Home again, home again

[moonwise]

Back from Montreal. We left at about 10 AM this morning, and husband was his usual grudge-you-a-potty-break self on the drive back. We got back to Bedminster at about 4:30, and then he went above and beyond the call of duty and hauled the three air conditioners out of the attic. After four sweltering days with no relief in Montreal, we need a little AC-lovin'.

On the way back, I was able to make use of my laptop and watch about 10 episodes of Bleach. Started to get very interesting by ep 19, so I'll have to download some more. When the laptop gave out, I read my husband's copy of Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. It was a more than appropriate book for a road trip, and by the time Steinbeck was wrapping up his narrative, we were wrapping up our trip.

One part of the book resonated particularly with me. At the end of the book, Steinbeck loses his taste for the trip and pushes on for home with no real interest in stopping. In his case, he had just seen some distasteful events in the South, but I identified with the feeling. No question that we had a blast in Montreal, but by this morning, I was more than ready to leave.

Part of it was the morning-after-Christmas feeling of the race and the party being over, and now it's back to business. Part of it was the annoyance of not knowing where to go for a meal. As tiggymalvern has observed about French wines, so it goes for French food, even in Montreal - when it's good, it's great; when it's not, it's bad indeed, and there's not a reliable way of finding that out. All we had was our Fodor's guide, which tended to recommend very expensive restaurants that require reservations. Next year, we'll get a Zagat survey.

Part of it was the language barrier. Not to generalize about Canada too much, but it's very like America, except in Quebec. Most of the Quebecois speak some English, and I speak enough French to get myself in trouble, so there's a level of understanding, but it's very strange to find that island of French-Canadian with the juggernaut of the US to the south and English in all the surrounding Canadian provinces.

It wasn't just the language, though... hard for me to put a finger on it. I would have to say that on some level, I felt I was unwelcome in Montreal, like the restaurants etc. were tolerating the tourists and the English for the Grand Prix weekend. This may well have been true, as it's a huge burden to host the Grand Prix, with its Chinese-scale crowds and litter and noise. Yet the Quebecois are also known for being proud and for considering themselves still a part of France, to the point where that secession referendum comes up every couple years. (Incidentally, most of the French I've talked to about Quebec look on the Quebecois as provincial and funny-talking, not a part of France at all.) Maybe that explains why I felt we got a much warmer reception in Paris than in Montreal, although again, that could have been a race weekend thing.

Either way, I feel like Steinbeck did on a smaller scale, happy to be home where I know the rules, where the waiter will bring me water without me having to ask, and it will be a big glass with ice in it. It's something of a relief also to not get my languages confused after a few days of immersion - once the French starts coming back, it's hard not to start speaking a patois of French and English.

Anyway, that's all with my F1 fannishness until next year. :)

Comments

[arafel.livejournal.com]

You've had some powerful gateway drugs into the anime fandom. Many folks I know started with Sailor Moon (including myself.) You started with Champloo. There's no hope. XD

I'll burn some Bleach for you - I'd say the first 10 eps are kinda fillerish, but then it starts to get interesting.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Yes. My bad. *swats self in head*

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

When we went to Montreal on French trips, it was always amusing because they looked on our attempts at French with undisguised disdain-- a very 'just quit it already' attitude, for the most part. You'd start in French and they'd switch right off to English.

And I remember Travels with Charley. Excellent road book.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing - I didn't get that "oh just quit it already" attitude when I was in Paris. Maybe less people in Paris speak English, though a French friend has told me the English schooling is pretty intense. Maybe we had a very fortunate experience, and it does help when you're a girl and can Smile Pretty and look charming, but if I spoke French to a shopkeeper or a waiter, they spoke French back. That tolerance was not as pervasive in Quebec.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I think Quebec has a lot more of a seige mentality-- they're surrounded by English! On all sides! And the French part of their culture really was treated like crap for years and years.

[sailormac.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree that Quebec feels a bit out of sync with the rest of Canada -- I go both there and to Toronto every year (the former to visit my best friend, the latter to go to Anime North) and they feel very, very different. I've never felt *unwelcome* there, per se -- but then again, I've had a native French speaker at my side the whole time, so my experience is probably a bit different.