I got my old passport in the mail, with holes punched through it.

There was a slip that said my passport had been approved, and it's being sent.  Even though I got my dad's birthday wrong.

And I looked at my finances recently, and I have nearly enough money to cover the trip and pay for a quarter of classes as of now not as of when I'll actually have to pay for things.  So yay!

Okay my pretties!! So looking over the thread, there isn't a clear consensus about the dates for RoseCon, so it's pretty much any weekend, with a slight preference for the 1-3 and 8-10, but 16-18 also gets mentioned. The 1-3rd will be the hardest for me to attend, so I'll say that right out. It's a super stat weekend in Alberta which means every nurse in the province wants that day weekend off.

So, input? Is the August 8-10 okay for everyone? Makes no difference? Assuming you go, are you limited in the stay or could we tentatively say it's actually four days? Historically, most everyone shows up a day or two early anyway.

Edit: Trying to sound less like I decided already and more like I'm all diplomatic and shit. Sorry, banging headache over here.

August 16-18?

If that's acceptable to people, I'm fine with it. I leaned more toward the middle of the month before school starts being an issue. Maybe I should do a poll. I just remembered we have those.

Edit by satyreyes: Gio forgot to mention that she put her poll right here!

Last edited by satyreyes (12-17-2013 11:18:32 AM)

This is semi-related to RoseCon. . .

Jeopardy Contestant Answers Question with Bane Impression

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdaEfPYZ5Vk

The polling feature has spoken, by a slim majority! The con's always been scheduled to open up the option to the most people possible, as fairly as we can. I didn't close it in December, to give the Christmas folks some time to wander on by.

Thanks, satyr! Definitely get your passport sooner rather than later. And if this is the first reason you've had to get one, may I say I feel darn proud of it? It sounds cheesy to say, but I've been travelling to Canada for years, even back when a passport wasn't necessary. But it wasn't until I had one that I felt so much more like...a global citizen? It's one of those relatively easy things that's just a minor roadblock that I think stops a lot of people from taking travel more to heart.

It's absolutely not necessary, but for those enthusiastic congoers, a crash course in French might not be a terrible idea. I will probably do a Fronch For Morons thread or something once I start working on it myself. You know, where's the bathroom, how do I get to the subway, is this flavored with real truffles or that fake bullshit?

The hotel mentioned earlier with the Akio's office suite is high in the running, I just wanna check out where it is in relation to other things we want to see/mass transit, but my hopes are high. I'm expecting Montreal to be more like New Orleans than Seattle and NYC as far as needing to move around. Also all the mangled French.

Don't knock France.

PS: I'll let you guys know if I can come asap after I hear back from my nursing schools, if there's still any spots left. I'm pretending I can go and renewing my passport in the meantime. We'll see.

Aw man!  Sorry to hear that, Hiraku   I'm thinking the 16-person limit on attendance may not turn out to be the limiting factor at RoseCon '14.

Any progress on hotels, Gio?  Don't mean to rush, but we're going at a popular time to visit, and the sooner we book, the better our chances of nabbing that suite and all being able to stay in the same hotel.

Events themselves can be a little hard to swing, we usually have like 10+ people with us... but what's your favorite thing to do in Montreal? For myself, I love museums, art galleries, good restaurants, maybe a bit of shopping, historical sites, parks, that sort of thing. I'm a big fan of beautiful things and I like to indulge my senses.

That help any, or should I be more specific?

Excellent! Thanks, that totally helped. So here's what I came up with...

When I eat out at restaurants, I tend to eat a lot of vegetarian and Japanese food, so that's mainly what I have knowledge in.

- Aux Vivres (An amazing vegan restaurant. If for some reason that deters you, don't let it! They even have brunch on the weekends.)
- Kazu (A popular Japanese restaurant. You'll probably have to wait in line to get in. A lot of popular restaurants are like that here)
- Imadake (A Japanese pub/Izakaya. A good place if you want to have a night out drinking exciting sake drinks and eating delicious food )
- Misoya (Authentic Japanese Ramen of many different kinds)
- Fairmount or St Viateur Bagels (Both are delicious and very close to one another; they're very popular with visitors! It's good to get a bag of them as a snack to share and wander around the area~)
- Restaurant L'Avenue (A great place for breakfast. Again, you'll probably have to wait in line)
- Cacao 70 (An extremely decadent ~*chocolate restaurant*~.)

Here are some museums, art galleries and historical areas:

- The Old Port of Montréal (Also called Le Vieux-Port de Montréal. This is, like the name implies, an older, more historic area of Montréal. There's old churches, small cobblestone streets and alleyways, and lots of little museums and other things that I'm not too knowledgable about)
- The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (The main exhibits in the museum are always free, but often there's an exclusive exhibition within it that isn't)
- Le Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (Aka the MAC, or the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum.)
- Parisian Laundry (One of the many places for contemporary, local art. The exhibits change quite frequently)
- The Montreal Biodome (This is like an indoor zoo, but with lots of space and is made to imitate the animals' natural ecosystem. It's right next to the Olympic Stadium and the Botanical Garden, which I would also recommend checking out.)

As for parks, shopping, and other miscellaneous things...

- Parc La Fontaine (This is my personal favourite park in Montreal. It's very lively in the Summer, but not overwhelmingly so. It's a great place to have a picnic lunch!)
- Mount Royal (This is a park centered around a large hill of the same name. It's definitely the largest and most popular park in Montreal. Definitely go on a Sunday, there's a popular event that happens each week called "Tam Tams", where people gather and play instruments, sell things, etc)
- Chinatown (I love going to Chinatown in the Summer, getting some bubble tea and noodles, and checking out the local shops. Montreal doesn't have a very big Chinatown, but it's very cute!)
- The Underground mall/Eaton Centre (There are several connecting underground malls in downtown Montreal, that span several of the metro stations. It might not be the most interesting thing to do in the Summer since you'd be inside/underground, but it's definitely a cool novelty!)
- Lower Plateau/St Laurent Boulevard (Near the Sherbrooke, Mont Royal and Laurier metro stations. For interesting shops, clothing and other fun things to buy.)

Well, that's all I've got. I hope it helps! If you have any other questions, just let me know.

Well, I certainly hope you can make it, Gio. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

As for me, I have some money coming in so I might be able to make it if somebody splits a room with me.

All I heard was "me and Yasha will be in Montreal August 1-3."

Hotel?

1-3 Aug is totally doable for me. Let's not let this die completely.