July 23, 2009

Greetings from Montreal!

Bonjour!
I've been MIA for a long while, but now I am ready to get back to the blogging world-with a lot of interesting material under my belt, too, I assure you. The move to Montreal was smooth yet tiring. The following weeks after my move were pretty tiring, too, since we had to shop for furniture, unpack boxes as they arrived, settle down, etc. Then the wedding prep craze started, so uhm, yeah, actually now that I think about it, ever since I moved, things have been pretty hectic and exhausting, not to mention I had to finally write those damned journal papers for publishing (no they're not published yet, but I did write them).

Mariachi and I finally got married 13 days ago (July 10, woot woot!) and things have finally calmed down, and I feel very happy and not stressed, almost like everything in my life has come full circle or something, although it's very hard to explain what I feel. I've never been one to obsess about getting married (although I certainly was not against it), but after it's all said and done, I do feel different for some reason, and in a very good way. Maybe more on that later...

I finally gathered the courage to enroll in a yoga studio today, in an attempt to get in shape, because honestly, I find the whole chocolate/bakery/food scene in Montreal irresistible, and up until now I thought I had a strong will...It turns out it wasn't my will so much that stopped me from gaining weight but the OK-but-not-irresistible food. Especially the chocolate here, it tastes so light and heavenly it's dangerous (and addictive), and what better comfort food but a chocolate fondant with molten warm chocolate oozing from chocolate cake crevices onto your plate with every spoon stroke when it's -100000 degrees outside?! I say "gathered the courage" because for some reason I am overly conscious about going to an actual yoga studio here, where the classes are much smaller and personal than the classes I used to take at the YMCA, and the "teachers" are actual yogis who have trained with big shots and been to ashrams in India. I doubt these teachers will step out of the yoga session to teach ass-kicking kick-box where you hit "like you mean it" when they were guiding you through a nice mellow meditation about letting go 5 minutes ago. It will be an interesting experience, and hopefully a belly-shrinking one, too.

I am also working on my French, and started looking for a job, too. So far, Montreal has been so much more than I thought it would be, it's eclectic, modern, and bohemian at the same time. For now, there's no place else I'd rather be, and I guess that's all that matters.