Going "Home"

For the past couple of years when people would ask me about what my "must-do" list for the trip was I was usually fairly vague. Probably because I really hadn't given it a tremendous amount of thought. But there was one thing that I knew I needed to do, and that was to see my "home" when we got to Montreal.

For those who don't know, both my parents have been deceased for a few years. I never gave it much thought, but when we decided that a cross-Canada tour was going to be first up on the trip, I realized that I had no idea where I was raised after being born in Montreal. It's not like I wasn't paying attention. I left when I was around three. Really - who remembers anything from when they are three anyway? My only Montreal memory is being freaked out by the crowd noise when my parents took me to a Montreal Canadians game and making them take me home early. What a jerk. And highly ironic that I have spent so much of my working life dealing with large sports & entertainment events. But I digress...

So we hit Montreal and I still have no idea where I lived. Even my Aunt Islay and Uncle Cliff were not able to solve the mystery. But a trip to La Grande Bibliotheque (aka the library) and a couple of really helpful library staff connected us to a website that yielded both the apartment that I was brought home to and the subsequent 4-plex that we would have moved to before my sister arrived on the scene.

We did the drive-by of both places this afternoon. It's not like I was excited to see either. The earth didn't move, I didn't become overwhelmed with emotion, and I had no flashbacks to mysterious happenings. It's more like being able to fill in a gap so that when I now think of Montreal I have a better context for where I started out. It's not just all about a Habs game anymore.

Capitaine America

and no - I did not make a spelling mistake. We are in Montreal and after a smoking hot day getting acquainted with the city, Chloe and I decided to head to the movie theatre to escape the heat and check out Captain America. As a long-time comic book geek superhero movies are must-see entertainment for me, and I see it as my duty to pass my geekdom down to my child.

So we head to the theatre in what I now know is the Latin Quarter of Montreal, figuring that either the movie would have french subtitles or at the very least english. We didn't account for option number 3........dubbed with no subtitles. Sadly my limited french skills were way out of their league, and Chloe said she could understand about 1/2 but they talked too quickly for her french immersion ability to really kick-in.

Luckily it was the kind of movie that you could easily figure out what was happening by the action sequences. But this does give me a good excuse to see it again, as it was awesome!