A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue as wiki defines. Examples :pencil lead, tin cans, Xerox, Guinea pigs, Quebec city .
Quebec city !Let me justify :.
1.A place where the only language you can speak is French. You are considered a criminal if you speak English.So don’t take chances if you grade yourself to be global in terms of communication if you’re just Anglophone . I landed at unknown locations - consequences of experimenting with my limited knowledge of French. At beer parties, I glued a plastic smile , my ears protruded to catch a few words here and there and make sense out of what was happening around. At class lectures too, I was trying to catch words like a novice butterfly catcher. I almost reached a stage when I decided to zip my mouth and be a listener.Once a week , I travelled two hours to get hold of an English Newspaper stale by a day or two.
2. People call it peaceful , calm ,serene, secure , I call it insipid , dull , mundane. I had to travel a good 30 mins by bus to go to your nearest depanneur (French name for an independently run corner store. I had to learn this .. life saver!).Life rotates in cycles of work and sleep (nothing in between !) Once I left my cell phone outside on the pavement for a good one hour for my visa interview and found it untouched.(Not complaining for this one though!)
3. The only happening places are three malls :Place Ste Foy,Place de la cite, Place Laurier and the downtown area.. Downtown Quebec has restaurants on either sides of the cobbled streets. Old men and women dressed too formally decked up ,passing by ,giving you a feeling that you are unkempt (I was wearing a T and denim.). At the end of the first two months I became a living store locator.
.... and more.
I pointed the important ones.
Well, friends this was just to give you a word of caution about misnomers. I was on the verge of getting doomed in “ the solitude of Alexander Selkirk “ ..so watch out .
