My morning started in a winter drive with around 5 feet of visibility. A decent speed of 40km/h was attained. Unfortunately, I did have to dodge the oddball idiot travelling way too fast. Luckily, they had a soft landing in the ditch. The drive that should have lasted 2 hours took well over 4 hours. After arriving at my destination, I was still quite early. Seeing that I was at a University I have never been before (or the city), I decided to spend my extra time exploring. This University (Queens) has a beautiful and old fashioned campus. The first building I decided to explore was a converted church to auditorium. It was amazing what they had inside. The best part was a teacher giving lessons on how to play an organ. I have always enjoyed listening and even watching someone play the organ. What happened next came as a complete surprise: I was asked if I would have liked to try! There was no cost, no one in line and I had to put on little booties. I told the teacher (I assume?) that I had no experience what so ever. She said that was okay and I would have a free 10 minute lesson with only my feet. I’m a slow learner, so I only got time to practice with my right foot. It was *awesome*. After that excitement was over (not really, I’m still excited 12 hours later), I explored the rest of the buildings, the library, the residence, everything I could possibly have time to walk. I did some PR and managed to get more people to attend my presentation outside of the small expected audience (definitely a plus!).
After a great 3 hour presentation, it was time to go. The snow storm got WORSE. Visibility was reduced, the roads were covered in snow, and the transport truck drivers drove like wild idiots. I watched a truck jackknife less than 100ft in front of me, I watched an SUV go sideways into the barrier and I followed a car that thought it would be safer to use two lanes, the shoulder, the other shoulder, back to the middle… It was not a fun drive. Total driving time: 6 hours, expected time: 3 hours. Chance of survival: 20%.
All is not all that bad. Once I had arrived at my hotel, I was put in a luxury suite because they sold mine. I am sitting here blogging on the 28th floor of a Sheraton, enjoying a great view of the city of Montreal. Time to explore the street level and see what is going on in this busy city J