new politics

in the past, i feel like a president has usually waited until they left office to do the big press tour thing. obama is clearly trying to change the model of his predecessors by scheduling too many televised speeches and commenting on things that should be of no concern to him such as Kanye and his jeans. oh, and he also likes to be on covers of magazines. and what is michelle doing besides this and this?

i would like both of them to cut it out. both of them have a lot of clout and they should be using it for other purposes. also, there are paid professionals to comment on the going-ons of pop culture. and then there's me - and that's more than enough.

almost a month

i just wrote my friend (who i'll refer to as 'lola') an update on life and therefore have copied and pasted portions below if anyone is wondering what's going on with me.
lola - can you spot the parts i took out? :-P

things with my tutor are going well. well, actually, this week i was so stressed and a big bitch because i still haven't gotten a job (until yesterday). but since we meet pratically every day, he's my new korean brother. i love korean relationships. he even came to montreal with me! and no one has ever done that before when i've asked them if they wanted to go somewhere for the weekend! i should try to send you a picture of him so you can know what he looks like. he's got freckles on his nose too which is rare for koreans i think.

so my roommate is the manager of a huge abercrombie and fitch here (writing that makes me cringe) so he just got me a job yesterday as overnight. i'm happy with that, actually. then i don't have to deal with any customers and i can still have the whole day to go to the gym, meet jaehyun (tutor), and continue looking for other jobs if i want. anyways, this is just to hold me over financially. i'm only supposed to be in nyc for a few months anyway. i only have to work 10-3 am and my roommate can make me any schedule i want. it really pays to have friends in high places!

in fact, i owe him (john) and my other roommate (paul) so much. they let me stay here to begin with and didn't give me any deadlines and it just so happened that we like living together so they're letting me stay. but they're really easy to get a long with and as john likes to keep reminding me: "we all have our separate lives but are able to come back and enjoy each other's company." paul is a stylist at aveda so he gave me a great cut the other day which was truly a treat. getting my hair cut is actually one of my favorite things to do in the whole world and i had just casually mentioned a long time ago that i wanted to cut my hair so he used me as a model. he gave me some highlights (and lowlights) and gloss treatment and it was all free. such a pleasure.

oh yeah. i start korean classes on the 21st. it's only on wednesday nights (bummer) but it's the same exact curriculum as sogang, same book and everything! so i'll be able to study level 3 here so i'll be able to stay current with my former classmates.

as a side note, it killed me not to be able hotlink jaehyun, john, and paul's names. they totally need a blog, doncha think so?

introducing

this is the infamous taehyun #1, who ruined my whole trip to montreal. before everything went down, he could be seen smiling and having fun. therefore, this is the last photo taken of him on the trip.

church scenes

the montreal travel guide shows two people, a guy and girl, riding bikes across this bridge with a famous church in the background.

bicycles

montreal has a system called bixi which allows you to rent a bike from some 300 various street-side locations and return it to wherever you want. for one day of riding, it only runs you about $8. sheer genius.

montreal

montreal is beautiful, authentic, and darn-right amazing. and being greeted every time you show up somewhere with 'bonjour' isn't that bad either. it makes me laugh. i heart montreal!

Juun J.

since i've worn my Juun J. pants four days in the past week, i've gotten nearly a million compliments on them. people stopping me randomly on the street starting full on conversations with me, people trying to talk to me over my MP3 music. best purchase ever. these bottoms are golden.

scenes of montreal

i couldn't eat my first official lunch in montreal without having a croissant (or as the waiter understood in my fake french accent, crescent, which is totally not the same thing). fortunately for me, mine had tomato and goat cheese (omfg!) and a little thing white people invented: mayonnaise! just because i've been living in asia for two years does not excuse the fact that i had forgotten about the joys of mayonnaise. i died a million times eating this lunch (and somehow still managed to live to tell the tale).

scenes of montreal

in montreal, starbucks can't just be starbucks. it *has* to be Cafe Starbucks Coffee or else the gais would find their coffee somewhere else - god forbid - tim hortons!

scenes of montreal

in montreal, the best meat you can get is from the ass. you would think they would need that meat for the cold winters.