This morning at 8:00am, I started my marathon of traveling to reach London, England. Taking off from Orlando airport to Montreal was a breeze. I have flown out of Orlando countless times and have no trouble navigating that airport. Once I landed in Montreal, however, I knew I was not in Florida anymore. Canada may have two official languages, French and English, but I would definitely say that French takes priority (at least in Montreal)! Unfortunately for me, my linguistic skill ends with English and Spanish. Thankfully, though, Canadians, seem accustomed to repeating each sentence in both languages. (From my observation today, they address you first in French, and once you stare at them blankly, they patiently repeat the same sentence in English.) I have attempted to use the few phrases I do know, although in one instance I replied, “Si” instead of “Oui.” —Close, but no. At least I was in the same linguistic family.

The Montreal airport is a beautifully modern and bright airport with a literal labyrinth of escalators, elevators, and corridors. Once I landed, I wandered my way to customs where I was greeted by an enormous sea of people! Although daunting, the line moved surprisingly quickly, and I was shuttled through baggage claim towards security, and finally to the international departure wing of the airport.

Customs Entrance at Montreal

The numerous restaurants and stores feature duty-free shopping and gourmet foods like artisan sandwiches and fruit tarts. As a public health major, I noticed the graphic packaging on the cigarette packages for sale in the stores. Instead of Middle Eastern animals, flashy colors, and trademark emblems, Canadian cigarette packages feature poignant images of a dying lung cancer patient, throat cancer survivor with a tracheotomy, and the effects of oral cancer on the tongue. (If those don’t encourage you to rethink your purchase, then I don’t know what will!)

Customs Lines at Montreal

Hopefully, by tomorrow I will be blogging from London! My flight is currently delayed about two hours (all departures and arrivals are listed in military time, by the way). For now, though, I will just continue to enjoy people-watching at Montreal Trudeau International.

My Boarding Gate