Homesick
 

Hello British Expats,

I've read this forum, on and off, for a few months. I've found it very interesting to read about various people's experiences of Canada but have never contributed to the discussions since I'm not a 'British Expat' and would have felt a bit out of place (I'm actually the opposite; I'm a Canadian woman living in Britain).

But anyway...

I've lived in England for three years and I'm going through a bout of homesickness. I know what I love and miss about Canada - it's all I'm thinking about at the moment :( as I'm sure any expat can appreciate. It's been two years since I've been back to Canada for a visit and I feel it's easier to remember what I miss than what I don't, making my feelings of homesickness seem worse than they have to.

So I'm asking you a favour - what irritates you about Canada? I feel like I need to add some balance to my homesickness.

Thank you,
Ms Wasabi

Re: Homesick
 

The politicians - especially at the federal level.

Re: Homesick
 

Nothing. At least nothing that comes to mind. Not much help to you I know but what can I say.

I'll ask the wife if she can think of anything.

Re: Homesick
 

The same things that irritated me in the UK ... bad driving ... rude people ... unreliable tradespeople ... office politics.

The one unique thing about Canada that still gets me is distances ... the place is so bloody big ... there's no equivalent to nipping over to France for a bit of foreign culture ... western north america is culturally homogenous ... you have to get to Quebec or Mexico to see something different ... the sea is a 12 hour drive away ... it's all too big.

Sit down and write yourself up two lists ... what you REALLY do miss that you can't get in the UK (I still say chocolate is just chocolate) and try a bit harder to write your list of stuff you relly don't miss.

All we really miss are friends that we got to know well over almost 20 years ... we dropped off people's radar really fast and that was a surprise ... there are people we though were really good friends that we just haven't heard from ... we've only been here for three years so it's hard to get a 20 year friendship going.

If you really miss friends, family & familiarity ... go back for a visit ... it'll probably cure the homesickness.

Reading the BBC news on the web does the same for me .... I don't miss anything enough to get me back over there :D

Emigration scrambles your brain and does odd stuff to your memories ... you just need to ground yourself and get your brain back in check.

Re: Homesick
 

Okay, just asked the wife.

1. Government bureaucracy. For example 9+ months to get a birth certicate... :scared:
2. Traffic lights on red for too long
3. Paul Martin

Re: Homesick
 

Paul Martin is worse than George Dubbya or Blair??

Re: Homesick
 

Celine Dion ....

Re: Homesick
 

What do you miss about Canada aside from Family and friends. Where abouts did you come from?

Re: Homesick
 

I don't live there yet, but communist fences in Canada annoy me. And that in some modern housing developments, the mail is delivered to a central point a mile down the road. How are you meant to read your utility bills in your pyjamas there?Another thing that annoys me is the smugness at not being American (in the U.S. sense), which goes hand-in-hand with people often thinking that they are American. Such as people saying "We think of Benedict as a traitor's name" (with referenec to Benedict Arnold and my first born whose name is Benedict).

Re: Homesick
 

Just makes me think of eggs ....

Buy an old enough house in Calgary and you get mail delivered to your front door ... you even get a regular postie.

How many times have you been over?

Re: Homesick
 

That's okay. I'm not Britsh either and I feel fully accepted by my "brit friends". FWIW I'm a dutch wannabe expat.


Speed limit of only 100 km/hr. It takes ages to get somewhere.

Re: Homesick
 

][/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forum....and don't feel out of place at all....I'm totally out of place here being born, raised and living in Canada.....but forced my way on the forum on the grounds that my mom/folks were from Ireland.....and generally speaking the people here are a good groups of folks - with a great sense of humour.....they have somehow even managed to tolerate me.....so don't worry.....about being an outsider.......

What part of Canada are you from?
:D

Re: Homesick
 

Have to agree with the traffic light thing. There are WAY too many traffic lights in Toronto. They create avoidable grid lock.

Infact, I hate the way you can't go anywhere without sitting in traffic.

I hate the lack of paid holiday time.

I hate the crappy T.V.

I hate the way that you have to pay to recieve calls on a mobile phone!!

I hate all the bank charges, they charge you money for making transactions, for keeping money in the account, etc.

Int.

Re: Homesick
 

It's really put me off if mail wasn't delivered to the door. That might be illogical, but one needs some way of reducing one's options. But $$$ might be a more powerful determinant.

I've been to Canada 6 or 7 times, I think. Every time to Ontario. The only time I ventured beyond Ontarion was a day or two after we were married, when we stayed in Hull (arse end of Ottawa, it seems, just over a river) because we needed to get Mrs Rhodes's permanent residence of the UK sorted out at the British High Commission.

Re: Homesick
 

In Calgary you don't have a choice for new properties ... they all have mail collection points ... our house is about 20 years old and has a mail box ... couldn't face driving to get my mail at -35C either.

Most of our first trips were there too ... so glad we gambled and came over to Alberta.

Re: Homesick
 

Wow. So many replies already!

I genuinely appreciate your feedback Glaswegian though I completely disagree with the above! Well, yes I agree Canada's big (I love that though), I disagree that western North America is culturally homogenous. Yeah, I know what you mean, "mainstream culture" is pretty much the same throughout, but there are amazing cultural experiences in western North America that one can not experienced in Europe and I've got the scars to prove it :D.

I know what you mean.

Ah, you've met them then ;).

So true. Thanks for your reply.

Re: Homesick
 

Only if you stick to it;)

Re: Homesick
 

Many, many things but mainly just the familiarity of being 'home' - understanding the subtleties of conversations, understanding cultural references and jokes, my favourite restaurants, etc... I also hate feeling like a foreigner (or worse, being assumed that I'm a Yank).

I'm from Victoria, BC.

Re: Homesick
 

So.....am I......we are finally having some nice weather...after lots of rain....last few days sunshine in the afternoon.....but gets cloudy and really cool by late afternoon. My raspberries and strawberries plants have just finished producing, although still picking some spinach from the greenhouse.

My husband and I were at a party last night and had to scrap our windshield before we could drive........

Where did you live in Victoria?

Re: Homesick
 

With pride! :)

Re: Homesick
 

If you don't freeze to death when going to collect them, that is.

Re: Homesick
 

Ah! :)

Ok - you can be quiet about fresh pickin's from the garden! ;) My sister's just emailed me a pic of a raspberry pie she made from her crop - that's just cruel I tell ya!

I've lived all over Victoria - James Bay, Fairfield, Esquimalt, Saanich, Oak Bay, Fernwood and near the university. I lived for many years before moving to Britain (and still have the condo) in Cook Street Village. Damn, I miss it all!

How long have you lived in Victoria? Where did you move from? Do you like Victoria? Where abouts in Victoria are you?

Re: Homesick
 

I know. Doing 115 km/hr seems to be no problem at all. My cousin's wife, a police officer, only bothers with those that exceed the limit with more than 25 km/hr.

Re: Homesick
 

65 in a school zone will get you in trouble though! There are bits of the 401 west of London where 125 will get attention too.:(

Re: Homesick
 

I was reffering to the highways. I know about the school zones. It's only fair the be more strict in areas with a higher potential risk.

Re: Homesick
 

In Victoria we have police patrolling the major school areas with radar.....and if you're caught - $125.00 fine - first offence.....almost doubles after that.

Re: Homesick
 

In Ontario, exceding the 100 km/hr limit with 15 km/hr costs you CAD 52.50.

Re: Homesick
 

[QUOTE=hot wasabi peas]Ah! :)

Now doesn't that make your decision for you about returning to Victoria?

I'm originally from Manitoba and Ontario. Decided to come to UBC for marine biology and after 6 years at university, knew I could never move back, BC was the place for me and I wanted to be close to Botanical Beach...even though my future husband at the time wanted to stay in Ontario close to family and friends.

We live in the Fairfield area with our 2 small kids 2/4 overlooking Gonzales Bay - bought an old house while the real-estate prices were still reasonable. I'm a partner in a firm that does consulting work on marine biology, waste management, etc. My husband is an environmental engineer (use to be a wildlife biologists - but deserted us poor biologists)....and also is a partner in a consulting firm.

We love living in Victoria - although really miss family and friends in Ontario where we both grew up. We seriously could do without the rain, rain and more rain....I must tell you.....sometimes would really rather have snow.

Hope to hear from you soon again......and perhaps one day you and your family can move back to Canada and especially Victoria

Re: Homesick
 

Communist fences? What are you talking about?


There is a very good reason for that, so let me explain it. Canadians are tired of seeing Americans purporting to be Canadians when they travel abroad. So Canadians are proud that they don't have to lie about who they are and like to make it clear that they are not simply Americans pretending to be Canadians. Americans are very patriotic at home, but abroad they often wear the maple leaf and say they are Canadians.

I'm not an American, I'm a Canadian. Honest.. please believe me... I swear I'm telling you the truth... I have no reason to lie... because... well... I'm not an American, even though I am from North America! :D

Afterall, it's not the fault of Canadians that Americans have a bad reputation in many countries around the world. The dumb buggers just won't do what we tell them. :p

Re: Homesick
 

Not so long ago.....Click here!

Re: Homesick
 

I am talking about Glaswegian's fence.

http://britishexpats.com/photopost/s...cat=500&page=1

Re: Homesick
 

That must be the perimeter of a park - they want to use something strong that will last and requires no maintainence.

Re: Homesick
 

Building regs require them if you back onto a park in Calgary ... on the plus side it makes it easy to retrieve stray footballs, children, etc ... on the minus side it's about secure as a wet paper bag.

I always thought the only communist fence in north america was the US/Canada border ;)

Re: Homesick
 

Yes, and the Americans are re-enforcing it. Like the song... back.. back.. to the USSR....

Re: Homesick
 

The ancient Scots got the Romans to build a nice big wall ... it kept the English south of the border for years ... if we can get the yanks build one too, we can just brick up the doors on our side and keep them where they belong ....

Re: Homesick
 

Glas what's the railway track in the left of your fence photo?? Is it for the steam train in the other shot ?? most folks who have a garden railway don't do it 1 to 1 scale! :eek: ;)

Re: Homesick
 

That's our arbor ... I'm trying to persuade grape vines to survive the winter ... they're meant to be zone 3 hardy, but I think the blast of the chinook wind in our south facing garden dries them out ... everything above ground dies off ... same thing happens to the clematis.

Re: Homesick
 

Yeah, it's probably the chinooks. A few things can't grow because of them. The warm air makes some plants think 'Hey, that's a nice warm breeze - it's spring! Let's bud out!' and they do and then the chinook's gone and I guess some plants in that budding out stage are vulerable to cold so they croak. Or sometimes it's the warmth that melts away the snow that was insulating the plant in the first place and once it's gone - another dead plant. Either way, it's why sugar maples don't grow there - I tried and tried :rolleyes:

Re: Homesick
 

I don't see how grape vines could survive in Alberta. I would soak them with water so that they freeze in a block of ice, and cover them with lots of soil. The climate in the winter is too cold, plus they will dry out due to sublimation.

Re: Homesick
 

Having just spent 1 1/2 hours on web-sites for Bell Canada and Sprint Canada, giving up and then spending another 1/2 hour on the telephone and still not understanding the true cost of everything I need (wireless, home phone and internet)....I miss England. What I have managed to figure out so far is going to cost me twice as much as it did in England!

Boy, the Canadians like to talk and talk and talk and talk BEFORE you actually get to speak to someone. I was screaming "shut up just let me speak to an operator!"