"Trick-or-Treat?"

One of my favourite things about Montreal is its cultural diversity. The Montrealer's identity is the admiration for and often the harmony of a myriad of cultures' food, languages, and arts. Montreal synergizes the many nationalities which call it home because it is a place where the citizens can relate to what is beautiful and poignant yet totally different about other traditions. Walking the streets tonight, the "foule" that was small children dressed up as batmans, witches, dinosaurs and basketball players was one of those customs: it was totally familiar yet totally exotic.

While eating dinner at a friend's house, I got the opportunity to engage in a Halloween rite; answering the doorbell and giving precious candy to eager trick-or-treaters. What struck me was how each child pronounced those magic words with excitement, indifference, or courage but no matter how many times I heard them, I wasn't able to grasp their meaning.  It was only later, when a neighbour I had never spoken to offered me the remnants of her candy bowl, that I understood. It's not the words that matter but the action of giving and receiving a gift to and from a stranger.  

Just Walk

I lived in Istiklal for five years. Taking long walks already has so much meaning to anyone, but, in Istiklal, with its diversity, complexity, and its crowd, just walking is a more special and enjoyable experience.

In Montreal there are many special, "walkable" streets but I believe that St Catherine is just as diverse, crowded, and unique as my street back home.

Walking completes the city in your mind. When you raise your head a little bit more, you take in the Art Deco architecture of a depanneur, or you discover a quint cafe, or you learn from some classy Montrealers the best place to have a midnight snack and the more you interact with the city landscape, the more it belongs to you.

As it gets a little colder, it is worthwhile to mention something called the “St Catherine effect” which is the phenomena that it is less windy and warmer than most of the other streets, just saying.

Familiar Aromas

The foreigner always searches for things which are familiar. One of the first similarities I discovered between Istanbul and Montreal was in the form of a culinary icon--The Montreal Bagel.

A girl sitting in my Econ class saw me eating a Tim Horton's bagel, made some sardonic remark about them not being the "real deal," and later sent me this email:

Hi Oguzhan, 

This is what you're missing:

....doughy, sesame-sprinkled goodness.

enjoy,

M

I responded:

Marisa, thank you. Here is the Turk-style bagel, Simit. 

Take care,

Oguzhan

I don't eat Tim Horton's bagels anymore. It's not really about the taste, but about the nostalgia.  

So, what I mean is...

Hi,

Great to find you here reading these lines. All I will be writing here will be about observations, findings, feelings and connections. Your takeaways will be about witnessing parts of my life from Istanbul to Montreal. People, and places defined by those people; this will be behind the words all the time. I bet that you will find many similarities in terms of how I reacted and how you would have reacted. Instead of talking, I should just leave this to you.

I first arrived to Montreal, fall of 2010, to study at McGill. Now fall of 2012, two years later, I feel home here. The criteria is simple; when you see people on the street calling you from the other side with your name, at quite unexpected moments, then you can say the city is yours.

An important note; what you will see here won’t be me looking for Istanbul in Montreal. Instead, it will about bringing them together. So welcome to ISTMTL!