Jettin' uphill (mad funky)

Biking here is not a joke. It's deceiving, you know? One second you're cruising down the street, the next you're trying to crawl your way up the side of a mountain. It's not much easier on these Bixi bikes. The system is absolutely amazing (rent a bike!!), but the bikes are not exactly terrain friendly. Also their handlebars are twice as large as a normal bike, so sharing bikes lanes involves a delicate balance of not hitting other riders and not hitting traffic. Especially when the bike lanes go AGAINST traffic. I can say this without reserve: biking here is JUST as scary as biking in Brooklyn. Extremely fun, but not without death risk.

No, you ride up it. I am walking.

Things I have learned when interviewing for a job: explaining that you are on a visitors visa says "pay me cash, please". Questions will be in French, so hope you are applying at a restaurant where French is not the first language and thus is spoken sightly slower. Know the right and wrong ways to speak with people from the Caribbean, because this ability will also be a question. Wait, what?

I am completely obsessed with Portuguese chicken and am thus the worst sometimes vegetarian ever. But it wouldn't be that easy to maintain even if I was trying. There's a lot of good quality meat here (that's what she said). There is also a lot of gravy. Which I am still adjusting to...meaning Poutine, of course. I'm in search of the best (everyone has a "favorite places"). Maybe I should couple this search with some running shoes...

Heart. Attack.

At least I can pair it with visits to markets. Maybe I'll even learn how to cook without setting things on fire. Not that I've ever done that...

Atwater Market

There is house music everywhere (or is it trance? post-trance? industrial house trance?), especially in Deps, which is short for Depanneur, the Montreal version of Bodegas in New York or Party Stores in Michigan (though maybe now they are just called tire fires...)

On the way to the party store

Another fact: The Queen of England is still acting head of state in Canada. Among several others countries. What? This does explain the money, though...

C.R.E.A.M get the money.