the sisterhood of the travelling pant...ies?

yep, that's what we decided to call ourselves during our 4-day roadtrip to montreal - has a pretty nice ring to it, really. and appropriately enough, certain circumstances that we encountered throughout our whole trip always seemed to somehow reflect our group name... :oP

the adventures commenced on monday morning, where we drove the long journey to montreal... but to pass the time, we managed to go through a hoard of cds and ipod playlists to keep ourselves happy, including our "sisterhood of the travelling panties" soundtrack c/o jasiel, of which we grooved to such memorable tunes as "here comes the hot stepper" (MUUUHHHRRDDDARAAAH!) and other various 90s selections :oP - and if that wasn't working, we'd make charlene gesture passing truck drivers to toot their horns, for which we were able to score a nice 6/7 toots :o).

upon arriving in montreal, the myriad of one-way streets almost made us cross-eyed, but after finally finding decent parking, we were able to find our pleasantly-surprising mansion of a dorm-apartment at the UQAM campus, on the corner of rene-levesque and sanguinet.


and yes... we even made t-shirts :oP

ahhhh yes, montreal - where the people speak français and are eager to help out any tourist in despair, the pedestrians are just as insane as the drivers, and where the old and the new co-exist in a harmonious array of beautiful architecture.


residences @ UQAM



on the corner of rene-levesque and sanguinet



jasiel in the living room of our dorm-apartment @ UQAM



us in old montreal

and as expected, the jazz festival blew us away - so many talented people perfoming at the same time gave way to some (read: a lot) of indecisiveness, but we managed well enough. and being the cost-efficient savvy women that we were, we decided to stick to most of the free concerts (although we came slightly close to forking out the money to see k-os in concert, but lucky for us he was scheduled after we had gone home). annie sellick was a crowd favourite this year, with her deep, sultry, haunting voice - her rendition of "where is love" from Oliver Twist was one that gave me goosebumps. quite amazing... oh, and i think i'm going to seriously consider taking up jazz piano after hearing her accompanist tickle the ivories :oP


la place au jazz



us with the impeccable annie sellick

i think we probably lost a whopping load of calories from all the walking we did, and as an added bonus, i am proud to say that i didn't fall down any mountains this year :oP

other highlights included once again trekking up the steps of the st. joseph's cathedral, cooking amidst the smell of burning and thick curtains of smoke (...oops), indulging ourselves in montreal-bagel-goodness, walking down st. laurent at night and being extremely scared and freaked out doing it, accidentally letting our eyes gaze upon some naked french guy who purposely neglected the fact that his window was open the whole time he was prancing around the appartment across from us (yikes!); acknowledging the "princess" inside and treating ourselves to a true montreal salon experience (and DANG we looked good :oD); making good use of our spare time by having rolling-office-chair-marathons in our unexpectedly ridiculously huge apartment, the homeless guy who followed us halfway home that kept insisting we were chinese and told us "don't be sorry, just give me some change! God will punish you if you don't give me money", while shaking at least $5 in change right in front of our faces; admiring the gorgeously detailed architecture of notre dame and all of old montreal; and of course, just completely losing ourselves in a gazillion laughing/giggling sprees.


mmmmmmmm... bagels!



jasiel and jake @ st. joseph's cathedral



jake and i hiding out @ st. joseph's cathedral



me and jasiel pretending to be all "haute-couture" :oP



the sisterhood at their finest :o)


i really couldn't have asked for a more fabulous 4-day escape. it was exactly the the kind of break that i needed to rejuvenate my entire mind and body, and fully recharge my batteries. and nothing could have been better than spending it with 3 lovely ladies whom i love so dearly. it was quite the ride, but i think that this road trip somehow managed to bring us even closer to each other than we already were, which was absolutely wonderful, and very much appreciated.

WOOT!