Quick trip to Montreal

Bonjour mon ami! Here at Bread Loaf things are crazy awesome. Thankfully the school gave us a day off this week as a sort of midterm vacation. Friday we had no classes, and I didn't have any wait staff responsibilities in the dining hall. So what did I do? That's right: Canada or bust baby! Montreal is only about three hours north of Middlebury, so I took my passport, my roommate, and a friend who speaks French with me Friday morning and we came back Saturday afternoon. Montreal is a beautiful city. We got into town, checked into our hostel and started seeing the sites. My friend that speaks French, Evelyn, has spent some time in Canada and knew all the things to see. So we didn't waste any time in tourist traps. Okay, maybe that's all we did. We hiked to the top of Mount Royal that looks over the entire city-scape. Pictures are above. The hike wasn't easy. Lots of stairs and lots of pausing, but definitely worth the view. After we got our fill of picture taking and resting, we hiked back down the mountain, caught the metro and went to Vieux-Montreal. For those of you who don't know, that means Old Montreal. Don't worry I had no idea either. Anyway, this is the part of town that apparently resembles Europe. It has cobble streets, giant cathedral, a quaint town square, and lots of cute stores. This is the part of town we spent most of our time seeing. We shopped, ate in a street cafe, and shopped some more. The people watching was a lot of fun too. We kept trying to guess who was a tourist and who was a local. We walked to a few historical sites for photos, but mostly we looked in at art galleries, souvenir shops, and the maple history museum. (No joke, but it was closed.) We took a tour of Norte Dame and all its beauty. We even got to hear the bells chime at the hour.
Sadly, it was a rather quick trip. I got just enough of the city to make me love it and to make me jealous of people who speak second languages. Now I have added French to my bucket list of things to learn in my life time. We left the city after lunch, and took our time coming home. Burlington, Vermont is the biggest city near Middlebury and is on the shore of Lake Champlain. We decided to stop there for a look at the lake and crepes. MMMmmmm lemon and sugar. While we were there, we thought we could drive over to the Ben and Jerry's factory for a tour. It goes a different way around to Middlebury than the direct route. Anyway, we drove for a while before we realized I probably made a wrong turn somewhere (my roommate was navigating so I'm not completely culpable). We were on the right road to get to Middlebury, but missed the factory along the way somehow. Once we figured we were pretty lost, we stopped at this place "Maynard's Snack Shack" to ask for directions. It was the only sign of civilization we could see. A couple of patrons told us the factory was back the way we came, but that the ice cream at Maynard's was homemade and better than anything we could get at B&J's. He also told us Maynard would give us a tour if we asked nicely. It really was a nice little mom and pop type establishment. I laughed when I saw a sign near their daily specials that read: We sell mulch hay. How small town is that?
Anyway, after a nice visit with Mrs. Maynard we ordered some maple creamies (which is what they call soft serve ice cream here) and got on our way.
The rest of the drive home was phenomenal. Route 100 took us straight through the heart of the Green Mountain National Forest. We stopped along the way for attractions like a covered bridge and a magnificent waterfall. I decided I will take my mom through that way when she flies out to drive home with me. I really can't say enough about the beauty.
Anyway, I'm on the home stretch of school. Both of my big papers are due in two weeks and school is out the 5th of August. I can't believe that it's already here. I've had such a great experience studying with such brilliant minds and learning some tricks from other young English teachers. I hope you enjoy the pictures in the slide show above and some new music. Au revior!