Paul Georges . Alterego Construction

This last week has been completely nuts. Lately the days have been passing by so fast, proving that time flies when you’re having fun! Work is going great, preparations for my departure for Sweden are almost complete, my first St-Jean on les Plaines is right around the corner, it’s Evi’s birthday tomorrow so I’ll be in Montréal for that, Frank and I are supposed to go river kayaking on Sunday and the Festival d’Été de Québec begins soon (that’s gonna be two one hell of a exhausting weeks).

I met up with JP today for lunch at Café Sultan (excellent food, cheap too) to talk about Sweden and how we’re going to get there. JP bought his ticket this afternoon. We decided to leave from Montréal on the 9th of August for London. We’ll be spending two nights there. Afterwards, on the 11th at night, we’ll be flying from London to Stockholm and spending another two or three nights there. We’re then going to take the train from Stockholm to Linkoping in order to make it on time for integration week and to begin our Swedish courses. Can’t wait to be in the air… first time flying! I’m so incredibly psyched; everything is going to be so new and wonderful.

I was reading up about Sweden and Linkoping a few nights ago (it’s become some sort of daily ritual) and it came to mind that I should start a forum for all the exchange students that will be attending Linkoping University for this coming year. So I set up some boards and spammed the url to the 400 people that are going to be present this coming year; the turnout was great! There are already approximately 100 registrations and the number keeps growing everyday (it’s only been two days)! Everyone that has presented themself seems so pleasantly genuine… I can’t wait to meet every single one of them. My ultimate goal is to return home with memories of everyone I’ve met and all the places I’ve seen, not to mention the photographs to go along with the unforgettable souvenirs. The majority of the people that will be attending Linkoping are German, Spanish and French. However, a few people from Chile, New Zealand, Austrailia, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Russia, Turkey, etc. have also posted to the boards! Too motherfucking cool; I can’t wait!

I’m really hoping to be able to permit myself to travel on weekends. I would love to get to know Sweden really well. I already know that I’m going to meet up with my parents in Venice Italy for a weekend and hopefully I’ll get a chance to visit some friends in France as well. I would kill to go to St. Petersburg for a weekend. Edinburgh would be nice too. There are so many places that I want to see and experience; I think the hardest part of traveling in Europe will be knowing that I will never be able to see everything that I want to. Thankfully, flying inside Europe costs virtually nothing; if you plan ahead, you can get most flights for 1 euro plus taxes. Trains are fairly cheap and fast too!

I can’t wait… I was nervous about the whole studying abroad thing at first, now the only thing that scares me is the fact that I may never want to come back.

On another note, St-Jean is coming up soon. I’ll be kicking the festivities off tomorrow in Montréal with Evi for her birthday. I simply can’t wait to see her and hear all about her trip. Then, on Friday, Evi, Frank and I will be coming back to Québec City for a night with friends here at the apartment and on les plaines d’Abraham. If everything turns out well, we should be one hell of a nice gang at my place. The more the merrier I say! I wanna see how many people I can fit into my measly one and a half. Seems that there are going to be some great bands playing on les plaines too, entre autres France D’Amour, Marjo, Mes Aïeux et Les Cowboys Fringants. Une maundite belle soirée en perspective!

Tomorrow I have to call to rent two river kayaks for Sunday. Frank and I are supposed to ride the Jacques Cartier river. It will be my first time riding a river since I’ve taken my kayak classes this winter. Should be a lot of fun.

After the weekend is over, I have a week of rest before the Festival d’Été de Québec begins. There will be so many great bands present this year (see previous post) and I plan on taking full advantage. To top off all the festival, I’ll be going to Montréal on the 16th of July to see Panic! At The Disco live at the Metropolis with Greg. Now THAT’S gonna be one fuck of a show! I’ll be missing Hot Hot Heat here in Québec City. Concessions, concessions…

Joie!