Mont Royal

Some pictures

This week has been very relaxed, we only trained in the evenings and we only had two artistic classes! Our artistic class was learning the haka, it was a lot of fun, although I was not very good at it at all! Next week is busy again, with acting and dance classes in between bars training. Today is a grey, cloudy day but yesterday the weather was beautiful, and I was able to explore the streets of Montreal with Richard. It is strange, the past three Sundays have been rainy, while every other day of the week is beautiful and sunny. It is rather annoying! I am a little brain fried today and can't think of much to write, but here are some photos to enjoy...

Falling for Montreal.

The more time I have been spending in this beautiful city, the more and more I am falling in love with it. Downtown Montreal is great, there is a very laid back and welcoming vibe in the streets. Everyone is friendly and up for some fun. I have had some very interesting encounters with strangers that have been rather entertaining. For example yesterday a man with VERY short shorts on (see photo below :)) was waving and joking around with me through the window of the opposite carriage on the metro. Even though he was a complete stranger he definetley put a smile on my face. Yesterday I finally made it to the tam tam's with Renee. This is on every Sunday and it is just people playing drums and relaxing... there are some nice hippy stalls and lots of people juggling, hula hooping etc. I really enjoyed myself there, Mont Royal is very pretty and watching all the hippies dancing was rather entertaining. After this we went to Trilon the other Cirque residence and I finally got to go on the rooftop terrace again... I had been missing this place. The view from the roof is breathtaking, too good to even photograph as I just wanted to enjoy every moment myself and store it away in my head!! So far, my three favourite places in Montreal are as listed... 1. The chair under the apple tree in the veggie patch section of Cirque Headquarters 2. The rooftop terrace of Trilon and 3. Sherbrooke in downtown Montreal. This place is beautiful, with lots of cafes and a very green and pretty park with a large hammock in the middle!

Of course, work has also been very good. Acting and dance classes are very fun... acting class especially surprised me. I thought I would hate it but I actually love this class. Bar training is still going very well, we are all quite tired and sore, but that doesn't stop us from having fun and practicing well. This week is a kind of rest week. We only have to artistic classes and training at night for three hours. Our artistic class this week is learning the New Zealanders Haka! This is to assist us in getting in touch with our inner warriors!!!

Another day at work

I still find it hard too believe that the thing that I love doing most is now my job. Each day is so fun, so exciting and so fulfilling. Training is going really well, we are learning some very interesting skills, completely different to the vocabulary of uneven bars in gymnastics. Yesterday was the beginning of a very busy week as we have started our artistic classes in between our two bar sessions. So our schedule was bars from 9 till 11, dance from 11:45 till 1:15 and training from 2:30 till 4:30. By the end bed seems like a great place to be but still, it is so much fun that being tired doesn't really matter. Dance class is definetly a highlight for everyone. Our dance teacher is called Mossimo, he is an older,  Italian man who uses the word f**k like there's no tomorrow! He is absolutely hilarious and is also a very good teacher. Today I have acting class which shall be very interesting.. and soon (I hope) we start make up class etc.

Yesterday evening the weather was lovely. It had cooled down and the sun was setting, so a walk seemed like a good idea. Renee and myself followed a track at the end of the headquarters and I managed to get some pictures of the sunset. Here are some...

Montreal

Training has been going really well, it is hard work but very fun. We are starting to learn some pretty impressive tricks and everyone is adapting to the structure very well. I have met lots of new people within Cirque, everyone is very friendly. I had an amazing experience on Friday night in downtown Montreal. There is not enough space at the Cirque residence so some artists stay at an apartment block downtown called Trylon. It has an amazing roof top terrace that overlooks the whole city. We chilled there on Friday night before going out, it was beautiful. There were two English guys singing and playing guitar and the weather was warm, it was a great atmosphere. Montreal is a beautiful city. I have not seen nearly as much as I want to... but I am here for nearly a year so I have plenty of time. I love exploring and going on adventures... experiencing civilian life in Montreal. Today I really got to do that with Renee. We missed the bus to the metro so we had to walk, but it was a blessing in disguise as it enabled us to see all of the cute apartments and even stop at a garage sale! Garage sales are my favourite and I couldn't resist having a little look and chatting to the lovely old lady :) Our destination today was Jean-Talon markets. I absolutely love it there, there are local farmers selling their produce, amazing buskers and lots of dogs, it is such a nice place to be. Surrounding these markets are little cafes and my new favourites... the cheese shop and bakery. All of the food is reasonably priced in comparison to Australia and it is very fresh and healthy. Despite the heavy load we had to carry back... and the fact that we missed the bus, AGAIN, Jean-Talon Marche is one of my new favourite places to be. Speaking of favourite places, I have found a little set of chairs under some apple trees out the front of Cirque Headquarters. It is nice and shady and the chairs are super comfy, but no one seems to keen on sitting out with me which is a shame... they are missing out! Nevertheless, it is a great place to read a book or just chill.  Here are some pictures...

Happy Birthday Karen

I hope your birthday is as wonderful and lovely as you are Karen :) Have a fabulous day! Lots and lots of love and hugs xxx

Creating home

As I said in a previous post, my room was a very special place for me to have my 'Tain Time'. Now that my suitcases have finally arrived, I have spent a lot of my free time decorating my room, and making it feel more like home. Doing this is one of my favourite things, it has been really nice to stick up all of my photos and artwork and making my apartment homely and cosy!

Day One!

Todays training was amazing, it was so fun, but pretty hard work! Our bars are so exciting to experiment on, and our coaches Stacey and Rob are great. The thing that impressed me most was how much they cared about us, letting us have some rest and understanding where we are at with our training. Tomorrow we train bars twice again and I also have dance and physio, so I am very busy! I am very, very excited for dance. I ate lunch in the cafeteria today and sat in the outside area which is a massive grassy space with chairs all around. Once again, the atmosphere is just so warm and friendly, it is such a lovely place to be. We are all very tired from the first day of training but I am trying hard not to fall asleep at the moment so I can let my body clock reset properly! I cooked my first meal tonight and I'd say it was a success! I made pasta with chicken and cherry tomatoes. The veggies and fruit I got from Jean Talon markets are so yum! Already from day one I have sore muscles, carpet burns and bruises... but secretly I love all this, it makes me feel like I am training hard!

                                                         My wounds from day one!!!