a week in paris

I've had such a relaxing week in paris. I've hung out with Nathaniel and Sean, avoided doing almost anything touristy, and spent some quality time alone with a net connection, which allowed me to catch up on email and organising for the summer school i have to run from next week...
I feel a lot better than i did before. I think i've been really tense for weeks now. I still have no idea what i'm doing with my life after summer, but at least i seem to have regained some sort of equilibrium, and am more willing to accept whatever happens. And, of course, much as i love my Montreal friends, hanging out with two people who have known me forever (give or take a bit) is a fantastic salve for a stressed-out soul. Of course it would be even better if they didn't burst into peals of laughter everytime i uttered a sentence in french. It does seem that, as i feared, my french accen t has developed a few quebecois features. It's precisely what i expected, of course. But it makes conversation difficult.
On to berlin next, which will be odd, as the last time i was there was when i was living there in 2005, but i'm definitely looking forward to it!

I like it here.

So, if you hadn't noticed from the last few posts, I'm rather enjoying Montreal. I was walking home from interviewing another school this afternoon (that's not a typo - my serious blog explains) and it was -11 or so, but with such a clear sunny blue sky, just on dusk, with a nearly-full moon rising over the lovely Montreal architecture of Rue Laurier and the snow-covered park, in the pale blue and faintly pink-streaked sky. I had spent the early afternoon doing my cat-impression in the sun in my flat again, and was now just as warm outside in my wonderful yellow coat and winter boots, I was listening to my music, I had just had a whole job interview in French - and been offered the job on the spot, and will reject it by email this evening.
Tonight I have the all-girl bluegrass jam again, tomorrow I work a whole two hours, then plan to visit a friend and then go to choir rehearsal in the evening. Wednesday I might have people over to dinner. Sometime this week I've got an interview for a possible ESL management job. On the weekend, I become homeless for a few days, but I already have enough friends here that I can stay at a different person's place for each of the 4 nights if I want (yes, I know at least 4 people!) and then I move into a lovely flat right next to a metro stop.

My life isn't all perfect, of course. I'll still be short on cash for a month or so until my work builds up and I get paid, but I can live extraordinarily cheaply here, if I try. And there's a little matter with my previous sublet person I need to sort out. And a few other things I'm trying to ignore, but overall, I'm pretty content at the moment!

Trois timbres, s'il vous plait.

I had my first canadian-french conversation in today. Well, transaction, rather than conversation...

As I've moved east, the percentage of french in the environment has steadily increased. In Vancouver, if you heard french on the street, the people speaking it looked like tourists. In Canmore, I heard bunches of kids loitering around town after school speaking french. In Winnipeg, there is a whole suburb, St. Boniface, that is the French Quarter. And when I crossed the river into St Boniface today, it was quite a noticeable shift. I wasn't there long, but I stopped at the post office to get some stamps, and got to eavesdrop on the previous person's conversation - all in french. So when I stepped up to order my stamps, I did it in french. Now, it was a conversation I think we probably learnt in grade 9 french class, but none the less, it was my first transaction in canada conducted entirely in French. It was very exciting. Really.
And then I went to a bookstore that apparently only sold french books. I got quite excited, but prevented myself from buying anything because a) they cost money, of course, and b) just because it's the first francophone bookstore I've seen here, doesn't mean it will be the last. There is time, and I haven't read all the books I already have here!