Montreal and The Rock

I am only posting this now, because I had would have had to pay for internet at my last two stops. So I am back now, and posting now about Montreal and Newfoundland....

Montreal. What can I say about Montreal? It’s a really cool place to visit, I don’t really want to live there. It’s a fun city, but I think it would have the potential to encourage all the wrong things in me---becoming vain and way too into fashion. The shopping in Montreal is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Granted I havent been to Paris or New York, but this place is unreal. Janelle and I found Ogilvy, this 7 storey department store that had boutiques and shops inside from designers like Louis Vutton, and other people whose names I cant pronounce. I have never seen $700.00 shoes in person before. And lingerie that is made of 100% silk, and starts at $200.00 an item, and red carpet dresses that start at 900.00…..Sigh. It is art that can be admired but never to be had.

Yes that’s right, I went shopping in Montreal on St. Catherine’s and didn’t but A THING! I didn’t even try ON a single pair of shoes.

I can say that getting prepared for being married has made me more responsible with my money for sure. Not that I was irresponsible before, but now its as though Eddie and I are a built in form of accountability to each other as to how we spend our money.

So back to the reason I was actually in Montreal. My interview. It went well I thought—they asked me tons of follow up questions from my response “to tell us about yourself….” And then a few questions about a challenging patient encounter, and a rewarding patient encounter, why you want to come to Montreal, how being an internist would be relevant if I ever went back to Africa…etc. Afterward there was tours of the different hospitals and a lunch with the candidates and the residents. I don’t have any CLUE how I got the interview—I was the only one I met from west of Ontario there who was interviewing. I had lunch with eight U of T students and one Ottawa U student. The lone prairie girl interviewing with the “big city” kids. Totally bizarre. And apparently all the other candidates were given a clinical case scenario and asked how they would manage it, but I wasn’t asked that! I cant tell if that’s a good sign or a bad one—I think it must be good.

And now “the rock” aka Newfoundland. I went going from one of the biggest cities in the country to one of the smallest.

Newfoundlanders were super nice--the cabbie who picked me up from the airport called me "duckie" and talked my ear off the whole way to the airport, asked me about how my parents were, etc.

The interview itself was super laid back--they started with, "this is a really informal interview, so you can relax...." The residents there were supper friendly, but I got the sense that they work ridiculous hours there, and they become "senior" residents after six months, while they are still in first year. If we wind up there we will be okay, and we will be able to make right it work, but for us I dont think it would make sense to go there preferentially above staying home....I would rarely see Eddie because I would be working all the time! They do three weekends a month there.

Getting home was a big gong show--my 5:00am flight off the Rock was cancelled, and it went from there. I did manage to get home to Saskatoon by a decent hour in the afternoon. I have decided that flying is a necessary evil to traveling, but that's about it. I really dont like flying!