Soon in your neighborhood

B R

B R

— 5 min read
Soon in your neighborhood

I've started writing four posts in the last two weeks, never managing to finish them because other events have barged into our collective mental space. Those posts were:

  • One titled "Hindenburg v2", a retrospective on Joseph Biden
  • Another about the new Star Trek movie, Section 51, which completes the transition of the franchise from a meditation on a better future to a ham-fisted justification for the worst excesses of empire with the Federation standing in for the United States
  • A silly attempt to write a local op-ed on the necessity for Canada to welcome Americans fleeing from what is shaping up to be the greatest purge since the Red Scare - specifically how that population benefits everyone and grants the nation more leverage over its larger neighbor.
  • A post about how we are navigating the immigration system

I might return to any one of these - particularly if folks ping me about one of interest - but for now I've decided to just give a quick update; what's happening, how we are doing, etc.

French course is terminé

Hard to think it's been a full year and I am still quite bad at French. But good enough for (1) passing the final of four classes and (2) getting permanent residency by riding my partner's coattails. They actually have to have a higher level than I need to, vaguely A2 vs B2 for those keeping score, but we're almost certainly both around B2.

Despite my terror at the prospect of doing live improv in front of half the University of Quebec Montreal Françisation program, I managed to embarrass myself badly only once and particpated in one (1) genuinely funny skit.

I still have very little confidence in the actual speaking a lot of the time (pretty good at listening, reading, writing) so I signed up, with a bunch of other former students, for the free conversation program at La Grande Bibliotheque.

This line only grew. Despite some occasional political commentary around here about how much English is creeping into Montréal, there are a ton of people who want to improve their French.
Someone brought some pseudo-tarot cards to the end-of-session party and initiated a game where you have to describe your future job based on the card you draw. Most of these cards are fairly abstract so it can be genuinely challenging. I am actually cursed, so I got this card.
À propos nothing I found another good Quebec band.

The Active Fight Against Being Homebodies During Winter

It's not infrequently -15C outside and one might expect this provides a pretty decent incentive to stay indoors and get depressed reading the news. You would be correct, which is why communally - and with terrible socialist state interference - a bunch of stuff is happening/people are putting on a bunch of stuff.

Post-chanukkah chill house party with some lovely radical Jewish leftists. One of the lovely hosts giving a short presentation on, among other things, how to create an emergency BDS-friendly menorah from a sweet potato.

We went to the City Archeology/History museum (Pointe-à-Callière) where I found a rare live example of the worst possible color scheme for a map. I remember reading such a thing was possible when I studied Geography but I never expected to see one in the wild. We are all discovering the world is dumber than we think, all the time.

Oh yeah, "soon in your neighborhood", we are gonna shut the nearest arterial down to traffic for a week and put on some live shows with traditional dancing. And there is a tiny little pool for toddlers to pretend to ice skate on. Can't get em too early!

I am consuming both US and Canadian news and it's kinda wild how little internal events and politics penetrates to the other side and gets reported on

Like, if you just watched the (french) Canadian nightly news, the total of your "the fuck is even happening in America?" information will be from a couple of interviews with rando Americans outside the Walmart in Plattsburgh and a Columbia Poly Sci prof who is basically the level I am shooting for in French within a few years - far from native/natural but good enough to be on television (derogatory). I could do a whole post on this and how it's mirrored on the other side.

Because of the whole "going blind" thing, we've kept her kinda restricted to areas we are she won't get lost/hurt in. It's been a while since she has fallen asleep on the hassock she claimed completely upon joining our home. We've found her wandering out of the safe areas accidentally more and more recently. She might have adapted to her situation a bit more.

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