Nasty surprise...

When I got home today, I discovered half of the stuff I had in my bathroom lying in my kitchen, while my bathroom towel was hanging over my bedroom's door.
At the beginning I thought somebody had broken in. However, I immediately realized I had actually unlocked the door before entering my apartment and nothing was really missing. The mystery was resolved when I got into my bathroom.
As I looked up in the ceiling, I realized there was no ceiling to look at in the first place. My guess is that, something broke up in the apartment upstairs (probably a water pipe ) , there was a leak,people came, replaced the damaged pipes, but had to destroy my ceiling in the process. And all that happened in the 5 hours I was away....
What really annoys me (up to now, since I do not know when my ceiling will be repaired), is that no one left a note about what happened and no one could be found to give me an explanation.
Instead, someone thought it was proper to dispose a cup of coffee in my sink, while I had two trash bins in my apartment, in very prominent positions, one in the bathroom and the other in the kitchen....
Guess whom I will be talking to tomorrow morning.....

Having said that, I certainly had a better day than these people. No comments there; really. What happened at Dawson College was just terrible....

Things that can happen when you play frisbee......

The weather was good today, so Émile, Moti and I decided to go play frisbee at the Mont Royal, earlier this afternoon.
Overall, the game was uneventful excluding:
a) my incapacity of catching and throwing properly the frisbee partially because of lack of practice, mostly because of too much caffeine in my bloodstream, that made that frisbee appearing threatening sometimes)

b) Two guys who started fighting with each other (reason remains unknown)

and C)

As we were playing, Émile (I think he was the first to realize what was going on) noticed a small single engine plane coming from west, flying really low, I have to admit. As we turned our heads, we watched that plane making a turn north over Parc Avenue and flying lower and lower and lower until.... it LANDED on Parc Avenue. There was a big noise as the plane hit the ground, probably from its left wing hitting a road sign.
We immediately run to see what was going on (and to take some pictures, Émile has his camera, I had my cell-thus the poor quality-). When we got there, there were a lot of people gathered and some policemen have already shown up.
As you can see from the pictures, the plane was almost intact; only its left wing was a bit
damaged and a window was reported broken:







What was completely remarkable is that, thank God, no one got hurt. I mean, Parc Avenue on a sunny Sunday afternoon is not the best place that one could land a plane. But so it happened that a) the pilot was extremely skillful (to remain calm, after an apparent engine failure; there was no noise from the plane's engine as it was coming down) and b) he was SO LUCKY (and so were we). Lucky, because at that particular moment, the street was empty, there were no cars nor pedestrians walking on the crossing. It was a small miracle; should the circumstances have been slightly different, we could have been talking about a tragedy right now.
Of course, there was a huge traffic jam (police were not that fast to reroute the traffic), but given the alternatives that is nothing.

Eventually, we got back and continued playing frisbee until 6, when we decided to call the day off. As Émile and I started walking up Parc Avenue heading to Mont-Royal Metro, the plane was still there; I guess it's not that easy to tow a plane and, besides, this is not a task that police people are usually trained at.

But, all is well that ends well, and besides from the plane and the sign, no one and nothing else was harmed.

Absolutely amazing

Dream Greek Team...

In an unparalleled exhibition of team effort the Greek national Basketball team has defeated 101-95 team USA in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, currently taking place in Japan. The Greek team (who are the reigning European Champions, since last year, when they won the trophy in Belgrade) although they fell short by 12 points in the second quarter, they managed to overcome and lead the score by 4 (45-41) at half time. The Greek team never lost the lead after that, while their strong defense (they play the best defense in the tournament) and some successful 3-points shots they had, allowed them to lead even with 14 points (69-55). In the last period, team USA made their final attempt to turn the game, but they only managed to reduce the Greek lead to 4 points (99-95), 17'' before the end.
It is the first time the Greek basketball Team qualifies to the final of the World Championship (they have qualified in the final four of the World Championships of 1994 and 1998), and the first time they beat team USA in a official, non-friendly game.
The Greeks face Spain on Sunday in the final, while team USA will face Argentina for the bronze medal.

Α - Π - Ι - Σ - Τ -Ε - Υ - Τ - Ο

Moved in...

So, I have moved in my new place since last Tuesday. (Many, many thanks to my friends Antonis, Emile, Gustavo and Leo who volunteered to help me with the move).

Overall, I am very satisfied with my new place. It is bigger than the old one and much cheaper too. The area (Westmount) is good as well (supermarkets and other amenities are close by), while having access to both metro and a good bus route (24) keeps me close to school. I guess, I do not miss downtown that much. Actually, the only thing I really miss from my old neighborhood is a Lebanese place where, as a regular customer, I always got a drink for free. But, you cannot have everything in life, can you?....

So, for the last days I have been unpacking stuff, but I am only half way there. (I can't believe that it was easier to pack than to unpack). The truth is that I am keeping some stuff in the boxes, since my living room needs some painting job. Although, the apartment is in a really good condition, the person who lived here before me left the place last weekend. So, the landlord barely had time (I got the keys on Monday) top clean the place up. And... red, though my favorite colour, is not the best solution for a living room. I talked to my landlord today, and he told me he can start next week, which is good. In addition, I need to get curtains for the living room and kitchen and some furniture, a dining table and chairs.

But, I guess, I have to wait for my first real, full paycheck for all these....