I was in Oklahoma for Christmas. My mother lives on a farm and it is usually very quiet. But there is a highway running past the house and at times it can be a bit noisy. The noise is the first thing I noticed upon coming back to the metro in Montreal. But the noise always bothers me no matter what. I never get used to it. The more time I spend on the metro the madder it makes me. Which is why a break is good. Taking a break is, for me, like hitting the reset button. I have cleared my buffer, so to speak, making room for all that noise to pile up until the next time I get to leave the city.
I got some 'sport' headphones with a gift card because my old headphones kept falling out after they lost the bits of rubber that hold them in place. These new headphones have a plastic hook that keeps the little speakers in the right place and at the correct angle. They also have rubber bits that look like earplugs. They do function as earplugs, but they let the sound through too. This is a beautiful thing on the metro. As mentioned in a previous post, music is essential for maintaining sanity during repetitive daily rides. It creates a sense of space that while not real, is effectively making a soundscape inside your head that replaces a real with a virtual (internal) space.