The Story So Far.... Part 1: Montreal

Well its been 5 months since i last set foot on Australian soil. it really cant believe how fast it has gone. So i thought id recap on what has happned on my journey to get here. in October 2008 i decided to try again and come to Canada, so i told my roomie at the time we are cutting the lease and i was going to move home to save some money. i pretty much joined a agency straight away and thought id put my childcare skills to use and work in Canada as a nanny. i was told orginally by the agency that i would be in Canada most likey in March/April. Well for the next 13 months i was constantly sending forms, funds to the agency in toronto and to the Canadian Consulture in Sydeny. the visa i orginally applied for that took months and months of waiting to find out if i could come i didnt get, so i applied for a different visa and got it within weeks. so if i had appiled for that visa first i could have been here in March instead of November. During the tiresome visa process i was match with a family in Montreal, Quebec. through the many emails and phone conservations we thought we would be a good match. Once i recieved my visa, i kissed my friends and family goodbye and departed Brisbane. the flight was a pain, touched down in LA and had to run for my next flight to New York City. it was once i was in New York, i finally got excited! i wasnt there for long but did get to ride in a yellow taxi cab. i will be going back to NYC next summer for my holiday. then i caught a flight to Montreal. The first few days in Montreal were great. the family seemed ok and things seemed to be working out. it wasnt until after the first week that things started to come apart. i quickly found out that the people i was living with and working for just may have had head issues. if i told you every crazy, rude, unbelievable thing they did to me there we would be here all day. i would end up in tears everyday because of that woman. i really wanted to go home at this point. after about 1 month of putting up with that crap i decided to get the hell out of there. a few things good did come out of Montreal. The city itself was pretty amazing. During the free time a did manage to get, i checked out the city. it was wierd listening to people speak french, i did struggle with that part at the beggining, even wanting to get a coffee seamed like a daunting task. i went to the biodome and saw a beaver, i went to olympic park, Mont Royal was amazing, shopping in montreal would be amazing if you are skinny enough to even fit into the clothes there. a Australian size 12 would be considered a plus size over here. the old port and the Notre Dame was awesome, the highlight on my time there was getting my first Canada tattoo. will touch more on that later. The girl i worked with Michelle was my little lifeline for the short time i was there. the family took me to a ski resort called Mont Tremblant north a montreal. i enjoyed my time there, i was staying in a back packers hostel insted of with the family. i met some awesome people there and had a good time. once i got back to montreal i was on the hunt for a new job and a new start. 2 weeks later during a heavy snow fall i pack my bags after yet another fight with the crazy one and left in the middle of the night, bags in tow i walked 30mins to Nuns Island shops and waited in the freezing cold for Michelle to pick me up. i stayed in the hostel for a week until a packed my bags and caught my flight to Calgary, where my new start was waiting for me.