{"id":8063,"date":"2010-09-07T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:46:07","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:46:07","slug":"je-suis-montrealais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/09\/07\/je-suis-montrealais\/","title":{"rendered":"Je suis montr\u00e9alais"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montr\u00e9al<\/p>\n

\u00ab Well maybe it\u2019s just the time of year, or maybe it\u2019s the time of man \u2013 I don\u2019t know who I am, but, you know, life is for learning. \u00bb
\n – Joni Mitchell<\/em><\/p>\n

Bienvenu \u00e0 la rentr\u00e9e. This year, for a change, I actually went to class for the first day of school.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the lecture, the professor asked a seemingly benign question:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many non-montr\u00e9alais or non-qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois are there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was the daydreaming, but I found myself putting my hand up, then pulling it back down, and instantly falling into a new existential crisis.<\/p>\n

Am I or am I not montr\u00e9alais?
\n
\nI sometimes forget that I am a relatively recent addition to the Montreal landscape. As of the date of this post, I have lived in our fair city for 1 year, 9 months and 7 days. But I\u2019ve successfully masked my recency:<\/p>\n

Because I study the urban environment, I am much wiser to the issues affecting Montreal than the average resident.<\/p>\n

Because I don\u2019t mind being alone but fear being lonely, I have gone out of my way to befriend anyone willing, which makes it seem as if I know more people than I actually do.<\/p>\n

Because my parents live in the god-awful suburban Toronto sprawl and, my sister, with her family in the American South, when I say I\u2019m going home, well, there\u2019s really only one place I\u2019m going to: Montreal.<\/p>\n

But strip away the romance and I\u2019m confronted by certain facts. I\u2019ve really only lived here for a year and a half. I\u2019ve honestly missed most of the great moments of Montreal history. And except for the rare occasion, I\u2019ve pretty much never left the 2km radius that encircles my home like an electric fence.<\/p>\n

While I do speak French, it lacks the colour of the local dialect as I stubbornly stick to my own personal accent in the name of diversity. And there are definitely some Montreal traditions I could do without: Moving Day, shoddy construction jobs, and manila envelopes given to Mafiosi.<\/p>\n

In the end, I realize whether you\u2019ve been here 500 days or 500 years, if you live and love this city, you have the right to call yourself Montr\u00e9alais. As the old saying goes<\/a>: Un Montr\u00e9alais, c\u2019est quelqu\u2019un qui reste \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al.<\/em> Banlieusards need not apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00ab Well maybe it\u2019s just the time of year, or maybe it\u2019s the time of man \u2013 I don\u2019t know who I am, but, you know, life is for learning. \u00bb – Joni Mitchell Bienvenu \u00e0 la rentr\u00e9e. This year, for a change, I actually went to class for the first day of school. AtContinue reading “Je suis montr\u00e9alais”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7831],"tags":[5556,5554,125,5555,1170,69,152],"class_list":["post-8063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-joni-mitchell","tag-manila","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-than-the","tag-professor","tag-social-trends","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJe suis montr\u00e9alais - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/09\/07\/je-suis-montrealais\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Je suis montr\u00e9alais - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00ab Well maybe it\u2019s just the time of year, or maybe it\u2019s the time of man \u2013 I don\u2019t know who I am, but, you know, life is for learning. \u00bb – Joni Mitchell Bienvenu \u00e0 la rentr\u00e9e. 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