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[dzuunmod]

Vincent heard the results of a poll over the weekend which said that if given the opportunity, 30 per cent of French Canadians/quebecois (not sure which it was) would choose to switch their mother tongue to English. That said, how about you?

Poll languages

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I don't know how, but sometimes hallelujah manages to twist me into a pretzel. All I was saying earlier is

Comments

[dzuunmod]

Well, I don't know much about McGill in that sense. I know that bureaucratically, it's a nightmare for students. Much more so than Concordia, but that's about the extent of my McGill knowledge.

Are you bilingual? If so, and you want to get a sense of the cost-of-living in Montreal, I suggest you check out the classifieds over at Voir, which is the equivalent of Now in Toronto and is basically the housing Bible of Montreal. Also, how well do you know Montreal? Sorry if any of this comes off as condescending or if I don't explain something enough, I just don't know. :)

Housing/rental prices in Montreal have increased significantly since I've moved here, but they're still not in Toronto's ballpark.

Before I go any further, I'll just clue you into the way apartments are usually listed here to spare you any confusion... Apartments are listed not by the number of bedrooms, but by the number of total rooms. For example, a 1 1/2 would be a bachelor/studio apartment, with the "1/2" representing the washroom. A 2 1/2 would have a main room and a separate kitchen. Typically, a 3 1/2 would have a main room, a kitchen and a separate bedroom. Everything on top of that would basically just include another bedroom (4 1/2 = 2 bedroom).

So, if you want to live downtown or on the Plateau (roughly like Queen St. W.), you can expect to pay at the very minimum $500 for a 1 1/2 or 2 1/2. Basically, for each room you want on top of that, you'll add $100-120. In other words, where in Toronto $1000/month doesn't go very far at all, in Montreal, it might get you a 3-or 4-bedroom apartment with exposed brick and right next to the metro.

If I were to suggest a neighbourhood to someone coming for the first time, I'd go with St-Henri (the area around Place St-Henri and Lionel-Groulx metro stations - the closer you could get to Lionel-Groulx, the better, I'd say). In a pinch, you could walk to McGill from there in about half-an-hour or so, it's close to the Lachine Canal which is great if you cycle/jog at all and at its heart is the open-air Atwater Market. Other neighbourhoods to look at, in my opinion, might be the Gay Village (Beaudry and Papineau metros), and NDG (the area West of Vendome and Villa-Maria metros). Mind you, if you're big on the nightlife, you'll probably want to bear down and pay the higher rents to live on the Plateau (Sherbrooke and Mont-Royal metros).

Most apartments in Montreal are very drafty, but not expensive to heat. Heating costs here are the cheapest in Canada. Also, there are lots of super-cheap, good places to eat out. In all, you'll find the cost-of-living here much lower than in Toronto. I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free!

[carol_eena]

thanks for all your help!
the director of the lab that offered me the job said that there's great accomodations in buildings minutes away from the campus. Do you know that area well? Or is it better to stick with something nicer a bit further away?

I'm not very familiar with Montreal (been there on week vacations, but that's it), and my french is horrible, which is a definitely why i'm reluctant about the job. I might be going on Friday though to check out the job.

[dzuunmod]

I assume the accomodations he's talking about are in the neighbourhood most people call the McGill Ghetto - just east of the campus. It's a nice, typical Montreal neighbourhood in some respects. Old homes and duplexes and triplexes and narrow streets. It's not a bad area in that it's right next to where you'd be working and it's pretty handy to all sorts of nightlife on St-Laurent Blvd. The downside is that it's populated mostly by current McGill students. Many of them are young Americans and *ahem* Ontarians who aren't used to being allowed to drink, and so the partying can get to be a little much at times.

During the summer, living near McGill is a joy, but during the school year, there's lots of noise complaints about loud music and partying. The apartments themselves are perfectly nice, though.

As for the language thing, it can be a bit of a downer if you don't have a job. If you're out of work in Montreal and your French skills aren't up to snuff, you're screwed. But if you have a job that doesn't require French, you can get by very easily in Montreal without speaking the language. The only time that it might come to be an issue is if you have to deal with the government. Usually, government employees are bilingual and willing to switch to English but there are some who're unilingual/bitchy.