My Night in a Capsule Hotel

This story originally appeared on July 16, 2025 in URBANIA, an online magazine based in Quebec focused on pop culture and society.

Summer struck without warning. Floods, blackouts, lightning ripping through the sky like a B-grade disaster movie—Sunday's weather had an end-of-the-world feel. My one-bedroom apartment, meanwhile, was sweating the humidex through every pore. The air grew heavier, and in a flash, the place had turned into an air fryer, with me in the middle, trapped and crisping up.

So I fled. I left behind my sticky sheets and sought refuge in a climate-controlled cocoon barely bigger than a coffin: a capsule hotel. A tiny oasis of cool air in the heart of downtown Montreal.