Re: Travel Part 2 - Where ya headed?
Montreal was fun, but a bit slow this time of year. It's basically Les Habs, food/cafes/live music, parks (until it snows - then Mont-Tremblant), and museums (which are only open 4-5 days a week during the offseason). Probably would go back during festival season June-Sept, and see about taking the train to Quebec City for a few days as well. Was told that my French needs to be better to comfortably leave MTL though. I guess QC is where the real separatist snobs are.
If you stick to the tourist avenues, you won't have a lot of trouble with language. There were a couple of establishments in Mont Royal where I felt like I was maybe getting a bit of a cold shoulder due to my rudimentary French, but I just quickly bowed out. There's more restaurants and cafes per capita up there than almost any other city in North America, so it's very easy to move on and try somewhere else if things aren't going well.
The bagels are great, the "smoked meat" (it's pastrami...shhh, don't tell) is outstanding, the poutine...well, it's poutine (still not as crazy about it as some are), and if you like eating haute cuisine, you can presently do it cheaper in Montreal than in US hubs like New York, Chicago, or San Francisco, thanks to the CAD/USD exchange rate.
There's also a really good museum in the Old Port area that doubles as an active archaeological dig into the city's roots going back to the 1600s - it's called Pointe-à-Callière.
And you should definitely see an NHL game in Canada if you haven't already, but that goes without saying.