Blog
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Hello everyone:
A bit of a rough start here in Quebec: tough to find a place, -25 C most of the time since I arrived here on Feb.1, car troubles, no phone for 2 days, no Internet for 1 month, phone and cable companies very difficult to deal with (+ they have a monopoly here), but I'm slowly settling. Now finally got Internet this week! Yahoo!Work seems fun and versatile.My trip was good. I drove 3800 Miles (6080 km). It was actually 3500 Miles, but somehow 300 extra Miles accumulated. Ashland, OR - Seattle - Leavenworth, WA - Spokane, WA - Idaho - Montana - North Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Illinois - Michigan - Ontario - Sainte Adèle, QC Leavenworth is really worth seeing. Washington, Idaho and Western Montana are of course very beautiful, with the Cascades and Rockies. Montana is very long and pretty boring after Livingston (the turnoff to Yellowstone and the end of the Rockies). North Dakota was interesting. I stopped there at Jefferson National Park, saw some Buffaloes and great rock formations. I drove through Bismarck and Fargo. It was actually pretty mild, about -5 C and only some snow around Fargo, which is unusual there for January. St. Paul, MN seemed really interesting architecturally. In Wisconsin, I stopped at The Dells, a famous place with dozens of water parks. I stopped there to find a car wash, but didn't fine one :). Think they would have let me drive down a water slide? Illinois is pretty boring and driving south of Chicago on I-80, which is a major road traffic hub in the US, was a little tough, with all the construction going on. Can't really say much about Michigan and Ontario. Very nice roads in Ontario, and then as soon as you enter Quebec, you can say goodbye to your shocks in your car.Quebec seems expensive ($CAN 5-6 for a beer at a bar), lots of snow, which is nice when it's fresh, but less nice when it's slush, worse roads than in Eastern Europe 20 years ago. Many people only speak French, their accent is different, more Americanized. I'm struggling a bit with that, since my French is more Parisienne, but I'll get used to it, I guess. Many people don't understand English here, so I have to speak to them slowly.My mobile: 450-675-0452I am 6 hours behind MEZ and 3 hours ahead of PST now!!!I'm in Sainte Adèle, in the province of Quebec, about 40 miles north of Montréal - same latitude as Portland, Oregon or Milano, Italy.So far I haven't had time to do any music or skiing. Tennis is out of question anyway until spring. I did go ice skating on the lake a few times. Hope to do some x-country skiing, but first have to buy skis.What's new in your neck of the woods?Ciao,Michael
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