Grande Ville

Week 1 in Montreal was full of new experiences for all of us!

Nick hit the ground (water) running with a container ship hull inspection right away on Thursday.  That left time for Leif and I to explore the city a bit on our own. He had written a letter to his teacher in Suamico, but needed to finish it by telling her something fun that he had done. So we decided to walk down to the Montreal Science Centre. We didn't get there until 3, and they closed at 4...so we decided to join as members so we could come back again and again.  We packed a lot into an hour, and came back later for the LAST showing of HUBBLE IMAX 3D in English.

New "time out" chair!

Walking to the Science Centre with a 6-year old (1.3 km (.8m)) was an experience. He was excited to be in a new, BIG city. My son exhibits excitement by becoming wiggly and goofy (more than usual, if you can believe that). I felt as if everyone was staring at the two of us 'country bumkins' from the Midwest trying to navigate the Grande Ville.  If you have ever walked through the downtown of a big city, you know that everyone is on their way somewhere-usually in a hurry. I don't believe that L has ever been in a hurry to do anything-or get anywhere. Skipping and sliding in the snow, not stepping on cracks, but not missing the chance to pounce on every manhole cover (those are worth 10 points), singing, babbling, and general lollygagging made it difficult to arrive at our destination without disrupting the sidewalk traffic through Chinatown.

Most of our time has been spent trying to get various forms filled out and submitted. In order to sell our house in Wisconsin, we had to fill out about 15 forms, 7 of which need to be notarized. The U.S. Consulate in Montreal will notarize documents for $50. We thought that was a lot, but what choice do we have? The U.S. Consulate was an interesting place. We were met by a large Russian security guard who proceeded to clean out my bag. I'm glad I didn't have anything more embarrassing than used tissues stuck in there.  For security reasons, he kept my cell phone, L's video game, a sugar packet I had in there for coffee emergencies, and granola bars. He looked at L and offered to let him take a couple of granola bars with him, but not all of them... We followed the arrows to an elevator that ONLY went to the Consulate office, which is a huge waiting room filled with people from so many different areas of the world, it could have been the UN. When our number was called, we walked to the appropriate window where we were informed that the $50 notary charge was PER SIGNATURE. We decided to take a day trip to New York or Vermont to find a Notary instead.

Our first experience with "socialized medicine" turned out much better.  The Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RamQ) office is another large room filled with people. Apparently Nick has been anxious about applying for our Canada Health Insurance Card. We had the proper documentation, and made it through without a problem in about an hour with letters assuring that we would be covered under the Quebec health insurance plan beginning April 1. The whole thing cost us $16 for the photos. Maybe the whole system is based on getting LOTS of people together in one room at the same time to spread germs and build immunity?

We met with the St. Lambert Elementary School staff, who were very friendly and sad to confirm that they don't have room for another child without the School Board's approval. This means that they would have to pay a teacher extra to take on another child-or send him to another school. It's been almost a week, and we still have no news.  :(


It will take a while to catch on to the French thing. So far, I've been OK shrugging, and saying "sorry?" when someone addresses me in French. Apparently my pronunciation of "bonjour" is so sad that the person I'm speaking with doesn't even consider continuing our conversation in French. I'm OK with that for now. 

Souris des villes, souris des champs