Phase 3 Begins...Right? Life Update Winter 2015

It's the end of the year and I'm writing this from my full-time job that my Master's degree qualified me for.

Wait...did Phase 3 just start? Yeah it kinda did. So let me catch you up.

In the last "Life Update" post I spoke on Phase 2, this contrived arc of goals I created after graduating from undergrad and hinted towards the theme of Phase 3.

"My real purpose in Phase 3 is trying to find a life that isn't as high octane as the 40/44+  hour week plus school plus writing schedule. Now it's about the connections, about traveling with people and sharing my experiences with those I care about."

Really Phase 3 is the culmination of all the tiny steps I've taken towards a day job, towards a film directing/writing career, and moving forward in my initiative towards settling somewhere. Rather than thinking of physically where I'm going next I can focus on connections, travel, and film.

So where am I settled up?

Atlanta. It's a good thing, too.

Let's start with August.

...

I mentioned that I wanted to go back to the mountains and Atlanta when I wrote on Columbia in June. I wrote about my decision to move back, job or none, on August 1st. When I came home to Georgia I got my dose of the mountains, first hiking Tallulah, going to Asheville, and later Linville Gorge via Hawksbill Mountain. I also got a dose of being graduated and back with my parents, of going back to substitute teaching.

It was a low for me. I started applying for every job that I could possibly be qualified for. At first I applied for Georgia library jobs. Then I expanded to the rest of the country. I was applying for jobs in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, and even...Florida.

Job searching in the library world can often feel like sticking a wooden chip underneath one's big toenail and then kicking a wall..over and over and over again. For most jobs I didn't hear anything back until I found out I didn't get a job. I applied to 20-30 jobs. There was one week where I heard back from 7 jobs back to back that I didn't get to the interview phase.

At least I could fall back on substitute teaching. As I started subbing again, full of hubris and confidence I was given some news that unsettled me greatly: I had been excluded from schools. In the substitute teaching world being excluded from a school means that one can no longer sub there. Within Habersham/Kelly Services if you are excluded from 3 schools you're terminated. I found out I had been excluded by 4 schools. One had excluded me two years before and I was never given any notice, one had excluded me nearly 3 years before and I had received no notice. The last exclusion was from a school I had substitute taught at for 4 days already in the current school year, had a 5th day scheduled, only to be asked by a teacher who liked me to come in for a 6th day. When she called in to book me Kelly realized this school had excluded me the school year before and failed to inform me or take any action in their system. They would inform me...3 days after they realized this...right as I was going to sub teach a class that very moment. I'm pretty sure if I had not been in a classroom, in a school that had listed me as a "preferred substitute," I would've been terminated.

I was worried about what I had set in motion in moving back to Georgia, at taking this risk. Then things started looking rosier.

Kelly had called me on my second day of a multi-day assignment. Then I got a call on my third day of this same assignment in the afternoon from a library system in Atlanta. They wanted me to come in for an interview.

Out of all the jobs I applied for I landed 2 interviews, one phone interview and one in person.The one in-person interview was for the Atlanta library job...and I got the job.

Of course it seemed as though it took an eternity for me to have this opportunity. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that long. I received an official offer around October 30-31st after graduating August 8th and I began December 7th. Within the library world that's not terrible. We're advised that it may take 6 months after graduation to find a job. Yet I had to deal with this county's wretched HR. After interviewing in September I had to wait through October because the county HR takes 6 weeks to process the hiring committee's approval. The HR rep didn't even get my name right--Michael Bennett.

Yet here I am, a full-time paid Librarian 1 with health benefits, 40 hr week schedule, holiday pay, and...10 hours of vacation each month...which I can accumulate...for new trips. I also alternate schedules to where I have 3 day weekends every other weekend for mountain time, filmmaking time, or leisure. More importantly, I'm in Atlanta. I'm staying with a friend in Inman Park, which is a great neighborhood. I can walk to a coffee shop and to Krog Street Market, the holy grail of food halls.

Granted, I'll be moving to a new location soon, but I plan to find a place in Inman Park next year. With this job and being in the right location I'm kicking back for a bit. I can calm the f*** down.

...

Kicking back doesn't mean kicking back and doing nothing. I like being busy. Kicking back means I have less to worry about and I can focus. With the bulk of Phase 2 taken care of I can focus more intensely with writing, filmmaking, and traveling. I'm happy to report that wheels are set in motion to some exciting developments.

For one, I've made real progress with a current project as a film director. With Skinny Dipping, the new short I'm working on, I was able to assemble a first-rate crew, a wonderful cast, and heading into the end of pre-production I feel confident about shooting. This script feels like a festival contender but we'll see. Even better is that I was able to use some of the free time I had prior to moving to work on a couple of scripts. I finished a feature-length first draft called Dawn, revised a short script from 2011, revised a sketch I wrote while working for Baker & Taylor, and I'm adapting a feature script that I've drafted 3 times into a short. Plus I'm doing some preliminary work on some ideas. I've reached a point to where I need to film a short every year and get into a festival every year if I'm serious about getting into a major festival as I laid out in my 30 List. That means I need to have a lot of scripts ready to go. I need to revise the feature length and possibly prepare a short adaptation of it as well. There's stuff to be worked on but it's progress.

As far as travel is concerned I haven't begun concretely with any plans--I haven't bought tickets to anywhere yet--but I've set up a criteria. I want what I always want in my travels--a rich cultural experience, an opportunity for adventure or landscape gazing--with one particular hitch. I want to have a cultural experience that gets me out of my comfort zone. As someone who is a Hispanophile and who is now a Ricknick this means somewhere outside of the Americas or Europe. This means one continent for me: Asia. The only other criteria: I should be able to do this trip in one week. I have two ideas for where I want to go.

Previously in my 30 List I had listed Egypt as a destination, to see the pyramids. With the recent turmoil I scratched it with the idea of having its place be a wild card. So my first idea is to use this wild card to go to a country similar to Egypt in terms of rich history, breathtaking visuals, but also a country that has a Muslim majority population. This place needs to have a reasonable tourist infrastructure. With this in mind Turkey has been on the top of my list of where to go next year.

The second idea involves one that I already have on my list: Japan. On my list I outlined going to Japan and seeing Mount Fuji and this could be the trip where I do this. It would certainly provide the fish out of water experience I want. It also has a non-Western religious majority.

The main difference between Japan and Turkey is that I'm deeply attracted to Japanese cultural exports. Some of my favorite films of all time were made by Japanese filmmakers and ditto goes for my love of haiku and traditional Japanese poetry. I have no cultural attachment to Turkey except for Rumi (who is Persian but widely venerated in Turkey). The fact that I can plan a trip will depend on income and rent but I think it's doable for next year. With the vacation hours I accumulate I may plan my Grand Canyon trip finally. Ultimately I'm just happy to be at a point to where I can finally focus on traveling more.

...

With the end of the year I can wrap up this year with a neat bow. This year has emboldened my optimism. During my deepest worries I managed to follow through. I can get a lot of flak by friends and even acquaintances for my RBF, with many people seeing me as a downer or pessimistic. The reality is that I'm not like that at all. I mean how many pessimistic people make a list of goals and follow through?  I've learned that optimism gets me to more places and I've learned to not give up like I would ten years ago.

Phase 3, the final phase of my 30 List, has begun. I think I've made it through the congested traffic of my goals, and now I can drive smoothly.

What I Want to Tell the Middle Schoolers I Substitute Teach For

I want you to travel. I want you to think about where you will go when you're 18, 22, when you're 66.
Take out a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. Write at the top: Top 5 Places I Will Go To. Do not write Top 5 Places I Want to Go To. Will. Take out your social studies books, go to a library, get on the internet. Find 4 places you will visit that is outside of the United States, 4 you really want to go to.

What places? I don't know.

Think about your favorite music, your favorite movies, your favorite video games. Think about the pictures you would see in Social Studies. Think about the picture books read to you when you were in elementary school. Ask your parents, your teachers, your neighbors. Go to the 910's section at your local public library and browse the travel guides.  Go to the J 910's, the YA 910's. Look at maps. What features do you want? Do you want cities? Do you want mountains? Beaches?

Write down your top 4. My top 4? Spain, UK, Japan, Germany or France. This is what I would've selected in my middle school or high school days. Spain for my favorite films from Pedro Almodovar and Luis Bunuel. UK for my ancestry. Japan because of samurai films. German or France for ancestral and Europhile reasons.

Your header says "Top 5." So where's the 5th? Now find a place that you never considered. Find a place your parents wouldn't recommend. Find a place that you hear negatively about in the news.  Find a place that is a misfit, a place no one would think about it, a place like Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Georgia (the country), Slovenia, India, or Timor Leste. These are place you never knew were a country. You don't have to pick a country like North Korea or Belarus, a place that may or may not have an U.S. Embassy.

Now research that place. You may find beauty. If your parents are neglectful of what you watch, Kazakhstan may be Borat for you, but the capital, Astana, is as futuristic as any megalopolis in China. It is bordered by mountains, just like Slovenia is, a country that has three mountain ranges and is as Alpine as Germany. Tanzania has the Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro. Iran has the architecture you saw in Aladdin, people who want to feed you and know you, and it even has drinkable tap water.

When you have your top 5, research ticket prices off Kayak, Orbitz, etc. Research prices for hotels and hostels. Create a budget.

Save that budget. Go to all of these places before you have children. Go to all of these places before you settle in a place. Go to all of these places before you buy a house.

Why?

Each place you go is a library. Mount Kilimanjaro is a library of the beauty of Earth. A coffeeshop in Austria is a library of daily life, of older people discussing their experiences. A open air market is a library of how people develop relationships.

You need this knowledge. You need to know that in the grand scheme of eternity your problems are specks. Carl Sagan spoke of a pale blue dot. It is important to keep a perspective that life is tragically beautiful. Mount Kilimanjaro will exist far longer than humanity will. There are people who have inherited a life completely different than you, albeit one with a common ancestor. Your life will always matter to your family, to your friends, to loved ones. But you need these libraries for empathy, to normalize the pain of existence. No matter how embarrassed you might feel by your parents, by possible B.O., by the fear you may always be alone, take stock that worse things have happened and mountains and people are still here.

Thoughts on Columbia

Why am I writing this?

I am unsure what to write right now. I'm closing the book, proverbially speaking, on my When that Great Train Went Down collection of poetry to focus on editing and submitting. I'm not quite ready to work on the feature I have planned for July and I'm awaiting on feedback on my new short script, in its 5th draft.

So I'm going to talk about Columbia. ColumbiYeah! Right? Right. I'm feeling saucy.

It's a city I've made my home after accepting an internship with the university. Or it's a city I've made my home for the summer as a subleaser in my no strings attached relationship with this city. It's a city that mixes old SEC college town charm with reasonable contemporary urban developments. It's like Athens but with more sustainable business and less vibrant culture. It's a city that has become relevant in the news media thanks to the state house sharing the banner of the Army of Northern Virgina with the world. So we've got that pizzazz going for us (even the BBC has been around...the BBC!).

...

So how do I feel about Columbia?

Let's break it down into single strains of thoughts:

"It's alright."

"I can walk to work!"

"I can walk to coffeeshops!"

"I can walk to an art house movie theater!"

"It's hot."

"It's hotter than North Georgia."

"Why are the good restaurants ones I can't walk to?"

"Why is there only one good Mexican restaurant?"

"Where is a place I can have a nice dinner that won't force me to sit next to loud old rich Southern people and pay a week's paycheck for a turkey sandwich? (I'm looking at you Motor Supply)."

"Where are my friends?"

"I miss my family."

"I miss my dog."

"I miss quality central air conditioning."

"Why does everyone I meet decide to not meet up again?"

"Where are all the young enough people to not be married but old enough to pay bills?"

"Hey! I could walk to Against Me!"

"I'm tired of homework."

"I'm tired of the Office of Financial Aid and their office protocol of exclusion."

"My roommates are cool."

"Where are the filmmakers?"

"Where is the cool indie bookstore that sells new stuff?"

"I miss the mountains."

...

I miss the mountains. That's the truth. Part of me wants to end the semester, the school year, my Master's program, my internship by embarking on an epic road trip to Grand Teton National Park and feel a bit of chill.

Then part of me wants to just chill with my friends. Part of me wants to hug the Appalachian mountains again, and go to Asheville, Linville Gorge, Grandfather Mountain, and Chimney Tops. I think about how touched I was watching Ken Burns's The National Parks in the episode where the Great Smoky Mountains are discussed.

I miss the mountains because I miss my home, my muse. I have written less about the trees I love--the longwood pines, deciduous forests on the Chattahoochee River--and more about the drudgery of work. I created a poem about vultures and celebrated vultures for being the fourth world (to steal a Jane Hirshfield term) equivalent of pencil jockeys.

Palm trees aren't me.

...

There's cool stuff in Columbia, I swear.

Here's my travel guide to Columbia:

Rock shows: New Brookland Tavern (requires driving) or Music Farm (for the big names...and I can walk there).

Other non-rock shows: I don't know.

Parks: Finlay Park has a mammoth water fountain that drills down. Walking around the USC campus, particularly the Horshoe, is nice.

Restaurants:
Ok, this is what really mattered to me. Lamb's Bread Vegan Soul Food Cafe makes Columbia worth it. Southern Belly BBQ has really good BBQ, though they only serve pulled pork sandwiches. Real Mexico Taqueria Y Tienda serves the kind of mom and pop Mexican food that makes me happy. Menkoi Ramen House is my Asian restaurant and don't let the word "ramen" excuse you from this place. It's so delicious. Then for coffee I go for Drip, either on Saluda Ave. (Five Points, closer walking distance for me) or the one on Main (which is fancier looking, but less cozy).

Unfortunately the other restaurants are just ok to me. For instance Pawley's Front Porch serves a pretty good burger but I'm not attracted to the Pepsi vibe. Cantina 76 is also ok but it's a bar that serves tacos whereas Real Mexico Taqueria Y Tienda is a taco and torta palace that offers margaritas. All of these restaurants that I mentioned that are really, really superb are not in walking friendly areas, as well (except Drip on Saluda).

The last thing I'll mention is that I have fallen in love with the Nickelodeon Theatre. It's an art movie theatre, and the kind that makes me happy in showing retrospectives and quality new films. It's a treat in Columbia.

...
August 1st.

I made the decision, job or no job, to move back to Georgia August 1st. I knew I could get a job probably in South Carolina but I miss North Georgia. I miss Atlanta and Athens. I even miss Dahlonega and I wouldn't mind living there at this stage.

I miss Film Athens and trying to make shorts and having coffee conversations about making movies. I miss my friends.

I came to terms with how sad this move was going to be around my trek into Cumberland Island National Seashore. I thought I would be able to truly embrace the wild like John Muir. Camping alone--and fending off raccoons, didn't do it for me. It was beautiful but the finest moments were meeting new people. I miss the people. I realized I gave up my last week to an island over friends and family and felt enormously guilty.

There was a moment of despair my first day when I laid on my bed after laying out everything. I thought, mournfully, "where is everybody?"

I have met good people here. I love my boss. But I had a life that made me happy and now with this deprivation I realize how happier I am with it.

I came home the first weekend of June and I was able to eat at my two favorite places in North Georgia. I was able to see everyone and share life with them again. While on my last day I got the news that a lady I wanted to date and had talked extensively with during the week but who was quiet during the weekend, made the decision to get back with ex-boyfriend. With this text in tow I drove 3 long hours to Columbia with stops at Love's and $3 toll payments.

...

I found my restaurants here in Columbia. I found my happy places and I intend to ensure my happiness as best as possible but it's not home.

I had no idea I would think of Georgia like this but it has grown on me. I've had my share of posts on this so I'll avoid reiteration.

One part of my 30 List acknowledged this. I said I had to move to another state to see if Georgia was truly my home. I'm worried if I knew another state wouldn't be from the start. Did I sabotage this item on my list from the get-go? Was Columbia predestined to fail?

It may have. I knew Columbia would never be my place to settle. It's not Columbia's fault. It's not you, it's me.

If my friends were here all the time like in Georgia there might be something more. I don't mind being in a place without my friends. I don't mind being in a place without the energy of Atlanta or Athens, without the film scene or writing scene.

I do mind being deprived of both, however.

Columbia's not bad, but I wouldn't wish it on any Appalachian. The mountains are too beautiful to let go.

Phase 3 Thoughts or Life Update Summer 2015

Oh hey again!

So I'm going to provide an update for the summer by talking about Phase 3.

I'll be answering questions like....What's going to happen in Phase 3? Is there a Phase 3 yet? 

Wait...what? Are we already at Phase 3? What the hell am I talking about?

Let's go back.

I've spoken on Phase 2, this contrived arc of goals I created after graduating from undergrad. These goals are part of a larger compilation that I refer to as the 30 List, which almost has a dogmatic possession of my life.

So what was Phase 1? Phase 1 was basically about me constructing the path I should take after the chaos of graduation. It involved exploring the public service (education, library science) interest I've always had, honing in on my writing skills, figuring out what grad school degree to earn, and taking my trip abroad. 

Phase 2 was about working on my grad school degree, taking on more travels (though more relegated to North America), getting my film/writing career underway, and moving out. As I've chronicled in my various posts, I've more or less completed these tasks. 

My short film Awake was shown at the Chattanooga Film Festival, which really had first rate shorts and features and was a blast to attend. I'm working on another short script entitled Skinny Dipping that I plan to make after the summer. So far the script has been receiving positive remarks, but it needs a little more (I'm hoping for two more drafts this summer). 

I traveled to Quebec so I took Canada off my 30 List. Unfortunately Operation Grand Canyon was held on the ground due to finances. That being said, it's still in my sights and I was able to take care of two, non-list, travel goals by going to San Francisco and D.C. last year, plus I just finished camping at Cumberland Island which was another travel goal of mine.

Last week I just finished my last real semester of grad school. This summer I will take one more class and I will have one class credit be my internship with the Law Library. So by August I'll be finished with my Master's. 

And finally, the moving out is happening. As I mentioned in the afore-linked (is that a word? It is now) Phase 2 post, one of my goals was to move out of the state of Georgia to gain perspective. Generally, I like Georgia, at least North Georgia. I consider it home but I refrain from settling down until I've lived somewhere else. As part of this internship I'll be living in Columbia, SC, which has an urban enough setting to step out of the rural elements I'm accustomed to. 

So what about Phase 3? 

I mean does it exist enough to even warrant a boldface type much less a blog post?

Yes...and no...

If I follow the 30 List I can discern what Phase 3 is about. Phase 3 is largely a continuation of the work I've put in. At the same time, the goals of Phase 3 are less definable in tangible terms.

There are roughly 3 defined goals that are a part of Phase 3. One is to get something of my creation shown in a large way. As a filmmaker, this means having a short film shown at a major film festival. Like what? Like Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, or Venice. Sounds big? I know!! I'm still a way from that, but having Awake shown at Chattanooga and the positive feedback it has received gives me a reasonable amount of confidence to move forward. 

Second to this is finding a place to settle down.

Third is, of course, continuing to follow through with my travel goals. There remains several left and I'm starting to float with the idea of wild cards or I.O.U.'s. As I travel and age more destinations become attractive than what I initially put. Brazil or Tanzania? India or Turkey? Nicaragua or Cuba? So as I'm getting older the list as a set of rules is subsuming the idea of the list being guidelines. I realized this difficulty as I placed Egypt on my list without realizing how unstable the nation would become. 

But here's the real reason I'm starting to see flexibility in my travel plans: I'm tired of traveling alone.

Now, my solo travels aren't necessarily a bad thing. There are positives in certain elements, such as having my own individualized itinerary, using the transportation and accommodations I prefer, etc. Plus traveling alone has done more for getting me out of my shell than anything else simply because I have to talk to people. 

The negatives are starting to outweigh the positives, however. As I mentioned in my Quebec post my travels are being mired in bouts of loneliness. Whether friends or lady-friends I want to be able to share my travel experiences with people. I think a lot of individuals before my college graduation would pin me as an introvert but the truth is that I'm more of an ambivert (just one that was and remains socially awkward). Recently I camped out at Cumberland Island and I truly relished it, but I certainly missed sharing the experience with someone else. I missed the human connections, which I found in fellow campers like Angel and Andrew or Bailey and Lance. 

So with this travel element of my goals list comes the real important part of my Phase 3: the connections. I feel like as I became goal focused and too independent in the past two years I was wrestling too much with connections, with the people that mattered. That's the problem with being independent. There exists a spectrum of independence where one pole is truly being oneself and doing whatever one wants but the caveat comes with how to do this while not alienating the people that matter. 

My travel goals will remain, but my real purpose in Phase 3 is trying to find a life that isn't as high octane as the 40/44+ hour week plus school plus writing schedule. Now it's about the connections, about traveling with people and sharing my experiences with those I care about.

Make no mistake: I will still try to convince those I care about to go to the third world countries I want to visit. I mean who doesn't want to go to Iran?

Life Update Spring 2015

After working on .php coding it's high time to do some rambling and writing. I thought this website on developing a WordPress site would prove once and for all that I am a master programmer but the reality is that...this stuff bores me. I'm a biologist at heart, not a programmer. Maybe it's just .php which is what the website to Hell would be coded in. I didn't think .html or .css was horrific.

See I'm rambling here.

Let's begin with some life updates for the season.

I just discussed my travels to Quebec. Mum's the word, but hopefully another trip is on the horizon in May.

Also, in May, I'll be embarking on a new opportunity. Since last year's employment with an ISP that shall not be named it has been my goal to finally leave the for-profit world and I believe that will be successful. The University of South Carolina offered me a summer internship with the Law Library and I most definitely accepted. The Technical Services head offered me a position last year that I turned down and everything at my current job began to fall under in exhaustion. Thus I made sure that if the opportunity came again I wasn't going to turn it down.

What about my writing and film?

Earlier this year I continued my work on the  When That Great Ship Went Down series of poems. I started finding a new way to write poetry. I think because I'm ultimately a screenwriter/playwright and theatre is my background, I began employing more first person elements in my poetry, akin to Maurice Manning. A poem would be about a subject--person, place, theme--and I would compile different voices. One poem was about a former friend I knew that I represented in various voices of those who knew him. I submitted a couple of these new poems to some journals but so far no response (rejection or otherwise).

A short script I wrote entitled Skinny Dipping has been making the rounds of criticism. After four drafts it's starting to get a positive response. The goal is to have a shooting script by May 1st before I leave for my internship. Thus when I come back (hopefully August or so) I can assemble a team to film. In the meantime I've been procrastinating on a sketch script on the idea of a food pusher.

More importantly, however, my short film Awake was accepted by the Chattanooga Film Festival. I have booked my hotel and I intend to bask in the glory of the film festival.

Ultimately the job has me exhausted alongside school. This semester hasn't swamped me except for the .php WordPress building class that has left me befuddled beyond belief. That being said, I can't wait to walk out of my job in May and not turn back.

It seems that I'm making progress in my goals. I'm not discontent in that regard. The grunt work is starting to subside.

What I've learned thus far in 2015 is the value of having a half glass full mentality. I've learned that the easily content and half glass empty frame of mind is absolutely useless. Through the course of the year I've lived in the reality, but I've worked hard to realize various goals I set myself too. In my 30 List I have "Get a film in a major festival" and while that hasn't happened yet, having a short at a festival like Chattanooga at age 26 isn't shabby. It's progress. I have to be patient.

More importantly this year I'm following through my pledge to find more living space, mentally and emotionally speaking. I knew that after the exhausting and merciless year I had last year something needed to change for me to find Zen, so to speak. I've been listening to Rick Steves' AudioEurope app (which I highly recommend for travelers) and the common thread among the Europeans (particularly French citizens) is that one should work to live and not live to work. This principle has begun to percolate in my real life. Now on Saturdays I take time to sit down, drink a cappuccino, read some poems and wind down. Now I take time between work and schoolwork/writing and leave it to myself. I turn off screens, take a nap, and find tranquility.

You may think this is rubbish but I have no spirituality or New Age thinking in this. This is purely biological and health-related. Just like it's unhealthy to continue eating even if one's food isn't fully digested, one needs to take time and allow full mental digestion.

Why people stigmatize naps and sleep is beyond me?

I'll take my naps and work towards the richer life.

Take care.

Why Quebec?

Why Quebec?

For me it was personal, but in writing about my trip I thought about how I would sell this place as a destination. Several friends, coworkers, and associates asked me incessantly why I was going to Quebec.

I think the skepticism probably arose out of a lack of awareness many have of Canada as a destination. Canada seems too close to the US in culture and location to offer anything rewarding and extraordinary for US citizens. Even my Dutch friend stated this (after going to Toronto). In particular my coworkers were confused for desiring Quebec in March as a destination. During winter one is supposed to embark to warmer climates…not colder ones.

So why did I go? And why would you go?

I went for hockey and poutine. And why wouldn't you go?

...

I was indecisive on destinations but I knew I wanted to go somewhere in March during my spring break, during a week in which I would have paid vacation days and no homework. I knew I wanted to check a place off my 30 List and Canada was on the list.

Within my 30 List my rationale to go to Canada was that it was our neighbor. It should be easy. Why not go?

I mentioned that I had personal interests in going to Canada and let's be honest...it's hockey. Hockey has remained my favorite sport since middle school and in the deprivation of a NHL team in Atlanta I found myself rooting for the Montreal Canadiens. Canada is the motherland, la mere patrie of hockey so Montreal started creeping up as a destination.

The amount of people that I know that have been to Montreal is extremely small, but fairly positive. Quebec struck me as a different place, in a good way. Culturally, I perceived Quebec as defiantly independent and that quite attracted me.

As to the weather, the idea of being in a snowy wonderland attracted to me. There's something about French mansard roofs that seems perfectly tailored for snow, aesthetically speaking. Basically I wanted to be in a fairy tale. So in addition to Montreal, Quebec City joined my itinerary.

So my reasons are simple. I wanted to be in the motherland of hockey, somewhere different than I'm used to, and in a fairy tale.

So why would you go?

It's important to seek out the different. Twain said "Traveling is the greatest assault on the ordinary mind" and going to somewhere different helps in that assault. Yet, there's something human in finding the familiar in the strange. What Canada can provide is a different perspective in the same language, or for Quebec (which is French first but delightfully bilingual), a different and foreign perspective on the same continent.

So much of Quebec has similar elements of the US. In Montreal it almost feels like a US city, actually. But Canada owns up more to its European cultural identity than the US. Architecture, cuisine, and of course the symbols of Quebec are all about France in a way that the US can't fathom. It's a distinct identity, this hybrid, where leisure feels European in the calmer pace, the strolls, and the dictum of work to live as opposed to living to work.

This is the greatest difference. Canada feels easy on anxieties. There's a night and day difference between the Montreal and Quebec City airports and the Newark airport (which you should avoid at all cost).

So why come? To get a new perspective of course, without traveling too far (it's as close to Georgia as California).

...

So what did I do in Quebec? What did I do that I couldn't do in Georgia?

Well for one, walk around the city without driving.

If I'm truthful, Montreal very much resembles a U.S. city. It's very urban, with a mix of French-style houses (including my hostel, located at the nexus of Quartier Latin and the Plateau) and high rises. "Industrial" isn't a word people associate with Canada, but walking around the Southwest neighborhood in Montreal--which is a bit off the beaten path--I could see Montreal's industrial element. After eating a smoked meat sandwich at Quebec Smoked Meats I was instructed to go down a few blocks and have a promenade. The "promenade" was down Atwater Canal which was plenty frozen and plenty industrial (thus it was a HARDCORE promenade).

That was Monday and Monday was my least impressive day. Being said, there's a ragged beauty to Montreal in how it embraces its difference and weirdness. In the same way that Austin keeps itself weird, Montreal will trap you in its eccentricities within neighborhoods like the Plateau and Quartier Latin. Here there was a mix of standard snow covered parks and plazas with non-standard places like anarchist bookstores filled with both regular Howard Zinn books and paper and staple zines. This was where both poutine and smoked meat shops were as well as Tibetan and Moroccan cuisines.

My first day I walked in the pelting snow to La Banquise, which was 12 minutes roughly, to get arguably the most famous poutine. I was alone, there was a massive line and I chatted with some women from Ontario doing a mid-life list who allowed me to join them. These were wonderful ladies who gave me solid advice, introduced me to the "toasted dog" (which is like a slaw dog) and bought my bacon poutine.

Down the street, halfway between my hostel and La Banquise, was a place called L'gros luxe which became my staple due to its proximity from my hostel. They offered cocktails served with toothpicks of onion rings and burger sliders in them. They offered fried cookie dough. They offered grilled cheeses with poutine in them—which I eventually got.

I took the advice of one of the lovely ladies of La Banquise and ice skated for the first time at the Old Port. Vieux Port, actually. It's colonial French and touristy and it was lovely. I certainly said aloud "Holy Shit" when I came into Place Jacques Cartier. It was foggy, still snowy, but I laced up. At first I walked just to manage my balance. Then I hit the ice gently, clinging to the boards. I got to a level of comfort in which I would learn by moving from one point to another. After a while, it became slightly natural. At Vieux Port I skated in the rink and the natural ice path, surrounded by the old city and the St. Lawrence River. Not to use a Zen adjective, but I felt timeless ice skating these paths.

On my last day I found my places. I found the Place des art, this beautiful semi-underground art complex that itself was an exhibit. A food court was within the complex, where I got Lebanese food. I found Parc Jean Drapeau, where the Biosphere's cold steel mesmerized as much as the thawing St. Lawrence River nearby. Montreal has a loudness and Parc Jean Drapeau offers the reprieve.

Plus there was the Bell Centre and seeing the Montreal Canadiens game in hockey country. There's that.

I will say Montreal wasn't always hunky dory. My itinerary was blistering in the most literal way (which was my fault, not Montreal’s). After being slightly confused in certain neighborhoods I learned to take screen captures of various directions that worked reasonably well.

Montreal's beauty was often mired in my bouts of bittersweet loneliness. I met people, spoke to people, shared travel ideas and stories, but for the most part I was on my own. The last night the hostel people led us to a club that played '80s music and had $5 pitchers. I don't drink but I wanted fun. I was left there because of their drama...so not so much fun.

Thus,

I'll take a company of 40 year old ladies over young urbanities any day.

So that's Montreal. It's New World with enough traces of France and weirdness to make it worth one's while.

But I preferred Quebec City, if I'm honest.

...

Even in the sludgy, melting snow that drooped from the roofs, even among the cascade of tourists, Quebec City is beautiful. It's just a beautiful city.

Where Montreal is a New World city Quebec City is an old world. There are newer parts, with a modern downtown, but Old Quebec feels like something out a Disney fairy tale. It's a city with its original city walls, original fort, and buildings that have withstood three centuries (with renovations, of course). It's a city surrounded by three rivers, including the sublime and frozen St. Lawrence. It's a city that even during its worst--the touristy crepe shops with traditionally dressed servers, with (actually good) English pubs and Tim Horton's, the overbearing wind and chill--remained charming.

I took the lessons of overdoing it in a bustling city like Montreal and allowed myself to relax. This meant the leisure of wandering in Quebec City, of enjoying the views of Old Town from my hostel, taking down quiet moments in the hostel's library or reading The Book of Sarah at the cafe on Couillard, and ice skating (of course) at Place D'Youville at night while French chanson songs played.

There was also maple. So much maple. I don't care how cold it was I most certainly took advantage of the maple gelato at the store on Rue St. Jean.

I walked down Rue St. Jean so many times, seeing the aged buildings in the city walls and checking out the stores for locals outside the city walls past Place D'Youville. My mustache would have icicles at night after walking so often but that was ok.

There were the touristy things I definitely took in. The Musee de la civilisation is the must, as is the Hotel du Glace (Ice Hotel) outside Quebec City on Bus 801 as is any tour to Ile D'orleans and the staggering Montmorency Falls.

Skip the Musee du Fort. It wasn’t worth $8.

I was able to spend more time with people in Quebec City, chatting with Frederic the concierge, dining out with Anne and her Taiwanese bunkmate, bonding with Ian from Cleveland in the taxi to the airport.

It's hard to describe the vibe QC had. It's the same kind of vibe Valparaiso and even Cusco had. Zen…maybe? It's like the old city and the calm ebb and flow of its pace were saying "Don't worry right now" or "just chill." Perhaps given the weather that's a bit too obvious, but I definitely felt like I could chill out here.

…

If traveling is an assault on the ordinary mind, or on one’s perspective I think Quebec City helped me come to terms with and validate a conception I’ve developed. Work to live, not live to work. The kind of elements I relished in Quebec City and Montreal are elements I can enjoy here. In the midst of overtime, of 40-44 hour work weeks and schoolwork and writing and becoming a festival filmmaker there needs to be these “just chill” moments. I need to go out and read with a cup of coffee, find more parks, or take moments just for myself.

That’s the difference. Vive la difference!