Thursday, October 06, 2005

Working in Montreal

September brought the start of a new part time job in a new town. The new job is as a Visiting Scholar over three years in the Faculty of Education at McGill University. I will work in McGill on site 15 weeks each year until 2008, basically in the role of a research promoter. It is a great job in an excellent university, and I am very happy (and privileged) to be here. I will be doing this job in conjunction with the half time research professorship at James Cook University in Cairns, so the times ahead will be busy indeed. The idea is to spend two substantial periods (each of around two months) each year in each of Cairns and Montreal, and divide the rest of the time between Nexico and Newfoundland. It is a lot of travel, hard on the body, but always very interesting. I love doing work life this way.

'Home' for now is in a hotel on Sherbooke Street East -- two kilometres or so east of the McGill Campus. The hotel is right on the north eastern corner of the Latin Quarter. It is a fantastic part of the city, and living is very easy. The public transport system in the centre of Montreal is brilliant -- as good as in Mexico City, which is saying a lot. The choice of weekly or monthly bus and rail passes makes getting around the area served by the metro very easy and comfortable. The bus stop and train station is 300 metres from the hotel and I get off the same distance from my office. With buses and trains every 8 minutes during business hours, and regularly until after 1.30 am, getting around is flexible and convenient.

A Sunday afternoon stroll took in Rue St Hubert, south of Sherbrooke, down to Notre Dame, and along Notre Dame to the area south of the Maisoneuve statue. Here is some of what was out and about in what is proving to be a true 'indian summer'. We are now into October and the days are mostly cloudless and warm. It has been a truly beautiful -- magical -- beginning to a new work adventure. The combination of Cairns and Montreal is fantastic.

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