A winter day in Montreal
There was so much snow today! It's above my knees (granted, that's not too hard), and all white and pretty.
It was snowing so much that primary schools were closed today. It's crazy. This morning when I got to my Canadian Prose Fiction classroom (that class is now entirely over), I was telling two Canadians that I'd never not had school because of snow, but I had been sent home because of extreme heat twice. They had difficulty comprehending that.
It's so nice to look out a window and watch the snow fall. It's so funny to see it piled on top of everything. Cars become igloos. It's piled up in big lines next to streets. You can no longer tell the footpath from the road, aside from what sort of tracks are on it. You can't see the gutters.
Snow is everywhere in the air, you breathe it in, you can see the patterns of air movement. The air really is quieter.
And then as soon as you go inside, all the snow on your coat and in your hair melts, and there are enormous puddles of water everywhere. The stairs in the metro stations are serious hazards - just normal steps without even grooves for traction, and so much water on the floor. I'm amazed people don't fall and die.
There was much amusement on the metro this afternoon. I hadn't been on very long when I heard the announcement "prochaine station LaSalle". This caused some confusion, as I could've sworn the last stop had been Guy-Concordia, which is a good four stations before LaSalle. Sure enough, the train then pulled into Atwater, which is immediately after Guy-Concordia. The train promptly announced we were at "station LaSalle". Hmm. The lady sitting next to me looked at me and laughed, and we were talking about how there must be a lot of rather confused people on the train. When we left Atwater, we were told "prochaine station De L'Eglise" (that's the one after LaSalle). We laughed and commented on it again, and another lady nearby joined in - in French. We all understood each other fine. I love this whole bilingual thing. But anyway, the announcements continued to be three stations ahead of where we actually were. I was quite tempted to stay on the train for a few extra stops to see what happened when the announcements got to the end of the line, but I didn't because I need to work on my assignments.
Of course, I've been home nearly an hour, and I haven't gotten the assignments out yet. I just had to tell you about the snow!
It was snowing so much that primary schools were closed today. It's crazy. This morning when I got to my Canadian Prose Fiction classroom (that class is now entirely over), I was telling two Canadians that I'd never not had school because of snow, but I had been sent home because of extreme heat twice. They had difficulty comprehending that.
It's so nice to look out a window and watch the snow fall. It's so funny to see it piled on top of everything. Cars become igloos. It's piled up in big lines next to streets. You can no longer tell the footpath from the road, aside from what sort of tracks are on it. You can't see the gutters.
Snow is everywhere in the air, you breathe it in, you can see the patterns of air movement. The air really is quieter.
And then as soon as you go inside, all the snow on your coat and in your hair melts, and there are enormous puddles of water everywhere. The stairs in the metro stations are serious hazards - just normal steps without even grooves for traction, and so much water on the floor. I'm amazed people don't fall and die.
There was much amusement on the metro this afternoon. I hadn't been on very long when I heard the announcement "prochaine station LaSalle". This caused some confusion, as I could've sworn the last stop had been Guy-Concordia, which is a good four stations before LaSalle. Sure enough, the train then pulled into Atwater, which is immediately after Guy-Concordia. The train promptly announced we were at "station LaSalle". Hmm. The lady sitting next to me looked at me and laughed, and we were talking about how there must be a lot of rather confused people on the train. When we left Atwater, we were told "prochaine station De L'Eglise" (that's the one after LaSalle). We laughed and commented on it again, and another lady nearby joined in - in French. We all understood each other fine. I love this whole bilingual thing. But anyway, the announcements continued to be three stations ahead of where we actually were. I was quite tempted to stay on the train for a few extra stops to see what happened when the announcements got to the end of the line, but I didn't because I need to work on my assignments.
Of course, I've been home nearly an hour, and I haven't gotten the assignments out yet. I just had to tell you about the snow!