Memory Walk

I’m on a nostalgic walk around Montreal, and here’s the building where I lived with my sister when we were both very young students:

Here is the very first classroom where I taught Beginner Spanish 1:

I was so terrified that my friend who was a large, burly Mexican guy had to carry me physically into the classroom. I’m not sure students learned much on that class but I learned an enormous lot.

And this is the bathroom where my very first Spanish instructor hid from me every morning because I badgered him with my incapacity to understand the differences between the imperfect and the preterite. Later, the burly Mexican dude explained it to me in two words on a bet. He won the bet and now I use his method to teach my own students. In any case, the bathroom used to be men’s but now it’s women’s and the men’s was moved where women’s used to be.

I apologize for sharing toilet art and, as compensation, here’s a photo of a beautiful Montreal skyscraper:

I couldn’t get into the room that was my office here at McGill because there’s construction in that area of our floor. I hovered around, scaring the construction worker who was there because this is very emotional and I surely look unhinged.