Things I Have Learned Recently

Today we walked from our apartment to the Pullman Bar, which is on Parc just north of Sherbrooke. Took about an hour, which by extrapolation means that it would take about an hour an 20 minutes door to door to walk from the apartment to my office. At least if we go through Parc Lafontaine. It was, notably, the first “walk” of the season and of course Carrie and I loved it, saying things like “we should do this all the time during the summer.” Which is of course predicated on our forgetting what it’s like to take an hour long walk in 30 degree humid weather (that’s celsius for you kids below the border).

I also learned today that British soccer (ahem “football”) teams (are they even called teams?) don’t have a draft. They sign players as early as 14. How could it actually be worse than major American sports franchises? But it is.

Yesterday I learned that my knowledge of Canadian history has significantly surpassed that of my students after conversations with two particular smart and well-trained students during my office hours. For some reason, I thought that it was different here. In the U.S., I was always comfortable with the fact that I knew more American history than most of my students, since history is not taught often or well in public schools. But somehow, with all the projects around cultural preservation, promotion and protection here, I thought Canadian nationalism required a certain consciousness of Canadian history. Apparently, it does not. I’m still glad I know the history, though.

Coda: just now, I was sitting in the kitchen with Carrie as she was potting two new plants (she misses gardening). She turned to me and said “plants have balls.” It turns out they do. Some of them, at least.