Montreal-based band Tricot machine is composed of couple, Catherine Leduc and Matthieu Beaumont, and Beaumont’s brother (who doesn’t appear in the video) Daniel.
My favorite part of the song is at 1:47, when Leduc sings Ce matin, or this morning. Her pronunciation of matin (mah-tayn as opposed to France’s mah-tahn) is representative of the Québécois accent that I have grown to love.
So now a little bit on Quebecois cuisine. Probably the meal that comes quickly to mind when one thinks of Quebec is
POUTINE!
a strange plate of French fries with gravy and cheese. The first time I tried, I admit, I wasn’t impressed but now, it’s a staple dish amongst friends after a long night on the town. Probably the best place to eat poutine is at La Banquise in Montreal.
But in Quebec City, I’ll take what I can get so I hit Chez Ashton with friends, a fast-food chain that serves the Quebecois culinary dish.
Another culinary delight, typical of Quebec is Tire sur la neige (Canadian maple syrup taffy). The best part is that you get to help out in the process of making the taffy.
First, the vender pours a scoopful of maple syrup in a strip on a patch of snow.
After letting it cool down, he hands you a wooden stick and you begin to roll the syrup onto it. Until finaly, you have “tire sur la neige”!
Here is a song by Montreal-based band We Are Wolves.
In all honesty, this song represents how I felt in Montreal…every.single.day.
It was non-stop happiness, excitement, nervousness, noise, messiness, chaosssssssss, and just pure MAGIQUE.
So, here’s a quick update. Since January 1st I’ve been in Quebec City. Leaving Montreal was hard and I experienced culture shock, even though I’d only moved three hours north in the same province.
I went from the familiar to the unfamiliar in just a couple of hours. In Montreal, I spoke English to everyone, I knew my way around downtown and its surrounding areas without a problem. I was amongst friends and the weather was cold but tolerable.
But then, the day after an epic New Year’s party, my father called to inform me that he would be arriving to pick me up in Montreal a little earlier than expected, in fact, he would be there in four hours.
I suddenly had just a couple of hours to finish packing and to say good-bye to the group of close friends I’d come to see as family and soon enough, I was off.
I could immediately see the differences…
--- in Quebec it’s mainly French-speaking and the Quebeckers are very unhappy when you come up to them and speak in English.
---I moved in on campus a week early and therefore, for the first week I was mainly alone running errands and trying to figure out how to get around the city.
---Québec is a lot a lot a lot a lot colder. To prepare to go out, I wear snow pants, two thick socks, insulated boots (made for –20 degree Celsius weather), a t-shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a fleece sweater, jacket, hat, snowboarding gloves, and scarf.
…And even then, I still get cold at times.
…More to come later…
a. People still bike ride
b. Life continues normally, everyone seems to be oblivious to the fact that they’re walking beside huge mounds of snow.
c. The studies must go on. While Rhode Islanders would shut themselves indoors and enjoy a snow day, I took my usual 15-minute commute downtown to meet friends at the library (which was ridiculously packed).
d. Popular coat brands are Canada Goose, Roots, and North Face
e. Montrealers don't like snow. They like the cold but not the snow…(or so I’ve been told),
f. In the next day or two, the streets and sidewalks will have been completely cleaned.
I got to have lunch with my fellow classmate Mike Belcher for an introduction on the Montreal literature scene, to visit Le Village, eat a Mango Panini at Kilo Restaurant, and discuss his first novel-in-progress, “Stitched”.
Le Village is Montreal’s gay village, located near Beaudry metro station on the green line and a couple of blocks away from my apartment.
According to Wikipedia, “By the 1990s, "The Village" had already started its expansion on Amherst Street, with the departure of many antique shops, more gay owned and operated businesses were emerging. At the same time, it had become well-established, and gained political recognition, acceptance by all LGBT persons, and by heterosexuals also. It has continuously thrived, gaining popularity, the area beautified, the housing renovated. Almost all gay businesses in Montréal are now situated in this area”.
Mike Belcher is a 26-year-old McGill graduate, a Chapter’s employee by day (Montreal’s equivalent to Borders), and a Concordia student by night. Phew.
Interested in the intersection of reality and the imagination in relation to body and self-image, Mike creates a story that follows protagonist, Joey, who struggle’s with how he’s being perceived by the world with some fantastical twists.
Here’s the actual synopsis from Mike:
Stitched follows the shifting delusions and illusions of Joey, a recent college grad who is looking for life’s greater meaning in all the wrong places.
Joey is obsessed with images – images of art, magazine models he’ll never be and, especially, himself – and it is through this obsession that the reader is taken into Joey’s mind, where passerby on crowded streets part for him in triple back flips, music brings words to life and unreachable cities grow from the earth.
Stitched is about the epic battle between the visible and the invisible in our lives. Our physical appearance versus the feeling of our presence. Our tangible lives against the imaginative spirit aching to be released into the world. Our head against our heart.
As he journeys between Montreal, Maine and Boston, searching for the fragments of a happiness he has lost along the way, Joey struggles to learn the difference between the stories we create…and the stories that create us.
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I think I’ll be the first in line when the book comes out.
