Giuseppe

Giuseppe drove me home last week. I can't really know for sure if that was his name. I mean, it probably wasn't be he sure looked like Giuseppe. You know, Daniel Day Lewis's Da in the movie In the Name of the Father? The actor Pete Postlethwaite. I loved Giuseppe. He was one of my favourite characters.

So I sat there, at the front of the bus, watching Giuseppe drive. He was older like Giuseppe in the movie. He seemed nervous, clutching the steering wheel in a perfect 10 and 2 position. He took it slow and easy, making full complete stops at every red light or stop sign. That is the great thing about sitting at the front of the bus. You really get to see everything, as if it's you driving. Just me and Giuseppe driving down the 20. Crossing the bridge, leaving the city behind. He smiled over at me as if he knew that I knew who he was, er, looked like.

It made me smile to watch him.

When it was my turn to get off, I smiled at him and said merci. He smiled back and responded appropriately in French.

Ok, so it wasn't the Irish Giuseppe, but it was fun for 20 minutes to pretend that he was.

28 Days...

In three years...

82,500 minutes
1,375 hours
57.29 days

26 days underground

Welcome to my newly formatted blog. Here you will read stories inspired by my experiences using Montreal's public transit system. I have spent a good portion of my three years living here riding on buses and the metro due to my long commute (previously 55 minutes there and back and recently one hour and a quarter). People always ask me- how can you stand it? *Not sure. Why don't you buy a car? *Can't afford it. So instead I answer- It's not so bad. *Yes it is. But really. I can relax. Shut my eyes. Dream. Listen to music. Read. Can't do that in a car. Well, I suppose you can dream in a car but I don't recommend it. Now, I would be lying if I said that I didn't prefer my old commute from back home. *15 minutes by foot. Now that is dreaming. But, life is what it is and we carry on. So I have chosen to put a positive spin on my daily routine and turn it into project?

It's shocking to think how much of my life is spent in transit... literally. I calculated back and determined just how long I have been on the bus. The results made me nauseous. In the last three years I have spent... *you might want to be sitting down for this... 82,500 minutes riding buses or the metro. I based this calculation simply on my day to day commute and taking into consideration six weeks total absence due to annual vacations. That is 1,375 hours! Or even more frightening- 57.29 days. It gets worse. 26 of these days were spent underground, traveling through the tunnels of the Montreal metro. That is disturbing. 26 days wasted staring at people. Sure, reading books or listening to music... but come on, there are better ways to pass our time. Since I moved in July, my commute unfortunately increased to one hour and fifteen minutes twice daily adding on an extra 5.75 days (2 of which were spent underground).

So, in the last three years, I have spent a total 63 days on transit, 28 underground.

Surely there has to be something there to write about.