Canada’s not only putting explicit health-harm warnings on cigarette packages, but printing them on each cigarette’s rolling paper too–in English and in French. I suppose if you’re going to suck in nicotine and tobacco particulates, ya might as well huff that fine, fine, toxic burnt ink residue too.… [Read More]
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Crowds of Summer
Things are busy. Manon and I are both taking six hours of French classes per week, along with homework and the usual quotidian grind.
Summer is a glorious but brief season, so Montréalers are anxious to be out and about when the weather’s good.… [Read More]
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Butterfly Week
The summer season is short here. You can see the changes in things from day to day. This week, it’s the butterfly’s time.
Up at the top of Mont Royal, it was a hot and very very humid day.… [Read More]
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Why Montréal is So Green
This. All happening right now. And a tornado warning.
The lights have flickered a couple times, but we’re still empowered. Charging all the devices while we can, though.
It appears the building across the street was tagged last night.… [Read More]
This past week, I attended an activity with a local intercultural group: learning to kayak. Now, this group is big into canoe camping and white-water kayaking, but they have to entice us newbies into the sport a little more gently.… [Read More]
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Something in the air…
There’s a lot in the air these days. Unfortunately, a lot of what’s in the air is smoke, pollen, and other scary things.
The wildfires in Canada are in the headlines around the world, although somewhat surprisingly, a lot of the stories seem to take a folksy “ah, whoops, it’s like bad weather” perspective.… [Read More]
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Here’s the Church, addendum
I just read today that one of the churches featured in the “Maintenance Problems” part of my post was damaged by a fire. It’s expensive keeping a building maintained, and according to the article, the timeline for permits and planning when repurposing a church takes years.
At approximately 3 pm today Canada’s population reached 40 million people (according to Canada’s population clock, which really looks more like test tubes….disturbingly).
By comparison, California has a population of about 39 million packed into a lot less geographical space–lookee here**:
This is one of the many reasons we’re in Canada.… [Read More]
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Maple Report #11
Bibitte à Sucre
Montréal’s Jardin botanique is a beautiful place to stroll. It has lush greenhouses, winding outdoor paths, and a gourmet cafe, but the admission is pricey if you have to pay the rack rate.… [Read More]
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Protecting the Language
Canada is constitutionally a bilingual nation, and there are laws to protect that status. For example, all prepackaged food products sold in Canada must be properly labeled in both official languages.… [Read More]