Whether you’re a visiting student, taking a May course, or a Montreal native, summer is the best time to tour Montreal. It’s easy to get trapped in the McGill bubble during the school year, but use the warm weather as a chance to explore the city. From festivals to cuisine, we present your summer guide to one of Canada’s most diverse and exciting cities.
Student Life
All about student life on campus.
Make your own meatball sub
Meatball subs are the quintessential Italian-American dish – a pizza, burger, and a pasta hybrid. They have all the flavors you could ask for in a meal, and they are hearty and filling. Making your own is simple, fun, and will certainly leave you satisfied (or wanting more).
Summer adventures in Southeast Asia
Squeezed between the twin giants of China and India rests a college student’s oasis: a collection of diversely charming states replete with swarms of horny backpackers, flawless beaches, delectable cuisine, and dirt-cheap alcohol. This magical haven, Southeast Asia, is the perfect travel destination for any jaded, over-educated university student seeking one last trip before entering the real world.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Final Thoughts on Food
I’m shipping off to grad school in London (no, not Ontario) in the fall – and I’m trying desperately to conjure up some deep, captivating message about food, agriculture, and culinary ethics that hasn’t already been put on a bestseller list by Barbara Kingsolver, Jamie Oliver, or Mark Bittman.
The strawberry-basil mojito
Being the strawberry addict that I am, the return of strawberry season is for me one of the most exciting aspects of the arrival of spring. As soon as fresh, inexpensive strawberries are available, I eat them on their own, in salads, over vanilla ice cream, and any other way I can think of.
Is your face worthy of Facebook?
Think you’re on Facebook to socialize? Think again. With over 20,000 new members registering daily for the infamous friendship network, Facebook is known, first and foremost, as an efficient tool for the communicating masses. While eager stalkers interact via notes, poking and wall writing, they are also tuning into something much larger and essentially much vainer: themselves.
STUDENT LIVING: Recipe-Ah, zee Franche cuisine
Even the most particular person always has at least one thing to marvel at when they think of the French: food. French food is one of the oldest, proudest and most regulated gastronomical traditions in the world. This is not to say that Indian, Thai, Spanish or any of the other traditions are lacking in some way, but they were not institutionalized as early as the French.
STUDENT LIVING: How to…Talk shit in French
A few years past, one’s command of the French language had to be fairly deft to survive in Quebec for very long. McGill students, for the first weeks after arriving in Montreal, would need to assiduously commit dozens of key phrases to memory in order to obtain everyday household items, from milk to light bulbs.
STUDENT LIVING: Perspective: Coming home to university
I have a dirty little secret: I’ve never been to a frosh event. I’ve also never attended a McGill sports game, joined a club or even been inside a university rez. No, I’m not a hermit, or even anti-social. I’m a Montrealer. One of those cool but elusive people you meet in one of your classes then never seem to encounter again.
STUDENT LIVING: Vive le Quebec, Vie la Poutine
For stick-thin health conscious fellows, poutine is venom on a plate. However, to every other “normal” person in Canada, it is simply a mountain of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. Poutine may be a Quebec delicacy and extremely delicious, but unfortunately, the fries-cheese-gravy aspect of poutine makes it an artery-clogging snack.
