last night jessica and evan and i went out to a bar called l'orange divan, which is my new favorite food/drink establishment in montreal. it was a lovely place with lots of unfinished wood, vintage furniture that had probably come out of dumpsters, dim lighting, a piano, and fun mixed drinks called things like "l'elixer du pharoan" (vodka, hibiscus, something i can't remember, and a sprig of mint). by day they serve delicious sounding vegan food.

while we were there, a guy who had just left peered in the windows at us in a charming game-like sort of way. evan and i very heartily persuaded jessica to go talk to him, but she was reluctant.

when we ended up spending most of the night across the street in the park with him and his friends (kelly, an archaeology student from saskatchewan, and anton, a very pleasant russian fellow), she was a little bit pissed at us, but only because he turned out to be very eccentric and harrassed her about her opinions on literature, even though it's her major.

he insisted we sit under the arch because the arch was built for us and we should appreciate it. we talked about pan for a while and then he went on a long diatribe about a character of finnish legend who is the basis for santa claus. he was upset that his girlfriend had described him as ogrelike, and we convinced him that she meant implike. kelly and i described intricately the differences in methodology between all the social sciences, and people actually seemed interested.

when we left at four in the morning, i yelled at them to have wonderful and fruitful lives, and it echoed against the arch. life is beautifully bizarre.