To continue with this series of web sites to be posted on the internet each month, I have decided to take a trip to Montreal this month, following my trips to England in April and to Boston in May.  Yeah, right.  Even though taking a trip to Montreal this time of the year would be incredibly nice and all, it's not like I could take another long vacation.  Besides, Montreal would not be anywhere close to being on top of the list of places I would like to visit at the moment.

As you probably know, I spent August 2000 - August 2001 living in Montreal.  And as you probably know, there were some rather unfortunate circumstances that brought me to Montreal.  (UGH!  It still pisses me off like there's no tomorrow thinking about the whole circumstances which brought me to Montreal, even though I don't regret the outcome of the crappy situation.)  I'm not going to go into details, but I had a choice of living in Tokyo for a year or in Canada for a year.  Who would be crazy enough to choose to live in Tokyo?  (I'm being extremely sarcastic here....)  I chose Canada for obvious reasons.  And I chose Montreal instead of, say Toronto, because Toronto and most of other cities in Canada just seemed too much like any cities in the States.  If I had no choice but to live somewhere for a year, I might as well try to take an advantage of the situation and experience something which I would never have chosen had I had a choice, don't you think?  As you probably know (and as you can see in the photos), Montreal is a French-speaking city, and as such, there is a very unique French feel to this town.

And besides, Montreal is "right down the street" from Boston....only about a 4-hour drive away going 75MPH on I-89.  That's assuming that there's no snow on the ground, and that's quite an assumption because....well, there are only two seasons in Canada:  Winter and August!

To give you an idea of how cold it can get in Montreal - To drive to Montreal from Boston, you'd normally take I-93 to Concord, NH, then take I-89 through New Hampshire and Vermont, passing by Burlington, VT on the way.  I-93 takes you right into the Canadian Border.  II know this route all too well....I took about 20 trips between Boston and Montreal by car in a period of a year.)  Between Burlington and VT, you will pass by the following sign on I-89:

After passing this sign, you'll drive another hour and a half northward before you get to Montreal.  This could only mean one thing:  Montreal is closer to the North Pole than to the Equator!

Anyway, the time I spent in Montreal (which I now consider as "a 52-week vacation") turned out to be one exciting experience.  Believe me; I would never want to spend another winter living in Santa Claus' neighborhood.  But as soon as all the snow melted away in mid-April, I really started enjoying being in Montreal.  Montreal is really big on hosting Festivals; it seemed as though there was a festival going on every week between May and August.  I can only remember a few, but I did my best to take a part in all of them!  And had I not spent a full-year living in Montreal, I think it's safe to say that I never ever would have decided to experience living in Japan.

Anyhow, enough chit-chatting.  I hope you'll enjoy these pictures!  (And I'm sorry to say that I don't have much explanations to give for these photos...I am creating this web site as I am at work on a Saturday, so I don't have much information in front of me at the moment.)

Please stay tuned....next month's edition hopefully will include some nice scenery of one of the most beautiful spots in Japan.  (I had to announce it in advance so that I won't chicken out from making a little but courage-requiring trip into a reality....)

May 28, 2003

Mitz

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