Oh, Canada! (Part I)

Well, here I am in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. For the last week and all of this week, I will be here for training on one of our systems that I’ll be working with at my office. The good news is that if training is successful, I should have about 2 years of work ahead of me. (did I say that was the good news?)

Montreal is a very cool place. And by “cool”…I mean “cool.” The average temperature here for the last week has been hovering around bloody cold.

Everyone has been very nice – I would think that would be a prerequisite for a city whose #1 industry is tourism. There have been multiple times when I would go to a restaurant or a shop and the person would say “Bonjour,” and I would automatically reply with “Bonjour.” Then they’d start talking a mile a minute in French and I’d have to halt them and say that “Bonjour” is close to the extent of my French.

The flight up was pretty poor. The first leg which was Saint Louis to Toronto, I was in the last seat in the last row. Crammed up against the side of the plane, not able to recline the seat at all, because the bathroom is lodged right up against the “seat.” The flight was about 2 hours and it was loud, cramped, sweaty and all around no fun – and it was delayed about 10 minutes. Doesn’t seem like too long a delay, does it? Apparently, though, it was JUST enough to get me bumped from my connecting flight. My connection was at 3:00, but just as I went thru to put my bags on the conveyer, a airline official told me that I had been bumped – even though it was only 2:30 and I had ½ hour to get to my gate 5 minutes away. So I stood in a line for 20 minutes to change my flight, gave them my bags, and got to the new gate STILL before 3. Grrrr….

At least the second leg wasn’t too bad. I had an aisle seat, and the seats were bigger and not as narrow and I could recline. I won’t say they were amazingly comfy, but compared to the first flight, it was heaven. I was asleep seconds after wheels up.

The training is long and hard, but like I said, it’ll be good for my job. While I’ve been here, I’ve done the bus-tour thing, gone out to Olympic Park Stadium (Go Expos!) and even hit the Casino de Montreal. (Blackjack is weird when the cards are in French!) It’s very multi-cultural and a nice city – just wish it were warmer!

The bad part about being up here is that it’s 2 weeks away from St. Louis, family, friends and especially Alex. I miss you terribly, babe!

More news later!