thoughts of a montrealer

i think it'd be fitting for me to note down some thoughts of the past few weeks.

things that have stood out to me, in order of occurence:

-the transportation woes.
what they say is true. montreal is a bad place for transportation. the roads are broken to the core, and the road planning is an absolute mess. if you don't know how to get somewhere, chances are you won't find it. montreal is filled with one-way streets, no left turns or no right turns. right turns are not allowed at red lights (on the island, i didn't know there was a distinction between the rules of the island and the shore until later). downtown is worse. there is no way you can return the same way you came. i learnt that the hard way the first time driving around montreal. i never want to do it again. the level of frustration rose heights comparable to that caused by intense dripping faucets or loud obnoxious people or extreme nagging parents. oh yea, while i was driving my parents were nagging and yelling around too. right.

-the culture difference.
needless to say, montreal is said to "have more culture than toronto." i don't argue that, mainly because i don't know truly how cultural toronto can be because it is so big. the more noticeable difference is the language. yes it is very much french dominant here. many people say that you can survive with english in montreal, but the sad truth is that i don't live in montreal. in longueuil, EVERYBODY's french. everyone speaks french here, and i'm nervous to try to speak english. there was a day that i was at TD and i was scared that the tellers couldn't speak english (they could). another noticeable difference was.. girls. there is a higher percentage of girls than guys almost everywhere i go, almost all the time, some of which are quite the attractive. there's this one girl i see once every so often going to work and she's like a friggin supermodel. by the way, when it was still warm, there were lots of girls showing off their boobs and their cleavage. is that a cultural difference too? holy crap that was kind of annoying.

-the silence.
i live in the basement of a christian family (french speaking). downstairs i have a roommate who is a french assistant pastor. he's only here a couple days a week, for a very short time though. did i mention french speaking. so yea, i am pretty much all alone during the weeks. if i were to not do anything, i will hear silence. i think i found it, the most quiet place. apart from the buzzing of appliances and occasional sounds from the family upstairs, and sometimes the cars outside on the road.. it's silence. pure silence. the silence continues at work, where everyone speaks french around me, only speaking english TO me. i drown it out, almost creating more silence. it is hard for me to make friends at work because they expect to speak french, so there is no need to talk much. pure silence. i can hear my own voice more than ever, and i'm glad of it. i'm glad that i can hear myself think, and that i am thinking.

-the transportation woes.
i am at the mercy of the bus schedule. getting around can no longer be when i feel like it, driving around. living off the island, i have to bus to the metro (that's what they call subways here), subway for 2 stations, change lines, and then subway 3 more to get to mcgill and the downtown core. the subwaying isn't too bad, but the bus comes once an hour on weekends, sometimes half an hour at nights on weekdays if i'm lucky. i am always waiting for subways, waiting for buses. every day, every weekend, i am at the mercy of public transportation. when i wait, i stand around, or i sit around. and i hear it again, pure silence. my mind turns on when it wills to, and that is kinda nice.

so there's more to take of montreal than something so simple as that. after the however many weekends of me going to indigo by myself, eating noodles while msning, walking around the basement thinking of what to do next, or watching the clock as it finally reaches the right time for the hourly bus to come, then perhaps we will see the meaning of it all.