Greetings from Montreal

where everyone speaks French and I don't.

But hey, it's going great here. People are bilingual here, so we haven't had any problems thus far. It just makes me feel lazy and uneducated, living in America where you don't start foreign language until middle school at the earliest. Being here has made me more prone to thinking in German, however. Whenever I want to say something to someone here, my mind translates it into German for no good reason.

Things are beautiful here. The weather has been pretty cooperative. The natives have told us that they get a lot of rain- but it doesn't last long. We've found it true- it pours for maybe 30 minutes then is gone for the rest of the day. Otherwise, it's been actually quite humid. Boys and girls where the same kind of pants here, and everyone wears Chuck Taylors or Vans. A lot of people have tattoos and many many many people smoke. As far as I've seen, they've got equal food portions to the States. Sure, they don't have the weight problem we have in the US, but pick your poison, you know. There are Hookah bars all over the place. Overall, this country is far more left than my own and I like it.

We're staying in a gorgeous penthouse apartment right over a park. The woman we rent from is very very funny. My family & I have been doing a lot of great stuff- lots of walking, eating and shopping. Today we visited a bio dome and ate lunch in a gay bar. I think it freaked my dad out.
It's trips like this, though, that i get along with my mother best. We're good travelers- we don't complain about walking, food or things being different from back home. Both my father and brother can come off as xenophobic...really. The best I can do is ignore it and enjoy this city while I'm here.

Every time I visit a new city, I wonder what it would be like to live there. It makes me want to travel more and settle a bunch of different places, call a lot of cities, states and country "home".
A girl can dream, can't she?