Je ne parle francais...

[kickaha]

So as ginkgo said, we went to Montreal last week... (oh, and *thank you* dear, for putting the ball in my court for a couple of stories. :P :) )

I had a talk to give at the 18th IEEE/ACM Intl. Conf. on Automated Software Engineering. Meep. That was on Thursday, we drove up on Sunday so we could visit one of my committee members at the IBM Thomas Watson Research Labs in Fishkill, NY (*snort* Love that name.) on Monday for lunch.

Sunday we're getting ready to leave, when I thinks to my self "Self," thinks I, "you might want to make sure your car's paperwork is in order as well as your own." Having scrambled to get a copy of my birth certificate, I just needed to check my car's registration.

Expired.

D'oh.

On a Sunday in North Carolina.

Double D'oh.

And we *have* to leave that day.

F*CK.

So, after briefly considering taking ginkgo's car (until seeing two nearly bald tires), and realizing that if we waited for her folks to get home from church we'd be *hours* late getting out of town, I ran inside to renew online. Printed out the confirmation receipt, and away we went.

Realized that expired registration also meant expired inspection, so I dropped by a Jiffy Lube and tried to show them that I actually *was* legally registered, even if I didn't have the stupid little slip of paper. Nope, they wouldn't touch it. "You're not registered." "Look right here, this timestamp on the receipt says I am as of an hour ago." "Nope, you're not registered." This is obviously why they're working at a Jiffy Lube.

So we pull out of the JL, and hit Hwy 64 out of Raleigh, I95 bound. We're discussing how we *hope* we'll be okay when we hit the border, that this might be a little nervewracking, but really, if they say we can't cross it's only 30 miles to Montreal, and surely we can find alternate transit, right? This segued into a discussion over whether fines might be levied, etc, and I had just gotten done telling ginkgo that I'd never gotten so much as a ticket in my life, when... blue lights in the rear view mirror.

Pull over, and the cute State Trooper (okay, aside here - ever seen Super Troopers? The blonde love interest city cop? Looked like her.) says "Sir, I'm pulling you over for expired tabs." I just start chuckling. I mean, really, this is irony in action. So I tell her what happened, hand her the expired registration, hand her the receipt, and explain to her that we couldn't wait until morning because I had to be in upstate NY in the morning.

She takes my license, registration, etc, back to the cruiser, is gone for a minute, comes back, hands them to me, and says "Have a nice trip, sir."

ginkgo just *glared* at me... I've now been pulled over 5 times in my life, and have only received one written warning. The word 'Teflon' was tossed about a bit. Let's just say her luck hasn't been quite so good. :D

As we're driving away, I suddenly realize that we just got confirmation that I'm legally registered, period. Life is better. Hit the border, and if there's a problem, they can just call the 800 number for the NCDMV that's on the receipt, and *ask* them. *whew*

The drive up was wonderful, ginkgo drove most of the way while I worked on the laptop... and had some great breakthroughs. (The system *works*.) Visited with my committee member, which was great fun, and then headed over the border.

We had driver's licenses, the registration papers, birth certificates... and they asked for not a single one of them!!! None. Nada. Zip. Asked where we were from, where we were going, our business in .ca, and how long we'd be there. That was it.

Driving into Montreal was interesting... Canada's supposed to be bilingual. All the official signs in BC (as I recall them at least) are in English and French. They do so at increased expense. Quebec? All French. 100%. Not an English word in sight. After decades of screaming for everyone else to accommodate French, they can't reciprocate. Bollocks.

Okay, rant off. I really actually enjoyed the immersion in French, to be honest. It took about a day for my brain to kick over into not-English mode (even if I did try and say 'por favor' instead of 's'il vous plaît' more than once... finally kicked that only to have 'bitte' slip out. *sigh*), but after that I had zero problems getting around.

Montreal was *gorgeous*... the weather was crisp and cool without being bitterly cold, the leaves were all just starting to turn nicely, and it was sunny and beautiful the entire time. The Jardin Botanique was *stunning*... I have never seen a layout so entirely devoted to the idea of comparative botany studies. Instead of the normal hodge-podge of plant mixing, or perhaps landscaping as the primary force, they chose comparisons... all the elms in this grove, the junipers over there, the firs next door, up there are the oaks, etc. You could stand in one place and view dozens of varieties of, say, poplars, from around the world and see how each differed from the next. Beautiful. The greenhouses were simply to die for (no, really - lock me in the bromeliad house, and I'd be happy), the Chinese and Japanese gardens ginkgo already talked about, and the Insectarium was entirely too much fun.

The city itself has stunning architecture, much like you'd expect from a city that prides itself on being so very very Continental. Various styles, none of which reminded me of the US. I could have spent all my time there just gawking at buildings. (Having a banquet in an auberge founded in 1752, and in the original building no less, was quite nice.)

The conference itself... well, that's another post. ;)

The drive back was even more wonderful, as the Catskills and Adirondacks were in full color. We may have well hit the prime peak for most of them. Nice little dinner at a local diner in Schroon Lake, a moonlit drive by the lake, and then the next day from Middletown NY back to Raleigh, we stopped back at the wonderful little liquor store where I picked up a fifth of The Macallan, Cask Strength, and a 21yr Balvenie Port Cask Aged in celebration of the conference. Just under 2000 miles round trip.

Oh, and the border crossing back?

They did ask to see our ID and proof of residence.




But they never did ask to see my registration.

Comments

[keridwen.livejournal.com]

...then the next day from Middletown NY back to Raleigh, we stopped back at the wonderful little liquor store where I picked up a fifth of The Macallan, Cask Strength, and a 21yr Balvenie Port Cask Aged in celebration of the conference.

Hm...sounds like a whisky tasting party soon. <grin>