More on living in Montreal (so far)

Right now I'm sitting in a cafe a few blocks from my apartment. I've eaten the baguettine and cafe (must turn on french keyboard...) required to purchase my table and net access for a while. I'm sitting by the window, looking out at Avenue Mont Royal, with its christmas lights and after-work traffic and pedestrians in mittens, scarves and furry hoods, rugged up against the -12 degree temperature. Some them are dragging coloured plastic sleds with small children in them. Not to mention the snow that is now only falling lightly, making no apparent difference to the already-dusted pavements and the walls of ploughed snow that line them. It's all feeling rather european, especially as the cafe would not be out of place anywhere in France (except on no other continent would they have a range of 12 different flavoured filter coffees...), and I'm surrounded by french chatter - some of which I can understand, which makes me think there might be actual French people here, as well as Quebecois.

And as to why I'm in a cafe at all, well. I made something of a mistake when I took this apartment for the month. The flat is lovely and cosy, the cat is apparently neurotic, but will no doubt get used to me. I will learn how to navigate the buses eventually, or just learn to appreciate the 30min walk to the metro regularly. But I won't get used to *dial-up* internet. I realise it's something I should have asked, but I didn't really think dialup still existed, so it never crossed my mind that the included internet wouldn't be broadband. And for some reason the dial-up seems to disconnect itself about every 10 minutes, which gets extremely boring. So I surf between 3 rather weak unsecured wifi signals, and toy with the idea of either spending a large portion of my time and cash in wifi-equipped cafes this month, or putting a notice up for the owners of the secured networks available offering cash in exchange for their passwords. We'll see. Other than that, I'm very happy in my little nest for the month!

Meanwhile, I'm looking for flats for January, and I know what to ask this time!