Advice given to me about Montreal, BEDA and The 'Bux

• Stick together
• Pack light. No, even lighter.
• Don't drink too much 
• Bring lots of snacks
• For the love of God don't drink too much (don't worry parents, I have an abnormal amount of common sense)
• Don't get rides from strangers
• Don't get run down by an angry French driver
• Bring shirts that you don't care about too much. (Didn't hear all of this story but I think it involves Reeves and a Black Lips concert)
• If you don't see Death Grips you're wasting your money. (I'm not going to but I have multiple friends who feel strongly about Death Grips, mostly caucasian kids who grew up in the suburbs)

I'm considering doing BEDA because I'm so good with this regular posting thing, as you guys know. It'll be my lame attempt at having something to cling to as I gradually disassemble my life and move it to a dorm room four hours from here. But in all reality, BEDA will probably be me filling posts with almost amusing anecdotes of silly things that happen to me at The 'Bux.

Speaking of almost amusing anecdotes:
This ridiculous, poorly thought out situation a few years ago led to the 'Bux I work at being literally 270 meters from a larger one slightly down the hill. Today, this man walked up to the counter and before ordering his coffee he said "You guys know there's a Starbucks right down the hill, right?" His tone of voice seemed to suggest that our existence was offending him, the same way people get offended if the same item is marginally less expensive in another store, a sort of 'why do you even try?' way. I was unsure how to politely, Starbucks appropriately answer a question so moronic. Somehow this meant that my default reaction was to stare him straight in the eye and with a face of stone stated "We're aware." It's a feat of self control that I didn't say anything more offensively sarcastic. I half considered rushing my co-workers to the window, intently starring out for a moment and yelling "Oh shit! He's right!" and everyone could pretend to have a moment of awe. I could have said "Really, right there? I should check it out sometime." "We were living in ignorance until you came along, thank you good sir. We have now seen the light." The light of the siren signage attached to the building clearly visible from the main road we are also along. Or "You caught us, we're just using Starbucks as a front. Would you like to buy some meth?"

I got written up for being an asshole once so I'm glad I've learned some self control since then. I think I'm growing as a person.
Hearts,
Julianne

Things That Currently Terrify Me: July 2013 edition

1. Near the end of the summer I'm seeing one of my friends I made in Kenya. There's several reason this terrifies me: (1) I haven't seen her in three years, (2) she's had all her schooling at a Christian boarding school in Kenya while I've gone to public school in Canada, and (3) we stopped keeping in contact when our main mutual childhood friend died suddenly in a car accident two and a half years ago and we never acknowledged it to each other. But alas, she's coming to my province in August to see her grandmother so I can't escape seeing her, though the visit has potential to be world's of awkward and uncomfortable. Or we might find out we can still be friends.
2. The prospect that a month and a half from now, I'll be leaving my family, my city and all but a few of my friends to move to a city four hours away that I've collectively spent less than one week of my life in previously, to attend a university that I spent a morning at once. I'm throwing familiarity out the window. And how am I going to function without a cat, really.
3. Drifting away/weird dynamic changes with my friends that aren't going with me. I've demonstrated how shitty I am at keeping up with people when Tatyana moved away in April and I've talked to her twice since. Then of course, she's also hard to keep up with because she responds to most messages with emoticons. With other people, I feel like social media will keep us up to date to an extent. Sometimes we're a gossipy bunch so that will probably keep me in the loop to a degree.
4. Sharing a room with a stranger. Actually, being surrounded by strangers. I know a handful of people in Halifax, most of them who are from here but are going to various universities there. After spending most of my life in a relatively small city, I'm familiar with a ridiculous number of people. I can't walk down the street without recognizing a few people. I unintentionally run into groups of my friends all the time. To contrast that, I know one person going to King's and am vaguely aware of one person (that's kind of an amusing story...). I'll be surrounded by and living with so many new people and that's really overwhelming. I hope I can hold myself together and social anxiety doesn't hit me like a train.
5. Being broke. I have it better than a lot of people, as my parents are helping me pay for it, but university is still super expensive (yeah, $17 000 a year. Woohoo.) I'm not going to have much money for a very long time which is a bit jarring after nearly a year of having a job and not many necessities to spend it on. Next year I'm (probably) not going to have a job and a whole lot to spend money on. However, it will be nice to not have to say "I'm working" when invited to 50% of things ever. And The 'Bux will take me back without too much hassle which is a bit cringe worthy but better than nothing. I sat up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago and thought with overpowering clarity, "This is definitely not my last barista job" and fell back asleep. The coffee wench life is surprising inescapable, shown by the large percentage of staff who have been there a super long time or have hopped around different coffee shops. I still feel a bit accomplished that I'm beginning liberal arts as an ex-barista, which makes me a step ahead of most of my future classmates. 

Hearts,
Julianne

Summertime

Lots of coffee and tea, evening swims, purchasing books from my 47 book reading list next year, bonfires, getting devoured by bugs, Yeezus, getting home late, laying on grass, breakfasts with people I love, The Great Gatsby soundtrack, picking up shifts, public green spaces, Game of Thrones, staying up late on Tumblr, Snapchat nonsense, really obnoxious sunglasses ("To repel UV rays and people"), nauseating amounts of hot dogs, humidity and summer hair, seeking out air conditioned spaces, the boardwalk, lethargy, waffles, iced tea

Music, Montreal and Madness.

I finally got my Osheaga pass and come July 31st, I will be on a 15 hour overnight bus ride to Montreal with two of my friends, Maegan and Hannah. We spent a good portion of last semester in Journalism class pondering the idea of going to Osheaga and we're actually going through with it. This is my first actual trip without my family and I'm excited. Especially excited because I get to use my paid vacation and come back to a paycheck. I should enjoy the benefits of being employed before my money gets eaten by university. It's like the universe wants me to go on this trip.

Not only do I love big cities in the summer, but I've spent the last few days looking at the Osheaga lineup and squeeing. I'm so ready for the summer adventures of traversing Montreal and a rather large music festival with my two of my really awesome friends. I get to experience my first music festival. Some of the highlights I'm looking forward to are Vampire Weekend (I'll probably witness the biggest collection of hipsters of all time), Mumford and Sons, Daughter, and Ben Howard. There's also a stint of Icona Pop, The Lumineers and Kendrick Lemar that I hope to accomplish on the last day, despite the running that I'll have to do to different stages and slight overlaps in time slots. I guess they figured that those concerts attract entirely seperate demographics. There's a few concerts we might go to just for kicks, just to say that we did (i.e. Macklemore).

My parents approve wholeheartedly and gave me the advice to not get pregnant and also not to drink too much hard alcohol. I think this means that they trust me.
Hearts,
Julianne