Montreal, meet Megan...

I did some mean exploring yesterday! I walked downtown, which was a good geography lesson, and went first to the Just for Laughs Museum, which is currently hosting the World Press Photo exhibit - it was so intense, and I kind of want to go back. Too much, really, to take in and process all at once. Seeing all of those incredible photos (which were pretty evenly-and grimly-divided between photos from the earthquake in Pakistan, the flooding in New Orleans, and various wars and famines) made me miss MIT, especially Blackmore's classes, and makes me jealous of Derek and Presto, who essentially get to take 025 over again as Blackmore's TAs. It's hard to know what to say in the face of those pictures but I wish I had had someone with me nonetheless to relieve some of the intensity. I sort of stumbled into the street after that and wandered over to McGill, saw their bookstore, and felt homesick for my own beloved UWO bookstore which is facing the rush right now. After that I spent some time in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which is hosting an exhibit on contemporary Canadian photography and film, and that was quite the contrast to the World Press Photo exhibit - it was sort of friendlier, in a way, though no less confrontational. That museum is great because a lot of the exhibits are free, and it's near Concordia! I could see spending a lot of time there.

The best part of yesterday: thanks to metro passes, picnic lunches, and free exhibits, the whole day on cost me $5! The World Press Photo exhibit is going to be in Toronto in October, and I would highly recommend seeing it. I like thinking about how this exhibit is going to be shown all over the world, and one of its stops is within walking distance of my apartment! Finally, I live at a hub.

Now we're getting those rainy couple of days that you London types already had, and I find myself doing strange things that I never would have thought of doing except under these exceptional circumstances - things like actually washing my "hand wash only" sweaters by hand. They are currently drying on my table. Tycho has been extra clingy this morning which feels somehow reassuring. I'm at my desk right now and he's sitting in the little compartment underneath that's meant to hold a computer tower, and every now and then he taps me on the leg, claws sheathed, as though to say, "don't forget I'm here! And don't accidentally kick me in the nose!" (this last thing has happened once or twice before, I'm afraid). Lots to do, though, like have a look at the readings for my tutorial. I've got this slow-cooking fear in my stomach about school that I'm trying like hell to face down. There are about 15,000 things I'm worried about, though, so it's slow going. The comforting thing is that once I'm done with this (what I decide to include in "this" is always in question), nothing will every be this type of scary again. Go go gadget brain cells!

I want to think of something fun to do with my students at our first tutorial meeting on Thursday. I've got some run-of-the-mill ice breakers as fall-back options, but I always sort of dreaded being put through those summer camp-type activities in my own undergrad, so I want to think of something else... suggestions?

Holy, I just remembered (again) that I'm not an undergrad anymore. This requires some nutella and maybe even the fetal position for a while.