Seen Through Black Eyes

Hello Adventurers. This is Darwin Hanna and you’re listening to Seen Through Black Eyes. You are listening two Episode 7 where I take a trip to Montreal Canada. And we'll talk about the reasons for that, and my experience while there.

So, at this point I had transitioned from working for the smaller regional carrier,…(well not really regional) but smaller carrier, from August of 86 until June of 88. At that point I had transitioned over to working for this larger carrier which I started working for in June of ‘88 and how…we’re talking about travel experiences.

And so this first trip that I took with this new carrier, I had to have some time under my belt before I could access the travel inventory that would become available to me. So just to give you a little bit of a setup.

I started working in June of 1988 and I started part-time. So from June up until December… late December, I was part time. The significance of that, is that I had accrued vacation time at the part-time rate. So what I was told and what I had in my head, was that since I started in June instead of getting two weeks of vacation, the following year because I started in June I'd only get one week. And I was like okay I can work with that.

However, because of the fact that I became full-time in late December early January. So in January, I was now working full-time hours, but I had accrued vacation at the part-time accrual rate. So what does that mean?

What that meant was, my week of vacation if I stayed part-time translated to 2 1/2 days of full-time employment. So basically, with me starting in June of ‘88 at part time and not being able to take vacation until I've accrued my time, which was the next year 1989, but I had accrued it at part-time rate while now working full-time, so for the entirety of 1989 I had a total of two and a half vacation days…

So while it was a good thing that I became full-time, it was a bad thing that now I had two and a half vacation days as opposed to 1 week. In other words if I wanted a full week, I can stay part time because that's what I accrued it at.

Anyway I looked around to see what I can do in two and a half days, so in combination of the two and a half vacation days which that half day I just took and added… or not added, but just took half day off without pay give me three days and then combined that with my two off days to get a full 5 days off but a two and a half days of paid vacation.

And this was around July, and I was doing some research and came to the conclusion …actually first I discovered that there was a jazz festival in Montreal. So I said okay I'll check that out. And the timing was such that it was around Canadian Independence Day, which by the way is July 1st.

So, that is where I went. And to be quite honest with you I cannot recall if I flew. I actually do not believe that I did. I believe I took a bus but taking a bus up to Montreal from New York City… that would be some hours, probably about 8 or 9 hours but I do not recall flying. I do not recall being in Dorval, which is the main airport in Montreal.

So I'm thinking that I took the bus. I'm pretty confident, but not 100% sure that I took the bus up to Montreal. (I) stayed in a small little Boutique Hotel and the main thing was going to these different venues where they were jazz concerts.

A lot of them were free which was within my price range. There were a few that were paid, tickets you had to purchase and I believe that I went to one of those. The other major thing that I did was I was, and I say was only because they are defunct, a Montreal Expos fan.

So that was also part of the lore.

So I actually went to a Montreal Expos game and I can remember, and I have photos of it, but I could remember even outside of the photos that I went to a Montreal Expos and Houston Astros game. I believe I have the ticket stub which, of course I'll put on the website, but I can't remember the specific date but it was a Montreal Expos Houston Astros game.

And I took some photos during the game, and one of my favorite players at that time I believe… I can't say I was going to say, I believe he was gone. But he did not play or something because I can't imagine that I would not have tried to snap a photo, but it was center fielder Andre Dawson.

And when I played I sort of fashioned my game around his. I believe I'm a little bit taller, I'm not sure, but we were of similar size. I would do all that I could to be like a number three batter in the batting lineup which he was.

Played center field that's one of the reasons why I was interested in playing center field, and I thought I played pretty well. But it was because of Andre Dawson, but I know I have a picture in my scrapbook of Tim Wallach, who was the third baseman at the time.

So I did go to Olympic stadium and go to a baseball game. I went to several concerts. There were some outdoor events, and I just explored the city. It was a challenge, because I did not do as much preparation for this trip as I did the trip to Senegal and why do I mention that because most people will know that Montreal is a French-speaking city.

So I did have.. not challenges, but I did recognize that my ability to explore unfettered would be limited, because I did not do as much research, and it was sort of a spur-of-the-moment type of trip. Sort of like the trip that I went to the Bahamas.

I mean it was a good experience, in the way I described going to Canada, Montreal in particular or the province of Quebec. I understand that Quebec City has such a European feel, that if you ever want to go to Europe, but you can't afford it, or don't have the time…go to Quebec City.

Quebec, Montreal, Quebec City are the most European cities in North America. I did a little bit of research and I got some information on the jazz festival from 1989. So I have a short list, not a complete list, but a short list of the performers and these are the ones that I know from looking at the list of performers there were plenty more that I did not recognize, but here's a short list of the performers that were there the year that I was.

B.B. King, George Benson, Ray Charles, Chick Correa, Melissa Etheridge, Roberta Flack, Gilberto Gil, The Pat Metheny Group, Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Branford Marsalis Quartet, and Sonny Rollins.

So those are just some of the people that I recognized. Not to say that I saw them all, as a matter of fact, I think the only one on that list that I can really at this time recall was Gilberto Gil because he's Brazilian, and he sang some songs in Portuguese and I was just thinking okay French Portuguese I'm thoroughly confused. So I do remember that.

And the specific dates of the festival was; from Thursday June 30th 1989 through Sunday July 9th 1989. So it was sort of a double treat, because as I said July 1st is Canadian Independence day so I was there for that.

Additionally, I also did a little bit of research and I see that looking at the ticket stub I went to the baseball game on Thursday June 30th. The Montreal Expos versus the Houston Astros game started at 7:35 p.m.

In addition to that I did some touristy things. I went on this amphibious vehicle, which drove around the city and then it went into the lake. And putted along across the lake to the other side to continue the tour, so that was quite interesting.

Went to the University of McGill, checked that out and just did sightseeing things. Didn't really venture out too much, because most people in the city spoke French and they weren't as accommodating as when I went to Dakar Senegal.

And once it was quite obvious that I didn't speak French now they would help me out speaking what English they knew, that was not so much the case in Montreal, but I expected that.

So overall, it was a good trip, it was a nice experience and I've always said that I wanted to go back and after all of these years I have not. I did make it back to Canada, to Vancouver and I can talk about that in another episode.

But for now that is about it for this trip to Montreal. Like I said it was a short trip, a getaway trip sort of like my Nassau trip. So it was good, I really enjoyed that and it got me on the springboard of thinking about future trips.

So I'm going to end it here, and I thank you for staying all the way to the end. And also announced that I am not exactly sure why, because nothing really significant in this regard has taken place recently, but I thought that I would do something a little bit different for the next episode. I'm going to talk about a…traumatic…yeah I would use traumatic as the word. Traumatic experience that I had while I was living in California.

So that will be for the next episode.

END.