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Two weeks ago I found out that all the items I was saving, washing, and taking down to the basement for recycling over the past year were being thown out! When we first arrived here I expected it was much like Alberta where apartment buildings have communal recycling bins which are emptied weekly by the city. I looked around the apartment a bit and didn’t see a recycling bin, but in the basement I did see a large garbage can and when I looked inside it I saw plastic grocery bags full of flattened cardboard, washed milk containers, etc. Naturally I assumed that this one was the recycling, and I began to fill up plastic grocery store bags with recycling and take them down every other day.

About a month ago we recieved a note in the mailbox from the NDG/CDN Eco-Quartier asking if we wanted a green box. My initial reaction was “Why would we need one, we already have recycling?” but quickly becaume “That garbage can downstairs was never recycling at all!” Doh! So I called them and asked for two boxes and Dan picked them up for me. We have been recycling for real for 1 week now, so I hope all goes smoothly.

I guess that shows I should never assume anything here in Montreal is like Alberta! I am very surprised how people are really not into recycling here. When I took out the green box, there were only two others (our building has 15 apartments).

That reminds me, it is spring again so the snow is melting and last year’s garbage is showing. It isn’t quite as bad as last time, but still there is a LOT of junk on the streets. Its enough to get a person a bit depressed, but I know after the clean-up and when the leaves started to come out it was very nice last year, so I have something to look forward to!

About a month and a half ago, we had a very intersting week. Dan was into school about a month so we were still adjusting to that; perhaps what happened wasn’t so abnormal but it certainly appeared that way to our over-stressed minds.

Dan was washing the dishes after supper and somehow one of our glasses broke. He didn’t notice because of the soap and he started to wash the broken glass. He got a very nasty cut to his right index finger, but fortunately the cut was parallel to his finger (not cutting right into it) so the damage was not bad. He still has a scar from it, though.

The next thing that happened was we had a fire somewhere in our building. They evacuated us and the fire department showed up (4 trucks)! The fire must have been very minor as I think it was under control by the time the pompiers arrived and we were soon back at work.

The third thing was the light right above our kitchen table fell down! We had just finished breakfast about 10 minutes before and fortunately neither of us were at the table at the time. I saw a flash of light and then heard a big crash and then looked over to see the light fixture sitting approximately where I would have been 10 minutes ago. It was hot as well, because the light was on at the time. We have figured out how this happened: Cote st Luc road is extremely busy and many large trucks go down it (not to mention about 100 busses a day) and sometimes they shake the road so badly that we feel it in the apartment. Over time, this loosened the light fixture (it is the screw-in type) and eventually it just completely undid itself. I’ve heard of checking smoke detectors each month, but never have I had to check my light fixtures every month to make sure they will not fall on me!

Fortunately, no more near accidents have happened lately…

In January 2005 we went to a gallery exhibit put on by our friend Claudia at the l’oeil de poisson gallery in Quebec city. Her exhibit was great and we were very priveleged to go. It was something like -24 C in Quebec that night and it was windy. We were so cold!! We went out for supper at a funky restaurant and thought about going down the ice chutes, but changed our mind because of the weather (see Dan’s blog for more descriptions). When we were in the gallery, many students, friends, family and aquaintances of the other artist with works on display arrived and all hung out together in the hallway. Unfortunately they were all smoking as well (oblivious to the no smoking sign in the entrance of the building). I have NEVER been in such a smoky atmosphere in my life, never, not even when I was young and both my parents smoked at home, or in any restaurant or pub I have ever been in throughout the world. The air was so thick it was hard just to breathe it. I tried in vain to go outside and get some fresh air, but it was so damn cold that I could only handle about 5 minutes before I had to go back inside. Because of a complication with travel arrangements, we had to stay at the gallery longer than expected so by the time we left I think we had been in the gallery for about 5 hours, 4 of which were smoke-saturated.

A couple of days after I got home I started to cough and didn’t stop until about a month later. I think I had an accute case of bronchitis that was brought on by the smoke and the cold. Bronchitis is an inflammantion of the major airways in the lungs, and acute bronchitis is caused by exposure to something that temporarily inflames the bronchi so much than the tiny cilia (hair-like things that beat upward to remove particles from the lungs) stop working. So someone who is having an acute case of bronchitis ends up coughing a lot since they must cough to clear their bronchi of the dust and other particles that collect there. Fortunately it is reversible when the swelling goes away, and this is exaclty what happend for me. I have never experienced this in my life, and I can say I don’t ever want to again! I was coughing all the time, and when I went anywhere that irritated my lungs I almost couldn’t eat or talk because of the coughing. I went to a cheese party at our friend’s house and had to leave early because of it.

I honestly wonder why the people in the gallery were smoking so much … the air was really toxic! I guess thoughts like “Hmm, I can’t see the ceiling in there anymore, maybe its a little too smoky in here” or “I can smoke at home but I am in a gallery tonight and I don’t want to ruin someone’s art by smoking here” didn’t cross their minds. I guess I just don’t get it. I realise people who smoke enjoy doing it, especially if it is a social event, but there should have been at least some respect for a) the artists and b) the other people in the gallery! It’s tough being an asthmatic here in Quebec because I really feel that I cannot ask people to not smoke around me (e.g. public places or waiting in line for the bus), even though it makes me quite sick. Its not just that it smells bad or bothers my nose a bit (if this were the case I would accept it without complaint), but it really does damage my lungs.