bonjour!

we arrived in monteal yesterday evening and meandered our way through the metro down the french-named streets to fred and cimon`s apartment....we met cimon on the street and he gave us his keys. what a transition, the rolling hills of vermont, the most rural place i`ve maybe ever been on saturday, to the busy streets with another language, to a small apartment of our good friends! last night we walked to the IGA grocery store and spent quite a few minutes walking through the aisles looking at the different foods, all the pates, the milk sold in big plastic bags, the local framboise beer, etc. we finally settled on some brussels sprouts in tribute to kira and cooked a big saute with them, broccoli, onions, garlic and melted cheese as we played a few rounds of mario kart on the supernintendo! fred got home at that point from his weekend in his hometown and we talked for quite a while until simon got home from his metal concert. they are such wonderful people! we awoke this morning to two plates of various pastries from the bakery down the street, and drank coffee and tea and orange juice with our friends (fred and cimon are friends we met through kira who met them in thailand last year; they came to burning man with us and it seems like we`ve known each other forever).

vermont was so beautiful; i came to the conclusion that it`s the most charming state i`ve ever visited. no billboards, such old buildings and stonework and farmer`s markets and maple syrup and local food focus and small towns and the land... especially saturday, when we went down to rochester for sarah and adam`s vermont wedding celebration, to his family`s property (in the family for four generations now). it was so wonderful to see his mom again, and to meet his grandmother and hear of her work with helping young girls go to school in honduras. we had corn on the cob and lots of cheese (i don`t know when i`ve ever eaten so much cheese in my life as in vermont!) and there were at least 7 apple pies on the table. the land is rolling green hills and the green mountains and the trees just starting to change (if only we were there two weeks from now, i bet it will all be color!) we spent much of our vermont time at sarah and adam`s beautiful house on lake champlain, with the windows of our bedroom overlooking the lake, the sailboats, the canadian geese, the seagulls. it is so fun to be in new places and to meet new people, to see how they live, to be a little part of their circle.

today we are going to walk around montreal and find the delicious mussels and fries on rue de st. laurent....maybe we will even find the teashop i went to when i was here last time, camilla sinesis. cimon is leaving at four for switzerland (!!) and carson, fred and i are going to find something fun to do this evening.