Went to Montreal!
Mar. 18th, 2018 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nosrednaydujKen had a short conference this past weekend (starting Friday). Jocelyn and I joined him to be tourists.
While there, we visited Ecole Nationale de Cirque. The circus program there is extremely serious; I once characterized it as "a trade school for circus", which I guess is still correct, but it's THE one if that's what you want to do. 99% of their graduates are working in the circus world. They are extremely competitive: They receive hundreds of audition videos, from that 300 are invited to audition in person, and from that only 25 are chosen for the year's class. There's also a similar school in Quebec City. I sense another Quebec visit in my future. Too bad Jocelyn has been taking Spanish instead of French!
We also took the tour of McGill university, which is a giant school of 40,000 students. I was pretty sure Jocelyn didn't want to attend such a large school, but this tour made her really sure about that. We won't bother visiting any other large schools. I found it interesting anyway, since I knew nothing about the school. I liked our tour guide; he did a good job.
Saturday we went to the Biodome, which I enjoyed.
The restaurant was better-than-average for museum cafeterias. I regret not also paying the additional $20CDN to go up the associated tower, I think it would have been fun. Well, maybe I'll just have to go back sometime!
We spent a little time in the Underground City, which would have been more enjoyable if we hadn't been vaguely lost most of the time. Maps were not very good, and it's not like you can use your GPS. Businesses there end up having their street address given, and that isn't helpful either!
On our last day we had an hour between checkout and picking up Ken at the conference, so we drove up to Mont Royal and walked the couple hundred meters from the parking lot to the lookout, and had a nice view of the city. Almost makes up for skipping the tower...
We drove up rather than flying. This was sometimes convenient (ENC is far from city center), but other times a pain, as you have to Do Something With Your Car whenever you go somewhere. I feel like most of my contribution to the Montreal economy was in parking fees! Sometimes more than I should have paid, due to failure to understand what the parking fee machine was telling me (see above about studying the wrong language...)
While there, we visited Ecole Nationale de Cirque. The circus program there is extremely serious; I once characterized it as "a trade school for circus", which I guess is still correct, but it's THE one if that's what you want to do. 99% of their graduates are working in the circus world. They are extremely competitive: They receive hundreds of audition videos, from that 300 are invited to audition in person, and from that only 25 are chosen for the year's class. There's also a similar school in Quebec City. I sense another Quebec visit in my future. Too bad Jocelyn has been taking Spanish instead of French!
We also took the tour of McGill university, which is a giant school of 40,000 students. I was pretty sure Jocelyn didn't want to attend such a large school, but this tour made her really sure about that. We won't bother visiting any other large schools. I found it interesting anyway, since I knew nothing about the school. I liked our tour guide; he did a good job.
Saturday we went to the Biodome, which I enjoyed.
The restaurant was better-than-average for museum cafeterias. I regret not also paying the additional $20CDN to go up the associated tower, I think it would have been fun. Well, maybe I'll just have to go back sometime!
We spent a little time in the Underground City, which would have been more enjoyable if we hadn't been vaguely lost most of the time. Maps were not very good, and it's not like you can use your GPS. Businesses there end up having their street address given, and that isn't helpful either!
On our last day we had an hour between checkout and picking up Ken at the conference, so we drove up to Mont Royal and walked the couple hundred meters from the parking lot to the lookout, and had a nice view of the city. Almost makes up for skipping the tower...
We drove up rather than flying. This was sometimes convenient (ENC is far from city center), but other times a pain, as you have to Do Something With Your Car whenever you go somewhere. I feel like most of my contribution to the Montreal economy was in parking fees! Sometimes more than I should have paid, due to failure to understand what the parking fee machine was telling me (see above about studying the wrong language...)
