I know the posting is a little bit late but better late then never. Montreal was awesome this weekend. It's the first time I've spent a whole weekend in the city with absolutely beautiful weather.

Friday we left right from work and drove to Nina's apartment near downtown Montreal. We chilled with a few drinks there after the long drive and then went down to St. Sulpice. I'm sure Eric was a little red faced when he entered the courtyard again, but unfortunately I took the scenic route to the bar and was there almost an hour after everyone else. It was a really warm night in the city, and Nina's apartment was a real cooker, even with all the windows open.

Saturday we took a bus down town and toured St. Laurent Street after finding Nina's friend, Amy. The whole street was blocked off to traffic and was filled with people. There were vendors selling all kinds of things along the side. We stopped at one roadside cafe for a couple of pitchers of beer and watched the people walking by. A guy sitting at the next table had a pair of huge bulldogs. Everybody who walked by would stare, it was actually quite funny to see their expressions. My spending along this street was limited to the beer and a pineapple on a stick. They skin a whole pineapple, jam it on a chopstick, and watch you attempt to take your first bite without getting the sticky juice all over yourself. Galvin and I both took on these huge fruits, coming out with bleeding lips, numb tongues, and feeling slightly sick. Brings me back to the "too much of a good thing" cheesecake eating incident a week earlier. After the market we zipped back to Nina's for a quick nap and some pizza and then, along with Samad's family, took the metro down to Old Port for the fireworks show. It's easily the best show I've seen in real life. It lasted for almost half an hour and had everything you can see in a firework show: loud explosions, bright explosions, 2D and 3D designs, some that moved, some that multiplied, and some that just never seemed to end.

Chris had decided to come to Montreal too with some of his friends that are from Vancouver and working out east like us. He found us after the fireworks had finished and then we all walked back up to St. Laurent Street to Cafe Campus. I like this club, they play a variety of music, not just Sean Paul like Stages here in town. There was a special on shots this night so we started buying shots, five at a time, until we were broke. Chris bore the brunt of the alcoholic assault and found himself dancing most of the time there in middle of the circle our little group had made while we all chanted "CHRIS! CHRIS! CHRIS!" and thwarted any of his attempts to leave the circle. Our party had to leave around 12:30 to make sure we caught the metro back to Nina's and left Chris and his friends to continue dancing. I wish we had been able to stick around for the rest of his night, apparently it was very interesting. He does have a video interview later that night where he blames Eric and I for his...comatose state. Nice work Chris, made our weekend.

We woke up Sunday to one of the most gorgeous summer days I've ever experienced. Samad and gone home with his family the night before and we met up with them at an Iranian barbecue the next afternoon. It was a really nice family picnic. I loved the kabobs and the barbecued chicken, not a big fan of the salads though. After that we went to Tam Tams which is a little north of McGill University, up the mountain. Here there were hundreds of people with drums, bongos, tambourines, and all kinds of things to bang on playing as one large band. They would slowly change their sound but just keep pounding to a common beat. Very cool stuff, a lot of hippies around too. We also got to see the Olympic torch make its way through Montreal here. I don't know the name of the guy carrying the torch when it passed but a very neat experience all the same. The drive home was very quick and we were back in time to watch the end of Zoolander with Chris. Ah, I just love that city. I hope I get to go just one more time before I leave here...and one more time after that. Mom, Dad, you have to come visit me before the end and check it out.