On December 23rd we celebrated our six month-aversary in Canada.
It's funny to think that we left the UK in the height of summer (such that it was) and are now established in Canada in the middle of winter (such that it is).
In those six months we have sold our home, left our village, our friends and our family, uprooted our lives to a new country, found another place to live, got new jobs, bought two new cars, learned to drive on the wrong side of the road, bought winter tires and snow chains, equipped our home with all new electrical appliances, bought an apartment that's yet to be built and exported our small dog half way across the world.
We've opened new bank accounts, got new drivers licences, set up new mobile phones, been on vacation to Oregon and Vancouver Island, gone on day trips to the US and seen around 50 orca whales in the Pacific Ocean.
We have made new friends and kept up with old ones, discovered new shops, new food, new words and challenged ourselves in all kinds of ways we didn't expect.
We took the big things in our stride and found out that the simplest things that we took for granted in the UK are some of the most annoying and complicated things in Canada! We have battled bureaucracy and kept smiling. We have filled in countless forms, explained our immigration status on more occasions than we thought possible and crammed our brains with immense amounts of new "stuff".
It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure.
If you're going to make some changes in your life to deal with boredom or frustration or wanderlust, then emigration is certainly one hell of a way to do it! It might not be Australia, but moving to Canada has turned our lives upside down. What was easy and comfortable and instinctive is now complex and challenging and unfamiliar. Everything is a learning process - from writing a cheque in a new currency to a trip to the supermarket.
It really is like starting over again.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Far from it. We've relished all that's new and exciting. But now seems like a good time to take stock of it all.
One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the distance from the UK. The time difference means that when you feel like having a chat in the evening, everyone in the UK is tucked up in their beds. And when they're ready for a chat, you're still bleary eyed and having the first coffee of the morning. And distance means that you have to get Christmas shopping done in October to stand any chance of getting it there in time!
We've also had to get used to dealing with unfamiliarity. Think about normal life in the UK. You know where everything is and how to find it. You know how to pay for it - and whether it's good value or not. You also know which shops are good for which products. Where the cheapest petrol is - and what grade of petrol you need. Where to go for dinner. Where to go for a day out. And you know how most things work.
Now imagine changing all of that. Imagine having to do your weekly shop when everything looks quite familiar, but is in fact completely different. That's what it was like. It was like the world had shifted slightly on its axis and nothing was familiar anymore. Dollars not pounds. Cups not ounces. Stores not shops. Pants not trousers. They're not huge differences, but different enough to make you pause before doing anything.
It is that unfamiliarity and newness which is both interesting and wearing. It's what makes Canada different - and what we love about it. It's also a bit of challenge - because there's quite a lot of effort involved in just living.
Everything becomes a learning experience. You get invited for dinner. Is it normal to take flowers or wine? Should you take chocolates? And do you dress up or dress down? All those things that you didn't think about in the UK, you have to think about in Canada. It's the expat's curse I suppose - to learn a new culture and a new way of life. But it is also fascinating, intriguing and beguiling. Learning the quirks of the language add to the richness of your vocabulary - which in turn expands your thinking. If you start looking at the reasons for the differences, you begin to learn about what it means to be Canadian and what it means to see the world from a new perspective. That's what I love about living here.
Disconcerting as it can be, Canada has also given us the opportunity to meet new people and build on fledgling friendships. We've seen the depths of kindness people will go to in order to help us settle. We've been overwhelmed by their generosity and willingness to help. They've included us in their lives in a heartbeat, which has been amazing.
We're very lucky.
And now, six months in, we can take stock and begin to think about what our new "normal" will be. We can start to build a routine and begin to feel what the rhythm of our new life will be like. We'll begin to find what has been strange will become normal and what has been a challenge will just become part of everyday life. And with the prospect of a new apartment, we'll start to build our new home here in Canada. We'll learn to love the differences and will slowly stop making comparisons to what our life was like in the UK.
Six months isn't really such a long time is it? It just feels like we've packed a lot into those six months. And despite what I've written, life for us in Canada isn't as radically different as you'd expect. After all, we still have to get up, walk the dog, have some coffee, drive to work, hold down a job to pay the rent, come home and eat, walk the dog some more and watch TV.
But then some things are so staggeringly different.
My morning commute now features the breathtaking view of Mount Baker. It is just such an incredible sight to be surrounded by snow-capped mountains. I would find it very hard to trade those views in for something else. And sitting looking out my office window at three eagles sitting in a tree. Or being able to drive for an hour and go skiing.
The experience we've gained in the last half year has been fantastic and I wouldn't swap it for anything. It is great to be here.
Of course we miss our friends and family. We miss the ease of conversation where so many things are taken as read and don't need to be said. We miss the easy humour and sense of British understatement. We don't always enjoy explaining things that are normal to us, but seem strange to others. We miss knowing where things are and how things work.
But that aside, we love having new jobs and new careers. We love exploring and finding new places and new things. We love the immense and massive beauty of British Columbia. We love having the space to breathe and the space to get away. We love being able to watch our new home being constructed. We love the Fraser Valley and the trees and the mountains and the buzz of downtown Vancouver. We love being able to experience new things, taste new types of food, learn new skills and stumble across new places.
And we are looking forward to sharing some of those things with visitors from the UK. We can't wait to show people around and show them our new home, new country and new life.
Written by FunkyFlorist (British Expats user name)
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On December 23rd we celebrated our six month-aversary in Canada.