How do I know that Facebook has infiltrated every corner of the world? Because I am in a hostel dorm room in Canada, uploading photos onto Facebook while my German and Australian roommates do the same. Weird.
Anyways....Montreal! What a fun city!! I wandered around downtown today. I talked myself into taking the subway (even though I had no map, speak very limited French, and have never ridden a subway all by myself before!) But get this...I got exactly where I wanted to go on the first try! Yay me! The Montreal subway system is actually quite easy to figure out, but let's not allow that to lessen my victory :-) So I took the subway into the middle of downtown and proceeded to walk north along Rue Sainte Catherine where there are all kinds of shops and restaurants. This kept me occupied for several hours, then I walked a few blocks south into Old Montreal which was VERY cool! Cobblestone streets, cute little shops, restaurants...kind of the same as the rest of the city except way cooler architecture, all very old and European looking...or what I imagine Europe to look like, since I haven't been there yet! As I was walking through Old Montreal it started raining so I sat under a tree for a while and waited for the rain to stop.
Come to think of it, I did have two small mishaps involving the subway. But they don't really count. First was when I tried to buy a ticket. I don't see why all subway systems can't have the same ticket-buying system too?! I know how it works in Shanghai, Tokyo, New York and Boston...each city having different systems, and of course Montreal also had its own way of doing things. So I got a little confused at the ticket-buying machine and had to ask the little man behind the window to help me and fortunately he took pity on me and spoke English to me. The second mishap which was more hilarious than anything was getting off the subway and somehow finding my way into the middle of a university! Apparently it was orientation day at "Subway U" and I was suddenly surrounded by college freshmen speaking an interesting mix of 'Frenglish' I'm not sure which university this actually was, but how random to have the entrance to it sneakily disguised as the subway exit! (My newest French word is sortie, which means exit)
I've been fascinated by the linguistic culture of Montreal. It's definitely a bilingual city although I think the preferred language in most parts is French. There are several universities in downtown Montreal and therefore lots of Enligsh-speaking students. My interactions and people-watching so far lead me to conclude this: people first speak French to a stranger, then depending on the person's response they either continue in French or immediately switch to English. I like using the little French I know, but this probably breaks the language flow in interaction norms because when a store clerk or someone starts out speaking to me in French I can get as far as "hello, how are you, I'm well thank you" before I have to admit I don't know any more French and we should continue this conversation in English now.
Well tomorrow I drive 8.5 hours to get to a KOA kampsite in Ontario. It's going to be a very long day of driving. So...wish me luck! :-)
More blogs soon!
<3
Oh jealous me!
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