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Whew! This is long. Travelogue warning is in effect.
We had such a great time in Montreal! We stayed in my friends Andy and Holly's camper van the whole three days, and spent the whole time with them and their kids, Amanda (5 1/2) and Nathan (3 1/2). I was a little nervous because you can never tell with kids whether things will work out OK or not, and I haven't seen Andy in about 7 years. I mean, we used to pretty much live together when we were both at Queen's - same residence in first year, then I crashed at Andy's place for half of second year when my housing situation sucked, then we lived in the same apartment building in third year - but that was a long, long time ago. People change.
Andy hasn't :) In fact, at one point Chris and I were drifting off to sleep and he commented, "You know, it's funny, Andy's exactly like you described him. It's really neat."
The Kids
Anyway. The visit got off to a good start when Daniel ran up to their house, heard voices in the back yard, and shouted, "HELLO, Friends we don't know yet!! We're here!!"
Amanda and Nathan ran to the back gate and very excitedly yammered at us to open the back door - turns out they'd been eagerly anticipating their new playmates for days. The kids all started playing together like they were old friends. And the really neat thing was, while Amanda and Daniel hit it off well, they were nothing compared to Justin and Nathan, who instantly became soulmates. There was quite a bit of fighting, but overall, they played together incredibly well.
And they were playing together, too, not just next to each other as kids that age usually do. They were having little conversations (eg, "That's a mean car", "Yeah, that's a mean car" - a car they bumped in to) and working things out ("Don't put water on my head, Nathan!" "Sorry." "That's OK, I forgive you." [pause][Justin holds out foot, so that Nathan can pour water on that instead])
Andy and Holly
Another thing that was great was catching up on the last seven years or so. We talked pretty far into the night most nights. We caught up on our mutual Queen's friends, and traded stories of prison, Chris' clerkship, residency, and accident (on our side), Pickle Lake, Thunder Bay, pilot training on and nursing on Andy and Holly's side. (Andy's a pilot, Holly's a nurse, BTW).
It was so neat, hearing what they'd been doing, how they'd coped with living so far north that temperatures regularly hover near -50-60C in the winter. (That's -58-76F). And hearing stories about being flying supplies in to the Northern reservations, being chased by polar bears, hunting caribou... Holly being one of only three nurses within flying distance, dealing with drug addictions and abuse on the reserves, and dealing with stuff doctors do farther down south, where there are doctors... hearing stories about a community of 1100 with only 75 houses, running water in less than half of them... one house where Holly walked in and there was a caribou carcass in the middle of the house, with everybody carrying about their business around the carcass, kids playing with it, dogs chewing on it, people occasionally hacking off a piece to snack on... a whole different world. As Andy and Holly commented, they lived there for four years and they'll have stories about it for the rest of their lives.
Quebec
It was also strange being in the land of Separatisme during Canada Day. For one thing, it's referred to as "Moving Day" there, since all Quebec leases begin and end July 1. For another, even on Ile Perrot, a heavily anglophone area of Montreal, there were far fewer Canada flags flying around than in, say, Ottawa. Or even Kingston or London. We did go down to the waterfront for the fireworks, and they were not bad at all, considering that they were put on by the little bitty township of Ste Anne de Something, but... it wasn't anything like the Parliament Hill fireworks. The atmosphere was very, very different.
Quebec is really a little world of its own. Andy and Holly were telling us about the treatment anglos get, and it's not that great. No eggs on their houses, and their kids aren't forced into one-room English schoolhouses, but... while most people are fairly friendly, there is a bit of a chill towards anglos from some of them. And parents have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are anglos in order to get their kids into anglo schools. Which then don't receive the same consideration that francophone schools get.
Not that different from the treatment that francophones get in most of the rest of the country, I suppose. And in a way, it's hard to feel that sorry for the anglos going through this, because as Andy and Holly pointed out, they were on top for so long that it's only natural the francophones would want a bit of payback now. West Montreal, the traditionally anglo section, is by far the poshest. For generations, anglos were a minority, but an extremely powerful, wealthy one. They owned most of the factories, ran most of the government, and took almost everything for themselves. It's only natural that some resentment would spill over onto this generation for the sins of their forefathers.
It was kind of funny seeing other cultural differences too. Like the fact that wine and beer are sold at grocery stores. And that the signs pointing the way back to Ottawa actually said "154K to Hull/Ottawa". Yeah, OK. Ottawa/Hull is a twin city, in a way - a lot of Ottawa's francophone workforce actually live in Hull, Quebec, and we regularly cross the river for all sorts of reasons - the Children's Museum, Gatineau Park, certain restaurants... drinking age of 18, as oppposed to 19... but it's really only native Ottawans who refer to the city as Ottawa/Hull. The rest of the world doesn't even know Hull exists. It's not like Minneapolis/St. Paul, which can roll of anybody's tongue.
So it was pretty funny to see signs pointing to Hull/Ottawa. Like, "We know you really want to get to Hull, Quebec. It's a tiny city, but it's French. So of course that's where you want to go. Oh, and Ottawa's close by too."
We had such a great time in Montreal! We stayed in my friends Andy and Holly's camper van the whole three days, and spent the whole time with them and their kids, Amanda (5 1/2) and Nathan (3 1/2). I was a little nervous because you can never tell with kids whether things will work out OK or not, and I haven't seen Andy in about 7 years. I mean, we used to pretty much live together when we were both at Queen's - same residence in first year, then I crashed at Andy's place for half of second year when my housing situation sucked, then we lived in the same apartment building in third year - but that was a long, long time ago. People change.
Andy hasn't :) In fact, at one point Chris and I were drifting off to sleep and he commented, "You know, it's funny, Andy's exactly like you described him. It's really neat."
The Kids
Anyway. The visit got off to a good start when Daniel ran up to their house, heard voices in the back yard, and shouted, "HELLO, Friends we don't know yet!! We're here!!"
Amanda and Nathan ran to the back gate and very excitedly yammered at us to open the back door - turns out they'd been eagerly anticipating their new playmates for days. The kids all started playing together like they were old friends. And the really neat thing was, while Amanda and Daniel hit it off well, they were nothing compared to Justin and Nathan, who instantly became soulmates. There was quite a bit of fighting, but overall, they played together incredibly well.
And they were playing together, too, not just next to each other as kids that age usually do. They were having little conversations (eg, "That's a mean car", "Yeah, that's a mean car" - a car they bumped in to) and working things out ("Don't put water on my head, Nathan!" "Sorry." "That's OK, I forgive you." [pause][Justin holds out foot, so that Nathan can pour water on that instead])
Andy and Holly
Another thing that was great was catching up on the last seven years or so. We talked pretty far into the night most nights. We caught up on our mutual Queen's friends, and traded stories of prison, Chris' clerkship, residency, and accident (on our side), Pickle Lake, Thunder Bay, pilot training on and nursing on Andy and Holly's side. (Andy's a pilot, Holly's a nurse, BTW).
It was so neat, hearing what they'd been doing, how they'd coped with living so far north that temperatures regularly hover near -50-60C in the winter. (That's -58-76F). And hearing stories about being flying supplies in to the Northern reservations, being chased by polar bears, hunting caribou... Holly being one of only three nurses within flying distance, dealing with drug addictions and abuse on the reserves, and dealing with stuff doctors do farther down south, where there are doctors... hearing stories about a community of 1100 with only 75 houses, running water in less than half of them... one house where Holly walked in and there was a caribou carcass in the middle of the house, with everybody carrying about their business around the carcass, kids playing with it, dogs chewing on it, people occasionally hacking off a piece to snack on... a whole different world. As Andy and Holly commented, they lived there for four years and they'll have stories about it for the rest of their lives.
Quebec
It was also strange being in the land of Separatisme during Canada Day. For one thing, it's referred to as "Moving Day" there, since all Quebec leases begin and end July 1. For another, even on Ile Perrot, a heavily anglophone area of Montreal, there were far fewer Canada flags flying around than in, say, Ottawa. Or even Kingston or London. We did go down to the waterfront for the fireworks, and they were not bad at all, considering that they were put on by the little bitty township of Ste Anne de Something, but... it wasn't anything like the Parliament Hill fireworks. The atmosphere was very, very different.
Quebec is really a little world of its own. Andy and Holly were telling us about the treatment anglos get, and it's not that great. No eggs on their houses, and their kids aren't forced into one-room English schoolhouses, but... while most people are fairly friendly, there is a bit of a chill towards anglos from some of them. And parents have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are anglos in order to get their kids into anglo schools. Which then don't receive the same consideration that francophone schools get.
Not that different from the treatment that francophones get in most of the rest of the country, I suppose. And in a way, it's hard to feel that sorry for the anglos going through this, because as Andy and Holly pointed out, they were on top for so long that it's only natural the francophones would want a bit of payback now. West Montreal, the traditionally anglo section, is by far the poshest. For generations, anglos were a minority, but an extremely powerful, wealthy one. They owned most of the factories, ran most of the government, and took almost everything for themselves. It's only natural that some resentment would spill over onto this generation for the sins of their forefathers.
It was kind of funny seeing other cultural differences too. Like the fact that wine and beer are sold at grocery stores. And that the signs pointing the way back to Ottawa actually said "154K to Hull/Ottawa". Yeah, OK. Ottawa/Hull is a twin city, in a way - a lot of Ottawa's francophone workforce actually live in Hull, Quebec, and we regularly cross the river for all sorts of reasons - the Children's Museum, Gatineau Park, certain restaurants... drinking age of 18, as oppposed to 19... but it's really only native Ottawans who refer to the city as Ottawa/Hull. The rest of the world doesn't even know Hull exists. It's not like Minneapolis/St. Paul, which can roll of anybody's tongue.
So it was pretty funny to see signs pointing to Hull/Ottawa. Like, "We know you really want to get to Hull, Quebec. It's a tiny city, but it's French. So of course that's where you want to go. Oh, and Ottawa's close by too."
