If August was the longest month of my life then September was for sure the quickest. I feel like I blinked and it became October.
Classes started on the 5th and it's been non stop since then. The picture on the right was taken on Campus on the first day. As I mentioned in my last post, lectures here are so much harder than at Notts so it's been pretty intense so far!
At the beginning of the month we discovered a Ben&Jerry's shop and it's pretty safe to say we have been to a few too many times...
One of my favourite memories from the month was definitely when some of our housemates went to see "It" and we pranked them, so when they came back the house was decorated with red balloons and things from the movie.
We had a potluck night on the 10th which was so cool, I've never done it before and it was nice to get a taste of everyone's cooking (I made a salad, poor effort Hol).
My Canadian studies class climbed Mont Royal earlier in the month, and although I had been before the view never gets old. I've had a number of auditions/interviews for societies with varying levels of success, and I've settled on joining dance and salsa classes, because they are a nice break from work and don't have a huge level of commitment. It would have been nice to do something with a bit more substance but I'm so busy with work and travelling that I'm not sure I would be able to commit to it.
It was a housemates' birthday in the middle of September so we celebrated that which was really lovely. It was our first birthday as a house which made it even more exciting. On the same day we saw Justin Trudeau (Canadian Prime Minister for those of you who don't know) on the McGill campus. It was such a surreal experience!
One weekend we road tripped to Coaticook, a town about 2 hours away that has a gorge and mountains to hike. It was the most stunning thing I have ever seen and it really made me realise the size of this country. In the UK everything is close together and although there is countryside it's nothing like that of Canada, you can literally drive for hours without seeing any sign of habitation, it's so strange. Coaticook was the first (and only) time I have left Montreal so far, and it was really nice to get out of the city for a bit and see another city to Canada.
WE BOOKED A TRIP TO NEW YORK!! I am so excited because it is literally my number one dream to visit NYC and we are going next week! aaaaah
Around the 18th I started getting really homesick, something that I have been feeling for the last couple of weeks. It tailed off towards after a few days but then hit hard last week. I called my mum and two of my best friends in tears. I'm going to write a whole post about it in a few weeks to explain what is going on, but it's not been the best couple of weeks.
We have done some pretty cool things, like going on nights out, out for food and to Picnic Electronik, which is a weekly music festival in the city. I've danced, studied and met so many new people as well, but for the last few days there has always been a feeling of wanting to go home. Some of my housemates went away this weekend but I decided to stay home, catch up on some work and chill a bit which seems to have done me a world of good, I'm feeling a lot better now and I hope it continues because I hate feeling miserable.
Overall September was full of highs and lows (the highs were high but the lows were so low). I've packed so much into such a short amount of time and spent wayyy too much money along the way. I can't believe a whole month has gone already, that's 1/8th of my time here which is crazy. October is looking incredibly busy so I can't wait to reflect on it in a few weeks!!
