the frenchie

it's funny whenever i meet someone for the first time and i tell them i'm from montreal. first thing that ALWAYS comes up:

you're from quebec?!?! wow, your french must be really good!

and i'm there wondering what else they must be pondering about:

1. Do you eat poutine?
2. This guy speaks pretty good English for a frenchie
3. Wonder if he's a seperatist

I actually had someone asked if i was a seperatist, and just for kicks, i told them i was.

but seriously, here are the facts about quebec:
1. There ARE english speaking people there
2. Not everyone speaks french, though they might understand it better than most people in Canada
3. We are not all seperatists (if we were, quebec would be it's own country now... wouldn't that be nice?)
4. montreal drivers aren't bad drivers, they're just aggresive... there's a difference
5. I must admit, you usually get better service if you speak in french (given you don't make a fool of yourself)
6. Roads in quebec DO suck, no argument there... pothole galore
7. high school is grade 7 to 11.. then you go to two years of CEGEP before university
8. we call the G1 a "learner's licence", G2 a "probationary licence", G a "driver's licence"... everything's the same except you don't have to take a test to get the G equivalent... you automatically get it after two years of having the G2 equivalent
9. there ARE a lot of sex shops in downtown.. there's a strip club on every street on the main street downtown - what the dealio?
10. montreal's an ISLAND!
11. it's pharmaprix, not shoppers drug mart
12. bureau en grow, not staples

on the side note... i wonder what would happen if quebec seriously seperated? i'd have to be an international student at the university... *sigh*