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last week was a thursday holiday. st jean baptiste day where people who speak french parade around with the blue and white flag of quebec. i missed the parade. i even missed the fireworks. the skies cried. i now feel its pain.

this week another thursday break for canada day. its like the 4th of july, except its the 1st of july and in canada. i might work.

Today was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold, and it was bright and sunny. We decided to have lunch outside, in a park. I didn't know which park until we were on our way. We were going to dine at the "lake of the beavers." Dang it, my camera was in my back pack. All 7 of us grabbed our lunches and sat on the grass right in front of the lake. It was awesome. I even saw blue dragonflies. Wow, my first dragonfly!!! A few birds were surrounding us, fighting for food previlges, which we did not supply. We threw a couple of barks and sticks (which they thought were food)and they dived for it!!! Quite funny. A little kid was walking along with his dad, and wanted to scare of the birds. Nic took this opportunity to ask the dad if we can rent him for a half hour while we ate to get rid of the birds surrounding us. He gently declined. Then, it was trying-to-push-Nico-into-the-lake time! Later two guys from our bunch decided to play invisible jump rope. They just swung their hands simultanously and the next person who passes by has to jump. It was a mental game. One person with her baby was a good sport. She first went around them, but decided to come back and jump. he he. I played along, but then they went too fast for me and I had to jump out of the invisible rope. A few more passerbys jumped too. It was fun. too bad none of us had a camera. funny, it was only the girls that wanted to get their cameras.

Ooo, I wonder if appartement is masculin. Well anyhoo... The real truth about the appartment, and not what you have already received in your email or will receive soon... Its called a 2 1/2 here, which means you get two pieces of room and a bathroom (the half). So, I got a kitchen (different flooring) and a room, not too big... my guess around 12.5 feet by 7.5 feet. For those not in the states, here are the conversion: (2.54 cm = 1 inch, 12 inches = 1 foot).

So, its dirtier than what I previously thought. It looked clean at first cuz, its very dim in there. I got me one big window, where the tree is blocking most of the rays (its suppose to be brighter in the winter -- no leaves), so you would actually have to use the light in the morning. But, there are layers of dust everywhere, especially on the air vents. The guy who lived there previously, had taped up store advertisements in the kitchen stove area so he doesn't bomb the place with cooking oil splashes, but after he had remove all of that, I found that there is a layer of that oil splashes all around. wonder what i will do with that? to cover or to clean? that is the question!!!

I spent 2.5 hours cleaning the refridgerator yesterday evening. Again, at first it looks clean. He had removed everything (convienently, the light in the fridge died two years ago, and he didn't bother telling the concierge. i told the concierge but she removed my lightbulb and said she will bring me another one. its been a week). and at a first glance it really looks kinda clean. compared to the other disasters i've seen... Jesus Christ superstar!!! ok, so i found a lagoon of ancient mixtures of i dont know what kind of juice. i imagine meat juice! i wonder how long its been there. i also found an ancient raisin. it was the smell that got me thinking that something is not right. "the refridgerator smell" was quite strong, and when i finally decided to clean it out, boy did i have to scub off a good layer of sticky stuff. the freezer was impossible. my sponge sticks to the walls (like touching a frozen pole with your tongue in the winter).

so this weekend, i went out shopping for cleaning products. so far i got my ajax, the retarded sponge mop (2$), a bucket, some mr. clean, and the indispensible dish washing liquid. still need bleach.

Other than it being dirty, its got 3 small closets, a bathtub/shower system whose shower head is a bit on the busted side in my opinoin, and a big balcony, almost as big as my room (surrounded by stones... wonder how i can clean it). its got wooden floors (my room and tiles in the bathroom and plastic tiles in the kitchen) so no carpet (good, i dont have to wonder what people dump in the carpet)

and right now its the pollen season. man, i never seen pollen, let alone so much of it. dude, you know those dandelion you like to blow on as a kid and see them fly? its everywhere, blowing in the wind. crazy! the grass has a layer of white fuzz, and i'm tracking it into the front door of the appartement. hee-hee

the concierge, i found out smokes in their appartement (and lucky me, my appartement is right next to theirs) and the stinch is seeping into my appartement in the morning. My eyes are tearing up like mad. I am really sensitive to tabacco smell now. but, on the plus side, if i get up way later (like weekends) it dissipates before i get up.

but, its a nice appartment compairing with the other ones i've seen and much bigger too, and its on the first floor (garage underneath), so i can tap dance to my hearts content (i think). hopefully sound dont travel horizontally to my neighbors.

oh and incidently, the only place i found clean was the toilet and the sink. the bathtub is a little discolored (slightly grey) but wow, i would have though it would be the bed/living room.

et voila, l'appartment est comme ça, lui!!!!

Actually before we get to the moving, let's go in reverse to the lab research day. It was last friday. We had a whole day of presentations from our group. 30 minutes each person. One person was missing from our program because he just found out he is a father!!! Wow, how exciting. So after two presentations, we had our first snack break. Man, did I eat a lot that day. Breakfast was great. I drank so much orange juice that day, that I will be all set in vitamin C for the next 3 decades. Unfortunately, ascorbic acid doesn't work that way. Then more presentations, and lunch. woohoo, sushi!!! then more presentations, and a little break... 2 presentations and I was up. I sped through 30 slides in 15 minutes. I guess I was talking a bit fast. But, the most memorable slide would have to be my animated running lobster. Maybe that is the only thing people liked about my presntation, but they sure got a good laugh out of it. then the last presentation and the wine and cheese party. Boy what selection of cheese. I didn't do any wine, cuz I will be totally drunk by the 3rd sip.

I went to pick up my keys to my appartment after that and headed back home to pack. Yep, I started packing the day before the moving day, at 9PM!!!! Finished at 2AM... well not really, but I figure i can do that later. Slept with the kitty on my bed. (Simon's mom was kittysitting a cute white kitty and after only 3 days, the kitty is sleeping with me) Set my alarm at 6 AM and did a bit more cleaning up... like moving everything upstairs. Then ran for the metro because i was supposed to meet my friend somewhere at 8AM. We took off to Granby (an hour away). Had breakfast at Burger King's and got to the old people's home.

We picked up a table, a chair, a rug, a night table, and a bed. The bed was the most interesting. It was pre-yellowed!!! Ja, a big pee-stain right in the middle of it all. While my friends were moving it to the car, Nico was singing

"her name is yellow, she says hello, come pee over here you fine fellow..."

I was laughing my butt off. Marc says I should take it just to have something to sleep on, so I took it hehe. Then we went to my place to unload, and before we took off again, we had to test the bed... so we bounced on it, all three of us at the same time after it was set up. it was fun. then back to Simon's moms to pick up my stuff and back to my place to unload. then lunch at a pizza place... and we saw another Marc (there are two in the research group) and he joined us for lunch.

then, i went to lab to feed some cells.... and then went back to Simon's mom's place to clean up (after renting a movie hehe). We had dinner togeher... mmmm clams! and I played with the kitty. He was getting quite attached to me... following me everywhere and purring like crazy when I pet him. after vacuuming everything and cleaning everything, i went back home

fortunately i had already bought a bed cover (yay, i don't have to sleep on the pee stain). maybe i have ESP heheh.

i realize how dirty the appartment is... now i have to buy stuff to clean it up.

So that went the day.

Tell you about the appartment in my next blog.