It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and it’s not because I have midterms or finals.  But my life has been equally hectic.  As well, with the awful weather in Montreal, there isn’t really much positive to focus on unless you’re looking at buying tickets to leave town and go someplace warm.  Amazingly, people still live here.  Amazingly.  With several kilometres of snow each year and temperatures reaching -50 celsius, I often wonder why people do live here.  Yet, Montreal has been voted one of the happiest places in the whole world – go figure!  Maybe it’s the people?  Because it’s definitely not the weather.

According to this article, written in July 2010, Montreal is the second happiest place in the entire world.  Second only to Vanuatu.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/10-happiest-places-in-the_n_659314.html#s118179

Although McGill was ranked 12th in the world and 1st in Canada in 2007, this year McGill was ranked 35th.  But, it’s still good!

http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=27859

So, there are definitely happy people somewhere and happy and educated people going to McGill.  Perhaps all you have to do to appreciate your home sometimes is travel elsewhere and you come back with a new attitude, appreciating all the things that you resented before.  You cannot underestimate how friendly people are here, and it’s not because they are being polite – because, in reality, their politeness doesn’t measure up to many cultural standards of courtesy around the world – it’s because they’re genuinely friendly – and that’s one thing that sets Montrealers apart from the rest of the world.  People here may look grumpy when they’re sitting on the metro, and they may look sleepy when they’re walking on the street, but, if you approach them – they are very nice and quite happy.  This is not the case in New York city.  In New York city, you never know what you’re going to get.  And in London, people are very polite, and seem quite pleasant, not quite like New York, but, you just can’t tell.  So, even though the temperature is cold and the snow is miserable, the sun is shining in people’s souls – and that’s what’s important.