Montreal - Good

Ok overdue, but here it is.

Why I like Montreal:

Beer: Ok you can get beer anywhere, but in Quebec you can get it in the supermarket. That alone makes life worthwhile.

Service: Ok, I know I put this down in the bad category, but consistency was never one of my strong points. I don’t know if this is province-wide, or unique to provincial services offered in this city, but I have never met a rude or unco-operative beaureaucrat. Every single person working for the province in a serve-the-public capacity, RAMQ (medical), drivers licence guys, income tax, Régie de logement (residential tenacies), doesn’t matter, has been helpful and courteous, sometimes going beyond the call of duty.

Music: I have heard Irish music and modern jazz in pubs, I have heard classical music by the Montreal Chamber Orchestra and various student performances. All you have to do is open the Gazette on Friday, and there are all kinds of musical events going on, often for free or almost free. The McGill School of Music will be presenting Britten’s The Rape Of Lucretia in January, and I have this hankering to go…

Art: I know I am making myself sound highbrow but I think the opposite is true – if I were really highbrow I would probably recognize all the sculptures around the city for the kitch that they probably are. But I’m ignorant, and so I enjoy the random works or art scattered around here and there. I also like the Musée des beaux arts.

French: Another entry from the bad category. But there is a good side to it. Living in a city that uses a language that I don’t know gives life a kind of piquant flavour. It keeps me challenged and focused. It makes this city different from any other major city in North America.

La Grande Bibliotheque: well I go there usually once a week. It has an incredible CD collection, about which I’ve written elsewhere. If I left Montreal, I would be as sorry about leaving that library as about anything else.

Having a coffee and danish in the morning at Jewish General Hospital restaurant in the morning before work: I do this about once every two weeks, and it costs me $2.35.

I live here: I don’t live anywhere else. I live here. I don’t live where I used to live, which wasn’t a bad place really, but I didn’t want to live there anymore, and I got to come and live here, and I like that.