My last poll asked what I should bring back from Canada, and 6 out of ten votes were for the answer:

A pair of snowshoes, a compass, a backpack, two rifles, and a snow tent. And some French girls from Quebec.

I can only assume that the bulk of voters on this blog’s polls are lonely expat guys whom I shall not be able to help much.

I have talked to about two French girls since I’ve arrived, one to ask the time and the other to tell her that she needn’t apologize for having bumped myfoot accidentally. (You can tell I’ve been in Asia a long time… I didn’t realize for a few moments what she was apologizing for.)

I shall not be bringing much of the sort of things mentioned on the poll, actually. I will be bringing books (including hard-to-get SF and poetry, a couple of game books I picked up cheap, and a book my parents gave me, plus a couple of books for the study of French that Lime and I plan on doing sometime… though I have a connection with a student who has some kind of source on great French study aids); a nice huge espresso pot that cost about 1/4 the price a tiny one-person espresso pot fetches in Korea; some cheese and probably a packet of grapevine leaves and some couscous (the Montreal Lebanese food is back in my mind and I remember now how much I missed it when I first went to Korea); and maybe a couple of T-shirts.

Ah, plus the things I’ve picked up for Lime, of course, and whatever I’m bringing to Texas for my friends there. (Though my gifts for those folks mainly come from Korea, scanty as they may be.)

In any case, no French girls, no snowshoes, no beavers, no snow (though it is chilly in Montreal).

But I’ll announce the new poll in a separate post, so that people may notice it and maybe even vote…