Bikes and the City (First Few Days of Montreal)

(note that this will likely be my longest post, as my first knowing I’m writing here)

There are a couple things one should be advised of before visiting Montreal, and I think most of them involve basic survival. I suggest these from experience: I have been run off the road once (knocking my chain out when I couldn’t manage to hop the sidewalk in time), and I have been hit by a car. Yeah… a woman was doing that ‘anticipating the green light’ thing a bit too early and obviously didn’t see me.

  1. Do not assume that a car will give you right of way as a pedestrian… they will almost always not.
  2. If you are riding a bike, stay in the bike lanes! You’re not supposed to, but it seems the sidewalks are also popular. You see, in other cities, bikes could manage themselves on the road. Montreal drivers do not like Montreal bikers. Indeed, there seems to be an extreme distaste, a minor hatred.
  3. Try and keep track of where you are and enjoy looking at the buildings and the shops. Why is this a survival tactic? If you enjoy looking around, you’ll make subconscious landmarks for yourself and will be able to find your way back to where you want to be.
  4. If you do get hit. Rest assured that numerous lovely people will show up to check that you’re alright. Half of them will be British, one of them may start in French, and one of them will be ready with a band-aid.

Having said all that, I love Montreal so far! I’ve only been here for a few days now, but everyone I have met has been really friendly and has been kind enough to speak English for me without seeming aggravated at all. I keep getting lost though at first. I spent a good 30 minutes, without exaggeration, trying to find my residence on my maiden night-voyage biking Montreal.

So that’s the big thing that comes to mind (human life tends to center around travel and water anyway, right?). The other thing that comes to mind all the time, basically all the time I’m in my room, is how awesome this room is. I’m sorry to those of you who have small dorms, but Solin Hall at McGill is amazing. Not only is my room quite large but the entire building is pretty minimalist. The only problem is the chairs supplied, which will be replaced soon… very soon.

The strange thing is that these will be my earliest mornings for most of my semester. I’m attending an introductory group thing for international students called Discover Montreal that starts at 8:30. My actual classes will typically start around 10:30, if I’m remembering well. The Discover Montreal thing has turned out to be lovely. This is where I’ve met a lot of nice people and also gotten to watch the other McGillians to see what they’re like as a group. I’m not entirely sure what to think yet though. For a start, everyone seems a lot more extraverted than I would have expected. I’m generally an introvert until chameleon instincts kick in and I get around extraverts, but most of the people here at McGill seem to be extraverted. However, that could be a complete illusion, right? Because anyone who is ‘introverted’ will open up in a large group that is designed to socialize, so there’s no way for me to even start judging any of this. I don’t even know whether I would prefer introvert to be the dominant sort of person or extravert. I suspect most people will hit the books hard when school actually starts though and loosen up a bit until exam time.

Would you prefer a more introverted student body or more extraverted? In terms of say… a 60/40 mix?

Oh! The music scene in Montreal! I haven’t even scratched the surface. I’m not sure I could even say I’ve entered the music scene; I certainly haven’t searched for it, but last night at our restaurant there were a couple of guys doing David Bowie and Beatles covers with a guitar and an upright bass. It was the most incredible pairing of instruments and they both sang so well. Heading down to a music area that’s been suggested to me this weekend, and I promise I’ll report what I see!

PPS (written before the PS but put before… for convenience… yea, not really sure how that works but please be forgiving): I’ll post some content on school stuff like school advice, but it seems to me that most anyone on MyMajors.com is already getting flooded with so much great advice that you don’t really need to here me telling you to eat your vegetable and get enough sleep (eat your veggies and get enough sleep!). So, you’re not going to hear too much from me about that unless you want to. Always feel free to add me on Facebook or mail me at calemjbendell@gmail.com… or show up at my door if you’re in Quebec, shouldn’t be hard to find my address, if you ever want anything in particular mentioned on the bloggity here that you think I’d be qualified to do.

PS: I have a tiny challenge for anyone who’d like to take it up. Do you see my profile picture? The one where there are two of me? I’ve put another example of that sort of project below. They’re quick and pretty easy to do. I used all free opensource software (GIMP) to do it and a camera on a tripod (a slightly shakey tripod). Let me know if you want to try it out and I can give you some tips if you like. Personally, I’d say just go for it and see what methods you come up with (it should be fairly obvious). Makes for a lot of ‘likes’ on your Facebook profile picture.

Calem

Calem is a wonderfully misdirected student who has never had much idea what he wanted to do with his life but has insisted on enjoying it whether a particular purpose comes or not. He works on numerous online projects and is generally willing to help out with whatever he can. Working together with people on projects is something he's found profoundly adds to his life. For any question, comments, concerns, etc, please email calemjbendell@gmail.com.

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One thought on “Bikes and the City (First Few Days of Montreal)

  1. .I’ve also had success as poelpe around me learned more about my personality type. And, it’s very much my responsibility to step out of my comfort zone too I’m still continually amazed how many neat things happen for me in work and life when I chose to step out of an introverted comfort zone. I still default to that of course, but have noticed that as I get older, I like engaging more and more with others.Interestingly, research also supports the theory that as we age, we tend to become less tied to our preferences and more interested in the opposite dichotomies. Not true for everyone of course, but in general those with an extroverted preference begin to develop more interest in looking inward as they age and visa versa. Cool stuff.Looking forward to staying connected with you!Dave

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