Left?Right?Burnable?Non-burnable?

We are slowing getting used to staying to the left when walking down the street or riding an escalator and then remembering to stay to the far left so that people can walk past you on the skinny escalators. Connor learned his left from his right this week after many reminders -
'Stay to the left..left...LEFT!' In tunnels there are often arrows on the walls or ground reminding you to stay to the correct side. But then you find yourself walking down the stairs to the subway and now the arrows direct you to the right side. A friend informed me today that she learned you stay to the right when you are walking East and West. You are kidding me! I can't even figure out which way to turn out of my apt. much less know what direction I am going. For that rule, I may just have to rely on the arrows.

Recycling is taken seriously here - which I am happy about. I haven't completely figured it out. For starters, the garbage is divided into burnable and non-burnable. Most things like foil snack packets and plastic baggies fall into the nonburnable or even recyclable - I think. See, I really am not sure. Is recyclable the same as non-burnable? I don't think so. Then there is the other recycling such as cans, plastic bottles and glass and combustible and non-combustible which I thought would be the same as burnable and non-burnable - so confusing. I don't expect anyone to follow my babble. Anyway, we were at McDonald's last weekend and when I went to throw the trash out I had to separate everything from the straws to the ketchup packets to the paper wrappers and cups. It took me five minutes to throw everything away.

I just got back from picking up Nick and Kate at the bus stop, but they preferred to go to staight to another boy's house and play - that is 3 times now this week. He is an only child there with his nanny and apparently well stocked in the Wii and other electronic games that we have yet to fill our lives with. When Jack walks home from work, he swings by their friend's building and picks them up. So nice!

Connor finished his first full day of school today - 8:15 to 2PM 3x/week. He loves going to school - and I love that he is going to school. So I was able to attend a coffee meeting at the kid's school today - alone. Everyone new and not so new were incredibly friendly and helpful. One woman said it perfectly, 'The interview for a friend here is quite short.' So true. It seems we are all in this together.