Montreal Part 2: Cross-Country Skiing in The Park Is Totally Normal & Other Adventures

When we left off I had just eaten an entire bowl of hummus, sharing only moderate amounts with everyone else. Now refueled, we headed to the University of Montreal to meet with Catherine and Marvyn of Carpool West Montreal. Daily commuters themselves, the two got frustrated with how many people made the 30-minute drive to campus on their own. Certain that there was a better way to save fumes and in turn, THE PLANET, they set out to launch an online carpooling site (similar to Craigslist) where students from their school could find riding buddies to make the commute with, speeding up the journey and saving students money at the same time. Carpool buddies themselves, both claimed there were rarely disagreements about music durng the ride. I was skeptical.


Not wanting to be labeled “single-riders” ourselves, we hitched a ride with them to the bus stop and continued on to the big park in the middle of Montreal that is on a mountain (clearly, I don’t remember the name). There, we met Geraldine and Francois of Optik Oblik, an online alternative media site aimed primarily at sparking debate through words, pictures and video with 16-35 year-olds across Canada. They want to offer an outlet to young people to express their views without being filtered by mainstream media. They’re also totally ridiculous and I love them.


They carried folding chairs and a table into the park so we could create an “alternative” interviewing scene. Francois also brought a sled, which we packed ourselves in to careen down a mountain (don’t tell my shoulder doctor). I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard!


Now soaking wet, snow down my pants, we hopped in a taxi to make our last stop of the day – Marie, Yamie and Onira of Vidanges en Cavales. Their goal is to create an artistic and social bridge between Quebec and countries in Latin America through performing arts. All theater students, they have written, directed and are now performing their own show, built on teaching young people on both sides just how similar they can be in terms of struggles and challenges as well as hopes and dreams. Nicolina and I sat in on a rehearsal and I have to say, they’re good. Real good. I picked up about half of what was going on and I still felt connected.


What’s so incredible about Canada is the absolutely can-do, must-do, want-to-do sprit in young people. No matter what their passion or their cause, they’ve connected with this movement and with each other on an ideals level – all sharing the belief that they have the power to create change in their schools, cities and country as well as in schools, cities and countries around the World. Makes me proud to know my Dad was raised there.

Montreal Part 1: Living The Dream

I land in Montreal, deal with the onslaught of disaster in the form of missing bags, thousands of Montrealers returning from Florida and horrific road conditions only to be swept away by what is positively the coolest city in North America. It’s like a mini-Europe; cool cafes, amazing architecture, friendly multilingual people, a “staple” food and universal health care. Yes, I said it. Universal Health Care. As someone who just got slapped with a $44,000 bill to have shoulder surgeries that lasted a combined four hours, I must say that showing up, being worked on then going home really wins out, I beg anyone to differ.

I went straight to meet a team at Rapido Café in downtown Montreal (where they forced me to eat a delectable bowl of Poutine – fries covered in gravy and special Quebec cheese). I wasn’t complaining. Ophelie & Cory (unfortunately, my brain was still dead, so I forgot to take their picture) launched In Their Shoes last October with the help of five other interested now-friends, aimed at raising awareness about major global social issues in elementary and high school classrooms. From the Rwandan Genocide to the current situation in Darfur, they encourage students to think critically about what happened then go beyond, challenging the young people to find ways to help create change in their own worlds. There’s no question this project is going somewhere!


Then it was bed, as Nicolina (our AMAZING Ashoka’s Youth Venture Canada Director) had an extremely full day planned – 5 teams in 12 hours located all over the city. We were up at six and out the door by seven, only to sit in “weather traffic” for nearly an hour. It was, of course, absolutely worth it!


We started with ToutiFruits, a soon-to-be Venture team that identified a serious need for healthy food options in their school’s cafeteria. To meet this need, they decided to launch their own co-op smoothie company, using all natural (and organic when possible) ingredients. Every Tuesday they use their break to whip up four different kinds of delectable mixes (which they came up with themselves) and sell them for a reasonable $1.50 during nutrition. The skills they’re learning go far beyond healthy eating – from managing a budget to tracking sales, from marketing and advertising to quality control, the twelve students involved are gaining valuable life lessons that will no-doubt benefit them in the future.


From there it was a short walk down a snow-scaped avenue to meet Amelie and Mark of www.StayNomad.com (launching soon). Actually, Amelie was in person but Mark was dialed in from Germany through skype. This was my first “e-interview” and it went surprisingly well. No sounds delays, no frozen screens and no irritating “illegal operations” that are oh-so-common while video-chatting across oceans! www.StayNomad.com was an idea that came to Amelie and Mark while they were on a 5-month biking trip across Europe. They realized that to fully appreciate a different culture, it was crucial to meet people who were locals – talk with them, stay with them, cook with them. If we as a society were going to truly “get” other cultures, we had to be invested in not just the country, but individuals who represented that country. With an anticipated site launch date of early April, Amelie and Mark will be offering committed travels the opportunity to set up profiles and connect with people all over the world. Through friend’s referrals, online chats and opportunities to set up meetings, users will be able to plan their next big adventure not from travel books, but from actual residents, breaking down cultural barriers while building a global network of “nomads.” Pretty cool stuff.

After we said farewell to Mark in Germany, Amelie offered to whip up a delicious Lebanese lunch, which meant hummus. I love hummus more than life itself, so I was extremely content. Part 2 of my sojourn to Montreal is coming soon…

The Flight Of Doom

Truth be told, my time in Montreal was cut short by two days because of the weather. I was supposed to arrive Sunday in the morning and didn't make it until Monday, LATE. This was due in large part to the fact that United Airlines is apparently unsure of how to fly plans or manage a business. I was booked out of Raleigh, North Carolina, had to change due to technical difficulties and ended up with a flight out of Dulles in DC on Sunday morning. That flight was cancelled because of weather (the only flight to Montreal cancelled that day, obviously, and it didn't post as cancelled until I got to the airport. I checked right before leaving for the airport and it was good to go). So the woman at the counter says she can't help me (obviously) and gives me a phone number to call.

Susan answers after I've been on hold for 30 minutes. I explain the situation and let her know that I’m continuing on from Montreal to Denver on Wednesday morning. She tells me the next available flight from DC to Montreal is Wednesday at noon, asking, “how does that sound?” Seriously Susan? I get a bit huffy and site the fact that I have flown 40 flights with them in the past 10 months. She puts me on hold and says she can fly me DC-NYC-Ottawa-Montreal Monday at noon. I take this, even though it turns my 2-hour journey into an 8-hour sojourn. She gives me seat assignments and confirmation numbers for all 3 flights. I go home for 24 hours.


Then I show up Monday and it turns out the 2nd and 3rd flights aren't on United but with Air Canada, and they rejected the request. Obviously. True to form, United told me none of this so I'm at the airport with a ticket to NYC. “That’s a start,” Patty says to me from behind the counter, finishing with a little giggle. I refrain, but this only lasts for about 10 minutes before I go ballistic, this time at the desk. The woman says it is "not her fault,” waving her hands and saying “don’t look at me.” I’m sorry Patty, where might I look for a solution? Maybe in Chicago or Detroit? She makes some calls and gets me on standby at 12:20, which leaves in TWENTY MINUTES. I run through the airport, get double-checked at security, ride the giant SUV people mover thing to my terminal, run some more and get there just in time to find out they are not taking any standbys. Furthermore, there are 90 people on the standby list. Thankfully, my million miles gets me the 3rd spot on the list. So I go back to the Customer Service Desk to find, after waiting for 10 minutes, that I have to go the INTERNATIONAL customer service desk, which is in a different terminal. Obviously

I do. They tell me all they can do is put me on standby for the 4:40pm flight, so I spend all day in the terminal and stand right next to the gate as they board the plane (I had a delicious Wendy’s burger for lunch). Then they start calling standbys and I get THE LAST SEAT ON THE PLANE. Woo!


So I arrive in Montreal, clear immigration control with the literally 1,000 Montrealers who are coming back from Florida and are FRIED from the sunshine then stand at the baggage carousel for an hour waiting for my luggage, which never comes. I do the whole "look behind the flaps" thing and confirm that no, it is indeed not here. So I go to the baggage claims desk. There is no one there. Obviously. I ask someone at the next desk over if she can page someone for me. “Oh sure,” she says, “but they never come.” Obviously. I repeat this request every 10 minutes for the next 2 hours, until someone finally arrives and starts yelling at the 20 of us there because we “should have come right after we got off the flight.” Um, did she mean when I was standing in the hour-long line clearing customs or when I was watching the same six bags go around the carousel for 45 minutes? How would we have known if our luggage hadn't come right after we got off the plane?

So I fill out the form and exit the airport, only to wait in a 30-minute line to get a taxi, then take the 1-hour ride into the city because the weather is so bad. I get up Tuesday and call the hotline for bags. "Fred" answers. I give him my report number and he says there is no claim and that I "did not fly to Montreal on March 11th. Um Fred, I beg to differ, as I am standing IN Montreal. 20 minutes later he has refiled my request and discovers that my bags are still in DC. I'm going on to Denver Wednesday morning, so I ask him to just send them straight there. "I can do that," he tells me, going on to explain my bags must follow my exact path, meaning they'll have to go to Montreal then to Denver, clearing customs in Canada then again in the United States. And what does United offer me for my trouble? $25 in flight credits. OH MY GOD.


Then I arrive in Denver and head straight to the baggage delay zone, once again explaining my situation. The woman pulls up my file by pressing the F8 key about 12 times, tapping random keys, fiddling with the arrows, spinning in her chair and clapping her hands (seriously, why do they have to press so many buttons at the airport to do anything on the computer?). “It’s still in DC,” she tells me. “Why don’t we just send it straight to Boston (where I will be NEXT MONDAY), to be sure?” To be sure of what? That it will take you – the largest airline on planet earth – 8 days to get a duffle bag from DC to Boston, a 10-hour drive. Laughable. I ask her about additional compensation. “Well,” she starts. “You can save your receipts and mail them in this envelope. Please allow 12 to 15 months for requests to be processed.” To be honest, this amount of time doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Why wouldn’t it take over a year to mail a check within the Continental United States?

Question: When did we the public allow companies to start treating us like garbage? I say, no more!