Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Montreal

I'm in Montreal. I took the Greyhound Bus up from Burlington, VT this afternoon. I told the Canadian Immigration agent the whole story - how I was an H1B, quit my job, and was planning on re-entering the US tomorrow. She took my I94 (the little form that gets stuck in foreigners' passports when they enter the US) and let me in to Canada. So, so far, so good. This is actually my first blog post from outside the US. Haven't been out of the US or off the east coast for a while now. Since December 2005 actually. I usually travel more than this. The hotel I'm staying at is called: Hotel Montreal Espace Confort. It is just around the corner from the bus station on Rue St Denis, which is one of the nicer streets in Montreal. I'm not a big fan of Montreal - this is my fourth visit here. I get hung up on the language issue. If I speak English people often seem grumpy and annoyed and if I try to speak French they speak back in English. I can't win. I liked Quebec City more. France itself is a whole other story at least away from Paris. Most people I met there were happy I was trying to speak to them in French. Anyway, the hotel is very new, clean, modern design, and a good price in a good location. If you are happy to share a bathroom you can get it for $C50. I paid $C89 for a better room. There's an even more frugal option for this exercise - do the round trip by bus in one day - it's only 2 1/2 hours each way. But I didn't feel like doing this and thought it best to leave the country on the day I officially quit and then come back the next day in case there were any complications.

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