My wife and
I have moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Now
Sty. Louis is my hometown. My wife’s
hometown is Montreal, Quebec. Many
discussions should we moved to St. Louis or Montréal. I have lived in St. Louis the majority of my
life. We have visited Montreal and loved
it there.
Montreal,
for those who do not know, is very metropolitan. People from every walk of life are
there. As French is the spoken language
as the language is music to me. I do not
speak French myself but I will need to learn.
What I found
is that the people are friendly. I think
it is that the personal space we, or I have found as a US citizen, is not
present for those living in Montreal. I
went around the town spending time in cafes, reading the English speaking
newspapers (and that is hard to find at times) or looking at the street and the
people go by. If people are talking
about a topic I know of or I want to know if I can join the discussion
freely. Last summer I had people come up
to me to ask a question that caused the discussion to last over an hour. I do not and I am sure this will not happen
in the United States.
A major
difference is the care I received was the concern when I had a seizure and fell
in a café. I fell backwards and loss
conscience for a time. When I came to I saw
my wife and five or six customers making sure I was okay, comforting me, and my
wife. One person was on her cell phone
calling the ambulance, a waitress came with a glass of water, and I was
assisted back into a chair with assistance and people staying with me talking to
me.
If you do not know I call myself Ian
optimist. Being one when I have a
medical problem I find humor when talking to people. Some may say it is black humor. It
does not do anything if I fret; I have had seizures since I have been ten years
old.
I describe
this as I recently had a seizure here in the states. What is described here above did not occur
here. People looked at me and walked
by. When I needed help to sit in a chair
no one helped me. The staff at the store
told my wife and me that they could not help me because of their rules of the
store. It took my wife and me to decide
to call 911.
Unfortunately,
the citizens here in the US, and it is my observation and experience, that
people keep an invisible personal space around their self’s and not to enter
the space of others.
Personally, I
would have loved to move to Montreal.
Yes I know that a major snowstorm as hit Montréal but I really was ready
for that.
