I’m going to pretend that I’m doing all these things. And so I have decided to make a list of all the things I’m excited about at home. It’s more of a why-being-home-is-awesome list than a montreal-sucks-I-don’t-miss-it-at-all list, because that would just be a flat out lie and wouldn’t kid anyone. For this to work, I need this to be somewhat realistic.

1. Shower pressure: Hutchy’s great. I mean, the minute I walked out the door on Monday, I knew I would miss it terribly. However, it certainly had its flaws, and shower pressure was one of them. Pressure was so low, it would take me 15 minutes only to get my hair wet, let alone shampooed. Conditioning would take me an extra forty minutes. Now I realize that talking about water pressure can be pretty dull, but let me tell you something. When you wake up on a Day-after-Thursday morning and stumble into the shower only to realize that someone has turned on the dishwasher which means that you can only take a cold shower, that fucks up your day right there.
2. Having the warm towel waiting for you when you eventually do get out of the shower: priceless.
3. FOOD: There’s something about the food you eat at home. It’s probably because you’ve associated it with childhood memories, or maybe just because it’s good and actually tastes like food, but man, having a home-cooked meal is so very special.
4. The not having to wear 12 layers of clothing and astronaut boots when you go outside: also, quite a nice feeling. Forgot something in the car? Nein grosse deal. You just walk through the door and go get it. You don’t have to put on your 2 sweaters, your hat that you can’t find so you’ll just take one of your roommates’ instead because you simply can’t go out without a hat or you’ll die, put on your boots that are completely soaked from walking in the snow all day but it’s either that or your chucks, and find your coat that you left upstairs so you have to take off your boots, go get your coat and come back down. No, in Paris, you just walk out the door. Okay fine, maybe you jog a little on your way to the car because it is kind of chilly, but you certainly don’t freeze the minute you walk through the door. And we’re happy about that.
5. The not having to wear 12 layers of clothing when you’re chilling in your own living room: again, I love Hutchy. I really, really do. But man is it cold there! We had a little heating system issue. Our landlord got us new heaters, which was nice slash extremely necessary, but they didn’t seem to work that well. So basically, when we were chilling in our living, either talking about our days or struggling to download californication for us to watch together, we’d all be bundled up under a blanket, in addition to our many layers of clothing. As I’m typing this, I’m wearing jeans and a single sweater. It’s very nice(/normal).
6. The super fast internet: I downloaded a 40min episode in 3 minutes on ninja today. Enough said.
7. Living in a real apartment: College life is awesome. You buy all this random stuff that you never use and just throw somewhere on the shelves in your living room, because that’s where you and roommates have decided that all the random shit would go. There and on the mantelpiece. Stolen plastic animals from across the street, the conceited giraffe, the highlighter jars, the wine box from my birthday last year, my broken phone, some rando’s forgotten glasses that we’ve kept for a year just cuz… On the mantelpiece in my house in paris, we have flowers, a framed picture and a Lucky Luke hat. It is still kind of random, but definitely not as weird.
8. The having a TV again: “No you know, I actually don’t miss it at all!” Sure. I didn’t miss watching tv for three something years. I didn’t. But watching it again is fun. You stumble across old 90′s sitcoms that used to dictate your life when you were a kid, you get to discover the world (and by that I mean watch 16 and pregnant), you get to act all smart and shit and complain about how shitty french tv has become and how awful it is that “this is what they’re showing kids now” when it really isn’t different from what you used to watch. And, very importantly, you get to watch “Un dîner presque parfait” everyday.
9. The not feeling guilty about not going to the gym because it’s 5 minutes away from your house: Okay, my mom does have a powerplate machine and an elliptical, but I choose to forget about it. I actually like the powerplate, it’s fun and it makes you do things in the most awkward positions ever. Plus your body hurts for 2 days straight after that. But yeah, because there’s not that feeling of “I should go to the gym. I mean it is right there and I have paid the 20 bucks to be able to go whenever I feel like it”. Now, there’s no gym that makes me feel about not going there.
10. All the magazines your parents subscribe to that you read at breakfast: Not only are you not having breakfast at the Oasis and having a “Sesame bagel just toasted nothing on it and a medium one milk”, but you have stuff to read while you’re having breakfast. Tele 7 Jours, Elle or the Redoute catalogue, there’s always something on the kitchen table to prevent you from thinking about how much you actually do miss the Oasis.

So here they are, the first 10 things I love about being home. I totally could do a the 10 things I miss about Montreal, but it’s way too early for me to do this; would not help in the mourning process. Let’s hope this does.

So Kim and Lily, read this through, and hang on to it and do yours. I’m sure, with time, we’re going to find more things to add to the list.

Lily, Kim and I were talking about the movie L’auberge espagnole (during my last Oasis break…). In the movie, the main guy talks about how, when he moves to Barcelona (or was it Madrid?), everything seems new and how he knows that when he’ll leave the city, everything will remind him of something, someone, or some time. I moved to Montreal more than three years ago. I was seventeen, excited and scared. I was moving to another city, in another country, on another continent, all the way across the Atlantic.

Today, I’m 21, and I’m leaving home, to go home. I’m leaving Hutchy, my room, my kitchen, my Black, my Oasis, my Tokyos, my Sushi-shops. I’m leaving a life. And man, did I love that life. Yes, yes, I know, don’t get stuck in the past, look forward, “the glass is half-full Shannon”, what’s coming next is going to be just as great… But right now, as I’m waiting for flight number AF345 to fly me home, I’m leaving another home, another life. I am however, taking the new me with me. Montreal has changed me in ways that I had no idea were possible.

While I still have no clue what I want to do “when I grow up”, I have certainly grown in ways that have helped me understand who I want to be.

And I certainly couldn’t have done it if it weren’t for my friends, my chosen family. Kim, Yaya, Lily, Kelsey, Casey, Shane, Ben, Tom, Eli, Nic… You guys are my family now. Ben told me today that one of the good things about me leaving is that I wouldn’t be missing my family and my siblings thus wouldn’t be craving ice cream all the time; but he’s wrong. Yes Ben, you’re WRONG. I most certainly will miss my family, and no amount of Hagen Daaz vanilla flavored ice cream will help me forget that I miss you guys terribly.

What am I going to do without you guys? Who am I going to wake up at 8am to “go to the gym…. Although it is kind of early… yeah, screw this, let’s go tomorrow”? Who will I take my awesome coffee-banana breaks with? Who will I talk about my day to? Who will I watch californication with? Where will I go, everyday at 11pm to watch curb? Who will I high-five on my way to school? Whose hat will I steal? Whose sweaters will I highjack for entire weekends? Who will I eat sushi with? And, of course, what will I be doing on Thursday nights?

And yes, yes, new people are going to come into my life and I’ll start doing new things; like go out on Fridays instead of every single Thursday (crazy thought). But my point is that you guys literally made my semester so fantastic, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am so incredibly grateful that I met every single one of you, and all the other ones I forgot to mention. I’ve said goodbye to all of you, in the past couple of days, and this past weekend was one of the saddest of my life. But instead of going back to crying (too many people around me right now), I’m going to be super strong and thank you for all that you guys have given me, for all the moments we shared, for everything.

I love you.

Thank you. So much.

Ps: fuck the people around me, I’m crying my eyes out.

I miss you guys already. I’m incredibly sad, but eternally grateful. I love you. Shannon.

Anywho. I decided I was going to knit them scarves. AH! Genius idea? i think so.

So, after a super long and exhausting (st-laurent goes uphill and walking in the snow is pretty darn tiring) walk to the knitting-stuff-selling-place, commonly known as “4275,” I finally found all I needed.

Thing is, I might have underestimated the amount of time that I will need to finish all of these bad boys… I’ve been working on numero uno since 5 this afternoon — not continuously though, I took breaks. And I feel pretty good about it; I totally will have finished Kelsey’s by 3ish, tomorrow.

Oh! And, not to overshare or anything, but my extremely good friend Lys-Aelia (very, very cool name) got offered a job today. Now that’s “real life” right there. And I am very proud.

And I am very scared.

I told my roommates I wouldn’t overshare here. The deal is, we’re all going to start a blog and unashamedly blog each other constantly. Not sure how this “blogging each concept” is going to work, but Kelsey seems to think it’s a great idea. And Kelsey’s awesome, so I say she’s right.

So yes, no oversharing.