This morning (Jul 26) I departed for Canada. A KLM flight to Amsterdam, then on to Montreal. The flights were okay, even ahead of schedule. Only that I couldn't sleep since it was too bright outside... we left Amsterdam at 14:20 or so, and arrived in Montreal at 15:20 - local time. So the second flight was 7 hours, but the sun barely moved. In contrast to the Lufthansa crew on my flight to the US, they didn't "enforce" sleeping by making people close all the windows (not that there was much to see outside most of the trip - just blue atop of white).

Watching people at the airport is interesting. In Amsterdam, there were announcements all the time like "Mr. xyz, please board immedeately. You are delaying the flight. We are already unloading your luggage." - man, that sounded like there was someone missing on every flight.

Also people are very eager to get into the tight space of the airplane. Boarding for the transatlantic flight was one hour before departure. A couple of minutes before that - and boarding often doesn't start exactly at the time scheduled - people started getting into line for that. This is just stupid. Why would you want to wait in line when you can just sit 10 meters away and wait for them to actually begin boarding? Especially since you do have a seat number anyway. I wait until the line is mostly gone, then go there. I'm always backlogged by people still storing their bags. I wonder how long they've been standing in the airplane or the hallways waiting for the people in front of them...

Upon arrival in Montreal we had the opposite effect: I was in the second-to-last row in the plane, so just about everyone (well, except for a few dozen who waited even more patiently than I) was leaving in front of me. When the rows around me had become quite empty, I also got up. This time the people leaving the airplane were stalled.

The canadians had setup a small passport check (no idea what for, maybe they were looking for someone particular?) at the end of the very long passenger tunnel; apparently many people didn't have their passport ready, clogging the small passageway. They didn't bother much for my passport there, so I guess they knew they don't have to look for someone german.

Customs was easy, being german, after having walked like 1 km in a rather fast line. That was quite well organized, but it felt "overworked". They were doing a great job, all countes open and processing fast. It was just too many people; it felt like several big planes had just landed. The officier did ask if I was going to something particular, but was satisified by mentioning the conference. Actually just by quickly reacting with any reply I guess. Well, I guess thats fine. German "caucasian" students are probably nothing Canada has to be afraid of.

Now I'm sitting in the train from Montreal to Toronto (where I'll be staying with a dear friend). The train has Wifi, which is really cool. It's slow, and it often has timeouts, but it's Internet. ;-) And every seat has a power socket for laptops. I'm also recharging my MP3 player, although it still has plenty of juice. I'm very happy with my iAudio X5: last week I went to a friends birthday party, and I was able to listen to music all my (3 hour) train trip there and back as well as plugging it into the music system at the party for some hours, until I got bored of picking new songs every hour. I guess the advertised/tested 14 hours are true.

The seats in this train here are also nice, there is way more space than in an airplane. I'm in the regular "comfort" class, not even in the Via1 class, but the space you have is better than business class in the jets. Sure, an airplane from Montreal to Toronto would have been faster (1 hour, if you ignore any checkin and baggage collection time) vs. 4 hours. But the trains also go more often, I bought my ticket just 15 min before departure and it was cheaper. Oh, and did I mention I have free wifi? ;-)

Oh, and it was also the first time I've seen someone on a train explain the security measures, telling someone how to break the window in an emergency... the KLM flight attendants also did that funny dance - Lufthansa doesn't any more, they just show a video... I wanted to suggest a "city bet" for a famous german gameshow that the showmasters won't be able to fill a small hall at the airport with flight attendands all doing this dance synchronously... that would be really fun to watch for the TV audience. (Ironically, I can't remember having seen this famous show once... but since the switch to DVB-T in Munich we only have one station left anyway, at least until we get DVB-*)

The only drawback: the train here is shaking a lot more than german ICE or IC trains. It's not that comfortable for working because of that. Especially when you are somewhat sensitive and get sick when staring at shaking text for too long (i.e. when you get sick when reading in a car) I never had that problem in german trains. Right now (I've moved my laptop onto my lap again, and I'm leaning back more now) it's okay. Maybe the tracks are just better here, too.

In a few hours I'll meet a friend I havn't seen for 6 years or so. We've only spent two and a half weeks together in a summer school class. This was the most amazing summer school I've been on ever. I've met most of my really close friends there.