It's (Almost) Time To Pack Up (Again)

I'm hoping this picture of me thumbs-upping with a Yeti
will distract  you from the time-stamp of my last post.

Woah.

Yep, I read that right.

It's been over six months since I last posted.

I cannot believe how forgotten this little blog of mine has been since I moved to Montreal. Things have been crazy over the past two years.

Two. Years. I cannot believe that I'm almost done with two years of my PhD. In some ways it feels like I've been doing this thing forever. In some ways I still feel so brand new at the whole process.

In a lot of ways I feel the same way about this city. It's started to feel like a place I sometimes call home. You know in that way that you get jaded about your hometown that you feel like you've done everything there is to do, eaten at all the cool places to eat, and seen all the fun things to see. Except in this city I feel like there's still a million and six restaurants I still have to try.

Which is why now is the perfect time to pack up and move.

Again.

Because that's apparently what I do.

Oh, you're starting to feel at home here? Pack your bags, kid, we've got moving to do.

No, I'm not done with my PhD (either actually, as in graduating, or metaphorically, as in quitting).

Me at the Montreal Botanical Garden's 
Jardins de Lumière  back in October

It's just that I need to head overseas to do my research (in my head I've said that so blasé and you're probably sitting there going: "wait, need to head overseas" who is this chick?) because apparently the Middle Ages didn't really happen the same way over here as they did over there. And Europe is all "these are our documents, we're gonna keep them on this side of the pond, thanks." Which makes doing research from North America a little bit difficult.

So now you know why I study medieval history - it means traveling is pretty much non-negotiable. And we all know how much I love to travel.

And, well, you know that old joke about graduate students being poor as dirt? Well, it's not a joke, thankyouverymuch, and I simply can't justify paying rent in Italy and rent in Montreal in the same month. 

So, after two glorious years of having my own kitchen and my own bed and a door with a lock and key and a closet instead of a suitcase to keep my clothes in (and unwrinkled) (oh, who am I kidding, my clothes are always wrinkled, much to my mother's displeasure - sorry mom), come June I'll be packing up my things and again trying to fit my life into two suitcases.

And I really, really, really love my apartment. So sending in that "hey, appartment rental people, I'm not renewing my lease this year" email was absolutely heartbreaking. Seriously. I'm pretty sure I had an anxiety attack as soon as I hit send to the tune of: What if this all falls through? What if I can't get to Italy? Then I just gave up this SWEET apartment for nothing.  And I'll be homeless in Montreal. Because there are clearly no more apartments in this city other than this one. NONE. And I won't be able to do any research, so I'll never finish my degree because you can't write a research dissertation without research. I wonder if you can send in "JK apartment rental people, I'm not really moving, April fools! Oh? It's still March, my bad. Let's just forget this whole thing and I'll be keeping the apartment, thanks!" email? I love this apartment. I love my yoga studio. OMG WHAT AM I DOING.

This view from my balcony is one of the things I
am going to miss most about this apartment

And then I made myself some tea and told myself to calm down while watching Fuller House and I was immediately glad I waited until this moment to spend a day binge-watching this show. Because what better way is there to deal with the stress and anxiety of moving than a reboot of a beloved 90s sitcom? Nothing, I tell you, nothing.

Other than maybe finding a $100 on the street corner. But that has yet to happen to me, so I can't really be the judge on if that or a Fuller House binge is better.

All this is to say, maybe I'll be better at blogging again now that there's adventure on the horizon. I wrote a lot more and put up a lot more pictures when I was abroad last time. And maybe I'll even write a review or two about some books I've read recently (the few fiction ones I've gotten to, I'm sure you're probably not that interested in my thoughts on any historiography. Especially if you just had to google historiography to see what I was talking about).

No promises though, we all know what happened last time I did that (re: the 6 month hiatus I artfully didn't apologize for a the beginning of this post). But I will try. Of that we can be sure.