Life's most beautiful moments...

Bus 67 heading south on Saint-Michel stops at the corner of the Boulevard Rosemont. One day when I felt like walking the last bit of my journey, I got off at this stop. I immediately noticed the hair salon on the corner, one of the first businesses to decorate its windows for Christmas. Among the decorations was a large sign, which in all of its calligraphied majesty, expressed the following mind-blowing philosophical sentiment:

Les plus beaux moments de la vie se partagent en offrant...

...un certficate cadeau.

Translated into English these words of enlightenment mean "The most beautiful moments in life are shared in the offering of...a gift certificate."

Well, I'll be darned, nobody ever told me that before! I even went to college. And graduate school. I never knew the secret of sharing the most beautiful moments in life was so simple! I'm sure that's what my brother intended when he sent me an Amazon gift certificate last year! Now all my loved ones know what they'll be getting under the tree this year! I'm sure my local retailer would love to sell not only the gift certificate, but also some must-have decorative packaging as well.

And...the sign is in a hair salon window! Personally, getting my hair cut has never been one of the most beautiful moments of my life, but wait, it doesn't have to be, it's just the offering of the gift certificate itself!

OK, maybe if it was in a jewelry store window, one could imagine the wedding proposals and such. Maybe something like this? "Will you marry me, chérie? Here is a gift certificate to put towards your engagement ring."

Or if the sign was at least in a restaurant, there would be the social gathering attached to the redemption of the gift certificate. I picture friends and family around the table, living life, breaking bread. Those are what I call beautiful moments.

Are you there Père Noël? It's me, Bijou.

Besides world peace and instant weight loss, here are some untangibles (or unexist-ables) that I'd like for Christmas this year:

1)Improved etiquette for certain bus passengers with whom I regularly share my commute.

2) Easier border crossings for Bo and myself.

3) A chance meeting with someone I know on a sidewalk in Montreal.

4) Blackboard chalk with moisturizing lotion in it.

5) One day, (or dare I ask for a few days?) where my students are all well-behaved, all at once.

6) Unlimited hot water for marathon showers.

7) A signed contract for the sale of my house, or better yet, the proceeds in the bank.

8) A cure for my cousin's cancer.

9) Less ridiculousness in advertising and promotions.

10) A self-cleaning kitchen.

I'm realizing that many of the "items" on this list (at least #s 1,2,3,6,8 and 9) could become blog entries in and of themselves. I'd better get writing! My many faithful readers could give me input as to what you'd like to hear about...In fact I think I'll write about #9 right now. Read on!

Les escaliers: a photo essay

As promised, staircases! I took these photos recently while walking in a neighborhood near mine. The last photo was taken on the street where I live. The bright turquoise staircase on the left is just across from my apartment and is one of the staircases you can just barely see in one of my Urban Arbres photos. You can also notice the bright green recycling bins on many of the balconies. As these photos show, some staircases are straight; some are curly... and when they're lined up all in a row, it's a graphic feast for the eyes. Bon appétit.

Leaf Peepers

Last weekend the weather was outstanding for the end of October and Bo and I decided to go for a hike. Sandwiches packed, we made it out the door before 10 am.

We headed for the nearest mountain, Mont St. Hilaire, about 45 minutes away. As we approached the entrance to the park we realized we were not the only city dwellers with this idea. Imagining the crowded and noisy trails, we retreated. We pulled over a few minutes later and took the following photos:



We decided to keep heading away from the city in search of just the right park in which to have lunch and a long stroll. We made it all the way to Sorel where there is a ferry that takes cars and passengers across the St. Lawrence river. We had our picnic in the car and enjoyed the sun and breezes on the upper deck.

We never did find a park to stroll in and we finally found our way back to the city a good four-plus hours later. But it was a beautiful day nonetheless. The scenery was wonderful, as was the company. After supper we did go for a hike...in our neighborhood.

Miam-miam!

Or, as we say in English...yum, yum!

I made a gustative discovery this week thanks to one of my students. When AJ is staying at his mom's, he comes to school with fresh-baked pastries and wholesome sandwiches and organic fruit. When he is staying at his dad's, things are less "gourmet." Recently, in addition to a sandwich, AJ had a bottle of diet iced tea and a bag of Ruffles. He was generous and shared his junk food with all of us...fortunately for his teacher because I discovered the glorious flavor of:



I've never seen this flavor before in the States. It is kind of like BBQ and salt and vinegar put together. (I notice a vinegar bottle, a red pepper, and a green onion on the packaging). Whatever the secret recipe is... they're darn good!

In my photo shoot for this blog entry I noticed that the flavor of these chips is not only glorious, but "simulated!" Oh boy! Betcha want to run out and get some now!



But seriously, they're delicious. If you're in a junk food mood the next time you're in Canada, stop by any neighborhood gas station and grab a bag!

Urban Arbres

This is a photo of part of the acre of land I own in New York State. (It, and the house that sits on it, are for sale, anyone?)

I love all those trees. Regal white pines and many other varieties shelter an array of wildlife. I regularly saw deer, great blue herons, woodpeckers (including twice a pileated woodpecker), ground hogs, squirrels (mostly of the flying variety), finches, blue jays, cardinals, turkeys, turkey vultures, bats, and of course, mice and crows.

The trees also sheltered the human and feline residents of said acre (that would be Bo and Chico and me) by providing a curtain of foliage between us, the road, and the neighbors. Such privacy...I was spoiled by it and able to walk around in whatever I pleased! Chico was in his birthday suit all the time! I had no curtains on any of the windows.

When I moved to the city, I figured that was all over. Curtains on every window, I thought!

What a pleasant surprise that Bo and I were able to find an apartment that is almost equally sheltered by trees all around! I haven't seen nearly as much wildlife though; only some alley cats, kids and your average city-dweller (montrealeris appartementocratus). (Surpisingly no link was available for this species. Stay tuned to further blog postings. I may spot one and capture it with my digital lens.)

Here is a shot from our back balcony:
A white birch tree and a sort of willow that provide a curtain between us and all of our neighbors on the right side of the alley (including one neighbor's above-ground pool). As you can see from the left side of the alley, we do actually have the need for some curtains...). This picture was taken in July, but the leaves today are still just as green and full (not for long I'm sure!).

The photos that follow were all taken from our front balcony (yes, we have two balconies!):




The last one is a look at our bedroom window. The trees in the front are ash trees and have almost completely lost their leaves. Soon the tourists in the tower of the Olympic Stadium will be able to put a quarter in one of those alien looking binocular things and monitor our every move.

In the first photo taken from the front balcony, notice the staircases...they will be the subject of a future posting.

The weather has slowly turned towards crisp and the sound of my feet rustling in the ash leaves as I head out curtain shopping tells me that fall is finally here. Enjoy the season!

Technology breakthrough for Bijou

OK, I have a digital camera. It is not perfect. I am not perfect. We're quite a pair.

First of all, I suffer from battery frustrations of all kinds.

Second of all, I lost a nice digital camera in February 2006 (right after my first trip to Quebec's winter carnival). My parents were nice enough to buy me a new one. That then left me with two cables with which to connect the camera to my computer to download the pictures. Well, both of my cables are in my storage unit in NY, so I have been unable to add any interesting personal pictures to my blog.

Breakthrough: I realized today that I can insert the memory disk from my camera into my printer which then imports the photos to my computer! Yay for me! Yay for the three or four faithful visitors to "la-la land" (as I like to call it)!

*This technology breakthrough was brought to you by HP, Mac, and the Staples USB cable that connected the two to make the following post possible!

The agony of "la route"

Or... the thrill of commuting!

In the last four weeks I have been mostly: at work, preparing for work, recovering from work, or traveling to and from work.

When I moved here, I was excited by the idea of commuting via public transportation. My “practice runs” took about an hour each direction, give or take 10 minutes. That’s by far the longest commute I’d ever faced but I knew that I wouldn’t have the stress of driving in city traffic, which would “likely take me just as long anyway”. Plus I wouldn’t have to deal with parking. And the idealistic idea of doing some preparation on the subway was enticing.

Well on the first day of school it was about 85 degrees out and I didn’t want to meet my students for the first time sweaty from the un-air-conditioned trains and buses. So I decided to drive “just this once.” I left extra early to give myself plenty of time and arrived at school 25 minutes later! (I even had to wait around for twenty minutes until someone arrived to unlock the building!)

Since then, I have unfortunately become a part of the traffic. I have adjusted my departure time and it generally takes about 35 minutes to get to school. On the way home a bit longer. I have become quite familiar with my route and even some short cuts that make me feel like a local. But that familiarity does not ease the stress that comes along with the drive.

At every light, five or six or more cars, and the other species of bus and taxi, can be seen jockeying for position. There are many one-way streets, so at any given intersection there may be cars waiting to turn...sometimes right, sometimes left. The trick is to find your way into the lane where you won’t be held up by cars waiting to turn. And "everyone else's" destination is more important than mine, of course.

Turn signals, patience, and courtesy are rare. Quick braking, being cut off, and blaring horns are common. Yellow lights mean speed up (so you won’t have to wait for the next light). The traffic signals seem to come from a box of Lucky Charms. There are flashing or non-flashing circles, arrows, diamonds, X’s, but no clovers or hearts! Drivers can be seen eating, talking on cell phones, shaving with electric razors, playing air guitar, reading the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles, and of course smoking. Sometimes two or more of these activities are taking place simultaneously

The roads are rough, bumpy, (harsh winters are hard on the roads) and we are still in construction season, so you can go from three lanes to one to two with little more warning than the barricade that appears before you.

Oh...and the bicycles...These people are crazy, gutsy, indignant and cocky. They jump curbs and potholes and zigzag in and out of cars, parked or moving. Although I’m sure I've never seen a bicyclist shaving or playing air guitar, I’ve witnessed so many "other" activities. I’ve previously spoken about cycling attire, but never mentioned the mandatory fashion accessory of iPod earbuds.

And off I go, on the road again, see you at the next red light!

Recyclage

Recycling is a pretty great thing. I need to see a segment on CBS Sunday Morning (man do I miss that!) that explains the whole process. All I really know is what follows:

1) I buy food and domestic products and when they’re used up, I rinse out the containers and put them in the big green bin.
2) Bo brings them out to the curb on Monday nights.
3) Starting at about 5:00 am (or maybe sooner, but I am just sleeping more heavily,) a series of people walk up and down the street picking through the recycling bins, presumably searching for consignment bottles.
4) At around 7:30 am the big trucks come slowly down the street, the sounds of their heavy-duty motors and brakes are joined by the clanking of breaking glass as the bins are emptied into the trucks. The bins are tossed back to the curb.
5) At around 9:00 am the truck comes back to do the other side of the street after having woven its way through the web of one-way avenues.
6) For the next hour or so, these sounds become more and more faint as the truck travels further and further.
7) At some point we retrieve our bins from the curb and put them back in their rightful places, where they wait ready for the next cereal box or juice bottle.
8) I’m missing from step 8 to approximately 100, I think. I could presume that the trucks go to a “facility” where the items are sorted and smashed and crunched and melted and heated etc.
101) As I shop I notice packaging made from recycled materials…and I buy them.
102) See #1…that’s why it’s called re-“cycle”

I’d be interested in filling in some of the gaps. I don’t need to know every single little detail. Like I said, a segment on a morning show where for example a cute little green Heineken bottle is followed from its birth through the consumption of its precious contents to the green bin to the truck, and then the rest! That would be interesting.

Maybe if I knew more about the process, I’d know the answers to some of my questions like…
--How small is too small when recycling a piece of aluminum foil, does it eventually become cost prohibitive? Same question for bottle caps, both metal and plastic.
--Which is better for the environment…paper or plastic bags at the grocery store? I should add that Montreal supermarkets are ahead of the game in selling affordable, functional, and dare I say fashionable reusable shopping bags for $1 each. My problem is that I can’t seem to remember to bring them with me to the grocery store, partially because I often use them for other purposes. We do reuse a lot of the plastic bags from the grocery store for garbage bags, but many tear just from the contents of the groceries so that they are no longer easily reusable.

Ahh, so many things to learn! It isn't easy trying to be green!

Freewheelin' in Montréal

My mother in law recently gave me her bicycle, which she hadn’t used in years (Merci belle-maman!). The last time I rode a bike was in 1994. Bo has been excited for me to get a bicycle so I can join him on little journeys without the wear and tear on my joints of hiking and even walking around in the city. (Years and years of volleyball and other factors have made me somewhat suddenly “weak in the knees”).

The day after we got it Bo suggested a ride to a “nearby” shopping mall. “It’s only 45 minutes by bike.” 45 MINUTES! I told him he was crazy. I hadn’t even straddled a bike in 13 years and he thought I was just going to be able to hop on for a little jaunt of three-quarters of an hour through the city! I did take the bike to a local asphalt schoolyard and tooled around a bit to get my bearings. The seat needs some adjustments and perhaps replacement, but it turns out that riding a bike after 13 years is well, just like riding a bike!

I’m not overly enthusiastic about riding my bike on the city streets. I’m still getting used to walking the city streets and I see some crazy stuff out there where the cars and bicycles are sharing the road. And I don’t intend to ride my bike on the sidewalk unless I see an extreme need. Bo’s parents also gave us a bike rack for my car, so I’m much more inclined (once the seat situation is resolved), to take the bike to different parks where there are long flat trails shared by bicycles, non-motorized people (and dogs…). The Parc Maisonneuve is not too far from where we live and along the shores of the St. Lawrence River, there are many such parks to explore.

This brings me to the question of cycling attire. The bike Bo’s mom passed on to me is a “women’s bike,” meaning of course that it lacks the highest bar that crosses horizontally on a men’s frame. Seeing it made us wonder why we need two different styles of bike in this day and age and wouldn’t it be simpler to just make one kind of universal frame? Well of course, the missing bar was to accommodate women in skirts right?

Next question…why would a woman today ride a bike in a skirt? Well they do! Everywhere! Women in short, medium, long, flowing, tight and loose skirts are riding bikes all over the city of Montréal. I suppose the long flowing hippy granola bike-riding women are fine. But the short skirts and dresses I see make me scratch my head and go “hmmm?” Of course I never point them out to Bo because I don’t want him to start noticing!

Same goes for the low cut shirts. Now, I've always been sort of modest when it comes to my fashion choices, but when did bicycle-riding women become so provocative? I see cleavage galore on these women and sometimes on other more athletically dressed women who apparently never took the time to stand in front of a mirror and ask themselves “wait, when I lean forward on my bike, am I hanging out of this top?”

So when you see a blond ponytail sticking out of a shiny new red bicycle helmet on a sweatpants-and-turtleneck-wearing woman who is wobbling warily in the bike lane, that’ll be me. You can wave hello, but I may be too freaked-out nervous to notice you, sorry.

You are here.

So, folks have been asking me to post some photos. I don't have enough blogging experience to do this well, and I don't carry around enough extra batteries for my camera to do this often. But I'll be working on fixing that.

This is a picture of downtown Montréal taken last summer from the top of the Mont Royal, the highest point in Montréal. I've been there in the winter too, but I'll save sharing those photos for a colder day.

The other day my beau, I'll call him "Bo," and I went to Vieux (old) Montréal as tourists. We went to the museum of archeology and history at Pointe à Callière and both of us learned a lot: me from reading every single little label of every artifact and Bo from talking at length to two different museum guides, leaving me with plenty of time to read all of the labels.

We saw ruins and artifacts dating from the 1300's (but mostly from the 1600's and 1800's) through this century. They had some cool "multimedia" displays without an excess of lights, bells and whistles, and one in particular with a "you are here" red dot that showed you what your surroundings would look like at certain points in history. It was moving to be standing in the spot where the city of Montréal was founded. I had a similar feeling to when I visited my first cathedral as a college student in Europe, the Strasbourg Cathedral. It was the feeling of being a part of the history of the future and of the weight of all the footsteps that had passed in that very place before mine.

It would be nice to feel that way more often, in my daily life, to think about the people who rented this apartment before me dating back to the 1930's, for example. Bo and I were walking on a nearby shopping street and we paused to notice the facade of a church that we can see from our apartment. We were talking about how the combining of parishes had changed the church's name over the years. Just then a woman, who told us she was 86, joined our conversation as she rested her cane against a nearby bench and sat down. She had been baptized in a church on the same site some years before the current building was built in 1931. She has lived in Rosemont, the neighborhood of Montréal where we live, her whole life. To me, after only two weeks of living here, I find my view of that church from our apartment to be something special...and it is.

8 Random Facts

Shabbydoll, my dear friend and inspirational blog mentor from afar tagged me…I am therefore, according to the laws of blogosphere, obligated to tell you 8 random facts about myself. Hope you’re entertained! (Shabbydoll—your #6 blew my mind!)

1) I am a total snob about chocolate, beer, and bagels (among other things). Only the best for Bijou.

2) As you will see, I am somewhat less of a snob about movies…I’m proud to admit that I own Grease and Grease 2 on VHS. (Believe it or not, I own Kingpin on VHS and DVD—ahem, not so proud!)

3) Again with the movie theme, I can just about recite Grease, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club by heart along with my favorite onscreen characters!

4) Moving violations: I was pulled over for speeding three times in the last twelve months and once for a blown out headlight, and although all the charges were reduced or cleared, I paid almost $400 in fines. I haven’t had a year like that since 1993. Just call me "Leadfoot"...

5) I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue. Great party trick, until you’ve seen it a thousand times.

6) I LOVE “Secret Santa” gift giving at work. My last job didn’t have it and that gave me the blues.

7) I have six holes pierced in my ears: four in the left and two in the right. I’m not sure why.

8) Similarly, I have a tattoo that only goes half-way around my left ankle. Did I think that being asymmetrical would make me cool or non-conformist or something? (No, just cock-eyed actually, but this could explain why I keep walking in circles…)

I’m tagging whitneyarlene and dougfine. Go get ‘em!

Cat Ladies

So, I am now living in Canada!

My cat made it too. My cat, who I now often refer to as Houdini, was the central missing character in a typical moving day crisis. Chico, his real name, found an unfindable hiding spot somewhere in my house, where he stayed for about 12 hours! In the meantime, I had assumed he had gotten out because all of the doors were open for hours. The crisis reached its peak during a nasty thunderstorm where I was left crying and thinking that I must be the worst pet owner ever after letting this happen to my poor "defenseless, never-been-outside-before" cat.

To make things worse, my neighbor came over to warn me about a vicious grey fox he had seen in the area. He was wielding a baseball bat to defend himself en route. Thank goodness I still had my internet connection because I promptly googled grey foxes and found that neither humans, nor cats were likely prey.

Chico finally showed himself, dirty and stressed (wait--was that him or me?) at around 11 pm.

The rest of the moving experience went smoothly. My worldly goods are now in storage waiting for a visa to set them free...

Chico was again a concern when I crossed the border. Even though I had crossed the Canadian border many times before with a cat, I figured that this would ironically be the time that it was not OK. So armed with his papers from a recent trip to the vet I went ahead, bumper to bumper as usual.

Just my luck, "la douanière" was a purple eye-shadow wearing, cat-loving woman! She proceeded to tell me at length about her five cats and their roles in her and each other's lives and eventually said "OK, have a nice day..." That was basically it! Chico's reluctant presence definitely made the last leg of the journey a pleasure.

Unfortunately Chico has done little more than hide behind the washing machine since, but he'll come around. Like me, he's getting used to the new noises of city living.

Bienvenue!

Welcome to my new blog.

I am moving to Montreal in a few days and I have decided to chronicle some of the happenings of my "new" life. These happenings may be funny (weird and ha-ha), interesting, cultural, linguistic and much, much more.

My new life also includes a new (and first) marriage (my husband is a native of the Quebec City region), a new job, and downsizing from a house I owned in NY state to a rental apartment.

My cat is moving with me too. (He doesn't speak French, but I do.)