My favourite colour…

“Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean that it’s nonsense.”
~Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope

It’s took me three days to figure out how to mail a letter.  I mindlessly drove around town looking for a blue mailbox only to realize that Canadian Post boxes are red.

Granted, we are just in Canada but everything is slightly different and has me a little disoriented. The Celsius thing still gets me.  It’s -2 degrees outside????  I’m never leaving the house again…Wait…double the number and add thirty (Parker’s handy estimation rule)…oh, it’s 26 degrees, not too bad!  It was 0 degrees Celsius the other day and a guy was running along the waterfront without his jacket.  I was impressed.

I also attribute my confusion to living on the third floor of a condo. Everything feels like a process to get going and down to the parking ramp that some days I just don’t want to do it with four kids.

Then there is the recycling program in Halifax (maybe in all of Canada).

Note: Elsa is holding the recyclables, Parker the trash and Soren the organics. Not pictured corrugated cardboard and paper recyclables.

The management company provided us with these “simple” laminated reference cards:

Eventually Parker got tired of me asking the same questions like “is this paper towel soiled enough to go in the organics?” or “where do I put plastic bags?” I finally gave in and read the handouts. Although I greatly appreciate the Haligonians commitment to recycling, I will say it was a bit much to take in our first week and I became paranoid about placing something in the wrong bag/bin. What if someone saw me throw away those strawberry stems??? Then again, Parker taught me another handy rule: “When in doubt, throw it out.”

Then there is the metric system which I think we can all agree just makes sense. Having grown up with the imperial system though, I’m finding it hard to conceptualize how many pounds my 2 kilograms of apples weigh.  Or when I first drove on the freeway…how am I going 110 mph right now???? Wait, that’s km/h.  Whew.  It doesn’t matter anyway because there are never any cops around so I’m just going to drive like I’m in California until further notice.