Month One Update or Why there haven't been more entries

My project has gotten off to a slower start than I had hoped. A nagging case of bronchitis has put me many weeks behind and I'm still not completely recovered. I managed to visit 5 institutions and I had positive experiences at all of them. It's been quite refreshing to approach a museum looking for the positives, or expecting it to be good, which is maybe what the average visitor expects. I remain cynical and critical and I still pay close attention to detail but I know that when you expect negative you will usually get negative.

While I am accomplishing my goal of finding great aspects of Montreal's cultural scene, I don't feel any more connected to this city or to its arts. I struggle with my identity as a linguistic minority in a province where language is all that counts and while I understand the importance of protecting and promoting Quebec/French culture I am bored with the mentality that French is all there is to this place. We are about to have mayoral elections and one of the candidates refuses to speak English because Montreal is a French city. The reality is that Montreal is anything but monocultural and unilingual. Its time for our cultural institutions to recognize that Montreal's importance is not in its being in a French province in an English country but rather that we are uniquely situated within this province. That said, I still have many more museums to visit.

This week I found out that I will be getting full-time hours at my retail job as of November. So my unemployment project will have to be modified as my employment status is altered. While I obviously don't intend to sling socks as a career the financial benefits of working full-time are too good to turn down, especially considering that when I do find a job the pay probably won't be that great! Over the next few months I intend to keep visiting museums and recording those exploits here, but my project won't be completed by December. If I stay on in Montreal I will likely keep going until I've visited all of them, but for now I have to abandon the goal of visiting every museum in Montreal in three months in favour of paying down those student loans.