Weel, day one in Montreal has been one of extreme "yay's" and very blatant "no's!!!" I woke up this morning at 3:30am , showered and hiked down to the train station. I was there for a 6:00am train at 5:00 and everything was closed! I was so surprised. So I just waited until 5:30 when they unlocked everything and checked our bag. Somehow, a bat got in the station so it was flying everywhere! I've never had a bat flying at my head before. I guess I can't say that anymore. The train ride was normal, nothing strange or weird about it, which was nice for a change. Then I got here and bought the rest of the days for my pass and booked the rest of my tickets. It took a little while to get everything done, so by 10:00 I was on my through downtown Montreal. I know that I say this everywhere I go and will until this trip is over, but it felt really surreal to be walking through Montreal with this huge backpack strapped to me.
Anyway, so I got lost going to my hostel. The street it was on was divided East and West, and I certainly didn't realize this. I turned myself in a circle a couple times, but eventually I found my hostel. Then the hostel lost my reservation and they were booked. By this time, I'd been hiking for about an hour, and I was tired, so I just handed him my confirmation and sat down. It all got sorted out, but they only took cash! Needless to say, they pretty much wiped me clean. I got settled and dropeed my stuff in my room and gave Dr. Fred a call. It's really nice to be able to have somebody to contact while I am here. Montreal's size reminds me a bit of Seattle, maybe a little smaller, or bigger, but there are a lot more people. They are more laid back I think. A little more easy going and carefree, not in a rush to get things done. So Fred and I went to lunch on the rooftop of this hotel downtown. It was amazing and really overwhelming to start the visit with such a view. After lunch we booked it to McGill where he left me to my campus tour. I met with Poli Sci people which was great. I absolutly fell in love with the school. Oh my god! It has definitely been cemented as number one on the list. The campus in amazing, the research ammenities are so abundant, the administrators are fantastic, and the people are so nice. It's not too big and not too small, but there are about 30,00 people. Love love love!!!!!!! Then I tripped over something and my shoe broke. Thats 2 pairs of shoes that I've had to throw out in a week! I bought new ones tho. Alright, after a bit of relaxing, I met some girls in my room. They are a riot. One of them is from Ottawa, so we're going to go out when I get there. I had dinner with the girl from Quebec City which was a lot of fun. We went to ChinaTown. She was so nice and I learned a lot from her. To top off the long introductory day, Fred and his friends took me out to a bar and club. Both of his friends were his best friends from the little town he grew up in, Alma. One of the guys girlfriend from Barcelona was there, and then another girl came. She works at another university with international students and tries to help them find things to do. The bar was super fun, just having drinks and chatting. Then we got a taxi to a club to go "dance our shoes off", but it was not very good, so we only stayed got about 45 minutes to finsihed our drinks. It was so much fun. So far, Montreal is very much a winner!!!