It’s coming down to the line, and we still haven’t decided on our new home. One major mark against Belgium is its weather. If we look month by month, and compare the average temperature highs, lows, as well as the days with less than 0.1 mm rain, and the blue sky index (sunny=100, overcast =0), Montreal wins on most counts, apart from the appalling lows during winter:

It is amusing to think that for most of my life I have lived in Canberra, which according to Australian consensus, has terrible weather, and the “harsh climate” is often given as a reason for moving up north. Yet compared to Montreal, it is a paradise of sun and warmth (Canberra data shifted 6 months for comparison):

As a scientist, I make most of my judgements with numbers. I do experiments, collate the data, and conduct statistical analyses – t-tests, ANOVA, regressions – I can do them all. If it can be quantified, I will try to summarise it, graph it, compare it. If only the Euclidian distance of Brussels and Montreal could be calculated, and a definite number could be calculated. 

Instead, we are left with pros and cons. Is it better to have sunny freezing days or warmer gloomy days? Lower wages in the center of Europe or higher wages on the other side of the Atlantic? English as an official language that seems unwanted or as an unofficial language that seems embraced? A costly plain apartment that is one hour from Paris, or a beautiful Victorian stone townhouse that we could pay off in five years? Living next to Brussels Central Station but working a long train ride away, or living in the tranquility of Plateau and working a short bicycle ride away? Superb education and cheap childcare in a bilingual city, or very good education and costly childcare in the capital of the European Commission? Biodome or Atomium?

How are we supposed to answer these questions?

As a child, I spent many a long afternoon triumphantly building hotels on Trafalgar Square or sadly mortgaging Old Kent Road. When I visited to London last month, seeing the familiar names come to life was a magical experience. Now, I will soon be able explore the whole world in much the same manner. Would I be able to live happily in Brussels, knowing that it didn’t make the grade?

In February Hasbro announced that they would create a new Worldwide Monopoly, and the choice of cities will be determined by popular vote. The game pieces, Chance, and Community Chest cards will feature events and icons from around the world. I wonder what the unit of currency will be? Perhaps the Euro? Or will we have to exchange our Dollars for Lats to put a house on Riga? Will a tax treaty apply equally to all players? Will Rich Uncle Pennybags still be the icon?

Learning from their embarrassing incident for the French version, where all cities were available for vote and the winner was Montcuq (which sounds like mon cul – “my bottom”), Hasbro pre-selected 68 cities, on which over 5.6 million people voted. Only the two brown spots were open to write-in Wildcard cities.

For some reason, the Montreal Board of Trade coveted the top spot, and invested a huge marketing drive in pushing all residents to have their say. The voters were also mobilised in Latvia, as Riga had an official campaign supported by the government tourism body. These strategies seem to have paid off, as these two cities occupy the most prestigious spots on the new board. The winners are:

We are still trying to toss up the benefits of Montreal vs Belgium. I have a phone interview with an Industrial Psychologist in Montreal this week, and an in person interview with a Belgian consulting firm in a fortnight. Hopefully I will be able to gain some more information about what jobs I can have in these cities, and what my life would be like.

The best things about these cities:

(Word clouds from wordle.net)

We had always dreamed of living in Europe, however Montréal called to us for many of the same reasons. The people there have an excellent work/life balance, it is a bilingual city with stunning architecture, and a socially responsible government.

We began our first day with a tour of the Institut de recherche en immunologie et en cancérologie (Institute for Research into Immunology and Cancer – IRIC), the component of the Université de Montréal that has offered Adrian a job for next year. It is a brand new building, with state-of-the-art facilities, full of light and well designed for the art of science. We had lunch with the students, and they seemed bright, happy, and enthusiastic. They all spoke fluent English for our benefit, but in side conversations alway spoke French.

As I would like to learn French, the other working language of the UN, Montreal would mean my immersion would be quite deep. There are excellent French schools that are cheap, and Adrian’s job may help to cover this. Also, as English is the other official language (not Dutch like Belgium), I would only have to learn one new language, not two. It actually appears that it will be quite easy for me to find a job in Montreal. IRIC will pay for a head-hunter to find me an interview, taking most of the stress out of that worry.

In the afternoon, we were given a tour of the city by Robert Turgeon, the President of Heritage Montreal and Dinu Bumbaru, key advisor to UNESCO’s World Heritage. Adrian and I spoke of some of our favourite World Heritage moments – getting engaged in Dubrovnik, married in Banff, and recently visiting Kiev and Lviv in the Ukraine. The parks were beautiful – in summer serving as a venue for picnics and puppies, and in winter the pond becoming a huge ice-skating rink for the whole city. Although out of all the candidate cities it has the lowest number of days above freezing (58%), it also has the highest number of days without rain (61%). I am told that the winters are still bright, despite the cold. In our other cities the winters would be grey and rainy. The attitude of the locals seems to be that they survive the winter every year (all four metres of snow), and that’s enough.

We had dinner in Little Italy, savoring the food and admiring the huge farmers market bursting with fresh produce.

Adrian’s friend Sylvie, a fellow immunologist, very kindly hosted our visit. We were able to stay with her for the weekend and experience what it is like to be a scientist in Montréal with a family. We spent the day in Old Montreal with Sylvie and her two children, Valerie and Loïc. The weather was stunning, and I was able to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the bustle of the “Just for Laughs” festival.  During summer, there are non-stop festivals. During winter, there is ice-skating and cross-country skiing, and numerous winter festivals. The family seems very happy here, the children already speaking French and quickly learning English.

In the afternoon we wandered through Plateau, and marvelled at the beautiful stone Victorian townhouses that are somehow in our price-range, due to the very low cost of living in Montréal. We could live in a vine-covered mini-castle, with wrought-iron frills, parapets and turrets, opposite an open park and metres from a metro station. Even many of the old churches are being converted into condominiums, and we could even live in a home with a spire. The low cost of stunning housing in Montreal is a definite plus.

On Sunday we watched Wall-E at a local Cinemaplex. The movies are shown in both English and French, one just chooses the appropriate session. Valerie and Loïc obliged me by joining us in the English session. It was a relaxing and enjoyable end to three days in Montreal, and we both realised that we could be very happy living in this town, and eventually becoming Canadian citizens.

However, despite appearances, Montréal is on the opposite side of the Atlantic to the rest of Europe. No quick trains to Paris or London, no long weekends in Spain or Amsterdam. There are direct flights to over 120 destinations (New York in 90 minutes), but on rails we could only reach Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, and Halifax. Do we want to share a border with the USA?