About Us

We are in our early -- mid thirties. Tom is a chartered accountant and I am a primary teacher. We have two children aged 5 and 4 and a newly acquired puppy! Although from Ireland and Scotland originally, we had been living in Reading, Berkshire for the last 6 years. Prior to that we had lived in Kuwait so we knew what it was like to live away from home and live in another culture.

Why Canada?

We had visited Canada on honeymoon 8 years ago -- Calgary, the Rockies, Vancouver, Toronto, Niagara etc. with the intention of immigrating at that time. I got cold feet however, and wanted to be in the UK for a while after having just lived abroad. Two kids later, we started getting itchy feet again and rethought moving to Canada and decided to go for it! It wasn't that we didn't like the UK. Reading gets fairly good weather as far as the UK is concerned and lots of our friends were from other parts of the UK so we fitted in well and felt part of the place. With the kids about to start school though, we thought that maybe Canada would be able to offer them and us something more -- cheaper housing, extremes of weather leading to more outdoor activities, less crowded roads -- I have a phobia about traffic jams and completely freak out in them!! The romantic notion of sunny summers by the lake and snowy winters at Christmas definitely appealed! The adventure of it all also felt good.

We had read about the problems people had getting jobs, but rather naively thought we would be ok with our savings (well, equity on the house anyway!) and at least Tom would probably get a job within a few months. We thought that even if he went down a level, that would be fine until he got the all-important Canadian experience.

We chose London because of it's proximity to lake Huron, distance from Toronto (and the traffic) and the fact that it is twice the population size of Reading making it more easy to find work than the more rural areas. I think I would have chosen to live somewhere smaller and closer to water, but we thought there would be absolutely no chance of jobs there!

All in all it took us 2 years from deciding to go, to actually going. During that time we researched extensively on the net, on forums, talking to people who had done it etc. Tom did a research trip. I didn't go because I also hate flying! This was probably our first mistake, which I will explain...

London was what Tom had expected having recently visited so he was fine with it. I hated it! There was a lot more tower blocks than I was expecting and it didn't look anything like the photos on the internet! In fairness though, there were pretty areas too -- tree lined streets, lovely large houses etc. but for some reason they didn't do it for me. I had been excited about going to Canada for two years and had bored my friends senseless about it. I was expecting to feel really happy about finally being there but that feeling didn't come!

We looked around other areas in Ontario but they didn't do it either. Eventually we decided it was probably just me being homesick and that those feelings would come in time -- not to mention the fact that we had just sold our house and all our possessions were half way across the Atlantic by that time!

We decided to think positively and go ahead with our plans to buy a house, get a dog etc. as we had been living in limbo for the last two years and just wanted to settle down, get the kids in to school etc.

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.