je ne comprend pas!

Alrighty now I'm in Canada! Three countries in less than two days. I'd been told that it was spring here ... riding the bus from Boston to Montreal I wouldn't have thought so. Grey skies, wooly coats and a landscape covered in white don't really fit into my idea of spring ... but hey ... I'm on the other side of the world - they do things differently here. My first evening in Montreal was tres bizzaro. I was expecting Rod Serling to pop up somewhere, smoking his cigarette and come out with something like: "Submitted for your approval - the story of a traveller circumnavigating the globe, running on nothing but five hours sleep and airline cuisine ..." Despite my efforts to sleep "Canada Time" on the way over it still felt like I'd been slapped around the head with a big, wet, whale. Day two began at 5am - never before in my life have I gone from sleep to being awake so fast - so the first three hours of my day consisted of trying to sleep (me!!) unjumbling some French phrases I'd learnt the day before and waiting for the sun to rise. Later I walked the road that divides east (french) from west (english) Montreal and caught the underground Metro. This city is so easy to get around! The city is thawing and as the grey snow melts away it reveals a season's worth of rubbish that got lost in the snow so it's a little grubby but soon it will all be gone as summer takes over the city. Apparently the city just goes nuts during spring since they're all sick of the cabin fever and killing each other. I hung out mainly in the French speaking parts and the fact that all the signs and shops are in French and everyone speaks French made it mildly confusing. Also all the people I know speak mainly French so when they get together ... It's all just gobbledyjook. But most people can speak at least a little English so it's not so hard. The strangest part of the day was actually going to an English pub - after all the time surrounded by french and feeling a little like an outsider I didn't realise how used to it i had gotten - it was a kind of surprise to not have to try and understand people. The odd thing is I didn't enjoy it as much for some reason. For dinner I met up with some of the Kino kids at Christian's house and was treated to "Christian Cuisine" - something along the lines of rice and meatballs a la exotique (It was pretty damned good). For the first day I wondered what to do while i'm here waiting for uni but last night solutions began to appear: Kino Kim is keen to take a road trip up north to visit Kino Eza who'll be making doco's with aboriginal Canadians. Kino Richard lives in Quebec City and apparently has snowy hills that need to be skied on. Mirca's (roomate of Claude) parents have a "sugar shack" that we can visit (it's a traditional cottage where they make maple syrup and have all kinds of wonderful foodstuffs) There was even a rumour that someone somewhere may have some work I can do here in Montreal instead of spending so long in Saskatoon. You should see how many funny looks I get when I mention I'm going there - even the guy working the border between the States and Canada put in his two cents. (Sorry Uncle Charlie - it seems your town is flat, flat flat - but i'll have to see it for myself). So stuff will be done - even if only half of it happens I'll be super chuffed!