A surprising number of people have asked me, in my brief stay here, if I am from Montreal. I find this absurd, because I know that I play the role of stupid American exceedingly well. Maybe it is a joke of some kind. And I don't get it because I am, after all, a stupid American.
Parc du Mont-Royal in Montreal was designed by the same fellow who designed Central Park, Frederick Law Olmstead. Apparently he planned, like, all the large parks in the US and Canada. He conceived of the park as an opportunity to synthesize elements from Central Park, the Emerald Necklace in Boston (which he also designed) and Yosemite. And, indeed, it reminds one of Central Park, only if Central Park had spectacular views.
I was standing looking at this lovely scene here:
when a gentleman standing next to me made some sort of long, intricate point in French. I managed, after several attempts, to communicate to him that I had no idea what he was talking about. So, after long thought he says to me, "We are ridiculous, small, small." And, of course, I had to agree.
My new friend Philip and I had a fantastic conversation, hampered somewhat slightly by the fact that I know 3 French words (none of which I used) and he seemed to know about 30 English ones. But he knew a lot of place names and I gathered that he, too, has been traveling North America for the last month (he's from France, not Quebec). He said he had been moving around by bus. When I said I had been traveling by train his immediate reaction was to frown and say, "Train? Slow." Uh, yeah.
I learned from Philip that skilled pantomime can overcome many linguistic challenges. For example, the following seemingly complex concepts can be communicated via pantomime: whale watching, what it is like to see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and the spectacle of an alligator eating a chicken. There are many good things to see in North America, apparently.
hot off the presses. fabulous las vegas will have it's big fat park too.
Posted by: She Treads Upon Serpents | 05/16/2007 at 04:28 PM