Moving to Montreal

Well, folks, it's almost there. There is one (1) week left before the big move.

I am so incredibly excited for this next stage in my life, but I have to actually get there first. For that, I have to give a giant pre-shout-out to my mom for driving, packing, unpacking, and just generally helping me get settled in to my new apartment. We'll be leaving Pennsylvania bright and early next week, since I have to turn in my apartment keys by 8am, and drive up to the border. The next day, with fingers crossed for an easy customs stop, we'll drive to Montreal, unload all the stuff I already own, wait for the Ikea furniture I ordered to be delivered, and see how much of it we can assemble before we start to pull our hair out.

The trip won't be all business though. The day after all the moving, we get to explore my new home! I'm not quite sure what all we'll be doing/seeing (if you have any suggestions or recommendations, let me know!), but playing tourist is always fun. The next day we'll drive back to Michigan, and I'll get to have a few weeks of summer vacation before hunkering down and working intensely for the next 4 years or so.

Some of the details of my program are still a bit fuzzy to me, but I can tell you that the first semester I'm taking two classes - stats and a general psychology survey course (thanks to my MA being in linguistics and not psychology). I'm also pretty sure my supervisor already has plenty of plans and ideas for my research responsibilities, as evidenced by the fact that even though I haven't officially started the degree, I've already submitted a fellowship application, been working on a conference abstract, and started learning R. Thank goodness I have time at work to do these things! But like I said, still very excited.

Outside of school, I can't really say much about the city - I'll have to work on keeping this updated with my Canadian adventures - but I can tell you a bit about my apartment. I was able to find a 1-bedroom apartment that's in between campus and downtown and close to bike lanes and a metro stop. Not to mention it has a balcony and is DOG-FRIENDLY! I'm not quite sure when, but I also can't wait to adopt a dog and give it the home and snuggles it deserves. Anyway, it may take me a while to get completely settled in my new apartment, but let me know if you want pictures once I am!

Ready for some poutine

As for my last week in State College, it will mostly be filled with packing, cleaning, and getting in as many yoga classes as I can before I leave.

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