***Introduction ***
K: So today we have my good friend Frandy back on the podcast how's it going Frandy?
F: Sup, it's going well, it's a nice day today in shiny Montreal. Sunny, bright and hot!
K: Yeah, it's a really hot today yeah. Well hot for Montreal right?
F: Well Montreal's pretty hot like in the Summer, it's very humid and too hot. It's too hot, just too hot, today is what? Like 32?
K: Right, 32
F: you like that?
K: Anyways today
F: Celsius
K: Today Frandy's back on here, and we're not going to be doing the educational podcast today. We're just going to shoot the shit. We're just going to have some fun, we're going to talk about one of our favourite places Montreal
F: Yeah, it's a bitchin city.
K: It is a bitchin city. Alright so Frandy, when you think about Montreal, what do you think is your favourite thing about the city? What's the thing you think of the most when you think about Montreal?
F: Uhhhh loose women.
*laughter*
F: No, what I like the most about Montreal is the people. It's people, like it's people are so easy to approach. Like compared to other places that I've been. Like you can just go to a festival or a bar and sit down and start a conversation with anybody, well depending, well usually you can talk to anybody make friends very easily on the street or at a bar or at a club or whatever. People are very open minded about stuff.
K: Alright so you're saying Montreal is just a friendly city when you compare it to other
F: Very
K: other metropolis
F: Yes but I've been to like places that are not that friendly, I guess, I'm not sure if I could compare it to South America, I mean like for the places that I've been around like Asia and Europe. I think Montreal is one of the friendliest places I've been.
K: Right, and I think one of the reasons for that is because of the big mix of different cultures.
F: Yes, it's a big melting pot here, everybody is from a different place. There is not like a Montreal identity, per se, it's just mixed.
K: Ok wait, what did you mean by a melting pot? What's why is Montreal a melting pot?
F: A melting pot, what I mean by that is it's very multi cultural, there is like people from different cultures. All melted, All mixed into the same pot, into the same city, the same place.
K: right, so Montreal is a pot, and all these different ethnicities get mixed into this one pot.
F: Exactly, that's the, that's the idiom yeah. A melting pot
K: Alright cool. And that brings me to one of my favourite things about Montreal is just the variety of different foods and different festivals that you can find here.
F: Yes, that's true. And there's also a food festival which is the multi cultural food festival that's going on the island. But yes, since there is like different kinds of people there's a lot of different kinds of food, restaurants, and also activities like festivals, for example last week there was the caribbean festival.
K: Oh right
F: You missed that huh
K: No I didn't go to it
F: Big Caribbean, there was a big parade on the street, and it was really really cool. Nice.
K: What's what's the name the girl from our former school, uhhhh
F: uhhhhhh
K: oh man I'm forgetting her name
F: Lorena?
K: no, she was in that a year ago right?
F: Yes
K: I remember seeing pictures of her on facebook with all the crazy like outfits
F: THat's true because she is from Trinidad and Tobago. So she did a traditional dance and was wearing uh traditional clothes of that country.
K: Alright cool
F: yeah it was cool.
K: Alright so we got Montreal is a great city for it's friendliness
F: Friendliness
K: And we got for the variety of foods and festivals.
F: Yes, yes
K: What else do you like about Montreal, what else do you think about it is great?
F: uhhh the fact that we have a subway. Hahaha, I mean it's funny to say but we have a transport, transit system is pretty good. We always complain about it, or bitch about it, meaning complain, we always complain about it but actually compared to a lot cities that I've been in. The transit system is pretty good. It's really good.
K: I like the transit system, I'll agree with you on the subway, I do not like the buses.
F: No I don't like the buses, however you can take the buses all night. Like you can, well most places you can get, you can get to using the night buses.
K: OK in the city we have the night buses.
F: Yes we have the night buses in Montreal. So uh most cities that I've been in, for example Japan. It's a really big city, it's a city that never sleeps however the bus stops at like 10:30 or 11:00. So you're stuck. If you go to a bar and you over drink and stay a little bit later, you have to take the taxi to come back and it's super expensive.
K: That's weird, they don't have subways there?
F: Yeah but the subway ends at 12:30.
K: really? that's weird?
F: I know right.
K: I thought it was the city that never sleeps.
F: The city doesn't sleep but the buses do I guess. It's not like here, that's what I like about the transit, like I can go out, party all night, well not all night, well I can party all night actually, yeah I could just leave the bar until 3 o'clock then walk around until 4 or 5 and then go back home taking the bus.
K: Alright, this is getting depressing for me cause I cant do this because I have kids so let's just move on to another
F : hahahah I'm so sorry.
F: Your glory days are over, no.
K: I'll be back in 10 years, when she's more independent.
F: Yeah, she might even join you.
K: I'll be that weird 40 year old guy at like a 18 year old bar or something.
F: Yeah why not?
K: Hey kids let's stay out and party.
F: Montreal's a friendly place like that. You could still, I think you could still get away with it.
K: OK wait, let's talk about what's not so great about Montreal?
F: Not so great?
K: It's not the perfect city, I mean every city has it's flaws too right?
F: Yes
K: What do you think most people do not like about our city?
F: Ummm well one thing, for one thing, the way that people manage homeless people, homelessness is Montreal is really bad. Because we have too many homeless people and not enough shelters. That's one of the things, so there's a lot of beggars on the street and tourists that come here always get bothered by them.
K: Right, right, and that's I dunno I'm thinking of the cities I've lived in, like here Vancouver, Korea,
F: Wait compared to Vancouver Montreal is ok
K: Vancouver is terrible for homeless people.
F: Yes
K: Frandy's right though there are a lot homeless people in Montreal, and I don't even know the solution to that, that's just uh pnoing problem, like what do we do?
F: It's just like we don't have enough shelters. Like, that's not the only reason, but it's one of them.
K: They got all these abandon buildings
F: Yeah but they're getting kicked out of them
K: Ok,
F: Cause the police doesn't want them to be there. And the owners of these buildings doesn't want them to be there.
K: THe owners of these abandoned buildlings which no body is using.
F: I guess so but still, it's their property and they don't want to devalue it.
K: Right
F: Or something, anyway
K: Ok right, I got one, I think one problem people have when they come here is the language
F: oh yes
K: Because it's french and English in Quebec. No not in Quebec, in Montreal.
F: In Montreal,
K: It's French and it's English, but the French people want you to speak English, I mean French.
F: Yes they want to speak French all the time
K: But the tourist don't speak French.
F: Yes
K: And you can get in trouble for starting a conversation with
F: English
K: English
F: Yes
K: SO you have to say, Bonjour hello.
F: yes
K: But then if they speak to you in French and you don't know any French. Then their like this guys doesn't know any French.
F: Exactly, if somebody says bonjour and you say oh I don't speak French their going to like, well not always, some old people or some very nationalist people who care too much about their country will say, hey in Montreal we speak French and stuff, this is Quebec.
K: yeah, there's this one guy, I always see him on Saint Laurent, he must be like 50ies or 60ies and he's always drunk off his ass, and he walks around going "Les Francais sont plus fort que les anglais"
F: Really?
K: And he says it over and over again, and in English he is saying the French are stronger than the English.
F: yeah
K: It's hilarious
F: And that's why the English won the war.
*laughter*
F: But anyway I don't want to go into history. But uh to uh to make a parallel to what I was saying before and what I was saying right now so first I talked about the transit system which is very good, we have a good subway, however if you don't speak French the subway can be a nightmare for you. Because if there is any trouble on the subway and they announce that some metro line doesn't work
K: yeah
F: They will only say it in French
K: Yeah yeah yeah
F: So if you don't speak French, you wont understand what they're talking about, and you'll be lost.
K: And that's unsettling cause
F: Yes
K: cause when you're stuck in a full subway, and its stuck in between stops, and you don't know what's happening. You can get claustrophobic, it feels claustrophobic
F: Yeah, and sometimes it's the Summer, it's hot, there's a lot of people, people are sweating and you're in a stressful situation
K: right
F: And then the inter phone, well the inter phone comes on and it says, uh the yellow line or the green line is stuck for 30 minutes please stand by. They will say it only in French.
K: right
F: So if you don't understand it and you're not with someone who understands it, you might feel a little lost, and panic.
K: Yeah I had that feeling in Korea, every once in awhile the subway would stop and they would make an announcement in Korean and I didn't know enough. I knew a little bit but not enough to understand the message. It's a little scary sometimes
F: Yes, yeah. So that's pretty unsettling.
K: Alright so we talked about Montreal being a great city, for meeting people,
F: Yeah, it's a friendly place.
K: For festivals,
F: Festivals, food
K: For transport
F: Transport, food, buses, metros, subways, trains,
K: But there's a lot of homeless people and there's a little bit of language problem. Let's end this off what is your all time, what do you think is the best thing, asides from the things we've mentioned about Montreal?
F: Ummm, Montreal is very European in a way. We have that cafe culture, we have that culture where people sit outside, drink on like balconies, not balconies, they call it terraces. It's like a big platform where people drink and eat outside and look at the people passing by. We have that culture, we have like theatre, those architectural uh, very nice and French European buildings. I like the atmosphere, the atmosphere of Montreal is very European.
K: right, we say it's the European province of Canada.
F: yes
K: the thing I like about it is, we talked about the language problem but there's also this great thing where the French people in Montreal really have a culture of enjoying life, called le joix de vie
F: Yes, yeah
K: And they know how to party, and they're fun,
F: yes, and they drink a lot.
K: and and a lot of people say when they come to Montreal they're just shocked by how good looking the people are.
F: Yes
K: It's just cause there's this huge mix of people. That when you always look at the same kind of person you kinda get accustomed to it.
F: yes
K: But in Montreal there's so many kinds of people so there's so many good looking people.
F: So if you're if you're if you're a heterosexual man, walking around in Montreal, even if you're gay, there's a lot of good looking people out there. Like people who are dressed nice, look nice, smell nice, like people who are nice to look at. People are very healthy here.
K: Yeah it's funny this morning when I, before I came downtown to meet you my wife was trying on her clothes to go out. She had this black dress on and she's like can you see my bum through my dress, can you see. And I was like, no it's just the usual Montreal style its ok. And she's like what do you mean are you looking at other girls well yeah of course.
F: I can't help it.
K: Yeah it's Montreal you have to. There's so many beautiful people and you gotta enjoy the scenery.
F: Yes exactly.
K: Alright great, so before we finish this off, we only mentioned one idiom here today but Frandy can you explain again what is a melting pot.
F: So, a melting pot, so it's like imagine a pot, imagine a pot, where you put all these kind of different ingredients in and make it into some kind of soup. Right, and this is what Montreal is, so imagine Montreal as a pot and all the different ingredients are its different kinds of people.
K: sexy people
F: yes, hahahaha sexy people
K: Sexy people soup
F: So there's like black people, asian, white, from everywhere, blacks from everywhere, asians from everywhere, arabs from everywhere, indian, so we have a lot of different people, we have lots of different people here and we all mix and melt into this big pot called Montreal, and it's delicious.
K: And it's delicious sexy pot.
F: yes, and when you eat it there's a party in your mouth.
*laughter*
F: When you eat that soup it's like there's a party in your mouth and everybody is invited
K: right and everybody should eat it.
F: yes
K: Alright awesome man, thanks Frandy so much for coming on here again
F: No problem my pleasure and guys listen to it again. There's some good points about Montreal. There's a nice idiom in there for you, and we'll catch you next time on the next podcast of Unnnnnnnnnnnnnncensored English!
K:
