How Caitlyn C's It

I recently wrote an article about my experience seeing “Funny Girl” on Broadway for Pulltab Sports (check it out!), but along with NYC, my mom and I travelled to Montreal, Canada, for a few days.

Just being home from Pennsylvania is a culture shock with all the small talk and smiling I’ve been doing. But holy s***, Canada was like a whole new planet. I actually felt like they were aliens.

I’ve always joked that Minnesotans are part-Canadian since we coined the term “MN Nice” for ourselves, but I’ve never actually stepped foot onto Canadian soil until a few weeks ago. Aside from all the French, European-ish road signs and the Old Town, Canada seemed like a typical U.S. city. It wasn’t until we sat down to eat for the first time when I realized that no U.S. city is like Montreal.

From the first person all the way until the last person at the airport, we did not encounter a single rude person. I am not exaggerating. On the street, in the shops, in the restaurants, every single person was kind and welcoming to us Americans. See I do speak French – it isn’t perfect, but I do – and when I tried to speak French in France, I was greeted with an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment and shame. In Montreal, they treated me like their own, spoke in French to me and seamlessly switched to English to accommodate my mother and any miscommunication between us. I honestly thought we were in a wonderland of kindness.

Now I’m not naïve, I know Canada has its own sets of problems and not every person is as wonderful as the people we encountered. But in the world we live in now, I feel like grumpiness and rudeness is overshadowing the acts of kindness and politeness that used to be so prevalent. I used to work at Texas Roadhouse and people would get so mad over the tiniest things and say heinous things to people who were oftentimes overworked and trying to provide the best service they could. Sometimes I’ve even felt like being rude is easier than being nice. But in Canada, it feels like there it is the opposite.

A good example of the patience and compassion these people have is an experience my mom and I had at this place called Puffs.

We were on the prowl for a post-dinner sweet treat and stumbled upon this shop that basically sold donut holes covered in different flavored sauces. Now I understand most of the French on the menu but my mom didn’t and instead of consult me she chose to put the cashier boy through a 10-minute round of 20 questions about the ins and outs of the Puffs establishment. Normally, in America, this kind of tedious customer is greeted with grunts and short (unhelpful) answers; However this teenager took the time to explain how the options worked to my mom, gave her samples and managed to keep a smile on his face during the entire 2-hour interaction (a mild exaggeration). We ended up giving him a good tip for dealing with us, but this was not an isolated incident during our trip.

Montreal was far too beautiful to put into words, Quebec City was a wondrous time capsule of rich history and by the end, I gained 10 pounds and developed a huge crush on Canada – and poutine. But the true gem of this trip was the people.

I’ve got to say, when I was on the airplane home to Minnesota, I was overcome with a sense of calmness and felt reaffirmed about the goodness of people. So until I move there – fingers crossed – I will just be counting down the days until I can return to the Paris of North America, just minus all the Parisian assholes. Je t’adore Montreal!