En resumen

The last few days have been nice – but hot hot hot. Montréal is a great summer city, but the dorm has very poor ventilation so I’ve been in a lethargic haze when I’m at home. Let’s see, on Friday everyone in class shared the recipes we had brought. Let me contextualize a bit: it was day five of French 1, and we were using very foreign vocabulary because it was about not just food but food preparation. The entire activity, in my Spanish classroom, takes one to one-and-a-half 50-minute class sessions – and it’s a group activity. This one took the entire three hours of the morning class, with each person performing individually and responding to the teacher’s questions about our recipes. While each one of us did his or her recipe, we were very much engaged. While other people were presenting, we kind of just sat there. It was kind of…soul killing. Unfortunately, the individual attention we get in the classroom comes at the price that each one of us has to patiently wait while it’s her or his turn again. After that slow morning, I took off to Old Montréal and the Old Port, which I just loved. I sure am a sucker for historical things – and the Old Port has a little park in the middle of it, so I got to sit there in the shade, hang out and cool off. It was great.

Later that night, I went to the Village, which is like…the Village or the Castro, but the street is a pedestrian way, so it’s great to walk up and down Sainte Catherine street, look at the shops, and see the people having tasty meals on the terraces on the street. The “divers/cité” festival was in full swing, so there were tons of people and an outdoor concert at a nearby park (there’s an outdoor concert around almost every corner in the summer here – no joke! C’est très excellent!). This festival was not pride – oh, it was gay, and it was a party, and there tons of out-of-towners – but it wasn’t pride because pride is next week. I guess it was a massive, week long pre-pride. Anyway, I went to the outdoor concert, and it was fun. But not because of the musical act per se. The people watching was great, and the energy was really good. The musical act was a live house music “band.” The whole concept is counterintuitive to me – “live” music but no band, and it’s not like they’re actually spinning anything. The whole thing brought me back to NYC circa 1995 – holy shit! That was like 13 years ago! – which was kind of sweet and cool. That base house beat apparently NEVER changes, so it worked on my memory a little bit, and for a while there I felt a bit suspended between and encompassing the past and the present. The “show” was just a bit ridiculous, of course, but people in Montréal are really the most easy-going, accepting people ever: even the people who were NOT high were bopping around and enjoying that the performers were having a good time, though I think most people were waiting until it was late enough to go to the actual cool places.

The following day I went on a long walk/exploration of the Plateau. I had visited before with Tom and Amanda, since that was the neighborhood they stayed in. It was wonderful, of course. I took only a few pictures of it because really I was on rue St. Denis most of the time, and what you appreciate is the vibe of all the wonderful stores and “restos,” which I don’t think really comes through in film. Sunday I went to a cute little café at the border of the quartier Latin and the Village, recommended to me by Tom and Amanda’s teacher; I was able to get some work done there for the class I will be teaching…next month. Actually, in three weeks. Yikes! Must lesson plan. This week I’ve been going to school, doing my laundry and grocery shopping, and I returned today to Vieux Port to read, but the cold wind drove me away (it’s been raining on and off since last night, and things have cooled off…though not in my dorm room!).

I hope everyone is doing well.

P.S. I almost got over my loving to hate that person in my class yesterday (though she HAS improved, I’ll giver her that!), but today I’m back in full effect. She asks the teacher the meaning of words every time she encounters new words – even when the words are NOT new – and stops the class to do so, even though she HAS a dictionary. And she can’t seem to figure out French-Spanish cognates! Elle est très ridicule!