Now Montreal being a "bilingual" and very "European" American city so far seems to mean that a lot of stuff seems really familiar but it's not quite the same. The whole city sort of reminds me of Chicago; the architecture, it being freezing, people caring about hockey; but it's different. One of the biggest differences is that Chicago never had fireworks to welcome me to the city. The event details are in French but I'm pretty sure the gist is that they either decided to welcome me in style by having fireworks, an outdoor concert and free marshmallows for roasting on the Quay, or they were trying to drum up popularity for the area. I'm not quite sure.
So I saw the fireworks over the river, dropped my stuff off at the hostel, had some vegetarian poutain and headed to the Quay. I ended up chatting in broken english and french with a parisian who came to visit his girlfriend in Montreal, but she ended up going "back home" (wherever that is) the day before he got there. We watched the concert together and decided to grab a drink. Meanwhile he goes on about his girlfriend (who I'm pretty sure is cheating on him and wants to dump him) and I tell him about Tim. Our language barrier is too big for me to explain how my situation with Tim was similar to his situation in that plans fell through, not as in my significant other has left me for someone else. We enter the building for the metro and I decide that leaving the only part of town I semi-know with a stranger to get alcohol when I have no Canadian money or friends in town would be a bad idea. So I tell him I changed my mind and am going home. He then asked me for my number, saying he'll call me tomorrow so we can explore the city together. I said sure, gave him my number and left.
He didn't call the next day, they never do.
Instead I bought my long underwear* (glorious!) and went to the Biosphere.
Montreal has a Biosphere, a Biodome and a need for more creativity with names. The Biosphere is pretty baller**. It is a sustainability museum inside a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome, and what's more is that next to it is Team Montreal's house from the 2007 Solar Decathlon. So after visiting the surprisingly well designed and articulate museum (more on that in Energy Matters) I went to the Solar Decathlon house for the 2nd time rounding out a very fine first morning in Montreal.
*At an American Apparel. Eh, I was torn on the decision, but as it was the closest place for me to get something to keep my buns warm, I decided to go for it.
**Haha, get it? Sphere, baller?
** You're a dork, but I love you. And I am glad you are having a good time.
Posted by: Celeste | 12/22/2009 at 06:17 AM