Happy New Year!

So am back after a long absence from this blog and a nice return home to England! Sorry I didn't update on my second trip to NYC and my trip to Boston. Both were awesome and that will have to suffice.

I was supposed to go home for a week at Christmas, leaving on the 19th December. However, the universe decided that the UK was going to have another one of its TRANSPORTFAIL episodes and Heathrow was shut due to snow. Therefore my flight was cancelled. This was particularly upsetting due to the good foot of snow piled up at the sides of the perfectly-operating Montreal-Trudeau runway, mocking me with its hardy Canadian winter efficiency. I was able to be put on standby for a flight to Frankfurt, but was one of the four (out of about 26) who didn't make it on. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Frankfurt Airport shut its runway the following morning. But because I chose that flight, when it came to rescheduling a flight to London the earliest available was the 29th - a full two days after I was due to come back to Canada!

Nevertheless I had a lovely Christmas. On Christmas Eve there were about 15 of us who were still in Montreal and we had a gorgeous Xmas dinner. Major props to Andy, Al and Tom for the cooking. Although, I'm sure they'd agree that they'd have been nowhere without mine and Marion's expert potato peeling skills!

I eventually got home and had a nice, if quiet, post-Christmas Christmas. It was so lovely to be able to see everyone after all the stress. I even managed to fit in a trip up to the uni and London which was amazing. A particular highlight being lunch with Vicky at Sticky Fingers (Bill Wyman's restaurant in South Ken). There's nothing like eating delicious food, listening the best of the 60s and having hundreds of pictures of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards surrounding you.

But, of course, I am now back in Montreal. After an emotional and homesick first week, I am settled back into the swing of things over here despite there being a totally different vibe this term. Everything is a lot more chilled and less party-party, which suits me fine. It's still fun but less hectic, which is good as my French course is kicking the shit out of me. There's still been stuff going on of course, the main event being the SKI TRIP which was immense!

We went up to Mont Sainte-Anne, just outside of Quebec City. Now, I am a complete beginner when it comes to skiing. I went once with school when I was 13 and ended up being laughed at mercilessly by 4 year old Austrian kids and permanently fudging up my knees. But I was excited! I was sharing a room with Evelyn, Lauren and Leslie. Lauren's been skiing since she was little and Leslie snowboards pretty well, so me and Ev were the retards who couldn't stay on our skis! We didn't want to have group skiing lessons though, so Lauren said she'd take us up on a green slope and show us the ropes. All well and good, except we ended up on a slope that wasn't exactly for beginners. So we had to get rescued. I was fine with this as I had a rather gorgeous guy carry my skis down to the nearest blue slope for me and got to play my 'oh look, aren't I a pathetic and ridiculous woman who needs rescuing?' card. Great fun.

My ski pass

The next day we found the green slopes and had great fun. Ev perfected the art of falling over and getting back up again. I didn't fall once the first time we skiied down so turned into a cocky little bitch the second time round and ended up whacking my head spectacularly on an icy bit of the slope. Luckily I was wearing a helmet, but got all dizzy and paranoid and spent an hour in first aid thinking I was about to die. I didn't particularly want to go back up again but did. And didn't fall! I didn't fall at all on the last day either. Ok, I didn't really progress much as I stayed on the same slope, but I had such great fun it didn't really bother me. I wasn't there to challenge myself, I was there to have a giggle. Which I most certainly did! In spite of the -30 temperatures...my hair definitely froze!

My next exciting event is probably SPRING BREAK IN CUBA!!!! I am so excited about this I might wee myself if I think about it too much. It's going to be so nice to get a week of sunshine!