FW: AAA Montreal Hotels

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Speaking of local accommodations…

I’m not part of any local committee, for the conference and I haven’t been
in touch with those who are.
Don’t know if there’s been anything planned to help AAA members find their
way through Montreal’s accommodation during the conference. But it may be
important to point out that cheaper options are available. While the cost of
living in Montreal has gone up rather quickly, in recent years, there are
still ways to spend time in Montreal on the cheap.

In case it’s not clear: Montreal’s transit system is quite good (award
winning, in fact) and it should be quite easy to get to the conference from
other parts of town. My suggestion would be to look for places near métro
stations. And, for those who are likely to stay up late, it might be useful
to look at the “nighttime bus system”.
http://stm.info/English/info/nuit2011.pdf
(On most lines, the last métro leaves from downtown at 1am.)

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of Montreal businesses can be found
online. As you might guess, the two languages dividing the city still have
an impact on the visibility of certain businesses to those who can’t read
French.
In the past, some friends (including fellow anthros, actually) have had good
luck using resources on the Tourism Montreal website, before coming to town.
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/
I know some people who work there and it sounds like they do a decent job at
getting travellers to make their trips enjoyable. It’s meant for a broad
public, with the issues this might imply, but it can be a decent starting
point.

Of course, as any large city, Montreal can be a fascinating context for
informal ethnography…
For instance, if you’re interested in casual observation of Montreal’s core
French-speaking community, it might be a good idea to spend time in the
eastern part of town, where the concentration of Francophone remains the
highest. Otherwise, most of Montreal’s neighbourhoods can be interesting in
terms of linguistic anthropology. From Yiddish and Tagalog speakers in
Côte-des-Neiges to multilingual Haitians in Saint-Michel and Montréal-Nord,
there might be something for almost any SLA member.
(It reminds me, those who work on ASL or other sign languages might be
interested in meeting members of the Quebec Sign Language community…)

Guess I’m just excited about the possibility to meet several of you.

Cheers!
--
Alexandre Enkerli, Concordia University, Montreal
http://enkerli.com/


On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 11:00, Kenneth Ehrensal <k.ehrensal at mac.com> wrote:

> The $139 rate is not a student rate, it is the Auto Club rate for the
> general public.  It is $10 less per night than the cheapest 'attendee' rate
> offered through the AAA. (Also, there appear only to be 'smoking' rooms left
> at the cheapest attendee rate.)
>
> ______________________
> Kenneth Ehrensal
> k.ehrensal at mac.com
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 22, 2011, at 9:53 AM, Oona Schmid wrote:
>
> > I asked the AAA Director of Meetings to clarify this situation. Here is
> his reply below.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jason Watkins
> > Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 9:52 AM
> > To: Oona Schmid
> > Subject: RE: AAA Montreal Hotels
> >
> >
> > Earlier this week AAA encountered the lower online rates for the Holiday
> Inn Express (student hotel).  As a result AAA was able to negotiate a new
> student rate of $119 per evening over the dates of the meeting. These rates
> are only available if booked through AAA's housing bureau
> http://www.aaanet.org/meetings/info/travel/hotel_travel.cfm
> >
> >
> >
> > Jason G. Watkins, CMP
> > Director of Meetings
> > American Anthropological Association
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group [mailto:
> LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org] On Behalf Of Kenneth Ehrensal
> > Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 8:06 AM
> > To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
> > Subject: AAA Montreal Hotels
> >
> > I have found an interesting 'quirk' in hotel prices for AAA.  I found
> that I can book into the Holiday Inn Express that AAA is using (for
> students) for $135 (CAD) through the Holiday Inn website.  This is cheaper
> than any room that AAA is offering.
> >
> > Ken
> > ______________________
> > Kenneth Ehrensal
> > k.ehrensal at mac.com
>