New Year, New Me...

Despite going to bed at 4am after getting back from Old Port, I was bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 9.30am and set about packing my case in preparation for moving into my new apartment later that day. It felt great not having to live out of a suitcase anymore but I was really nervous and I felt sad that I was leaving the safe, cotton-wool environment that I had experienced with my cousin and Benoit. It was like a bird flying from the nest, setting out on its own. And I was worried about whether my flatmates would like me or not. Stressing about everything, no different from reality really.

We had lunch and chilled for a few hours. Luckily, because my cousin and Benoit are so nice, they took one of my cases each and all I had to carry was my rucksack and shopping bags. I felt a bit like a Princess, truth be told. And lazy.

We had to take two buses and traipse through enough snow to bury an Eskimo but we eventually made it to Avenue de Kent, my home for the next four months. The street overlooks a park, which although covered in snow, would probably look lovely in Summer. We made it to the apartment and were greeted by the landlady, who took us upstairs and showed me my room. Usually, when you see pictures of an apartment on the internet, you can't tell if your room is going to be like that but I was pleasantly surprised. My room is lovely and very spacious (not something I'm used to).

Then, I met my first lovely flatmate, Aziza, who is from Milan, Italy with Egyptian origins (quite exotic)! We spoke to the landlady for a little while before she started 'cleaning' again. (I think her standards of cleaning are very different to Aziza and my standards of cleaning). I was then very rude to my new flat mate and left for a few hours to have New Year's Day pizza round my cousin's, courtesy of Pizza Pizza. The cool thing about this company is that as soon as you order online, there is a 20-minute countdown timer and if your order is not ready in 20 minutes, you get it for free! Sadly, that didn't happen to us. However, the better news is that the pizza was amazing and so were the chicken nuggets (Omnomnom).

Then, Michael and I got the two buses back to my apartment and arrived at my humble abode where we bid farewell. It was sad seeing the only familiar face in Montreal leave me but I mustered up my stiff British upper lip and carried on to the front door, which I couldn't open and had to get Aziza to open it instead. What a fail.