Clues that indicate you may be on an Air Canada flight to the maritimes

1. The security guards ask "why the long face?" when you stomp through the metal detector. They then ask if you'd like to watch television while you wait alone in the departure lounge.

2. The plane resembles a tiny icebox more than it does a plane.

3. The plane is filled with teenage army brats returning from Basic Training for the first time. They are ferociously afraid of flying and discuss the necessity of "packing a bowl at 2400 feet to ease the nerves there boys".

4. The flight attendant says "toodley-doo!" at the end of her loudspeaker message.

5. They serve Maized and Confused corn chips.

Fur found in Montreal this week

1. Woman on St. Viateur wearing a hat made of raccoon, with the raccoon's face on the front. It was real. I kid you not.

2. Gal on the 80 bus with a hood/hat made out of rabbit, or something.

3. Student in the library, wearing the largest, most ostentatious fur coat. Made of mink. I think.

4. Other 80 bus rider, midnight...wearing a fucking silver fox around her neck. As in, I could see the tail and the dangle-y legs. I don't know if there was a face, cause that part was facing the window.


I have no problem with fur in fashion, in fact, I think it can be pretty great...but when it looks like you put a limp animal around your neck or on your head, then it gets a little weird.

free ribbons; espanol only.

hmm,
I tried to find my local bread santa (ie. the person who works late at the bakery, making bread and perhaps handing out a free loaf or five) but ran into a problem when I knocked on the back door of Au Premier Moisson. The guy only spoke spanish. (Matthew, I need you here.)
My franglais and hand gestures just weren't cutting it. He did wave goodbye to me though!

Another funny thing that makes me love this city is the fact that the old man who works at the fabric store is helping me be under budget for my Hedwig and the Angry Inch costumes by giving me ribbons and lace for free. He also has a pretty great bartering system down. I asked for a nice button, he said, "how much you wanna pay?"...I got it for 50 cents.

This weekend=trying to put together a Thanksgiving meal without having a panic attack. I'm really only doing turkey, stuffing and gravy, but jeeeeze, it seems like such a production! Tomorrow morning I hit the farmers market, yes I do!

it's the long weekend...

and I am full of lame.
Or just turning into an old lady.
one of the two.

time for early bedtime no.23129944295

red on the inside.

got a box of fresh figs,
got 'em for cheap,
the man said i looked like his daughter,
"what are you, 13, 14?"

21

most magical birthday ever ever ever.
thank you all.
happy.

young thai coconuts

my matthew, coming to me in only six days!
then two weeks until I leave,
and can eat young thai coconuts on this dock again...
though I probably won't have time.

i'm just a blue, blue lobster. one in two million.

love it love it love it

lobster-corn-boils, scrambler rides, kissing circles, dance parties forever, please.

little funny thoughts

Listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion makes me taste oatmeal with strawberry jam.

The album was quite often my breakfasting music in Edinburgh, and all I could afford to eat over there was oatmeal. Is it clever that it was accompanied with Strawberry Jam? Is it?

Last night the power was out all over the city and it made for surreal night bikerides. Sam, Allie and I adventured around in the darkness and got caught in stormy sea showers.
Soaking wet wool sweater, stick your tongue out and catch all the raindrops.

I love that the Scrambler is free down at the waterfront. There is nothing like starting your day with a fast ol' midway ride. If anyone else shares my love of the Scrambler, I will happily join you for rides.

my dog has fleas

My newest toy.
It was cheap as hell and it sounds like it, but I think we'll have fun together.

Lovely lovely lovely to be back in Montreal. It feels like nothing's changed since I left, except now there is the BIXI bike system, which is growing impressively by the hour. This morning Glynis, Jacob and I walked by an empty corner at Esplanade, an hour later we passed by again and found that a BIXI bike station had been planted there, and most of the bikes were already in use.

Also in Montreal news, P.T. and I conducted a very important experiment today. Montreal bagels, Fairmount vs. St. Viateur. The ultimate bagel taste test.
I've always been a St. Viateur girl, mostly because this is also the street with the very best coffee, so St. V bagels usually go hand in hand with a latte from Olimpico or Club Social. However, P.T. has recently been won over by Fairmount, so we decided we had to buy a fresh sesame seed bagel from each place and do a blind taste test. The winner was Fairmount, for delivering a sweeter and generally more tasty bagel. I kind of felt like a traitor for being won over to the other side. Nevertheless, St. V bagels will always hold a place in my heart...nothing beats a warm bagel and a coffee on any terrace on that street.

Bowery love, one last time.

Photos from the show I went to last night at the Bowery. I just realized how crap the colours look on here. Oh well, I can show you all the real things later.

This is Madeline, from Athens, Georgia. She's kinda folky, kinda country, and has these big brown eyes which seemed to stare at me the whole time she was playing. She's got captivating stage presence and such a songbird voice.
Defiance, Ohio played SUCH A FUN SET. (Sammy, I'm sorry you weren't there, but I danced extra hard for you) They were so crazy energetic, and I was surprised at how many people were familiar with them...there were lots of singalongs and lots of dance dance dancing.


If it wasn't for the Bowery, Edinburgh would be a lot less fun. All the shows I saw here definitely were highlights of the year.

guess what?!

TWO DAYS, MY FRIENDS! TWO DAYS!

kings of the castle

We made it to the top of Arthur's Seat yesterday. There was great celebration. Patrick took the photo. It was nice to have the islanders come visit, we had a good weekend together. Now they're off to Belgium and I'll meet them in Germany later.

It's actually quite strange to think I'm leaving in almost two weeks. Spring has made the city much nicer and my life is more exciting but now I've got to leave it. I'm in the process of saying my goodbyes, to people and places, and any dislike I've had of Scotland is disappearing fast.

Four more exams to write. I was studying on the terrace today and had a sunburn within fifteen minutes again, so I decided sunscreen had to be purchased. Walked up to Boots and discovered that the Scots aren't much for sunscreen...they seem to prefer "After-Sun Lotion" or lotion with an SPF of 8. Anything that was actually sunscreen was over 14 pounds (!!)...I did find some cheap stuff...I think it's for babies though.

Four more to go, four more to go.
Two more Mondays on this continent.

Oh wowee, I just booked another plane ticket.
Berlin between May 18th and May 24th? I guess so!
I'm thinking that maybe I'd like to squeeze Prague in there as well...it's gonna be one of those packed 'gotta-see-it-all' kinda trips.
One last adventure before I adventure on outta this continent.

and I'm flying Ryanair this time. It would not be a complete stay in Europe if I didn't fly on the shittiest of all discount airlines at least once.

Yeah! Exciting!

show me the roof

Some exciting things that happened, on my best adventure ever...

Rotterdam:

• Seeing the entire city while sitting on the back of Willem's bike. Going fast, through parks, by lakes, over bridges, big streets, so close to the trams that I could stick my foot out and touch them if I wanted to.

• Being introduced to the classic Dutch food, bread with chocolate sprinkles on top.
  
• Spending days by the lake, in the sunshine.
  
  
• Endless feasts, numerous dance parties.
  
  
• Motel Mozaique...seeing Grampall Jookabox, Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele, Fever Ray and dancing like an absolute crazy person at The Whitest Boy Alive. AMAZING.

• Bike rides on my own (actually, Daan's) bike, which had no pedals, but I have picked up biking skills from those crazy Dutch.

Delft:

• Easter monday picnic in the park, by a lake. Lotsa good food, playing in the sun, feet in the water.
  
  
• Rooftop barbeque!
  

Leiden:

• Biking 40km one day with Jenny and Bob, to see all the tulip fields in bloom.
  
  
• Hanging out in the chauffeurs cafe in the Keukenhof gardens...we were too poor to pay the steep entrance price, so we just had coffee with the bus drivers instead.
  
  
• Big potluck with friends and other couchsurfers...italian pasta, malaysian chicken, japanese curry...ALL eaten with chopsticks, fun.

Antwerp:

• The best coffee in the nicest cafe in town...I went everyday and drank spicey, pink, iced lattes.
• Experimental films, performance art, red wine Friday night.
• Eating all the free olives at the Saturday market, exploring all over.
• Pancake party!
  

Ahh, it was so much fun. I have new friends all over the place!

Needless to say, it's kinda hard to be back in Scotland, having to do work again. Ben and I were saying how we feel guilty about all our previous complaints about Edinburgh cause the Meadows are just so damn pretty in the sunshine, covered in cherry blossoms.

I Heart Holland

Amsterdam adventures!
I spent 6 days in Amsterdam with a blue bicycle, surrounded by great people. Astrid introduced me to a bunch of her friends and we had a wonderful time. I immediately went into summer mode, since it was sunny and 20 degrees almost every day. We did lots of sitting around the canals with ice cream, eating apple tart on cafe patios, and picnics! I was also introduced to the joy of fresh stroopwafels. We like food.
Having a bike was by far the best part though. I miss biking so much, and Amsterdam is just the best place to bike around. I got to see so much more of the city.

Perhaps the craziest thing we did was participating in International Pillowfight Day...look it up, it happens all over the world! Astrid, her friends Annie & Chris and I went to Dam Square on Saturday afternoon, armed with pillows and joined hundreds of other people with pillows and had a hilarious, happy pillow fight that lasted about an hour. The pictures are nuts, I'll definitely put some up when I get home. Feathers were flying everywhere, in the air, on the ground, it was like a fluffy winter. We were absolutely covered in feathers. So much fun.

Right now I'm in Utrecht. I arrived yesterday and met my first couchsurfing host, Charlotte. She's really cool and we've got lots in common. She showed me around the city and then we made a summery salad and sat in her back garden with a bottle of wine and enjoyed the weather. Today I wandered around by myself for a bit, exploring the canals and city hall, which I accidently stumbled into, thinking it was an art gallery. It kind of was though...there was some sort of young artist exhibition, so that was interesting. I met up with Charlotte later on and we went to the University museum and botanic garden, which was really nice.

We were researching an art/music festival happening in Rotterdam right now, called Motel Mozaique. It looked pretty sweet, and then today my Rotterdam host text-messaged me asking if I wanted to go to it with him, so now I've got a festival ticket for Friday. Excellent. Handsome Furs and ...AYWKUBTTOD and loads of other sweet bands are playing. Whoa whoa whoa!

So yeah, a couple more days in Utrecht, then Rotterdam, then Delft, The Hague, Leiden, and Haarlem. That'll take me to April 20th, then home. Maybe I'll get another chance to update later on...

EDIT: really good pillow fight shots here. There's even a photo of me!

music in my ears again!

AHHHH! Megan+Free iPod=happy!
Take that you meanie iPod theif!

Old Stone Churches, Part Two

A few years ago, my friend Kevin, who has impeccable taste in music, handed me a dvd filled with albums. He introduced me to Beck, Sigur Ros, Nico, and perhaps most intriguingly, to Vashti Bunyan. The album was Just Another Diamond Day, and it's full of soft little songs about nature, the seasons, and love. She has a tiny whisper of a voice, the music is empyreal.

Truthfully, up until last night, I thought Vashti Bunyan was a fairy.

But, she is real! And she played at The Bowery last night; a rare event, since she gave up music 35 years ago and has not performed much since.
I arrived early with Tamsin and Mike and we were among the first there. The show was in the actual church, not in the basement like last time, and little chairs and tables were set up in the nave. We sat up front, drank organic beer and listened to the excellent pre-show entertainment, funky piano jazz by a slick looking guy in a fedora.

The first act was questionable...some gal playing sickenly optimistic songs on ukelele. We liked her backing musicians more than her. One guy played the cello and the other played the omnichord and a snare-drum-box-thing (which seems like a pretty fantastic invention if you're in a band, travelling a lot, and don't have too much of a requirement for percussion).

The second act shocked us...two guys got up onto the stage with guitars, one guy was older and called himself Lucky Jim. Don't know what the other guy's name was, but it doesn't matter, because Lucky Jim was CAT STEVENS. Seriously, he started to sing and Tamsin, Mike and I turned to each other, with wide eyes, and we all whispered 'Cat Stevens?!'. So yeah, I know Cat Stevens is now Yousef Islam and he doesn't perform anymore but this guy was so convincing. His sang his folky love songs with Cat-like gusto and I just sat back and enjoyed it. It was pretty amazing.
By now the church was surprisingly full and anticipating the headline act. Vashti Bunyan came on stage with two other musicians. Apparently she is 64...she looks about 35-40. She sat in the centre with her guitar and started to sing, with her little voice that hasn't changed a bit. She also told us lots of stories of her hippy days...she really did the hippy thing. She walked from London to the Isle of Skye with a horse and caravan to set up a sort of dream-commune thing with Donovan. How crazy is that?
The set was a wonderful mixture of old songs and new songs and stories, and when it was over and we were all filing out of the church, you could hear everyone humming the flute melody from 'Just Another Diamond Day'...it was special.

Winning the lottery

Yesterday my friends and I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for the dinner party we were having. We all hit up the ATM outside the store before going in. When it was my turn, I went up to the machine, pushed the button to withdraw 20 pounds and out of the machine came my two tens and another ten, crumpled up in between the two.
I started yelling "I won! I won! I WON!"

Luckily I was among friends.

Winning the lottery at the ATM...it can happen to you.

Hooray, a new month!

Look what I'm waking up to this morning! Aren't they lovely?


It's definitely springtime here and I'm happy about that. I just got back from an amazing adventure in Amsterdam, Bruges and Brussels. I've got a new favourite place but more on that later.

Happy March!

On Scottish/English Food, Part 2

ahh, the Crumpet.
Quite possibly my favourite British food. Introduced to me by my friend Andriana, who was horrified when I admitted I'd never eaten one before. Seriously, I thought crumpets were just those horn-shaped chippy-things that come in a red bag...know what I mean? Well, since she has introduced me, I have become maybe a bit addicted to them.
It's like when you make pancakes, and there are extras left over and you put them in the fridge and snack on them later and realize that leftover pancakes out of the fridge are pretty tasty. A crumpet has the consistency of a thick, hole-y, leftover pancake. Put it in the toaster, spread a bit of butter on top, it's amazing. (You really should click on the picture to get the whole idea.)
Oh yeah, and they're hella cheap too.


Also, I'd just like to point out, since bragging can be fun, that today it is 11 degrees and sunny outside. Yessss. I'm going outside to read!

old stone churches and pretty songs

occasionally, magical things happen in Edinburgh.

Last night my friend Tamsin and I discovered the Bowery, a semi-secret venue in the bowels of a centuries-old church. The arts/music/culture rag The Skinny were throwing a party with music from Edinburgh folk bands My Kappa Roots, Rob St. John and eagleowl and it was a pretty special night.

After peeping around the empty interior of the church (it was MASSIVE and all in stone, quite cool) we went down to the basement and found the room where the bands were playing. We eased our way up to the front and found Rob St. John and his band playing amongst the old lamps and dusty framed pictures of what may once have been the church's parlour...a couple old ladies knitting, drinking tea and eating biscuits and the scene would have been complete.
RSJ's set was beautiful and haunting and the setting really complemented it. His songs are long, drifting, layered melodies that make you think of the sea. Guitar, double-bass, ukelele, drums and most intriguingly, the harmonium, make up the band's instruments...sometimes they have someone playing the musical saw, which is amazing to watch.
When they finished their set, Tamsin and I explored the place a bit more. Other rooms we found included a bar, a smaller room filled with sofas and old chairs, and a red-lit lounge where all the ceiling pipes had been covered with aluminum foil, making it very space-like. There were strings of lights that looked like red ring-pops and silver hanging mobiles.
We went back into the music room for the next set from eagleowl, which seemed to be Rob St. John reshuffled and with a new double-bass player. They did quite well in their new positions though, and delivered a lovely, folky set that was mostly instrumental with occasional singing from the lady bassist and the bearded guitarist (who looks EXACTLY like the ginger drummer from Brent Randall and his Pinecones). They finished with a sweet, jaunty little tune called Will You Call Me Motherfucker, which left everyone feeling pretty happy.

We all had to leave at 11:30, because of the place doesn't have a license to be open any later, which is sad because I could have stayed there all night.
It felt like a bit of a eureka moment for me, as in, 'ohhh, this is where people go for good music; here is where you've all been hiding.'

On Scottish Food, Part 1

I present to you, Haggis.

Lovingly prepared by me and fellow Canadian friend Ben for a Burns supper a couple weeks ago.
Our friend Shaun put it best..."You get excited because it looks like stuffing and you put a big forkful in your mouth but then you realize that sadly, it is not stuffing."

Megan's Scottish/English Lexicon

Often I get confused when talking to people or reading magazine/newspaper articles over here.
I get funny looks every time I say the word "sweater" and my friends regularly have to explain the meanings of words to me. Ahh, the cultural experience of Scotland.
Here are some words and definitions that I have learned:

Dob
verb, dobbing
1. To tell on someone, to tattle. Often used by young children.
If you flush mom's jewelry down the toilet, I'll dob on you!

Cardigan
noun
1. A long-sleeved garment (sweater) with buttons on the front.
Gee, Simon, I wish I could afford a nice cashmere cardigan like yours.

Chav
noun, derogatory slang
1. The British version of "trailer trash", from what I gather. Often wears tracksuits, gold jewellry, white puffy coats, etc.
Hey Brenda, I see you're favouring the Chav look with your bright pink sweatsuit, hoop earrings and that new platinum dye job. Nice!

Chuffed
adjective
1. delighted; pleased; satisfied
I was chuffed when I heard my professor describe my essay as 'wondrous'.

Jumper
noun
1. A pullover sweater, without buttons, hoods or pockets.
I bought you this orange knitted beauty for the ugly jumper party.

OTT
British expression
1. Over the top; excessive, outrageous behaviour; uncalled for.
That publicity stunt pulled by Homecoming Scotland with the elephants, fireworks and dancing haggis was a little bit OTT.

Neeps and tatties
noun, Scottish origin
1. 'Neeps' refers to the root vegetable Rutabaga, or Swede, that originated as a cross between a cabbage and a turnip. 'Tatties' is a Scottish word for potatoes.
We'll need lots of whiskey to wash down those starchy neeps and tatties at our Burns supper tonight...pass the haggis!

Noughties
noun
1. A name for the decade from 2000 to 2009; the term has been adopted by the British media, including the BBC, but there really is no official name for this decade.
I sure hope nu-rave culture dies with the Noughties, my eyes burn from all that neon.

RA
noun, British slang
1. Rich asshole
The young RA lovingly packed her UGG boots and straightening iron into her Louis Vuitton suitcase before setting out on her gap-year adventure to Brazil.

Tosser
noun, derogatory British slang
1. synonymous with wanker
That lad's a bit of a tosser, why don't you dance with me instead?