It’s not every fall break you get to dig out your passport, but that’s what we did. “We” being me and four of my closest Wellesley friends; attempting to pull the kind of spontaneous college road trip you see in movies (without the car breaking down or anything). Not just any road trip, but a road trip to an exotic, remote, northern destination… Canada.
We drove the five and a half hours up to Montreal. (Wellesley may be less than an hour from big-names of Boston and Cambridge, but have you considered we’re just a quick five and a half hours from Canada? I think not.) Just getting to see the glory of fall in New England, with rainbow mountains of fall foliage on all sides was something spectacular. Coming from New Jersey, I never knew a highway could be so beautiful. And the city of Montreal was equally spectacular. Not just the cathedrals or the view from Mont Royal, but also because of the people: the friends I was traveling with, and the people I met along the way.
That Mount Royal view, though…
Traveling with Wellesley friends is different. There’s the casual moment when you realize that you speak five different languages among the five of you, English, Spanish, Hindi, Hebrew, and fortunately (for Montreal) including a full year of 200-level French. To quote the neuroscience major, “It’s enough to fry your language cortex.”
Then there’s the moment when your friends, who are far more politically engaged than you are, drag you into the Boulevard St. Catherine, joining in a Canadian protest to end deportation of Syrian refugees, and you’re suddenly surrounded by the power of collective action.
Joining the protest to push for the acceptance of Syrian refugees in North America
And then there’s the genuinely moving moment when you find yourself attending Catholic mass, spoken entirely in French, with your friends from incredibly diverse religious backgrounds: Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, non-religious. And the Basilica de Notre Dame fills with the reverberations of the massive organ and the exaltations of the choir, and even I, the least religious of the bunch, can’t help but be moved by the atmosphere and the space.
Wow.
And yes, the trip did have its rocky moments, the kinds of things that cause drama in the movie road-trips…reservations for the wrong weekend, a near fall into traffic stepping out of the car. But maybe staying in Canada during Canadian thanksgiving rubbed off on me, because back on campus now, I’m increasingly thankful for the lovely people I’ve been so fortunate to meet through this place, and the experiences we’ve been so fortunate to share.
I’m looking forward to having many of you on campus now for Discover Wellesley weekend, so you too can get a glimpse into the Wellesley experience! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whether you’re visiting or not, and until next time,
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor
