Montreal Part II

Every morning when I cycle to McGill, I pass a small plaza that is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the city. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it's because it symbolizes how I perceive the people and dynamic of Montreal. On this anonymous square at Maissonneuve & Guy, as on several other places throughout the city, stands a piano. Just a simple, decorated piano. However, I bike by this plaza at least twice a day and every single time there is someone playing the piano with a small crowd gathered around on the few spare seats that are on the plaza. What's more, the piano is played by quite a diverse range of people. The other day I even saw two people, who didn't seem to know each other as far as I could judge, play as a tandem and when I came back from the climbing weekend today and rode past the plaza once again, there was a homeless person playing while seemingly in some sort of trance. It's incredible how these people are so different, yet all share this amazing talent of playing the piano well enough, or with enough passion, such that they can attract a small random crowd to listen to them, even for the briefest moment. It's a nice thing to realize when your cycling back home completely exhausted from the weekend.

If there is one thing that rock climbing is good for; it's for making it painfully obvious that there is one muscle group that's structurally skipped in any other physical exercise than climbing; those in the forearms. Fun fact, there are only very tiny muscles in your hands, and none in your fingers. Perhaps this is obvious and I just missed the memo in Biology class, but up until this moment I had never really thought about that. Luckily, rock climbing is good for a lot more than that, especially if you go with the MOC (McGill Outdoor Club). It's been an exhausting weekend, but with a cosy lodge in a small town (owned by the MOC), great people and fun games (human bouldering, anyone?) it was absolutely worth it. Somewhat surprisingly, climbing is as much a physical sport as it is a mental sport, both in the sense that you have to be focused on the goal at hand as well as solving the 'puzzles' in order to get to the top (and I guess there is an element of fear involved as well). A natural wall, rather than a man-made structure, definitely adds a different element to climbing, just as the pouring rain we experienced all day on Saturday. Luckily today was a lot better, although it was definitely more chilly than the entire past week (when we were blessed with almost summer like weather). We had to hike up to about 400m to get to the wall we were climbing today (which was a lot harder than the wall on Saturday, although it helped that this wall was actually dry) and were blessed with a beautiful view. We got a preview of what the Indian summer will be like here, when all the leaves turn bright red or yellow, and I got to tell you it's absolutely beautiful already.

It's funny how much of a toll a sport takes on your body when you're not conditioned to make the movements and use the muscles required to do so. Coming back to the MOC house after two days of climbing it was actually hard to form a grip and open a (admittedly oversized) jar of peanut butter and right now there is no strength in my grip whatsoever. I also might've mentioned at some point that I'm rather tired so I'll keep the rest of the blog short.

I've been here for a month now and can say that I'm now completely settled since, more or less, a week. After some hectic course switching and trying to get back into the academic lifestyle after three months of doing nothing, I'm slowly but steadily getting into a comfortable rhythm and I know my way around the city quite well too. Furthermore, I have an interesting mix of courses and the workload seems bearable. Unfortunately though, I haven't been able to go to a Jazz bar yet, but I'm planning on doing so soon (I also have to for my "Intro to Jazz" course, which is an amazing course). There is actually a small Jazz festival here soon, running from October 3rd until October 12th, so I will definitely check that out soon. I'll keep you posted (maybe...probably not...we'll see).

Montreal

After a hectic first week in a new city, it might be nice to update all my readers (hi mom!). Don’t expect regular updates though, I’ll see whether I can be bothered and whether there is something worth writing about.

Having settled all the administrative stuff and having finally decided on an apartment, it’s about time to enjoy the city through which I’ve been walking and cycling around excessively the past week. Having barely used the public transport, Benedikt and I walked around 30 kilometres over the first two days to look at apartments. Luckily, after three days we went to a garage sale and managed to get two cheap, yet proper bikes. However, we still had to go around the city looking at apartments, so sufficed to say there has been enough exercise the past week. With a little luck I can avoid public transport and do everything by bike until late November if Mother Nature is benevolent (the weather here has also become much more unpredictable and extreme).

Going round the city by bike has allowed me to already properly take in the city and there were a couple of things I noticed. First and foremost the high amount of homeless people that didn’t fit with my, admittedly, romanticized picture of the city. They are really quite prominently present, but most are rather polite (except for the time I got called a ‘horrible human-being’ for not giving change).

Secondly, the amount of pugs in the city – you know those dogs that look like they all ran into a concrete wall repeatedly as a puppy – quite possibly the ugliest creatures in the world. I suspect it has something to do with the elaborate gay scene that is present in this city. 

And finally, the relaxed vibe that the city seems to give off, even with the hectic traffic all day. One of the coolest things in that respect was the tam-tam drum group that happens regularly on Sundays in the Mont-royal Park. When we first arrived there early afternoon the drum circle and crowd wasn’t too big yet, but after coming back from lunch the drum circle had grown massively in size and the park was completely full of people relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. I spent a good time already practicing my football-throw (essential to properly immigrate in North-America).

Benedikt and I also went to a pre-season match of the McGill Redmen against the Carabins of the Université de Montréal. Unfortunately, the most fun for a McGill supporter was the tragic cheerleader that was constantly half a second behind the others, despite them not changing up their routine for the entire 3,5 hours that the match lasted. McGill was beaten 40-12 and simply had no chance. I was told the McGill football team has barely won a game in the past three years so my hopes are on their Hockey team, which I hope to attend somewhere throughout the semester. The team spirit at the uMontréal ground was quite cool to see. An hour before the game there were a couple of hundred students and parents enjoying a BBQ and joining in on the school spirit, which is something I find quite cool about schools in North-America. 

Well, I'm off; we're going on a three-day kayak trip with the Outdoor Frosh. It's going to be exciting, as we will be camping outdoors, learning how to do an Eskimo-roll and descend down the rapids of the nearby river. Au revoir for now!