Current feelings

Well, we now have a lovely 4-bed house with a large garden in a nice part of town. We are living on a tree lined street with friendly neighbours (they invited us to use their pool!). We even have our puppy! The weather is great now (25 -- 30 degrees with sunshine) although up till now it has been much rainier than Reading which didn't help my initial feelings towards the place! It wasn't much fun living in rented accommodation for 3 months either.

The kids are happy and play outside most of the time. Tom is happy (very laid back guy) and will be delighted once he gets a job. I am still waiting for the excited feelings to start!

I miss the UK and the feeling of belonging that I had in Reading. Although I was a foreigner in Kuwait, I feel more like a foreigner here, which is strange, as this is much closer to our culture! I feel a bit like a second class citizen because I don't feel valued as far as the job situation is concerned. Although I got a Masters degree in the UK, I don't feel like it is worth anything here as I am not Canadian and have not been educated here. I don't really fancy getting any old job for the privilege of being in this country. I want to work as a teacher -- they don't call it a vocation for nothing! If I had to choose between living in the UK doing something that I enjoy for a living, and being in Canada doing something just for the sake of bringing in some money then I would definitely choose the UK.

Another downside about being here is the lack of family doctors available -- can't find one anywhere, which isn't very reassuring with a young family. Annoyingly apart from leaving a great job that my husband had and a good bunch of friends, we left a really good family practice back in the UK!

What we will do next

As I said earlier, it has only been three months (although it feels like much longer) so it is still too early to tell. We intend to give it a year to see how things develop during that time. We also want to experience being part of a community here and find out what it's really like in the winter! If it is all just homesickness on my part, we will hopefully know in a year! Watch this space!

Things we would do differently

Try much harder to get a job from the UK. I know it is hard, but I would rather move to where we got a job first, than chose a place to live first and then look for a job.

Do a research trip to the place you plan to live in. For me, visiting other parts of Canada previously didn't prepare me for moving to London where I had not visited. That should help reduce the culture shock!

Regrets?

Apart from doing things a little differently, I am glad we did it. Even if we go back after a year, it will have been worth it as an experience and I won't have any 'what if?' feelings. I will probably appreciate the UK more than I did. The kids will have gained in experience where they may have missed out academically (haven't been to school since April and driving us mad!) but that can be rectified. Life experience can't be gained in a classroom. You can only make the decisions you think are right at the time for yourself and your family and that is what we have done.

Hope this helps give food for thought for those considering moving to Canada.