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In Montréal for the week. Lots going on, lots to think about. Like:

• The rental market here really is extremely tight, at least if you're looking for something downtown close to the universities. But the rental market is also extremely cheap for a major city, and electricity--read, heating--is uncommonly, awesomely affordable by my standards, thanks to strategic flooding by the government. Still, it's frustrating to see how few apartments are available at one time, and how they're snapped up within a day, before we can even get a hold of someone to schedule a tour.
• Given that I'll be paying inflated foreigner's insurance rates, dealing with very tight on-street parking (and digging the car out in winter), and dodging crazy drivers, do I want to bring a car? (Though I'm enjoying a characteristic maneuver that I see from my window several times an hour: a driver stopping abruptly in the middle of the one-way, one-lane street, and suddenly accelerating two or three blocks in reverse at 25 mph (oops, make that 45 kph).) Do I really want to live without the brand-new car which we just bought, given how effectively trashed my feet were after walking for seven hours yesterday?
• They are running women's curling on TV right now, and it's not even the Winter Olympics. People drag hockey bags through the Métro. There really is a ton of snow here, even compared to 100-inches-this-year Wisconsin. People frequently, unironically punctuate sentences with "eh."
• Man, my French is much worse than I thought it was. I'll blame part of that on not having spoken it for seven years, and the other part (unjustifiably) on the Québec French accent. I can read French passably well, but I have a hard time when it's spoken, plus about a five-second processing delay. It's also surprisingly frustrating--I mean, everyone here speaks English, and my French is good enough to get the idea across. But I'm usually not at such a loss for vocabulary, or proper grammar, you know? On the plus side, things like signs and advertisements become immeasurably funnier in a foreign language.
• To be honest and superficial, I'm going to miss the friendly ubiquity of the American retail landscape. (Life without Target? For real?) But I am looking forward to restocking on stuff from Lush in person, getting to try on overpriced jersey items at American Apparel, and getting to shop at ginormous H&M stores. And, you know, maybe I'll develop a taste for Roots.
• One of my biggest fears is getting too comfortable. I'm really good at settling in wherever I'm at and being content, but there's a thin line between contentment and complacency--it'd be all too easy for me to, say, not finish my PhD, or not to throw myself into the academic job market to pursue a job that I really want. And I think this move will be a great way of ensuring that I keep stretching.

On point 3, makes me a little homesick. Can't wait for all the stories. Good luck with the move!

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