Journal, Day 21

Montreal, Canada / Kate Hall

This morning I woke up and started thinking about time. Time passes really strangely when you are traveling this quickly. It seems so long ago that I arrived in Toronto to join the tour. Now we are in Montreal (my home) and about to read at The Green Room. Already Ottawa also seems far away, although we were only there a matter of hours ago.

The reading last night was amazing. We read outside. The backdrop behind us was the parliament buildings and the National Library of Canada and the Ottawa River was flowing by. Being outside was a little chilly but the audience was so attentive. Typing Explosion performed in the Blink Gallery, a very tiny little limestone building on Major’s Hill. David O’Meara introduced the reading as a kick off to the Ottawa Writer’s Festival and a closing event for the Blink Gallery which is only open in the summer. Monica Fambrough performed a great set of poems in her touque (this is our Canadian word for winter hat) and mitts. Because it was so cold we read straight through without a break but all went well and every one gave a beautiful reading despite the cold.

We drove into Montreal at around 2:30 this afternoon. Parking the bus is very tricky in Montreal. The streets are extremely narrow and parking spots for a car are hard to come by let alone a 40ft. bus. The bus is currently taking up three parking spaces on St. Laurent Street, a busy north running street with many funky cafes and galleries and clothing shops. The bus is right outside the Green Room where we are about to give our reading (in eeek . . . 1/2 an hour) but it’s pulled up on the curb so that we could get off.

I’m expecting the reading to be busy tonight and am really excited to have the poetry bus gang in Montreal! Now off to the reading!