So, here I am! Wow. It's just finally starting to sink in. I flew in last night. Montreal looks incredible from the air. Either scary or exciting - I never decided which. To me it looked like a giant computer circuit, with bumpy, square, flat buildings and geometric rows upon rows of lights. The plane made a complete circle waiting to land, and the lights stretched to the horizon in all directions. Snow on the ground was visible from the air, giving everything a soft, almost fuzzy look, changing the sprawling lights from menacing to almost surreally beautiful.

Montreal got its first real snowfall yesterday, just in time for me . It was -6C when I arrived last night, which was a pretty good temperature, actually. Today the sun is out again. I'm sensing that this is going to be a change from rainy Victoria...

Brent and Lisa's place is awesome. Hardwood floors, brick walls, lots of old architecture and columns. Brent painted the walls (not the brick ones) when he first moved in, and they're dark greens and blues with white along the wide borders, and yellow in the kitchen. The carved columns and door frames are all white as well. I have my own little room; it's quite small, but adequate, and has big doors/windows overlooking the street below. The room would be awesome in the summer when you could open the doors and let the fresh air in. As it is, the doors simply serve to keep my room quite cool, and transmit quite well the sound of snowplows in the street. However, each room has its own electric heat, so I've cranked mine, and so far so good.

The disadvantage to living in a building that was probably built before electricity was common is that the light switch to my room is actually outside in the hallway, half-way down the hallway across from the bathroom. It took me forever to find it last night. My room also locks from the *outside*, so if I've been bad Lisa and Brent can lock me in!

So far I've also experienced at least two of the things that Chris listed as living hazards in Montreal last week. The first was stepping off the plane into the Montreal airport and immediately being enveloped in smoke. You can smoke anywhere inside the airport there, and boy do they ever! Yikes!

The second thing I experienced was the crazy drivers! I went for a walk this afternoon, and the drivers are abso-frickin-lutely insane! Light turns green, little man walking appears on the crosswalk symbol, Roberta starts to cross. Halfway across the road there was a huge (and I mean massive!) semi truck barreling at me, doing a left hand turn. I actually had to jump backwards to avoid getting creamed. Heart still pounding, I shakily crossed the road only to practically get run over by some guy taking a short cut by cutting across the sidewalk! Aghhhhh!

Alright, fine. I continued on my way. A little while later I had to cross the street again. This time, again, there was traffic barrelling out at me, again doing the left hand turn. It's a game of chicken with drivers and pedestrians waiting to see who will back off first. Panicking, I stopped this time, letting the car win the battle. Sensing my weakness, the next four cars plowed through, leaving me trapped in the middle of a busy road until some driver took pity on me and let me cross. Again, let me emphasize that I *was* on a crosswalk and the walk sign *was* on. Sheesh.

It wasn't all bad, however. On my walk I discovered some useful things, including a Royal Bank, the Atwater Market, a 24-hour McDonalds and four metro stations. I also got to apprectiate the beauty of the city. The old man feeding the birds in the park, the beautiful stone architecture, ice crystals in the air sparkling in the sunlight, and the crunch of fresh snow under my boots.