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!