I got to spend a lot of time with these lovely, lovely people this past week between church, district council, and a district P-day. I truly love being with young missionaries. They inspire and energize me. I'm so glad that I've found ways to be where they are because the first few months of my mission, it was extremely rare for me to see a young missionary...at all!
District Council
La Plateau District
I got to know these two missionaries much better at lunch on district P-day. They are stellar young men.
We had different plans for district P-day but because we woke up to over a foot of snow, we decided to go with plan B and go to lunch. This seemed to be the perfect restaurant for our "plan B".
After lunch we went to a nearby chapel and played pickleball, volleyball, hockey, and whatever the elders and sisters could find to play with. It was so fun to see the kid in each of them as they played together. We could only find 3 paddles for pickleball, so I went to the kitchen and found a jelly roll pan for the 4th player. It was a challenge to play with such an awkward implement! But a fun one! We laughed a lot.
The Utah missionaries know what to do with snow! Snow angels.
I absolutely LOVE snow!! So I was very excited that our first real snowstorm in Montreal left us with a serious accumulation of white powder...at least a foot. It's been interesting to watch the progression of the city this week after the big dump.
Other missionaries who were here last winter have told me fascinating stories about snow removal so I was excited to see it. They told me that snow plows move the snow to the side of the road first. Then a series of vehicles come to remove it from the street. I was told that a "Dr. Seuss-like" vehicle blows the snow into the back of huge trucks. Then the trucks take the snow to the St. Lawerence River and dump it in. Sadly, this is the only snow removal vehicle I saw this storm. But never fear! There will be many more snowstorms! I'm sure to see the process at some point.
My walk to the archives...
Back in the summer, someone gave us a ride in a rental car and I noticed a shovel in the car. I asked why there was a shovel and they laughed and said, "You haven't been here during the winter, have you." You can see in this photo that the snowplows bury parked cars and they have to dig out.
These are the stairs going down to the metro. Do you see the salt dripping down the stairs that is brought in from outside?
From what I've been able to observe, the city also clears the sidewalks but, of course, they can't get to all of them at once. So from Monday-Friday, I mostly walked on top of a thick layer of ice. They throw a mix of sand and gravel on top of that so that you don't fall. In the next photo, you can see the slush that can be created with sand and snow.
After lunch we went to a nearby chapel and played pickleball, volleyball, hockey, and whatever the elders and sisters could find to play with. It was so fun to see the kid in each of them as they played together. We could only find 3 paddles for pickleball, so I went to the kitchen and found a jelly roll pan for the 4th player. It was a challenge to play with such an awkward implement! But a fun one! We laughed a lot.
The Utah missionaries know what to do with snow! Snow angels.
I absolutely LOVE snow!! So I was very excited that our first real snowstorm in Montreal left us with a serious accumulation of white powder...at least a foot. It's been interesting to watch the progression of the city this week after the big dump.
Other missionaries who were here last winter have told me fascinating stories about snow removal so I was excited to see it. They told me that snow plows move the snow to the side of the road first. Then a series of vehicles come to remove it from the street. I was told that a "Dr. Seuss-like" vehicle blows the snow into the back of huge trucks. Then the trucks take the snow to the St. Lawerence River and dump it in. Sadly, this is the only snow removal vehicle I saw this storm. But never fear! There will be many more snowstorms! I'm sure to see the process at some point.
My walk to the archives...
Back in the summer, someone gave us a ride in a rental car and I noticed a shovel in the car. I asked why there was a shovel and they laughed and said, "You haven't been here during the winter, have you." You can see in this photo that the snowplows bury parked cars and they have to dig out.
These are the stairs going down to the metro. Do you see the salt dripping down the stairs that is brought in from outside?
From what I've been able to observe, the city also clears the sidewalks but, of course, they can't get to all of them at once. So from Monday-Friday, I mostly walked on top of a thick layer of ice. They throw a mix of sand and gravel on top of that so that you don't fall. In the next photo, you can see the slush that can be created with sand and snow.
On my walk to the archives, the sidewalks became more and more cleared as each day went on and the city cleared different parts of my nearly mile-long walk. The final strip to be cleared was the block where the arcives building is. This is the shot from Friday. You can see the national archives building on the right.
Though I'm used to snow in Salt Lake City, we usually have a snowstorm and then a few days later the weather warms up and the snow begins to melt. Not in Montreal. No melting going on here all week. In fact, when I left home one morning the "feels like" temperature was -2 F. And yes, I walked to the archives that day.
Here are two shots of the same street from close to the same place. The first picture is Monday right after the snow stopped.
And here's the same place on Friday after the snow has been cleared by the city on both the street and the sidewalk. And once again, none of the clear street or sidewalk can be attributed to melting. We haven't been above 0 degrees all week.
A frozen shot of my beloved Mount Royal.
Running total of captures: 169,289
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