Take care, it's a desert out there...

Wall staring time YAY

there's a piece of québécois etiquette that remains a partially unsolved puzzle to me. i don't know french and i was aware i was the asshole tourist that forced them to speak in the language of the cultural hegemon -- bah, i know about 20 words in french and that's good enough for most interactions so that's what i went with. but when i actually needed a conversation going i'd hit them with an alô, they'd say their piece in french, i'd look sideways cause i feel i can understand french better using my left ear, i'd hesitate for a couple seconds, then continue in english always smiling like an idiot to signal i'm chill despite the language barrier. i feel like that took me way further than my yank colleagues but i wonder if i could've done better. i could easily google this but i enjoy the mystery and, again, it didn't look like i offended anyone

Been so overwhelmed from what my last few months have been that I find staring at a blank wall amusing in its stillness

I have to say, the bikearoundability slash fuckaroundability of central Montreal has to be the best we have in the whole continent. You can rent rideshare bicycles with just a credit card and there's stations within five minutes of wherever you are (well, most of the time anyways), cycling roads can take half the street width, public bathrooms and safehouses with free water and wifi everywhere, just damn. Taking the metro was the inferior option, and that was amazing on its own. Imagine what we could do with Buenos Aires, a city which *isn't* a white dead desert half the year