Aliens from Planet Anglo-Montreal

One of the main reason's for me moving out of Montreal was for a change. To get away from everything I knew and to experience living somewhere else. To experience another city's culture. Unfortunately, in the beginning of this experience... all you see is the things you hate about this new place. Well, at least I do.

I think I've always known that Montreal has one of the best public transit systems... ever! I didn't really know what that meant though. Some people told me it's because it's fast. Other people said because it's clean. And I have used the transit system in NYC, London and Rome... and they all seemed quite nice to me... clean and pretty direct.

When moving to Toronto everyone said I would need a car. It always seemed like public transit wasn't an option because everything is so far. But no! Don't be fooled. There are many MANY other reasons why you should NOT use public transit in the GTA area. Besides that fact that it can cost you way too much money... they purposely want you to get lost. The GTA Transit DOES NOT want you to find your way back home. They really don't. They must get some sort of joy off lost people or something because it's just unrealistic how confusing and non-sensical they make the transit system. First of all they have a zillion transit systems in the GTA. There's the TTC, the GO transit, the Brampton transit, the Mississauga Transit, etc. Then the TTC has the subways, buses and streetcars. And the GO has the train and the bus. And somehow all of the interconnect. So to get somewhere you might have to start with Brampton bus to a Sauga bus to the subway and to come back... you'd take a street car then the GO train to a GO bus. So during every trip you wonder if you've missed your stop and are almost in Ottawa?!? And to make matters worse some of the transit maps don't have streets on it. So you're just looking at a map of where the bus goes... but in all actuality you have no idea where the bus goes! I mean, you now know that it goes in the direction of north but what street... no! You don't get to know that kind of information! But then you think, well maybe when I get outside, I'll be able to see which bus goes on which street by the bus stop. Wrong again! The buses don't tell you what number bus is passing in front of that stop... there's just a symbol for which transit line it is. So some of the bus stop signs have the logo for EVERY transit! Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice! Why on earth wouldn't they put the bus number?!? It might be because some of the buses don't have numbers. Isn't that wonderful?!?

I haven't gotten lost yet. But Tuesday is a busy day for me so I just might. I'll just make sure to have every transit customer service phone number in my cell. Oh I'll be calling them!

I also realised that being a English Montrealer... I'm pretty much a foreigner everywhere on earth. It's actually quite sad. Today, I was in a elevator going down to leave the building. Another girl came in with me. When I got in the elevator, I stared at the buttons quite confused. I had no idea what to press. I looked at the numbers and say that after 2 came "M". What the heck is "M"?!? The girl in the elevator pressed this "M"... and asks me when she realises how lost I look if I'm going to the Main Lobby!?! Oh! The Main Lobby! Who would've known. So to explain why I look like I've never stepped out of my house before... I tell her that I just moved here from Montreal and our elevators call the lobby... RC. And then I thought...what the heck is RC?!?!

A few minutes later, while in the line for Burger King, I tell the cashier that I want the whopper junior trio. And she says what and I repeat myself... more than once. Then she rings up just the whopper junior. And I say no! I want the whopper junior trio! And she then again asks me what a few more times... and I repeat the same thing... wondering if I have an accent!!! Finally she says whopper junior what? And I'm like the drink and the fries! And she's like oooooooh! the combo! And I was like no! it's not a combo... because it's 3 things... that makes it a trio! She definitely thought I was a moron. But then I was reminded of all the times when I went to Tim Horton's a few blocks from my house and had to have long explanations with the lady about what I wanted... doing hand motions and all sorts of stuff. Just to try to get a doughnut or a cup! Or when those times when I say something in english that is the same word in french but I don't have the accent so they don't understand. Arg!

How sad to feel like a foreigner in your own country! English Montrealers are their own group of people... we should have our own island!