The young Indian couple is doing the laundry together in the building’s laundry room. The wife tells me this is normally her husband’s job (his only household job, she is sure to point out), but she is being nice today as her husband is home from work and it’s a way to spend time together.
They’ve been living in the apartment building with their two children (5 and 6 years old) for six months, and in Canada for two years today. I wish them a Happy Anniversary. They are still not used to the cold – the lowest temperature where they lived in India was 15 degrees.
They are also not used to the laundry system. They were used to having laundry machines inside their home in India and hanging everything outside to dry.
The wife admits she doesn’t like leaving the apartment and that cleaning is her full-time hobby.
“I like it to look like a museum. When the kids leave for school it starts out like a zoo, soon I will make it look like a museum. When they come back from school, within 15 minutes, it will look like a zoo again. My brother says I should just be satisfied with living in a zoo.”
Elevator conversations are snippets of real-life interactions that Loreli has within her high-rise building that give a glimpse into the lives and insights of her neighbours in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood where she lives. Loreli encourages talking to strangers, but only if they want to be talked to.
In Everything 