montreal since some of them hadn't been there yet. Even though it was my third time in that part of town, I wasn't complaining since it was my favorite area of the entire city.

We ended up going back to the bakery I had gone to the previous day (Maison Christian Faure). This was not actually my idea (I didn't want everyone to think I was a total crazy person), but when some of them said they wanted to try the macarons I had talked about on Monday, I of course wasn't going to argue ;)

One of the girls got this giant croissant which looked super delicious!

I went for this mass of chocolate that was super yummy!

I also got a box of macarons to take home to my family.

We were planning on eating dinner down there, but then we had dessert first and weren't super hungry. We ended up just going to a coffee shop and getting little sandwiches and croissants to fill us up.

That evening we went to the Cirque du Soleil show Kurios! It's a new show that just opened down by the Old Port, and after touring the headquarters the day before, we were all so excited to see everything firsthand.

They even had people playing instruments up on the big top before we went in.

The show was absolutely incredible, and I am so glad we got the opportunity to see it. I've seen two other Cirque shows previously, but it had been a while, so I can't really remember enough to compare, but this one was unbelievable.

After the show, I went out with some friends and had such a fun time. When I think back to Montreal, Tuesday is what I think of - the Ethiopian food, the Kurios show, and the night out with friends was just such a fantastic day.

The next day, Wednesday, was our departure day unfortunately. I wish we could have stayed longer because there were still things I wanted to see that I never got a chance to.

That morning we had our presentations on our cultural findings. We ended up just talking about what we learned while trying to find the Haitian culture. Our group won the award for most enduring in adverse circumstances or something like that :) It turns out that the Haitian community was originally in the area we were sent to but they have since been driven out. One of the staff members at UQAM told us that they are probably out somewhere by the area we went to in the afternoon, but that was on the edge of the Metro stop, so they probably live even farther out. She also said that she has never been to that part of town because it's known for not being quite as safe. Fabulous. :)

After our presentations, a few of us stopped at Second Cup, which is like the Canadian equivalent to Starbucks. I ordered the Chocolat Chaud Glace, which is a Frozen Hot Chocolate. It was super good!

We then left for the airport, where we all pretty much crashed in the same area. We had 2 different flights coming home too, so I was on the one that left first.

We had a short layover in Atlanta before finally getting on our flight back to Cincy!

I pretty much just stared out at the clouds the entire time. The sun was setting over what looked like a sea of clouds, and it was just amazing to watch.

Doesn't that look like the ocean?

I loved how you could see the sun setting over the clouds and the moon shining above it all. Flying is my absolute favorite!

In short, it was such an amazing trip. I had a blast the entire time. I mean, what's not to love about going on a trip with 30 other people that you've shared classes, laughs, and memories with all year? I can't think of a better way to end my freshman year of college than with this trip and those people. So blessed!

Montreal {Part 2}

Today I'm continuing with my recap of Montreal. If you missed my first post, you can see it here.

On Monday morning we got up early to visit the University of Quebec at Montreal, better known as UQAM. We listened to some of their professors and staff members talk about doing business in Canada as well as just international studying in general. We also got to talk to some students about their experiences, so it ended up being pretty interesting.

After that, we got a tour of the Cirque du Soleil headquarters. It was SO cool! I had been to two Cirque shows previously and loved them both, so it was neat to see where the action all takes place. We got to see performers practicing, people working on costumes and props, as well as the studios where they can put on a full production for practice. They showed us around the entire place, and it was one of the coolest things ever. We pretty much got to see how they start with an idea for a show and then how they ultimately end up bringing it to production. It definitely gave me a deeper appreciation and respect for Cirque du Soleil as a company!

We then had a few hours of free time, so when everyone else decided to go back to the hotel and sleep, I went with a friend back to Old Montreal to do some more exploring. I was running on not a lot of sleep, but I didn't want to waste a few perfectly good hours in the afternoon since we didn't have a whole lot of time there to begin with.

Old Montreal felt very French to me, so my friend and I were basically just pretending we were spending the afternoon in Paris ;)

You know I had to check out the French bakeries in Montreal before we left, right? We went to this one called Maison Christian Faure, and I have to say that it was probably one of my favorite bakeries I have ever been to.

I mean, how adorable is this mural inside the shop?!

So many yummy macarons to try.....

I settled on the blackberry curd and chocolate macarons - both ended up being delicious!

When we were walking, we stumbled on an adorable French stationary store, and when I saw this pack of Paris pencils, I knew I had to get them. I'm obsessed!

We also stopped by another bakery I had seen online that was a cupcakery. We got our cupcakes to go, and I enjoyed mine a few days later.

I tried to Google translate what this says, and I think it's something along the lines of while waiting for spring, you can brighten your mood with a cupcake. I just love anything in French!

That night we had a group dinner at a Spanish restaurant called El Gitano. It ended up being really delicious. We had paella, which I had never tried before and ended up loving. It's a rice dish with different meats and seafood. I got chicken in mine, and it was so unbelievably moist.

We all went out again that night and had a lot of fun. That night I ended up actually getting 6 hours of sleep, which was the longest amount of sleep I got the entire trip - ha!

I'm going to stop there even though this post was kind of short because I'm afraid it's just going to be too long if I try to combine it with the rest of the trip. I'll be back soon for the last recap!

Montreal {Part 1}

A little over a week ago I left on a short study abroad trip to Montreal. I went with my freshman learning community/scholarship program called KBS. There were 31 students that went plus 2 of my professors, and it ended up being an absolute blast. We've all had classes together all year and have really gotten to be friends, so it was just a great trip. Hands down, it was the best experience I've had in college so far. I didn't even know it was possible to have that much fun ;)

We were only there for 4 nights, but we really made the most of the time we had (which meant averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night!), but it was an unbelievable experience that I am truly grateful to have been able to go on. When I got accepted into the KBS program last year, I had no idea how much of a positive impact it would have on my college years and life in general, which sounds corny but it's totally true!

I'm going to have to break up my trip into several posts because there are so many things I want to talk about and pictures I need to post.

We left on Saturday, April 26th. My flight didn't leave until the afternoon, so my family went out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel per my request because Cracker Barrel is always a vacation tradition in our house.

Since there were so many of us, we couldn't all fit on the same flight, so this is our small group getting ready to leave Cincinnati. Our flight left first before the other group, and we had a layover in JFK. One of the best parts of flying into that airport was the fact that we got to see the sun setting over the New York City skyline - so cool!

Our layover was 3 hours, so we went and grabbed dinner at the Shake Shack....

....and dessert at a bakery called Cake Tin. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had scoped out the JFK airport prior to leaving just to see if they had a bakery there.

Seriously - how cute?!

I got the Red Velvet (I am so predictable....), but I was a tad bit disappointed. The actual cake was good, but the icing needed to be a bit sweeter.

When we got back to our gate, we discovered that our flight had been delayed. Then it was delayed again. And again. What was supposed to be a 3 hour layover turned into a SIX hour layover. Let's just say it was a little frustrating considering the other group was in Montreal while were still in the JFK airport. Oh well though - we ended up having some interesting bonding in the airport. We also got free food since I think Delta started feeling sorry for us....

We ended up finally getting to our hotel at 2 AM on Sunday morning, and I basically just crashed. Who knew that just sitting around in an airport would be so tiring?

Sunday morning we took a bus tour around the city and the different ethnic neighborhoods. One of the interesting things about Montreal is how culturally diverse the city is. When people move to Montreal, they hold on tight to their culture, so there are distinct areas of the city for different cultures like the Jewish, Italian, Chinese, Indian, French, Spanish, etc. It was kind of cool being able to go to one city and feel like you visited several countries.

We went to a bagel shop in the Jewish community since they are known for their amazing bagels. They were good and different from the ones you get in the US. They were hot, slightly crunchy on the outside, and light and doughy on the inside.

We also visited a market that sold all kinds of fresh food. I think I could have spent hours there!

My favorite place in the market was this little bakery - so many things to choose from!

I settled on a chocolate caramel macaron, which was such a good choice. Montreal is very heavily French (almost everyone there speaks French), so I had to eat as many macarons as I could since they're much harder to find in the states.

We also went to a pretty overlook of the entire city. The tower sticking up in the middle is the Olympic Stadium!

We then had lunch at a Chinese restaurant where we had Dim Sum, which I didn't know until we got there is basically like appetizers where they bring out a bunch of small portions of different things to try that you share family style.

The rest of the afternoon was free to do whatever we wanted, so after lunch some of us headed into Old Montreal (my favorite part of the city because it felt like I have envisioned Paris to be like).

We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral, which reminded me of the one in Paris.

How cute is this Christmas shop? I'm now wishing I would have gone in.

Seriously - these cobblestone streets? I die....

Some of my friends and I then went to the cutest little trendy coffee bar for an afternoon pick-me-up. I loved how many cute little coffee shops they had all over the city.

We then set out to do some more exploring. We didn't have anywhere else we needed to be the rest of the day, so it was nice to just wander the streets and go wherever we wanted.

Modeling in Montreal :)

I don't even know what any of these buildings are, but I just thought the architecture in them was gorgeous.

A group of us went out to dinner at a place called St. Hubert that night. The food was just okay, but the atmosphere was neat, and going out with friends is always fun.

We all went out that night as a group and ended up having a ton of fun. Running on only a few hours of sleep ended up being so worth it!

I'm going to stop there and post more about the rest of the trip another day. Hope you all are having a great week!