After I arrived in Montréal at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport I was not aware of how bloody far my (soon to be beloved) Bishops University was away. Luckily I had arranged for a few nights in a hostel in Montreal city centre before the trek to BU. The bus driver even dropped me off right out the front of the hostel because I didn’t know how to get there :’). Canadians really are so nice!!
My first night in Canada included SNOW. I died, it was about neg 14 degrees, but newly equipped with my snow boots and coat I was ready for it. I met some of the coolest people on those first 2 nights, a couple of them I have kept in contact with (shout out to Connor). We partied hard before I left for the bus station at ridiculous o’clock in the morning, and a beautiful new friend carried one of my bags through the metres of snow. I was off to University!
On the bus to Sherbrooke I met a bunch of bishops students which was awesome. Considering I hadn’t even set foot on the campus and already the uni was providing top shelf friendships. When we arrived in Sherbrooke, we were still about a 15 minute drive from campus so we had to call cabs, at this point the handle on my suitcase completely snapped off. (COOL!)… Once we finally got to campus it took me about an hour to slug my suitcase (plus other bags) to my dorm room. I got to my room and immediately collapsed onto my squeaky as hell bed and fell asleep, missing (which I later found out) was an important welcome dinner and bonding bowling trip. I was so pissed....
The next week or two were crazy, we went out every night and met lots of awesome people and got to know the amazingly historic campus- not by going to class, but by walking home from the gait (the on campus bar). I also had to start getting use to living in the snow.. I slipped on ice so many times that I lost count. It wasn’t until about 2 weeks in, I met my soul mates… A trip to Montreal to attend Igloo Festival was being organised and I weaselled my way in, and got a spot in the car. This is what began the friendship of a lifetime!
Igloofest was incredible- it is an outdoor street party, everything is ice, including your god dang body :). It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The night, I have to admit, is a little blurry… A lot of pre drinks were consumed, but I don’t think I would have left the hostel without the alcohol blanket. Looking back, I don’t know how we did it, we stayed out until the early hours of the morning in -20 degrees. Literally -20 degrees...
A made a youtube video about out experience at the insane festival:
A trip to maccas at the end of the night was mandatory and the infamous quote amongst the exchange crew: “Excuse me, Mr. Sir, what is your policy on mayonnaise?” was born.
Esmee, Ronja, Chris, Noel, Sami, Amanda, Penny, Rosie, Dia, Natja, Tramel. All passengers on the first road trip!
After this experience our crew was destined for greatness, this was just the beginning of what was the most insane semester…
Chin Chin! – PB
