Day 3 In Montreal - Time to Listen

Today was really crank time. We started off with a breakfast buffet then went straight to work. Everybody still stayed in the same seats as the other day I think to get a little more networking done. It started off with some opening remarks by The Climate Project staff and the Quebec premier Jean Chareset and Quebec environment minister Line Beauchamp. The al Gore comes in, again excitement as the day before. All gore starts off with some bonding with the audience, making jokes having some fun before he starts section 1 of the presentation. After Al Gore finished the first section our group had a talk, it was so interesting listening to these people who obviously knew more than us. I just sort of let the people talk as I listened. Each group had to come up with some question for al Gore about what he was talking about and the top 3 most common would be asked. We had 45 minutes + the 15 minutes of break which had some refreshments and snacks. That’s when I tried to look for Dr. David Suzuki, but he was a bit busy so I just healed it off for lunch. Minna and I went around the underground mall with some other trainees from BC then we split up and meet back later at the lobby. I walked around the mall sort of fast, boring things nothing that really interested me so I ventured off. I went outside remembering the route we took the day before to Old Montreal, and remembered the Chinatown. I ran down the street and found the gate of Chinatown. It was a sunny day, blue clouds and there were many people on the streets. The Chinatowns size was smaller than the china town back in Vancouver. It must have only been 4 blocks or so. Then as I saw the time I had 10 minutes or so to get back to the hotel. I made it on time though so I was just fine. After the break it was back to work with Al Gore starting off with section 2. The process again of making up questions after was done again. And this time I actually talked!!! It was nice… hahaha. After finishing the questions we had dinner, um…. Yum… during dinner I meet a woman named Pat Kinch from Toronto. We meet by eating at the same table and I introducing myself. She asked Minna and I what we wanted to do when we grow up and when she heard I wanted to be a chef she was jumping for joy. She told me about this woman that had the best restaurant in Halifax which was all organic and used locally grown foods. After eating she urgently tried to find her for me so that I could talk to her. There were a number of questions in my mind like, what and how did you think of this idea??? Sadly she said that she couldn’t find her but sort of made it her mission in a way so she said “I’ll get her next break ok ill get you that interview”. She was really nice, helping out a total (well not really) stranger, but she said it was all about networking. We went back in the room with another Q & A with Mr. Gore, sadly none of our groups questions were asked which we thought were more relative. After answering the questions he started part 3 and again another group talk about questions happened again. The next break, Pat found me and we found at the end to help me find the woman. We looked around and she was right in front of us coming back after the break. She was so nice to do that for me I obviously said thank you. The woman that she introduced was named Lil McPherson from Halifax. She told me about her restaurant called The Wooden Monkey, which I remembered I have heard on E news (a Canadian ET not the Canadian ET…). She gave me some advice on how to get a restaurant started and gave me her card and one of her calendars which I was very applicative of. She was as ecstatic as Pat so I must have been doing something right. I couldn’t wait to talk to her more latter. Another Q & A with Al Gore and closing motivational marks with him and David Suzuki, oh yeah I forgot to say I got a picture with DAVID SUZUKI!!! k back on point. We had (or tried) to get a group picture with Al Gore and David Suzuki, I was in the middle but everyone fluttered to the front leaving the picture with my forehead. It wasn’t well organized so it made sense. After everything was done Minna and I had an hour or so to walk around before the comedy show started. So we walked around St. Chatreane, looking around the stores and seeing Paris Hilton in a store advertising her new line of shoes. It was like walking back home, but in a greater scale so many tall buildings and more culture (or repetition of culture). Minna got some sun glasses but I decided to save my money for other stores for the next few days, and besides all the stores were closed by the time we went out. We got back to the hotel and went straight to the Place – des – Arts for the comedy show. It was such a funny show, a great comedy relief and a total opposite of the beginning of the day. Latter we had our last dinner, a great one too but thought it was too late we finished at 10:30. Can’t wait for the next day.