As to be expected, I'm not always the greatest at writing these posts immediately. Especially when my November was a bit scattered and December is always a bit hectic as well. At least I'm finally getting around to writing down my trips to Montreal and New York City.
My trip to Montreal was mostly business/school related. The main purpose was for me to go and visit labs at two universities that are on my list as potential places for me to go and do a lot of hard work for a few years, and hopefully get a fancy sheet of paper and a few more letters after my name out of it. The details of these visits are probably a bit boring for anyone who's not gone through this same process themselves, so I'll just say that I'm glad that I went and was able to meet the professors in person (Family members I'll be seeing over the holidays: Yes, I've submitted all my applications - four of them. No, I don't have a top choice. I'll pretty much go wherever accepts me at this point; I'm just waiting to hear back from them. No, I'm not sure exactly when that'll happen, and I'm already losing sleep over it. Please ask me about other things like why I decided to make a blanket or where my next big trip will be - thanks!).
The city itself was pretty cool, literally and figuratively. It is in Canada after all. I was able to do a couple quintessential Canadian things like go to Tim Horton's and eat poutine. I even had a cola that was sweetened with maple syrup. It was pretty magical. I didn't have a ton of time to do exploring, and take pictures, but you'll get a sense of it from some of the okay ones below. I have no idea what I was expecting, but it was obviously different than what I had in mind. The city itself was a lot bigger and way more French than I had imagined. I logically knew it was a big city in the French-speaking part of Canada, but I guess I didn't really integrate that into my mental image. Anyway, it was a nice city to just wander around. Different neighborhoods had their own centers, so there were plenty of tiny shops and restaurants to check out. It was an exhausting trip, but well worth it in my opinion.
Not even four days after returning from Montreal, I was off to the Big Apple to spend Thanksgiving with my sister, her boyfriend, his family, and their dog. I was super excited to see the Macy's parade, since I was a bit jealous my parents did that 2 years ago without me. It was a bit claustrophobic and no one could recognize any of the supposedly famous people on the floats, but the balloons were fun and everyone went crazy when Santa made his appearance. When we got back to the apartment, the cooking had already begun, and pretty much continued into the evening. The dinner itself was pretty tasty with old favorites and new experiments - a general success I'd say.
The remainder of my time in the city was spent getting bagels, exploring the hipster portion of Brooklyn, cuddling with the dog, ordering in Vietnamese, and watching Netflix, but I'd have to say the highlight was our doughnut crawl. Now, if you remember, this is a plan my sister and I had had for a while, but had failed the last time I had visited, but not this time. We stopped at two doughnut places and got our fill. At The Doughnut Project, we got a prosecco and a Black Gold, Texas Tea (extra dark chocolate and sea salt) doughnut. I absolutely loved the chocolate one. I wish I had one right now as I'm typing this. Then we made our way to Doughnut Plant where we got the Vanilla Bean and Blackberry Jam and Gingerbread Man doughnuts. Also delicious. By that point we had had our fill and I had to start making my way to the bus, leaving us plenty of other places to explore during my next visit!
So this more or less brings us up to date on the happenings in my life. Work and State College in general continue to be rather uneventful, so sorry family members, these aren't going to lead to great holiday conversations either! I'm looking forward to being back in Michigan for a week and a half, and the time off cannot come soon enough!
My trip to Montreal was mostly business/school related. The main purpose was for me to go and visit labs at two universities that are on my list as potential places for me to go and do a lot of hard work for a few years, and hopefully get a fancy sheet of paper and a few more letters after my name out of it. The details of these visits are probably a bit boring for anyone who's not gone through this same process themselves, so I'll just say that I'm glad that I went and was able to meet the professors in person (Family members I'll be seeing over the holidays: Yes, I've submitted all my applications - four of them. No, I don't have a top choice. I'll pretty much go wherever accepts me at this point; I'm just waiting to hear back from them. No, I'm not sure exactly when that'll happen, and I'm already losing sleep over it. Please ask me about other things like why I decided to make a blanket or where my next big trip will be - thanks!).
The city itself was pretty cool, literally and figuratively. It is in Canada after all. I was able to do a couple quintessential Canadian things like go to Tim Horton's and eat poutine. I even had a cola that was sweetened with maple syrup. It was pretty magical. I didn't have a ton of time to do exploring, and take pictures, but you'll get a sense of it from some of the okay ones below. I have no idea what I was expecting, but it was obviously different than what I had in mind. The city itself was a lot bigger and way more French than I had imagined. I logically knew it was a big city in the French-speaking part of Canada, but I guess I didn't really integrate that into my mental image. Anyway, it was a nice city to just wander around. Different neighborhoods had their own centers, so there were plenty of tiny shops and restaurants to check out. It was an exhausting trip, but well worth it in my opinion.
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The remainder of my time in the city was spent getting bagels, exploring the hipster portion of Brooklyn, cuddling with the dog, ordering in Vietnamese, and watching Netflix, but I'd have to say the highlight was our doughnut crawl. Now, if you remember, this is a plan my sister and I had had for a while, but had failed the last time I had visited, but not this time. We stopped at two doughnut places and got our fill. At The Doughnut Project, we got a prosecco and a Black Gold, Texas Tea (extra dark chocolate and sea salt) doughnut. I absolutely loved the chocolate one. I wish I had one right now as I'm typing this. Then we made our way to Doughnut Plant where we got the Vanilla Bean and Blackberry Jam and Gingerbread Man doughnuts. Also delicious. By that point we had had our fill and I had to start making my way to the bus, leaving us plenty of other places to explore during my next visit!
So this more or less brings us up to date on the happenings in my life. Work and State College in general continue to be rather uneventful, so sorry family members, these aren't going to lead to great holiday conversations either! I'm looking forward to being back in Michigan for a week and a half, and the time off cannot come soon enough!
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