When I first thought about writing this post, I had grand plans to recap our time in Montreal. I started a post, then would stop and my mind would wonder. Then, I would browse pictures from the trip for ideas and get lost for an hour. At one time, I had a pretty lengthy list of notes in draft under this heading. The point is, I just can't make myself finish this post. Reflecting now, five months after we are home and mostly settled back in, I think I understand why. My time in Montreal is something I don't want to think of as completed. It happened in the past, but I don't want it to live there. The people I met or simply interacted with daily, the places I visited, the time I got to spend with my family...all of it. It is all still so real and relevant and yet already seems so far away. So, I wanted to end with a few images from our time there, framed with a picture of one of my favorite places in Montreal. Following the collage is a few parting words about the culture of the city.
Quebecois is a distinct and unique culture, and I sincerely admire and miss it. It is one that will embrace you if you let it and appreciates efforts at trying. We certainly stood out when we arrived – a family of five who only speak English, three of which are young and loud. Noisy didn’t really seem to be a Montreal trait. But, we rarely had any trouble. We didn’t need to know every phrase we heard to understand pleasant words and attitudes. The people we encountered were never upset that we could not speak French and seemed to appreciate and forgive our humble attempts to work with the language as we lived there longer.
Montreal was a wonderful place to parent – providing daily teachable moments about openmindedness, appreciating culture, understanding politics (it was an election year), and seeing that it is important and OK to stand up for something important to you (we saw lots of peaceful activism – including a school strike that had our children out for several days). Culturally, we found Montreallers to be the most accepting and generally nice people we’ve ever been around and we look forward to getting back to the city as often as we can.
