Moving On

It's June. June, June, June, how quickly you have arrived.

But not so fast. May was a good month.

Sunshine and studying. Glorious.

Lots of studying, little adventures, and good food. May 2012, we'll miss you!

Short-Term Forecast

Emily writes her exam tomorrow! This month has flown by. Go Emily!

Me, however, I am not so lucky. I have a few days of studying ahead of me yet.

On the bright cloudy side, this is the weather forecast for the days ahead... (Then it improves, but that's beside the point.)

Good study weather, indeed. Might not get too much use out of my cooling contraption, though.

T minus ten days. Go me!

The Underwater City

See? I wasn't lying. Bracketed are witty comments by yours truly. (I couldn't resist.)

A wall of rain collapsed onto Montreal in one torrential instant (honestly-- one second it was sunny; the next it was dark and hurricane-like!) that flooded city streets, closed subway stations, caused power failures (thankfully not here!), damaged private property and forced evacuations from public buildings Tuesday.

It took only a few minutes to transform downtown streets into miniature canals. The foul odour of overflowing sewage floated over the area near the port. (Yum! Fortunately only our sink gurgled a tad.)

Many thousands of people were affected. While some scooped water from their own basements (three cheers for living on the fourth floor!), much larger buildings were evacuated including a fancy downtown hotel, the Quebec provincial library, multiple university pavilions (recall: the McGill broadcast email), commercial centres and a large part of the metro system.

More than 28,000 people lost electricity in Quebec, with more than half those disruptions occurring in the province’s biggest city. All but about 4,300 customers in the province and 1,900 in Montreal regained their power later in the evening. (Dodged that bullet!)

The brief but powerful storm saw a sunny afternoon lapse into night-like darkness (dun, dun, dun...). A solid slab of water crashed through the air, eventually bursting sideways in what looked like puffy, swirling white clouds.

The rain overwhelmed the city’s aging infrastructure in some places, with water pushing up through manhole covers and sometimes lifting them up.

People scrambled through the streets, some screaming as they were pelted and struggling to cling to umbrellas that seemed about to fly out of their hands. (Does anyone remember my windy day video filmed last year with Tori?! Montrealers have special relationships with their umbrellas...)

By the time it was over, there were cars partly submerged in what looked like little lakes, while a pool of water covered several subway stations.

The article continues here...

In Other Words...

Message from Professor Jim Nicell, Associate Vice-Principal, University Services

"Due to the severe recent rainstorm, numerous McGill buildings have experienced some water infiltration. Maintenance and security personnel are assessing the situation and beginning the clean-up."

i.e. FLOODING. Leave it to McGill academic types to invent new phrases to substitute for tried-and-true dummy-speak.

It's a jungle out there

Anyway, today Montreal experienced gale-force winds, lighting, thunder, and the heaviest rain I have ever seen (I was too engrossed in watching it all unfold that I didn't think to reach for my camera-- the very green shot of our "backyard" [above] will have to do). The streets went from dry to flooded in a matter of seconds, and apparently McGill's century-old buildings did too. Thankfully, Emily and I are high-and-dry up in Tupper, though we haven't escaped the heat and humidity! Fan to the rescue!

My new cooling contraption

Scones!!

While I do love eating other people's baked goods, (particularly my roommates') I rarely do well baking them myself. When I'm not forgetting ingredients, I'm mixing them up or adding them in, completely out of order. Suffice it to say, I rarely bake. BUT this particular recipe for Cranberry and White Chocolate Stones is a piece of cake for all of you bakers and non-bakers alike. It's supposed to take 30 minutes, however, despite the additional 30 or so it took me after racing out last minute for a missing ingredient and misreading baking soda for baking powder... it was worth it!

(Notice the new hair cut!!)

Cranberry & White Chocolate Scones

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons half-and-half
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries or 1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (or pieces)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

2. In a bowl by hand or using an electric mixer, blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter.
3. Add the half and half, beaten egg, cranberries (I like the dried ones), and the white chocolate chips, and stir until the dough holds together.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 2 minutes.
5. Form into a 1/2-inch thick round, then cut the round into 8 wedges (you can also make two smaller rounds of smaller wedges, if you like).
6. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil, then transfer the wedges to the sheet.
7. Bake the scones at 400 degrees F for 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Read more here!

Ughhh

Counting down the days til I don't have to put up with this anymore: Pot-banging against Bill 78

Coffee Culture

This week, in order not to be too lonely in our little apartment I looked up the most popular cafés around and decided to spend time studying and reading at a different one every day.

1. Myriade: I enjoyed this lovely latte while waiting for the torrential downpour to end :) 

The café is fairly small but cozy and I'm sure people would have sat outside on the terrace if it had been nice out! 

 2. Café Lili et Oli: I almost missed it walking by! I loved the wooden shelves on the walls with books and china. It has a really unique atmosphere and I treated myself to a delicious and refreshing iced coffee. I'd definitely go back there again, next time with a friend. (Malorie!?)

3. La Bistrote: Absolutely adorable! They served me my very own thirst quenching PITCHER of lemonade and a generous piece of carrot cake and that super cute bucket for cutlery! (I realize this doesn't seem like a café but I saw lemonade on the menu and just couldn't turn it down). The decor in this place was really neat - a great place for a girls lunch date I think! ...couldn't quite figure out why it was absolutely empty the entire time I was there...

4. I'm sad to report that Toi, Moi et Café was under renovation (or closing?). Either way it was all papered up so I couldn't go in :( 

5. Nocochi: LOVED it! I chose to sit outside to enjoy the warm sunshine but inside were white comfy booths, lots of scrumptious cookies and teas and cute gift ideas!   

 

And that is how far my money lasted me...just in time for Katie to return tomorrow!