Hello!
I thought what better way to begin this than with my first introduction to the glorious land of maple-flavoured-everything and so many moose-related novelty items yet so very few in sight (even up north!)
British Accents are not just for the States.
- Yes, like any typical tourist, extended-visitor or ex-pat something about accents was bound to crop up. Blessed without having the twang a lot of people from South London tend to have (though the odd innit, whether mine or inflicted onto my Canadian boyfriend, is always bound to creep into my vernacular) I found myself repeating my self...whether this meant being unable to find the 'loo' quickly or having to repeat my coffee order simply for the barista's own amusement...did, of course, happen. Perhaps I was expecting this of Northern America, perhaps I wasn't- at least in Canada. It didn't grow thin on me by the time I went home, and was even told I was picking up Canadianisms- much to my dismay I am still prone to the odd use of 'store' or 'pants' or even 'purse' not meaning where I keep my coins! However, when my next foray into the blustery land occurs (this time in summer, thank goodness) it shall include a lot more immigration processes and delving in Ottawa's work-place and who knows the effects this may have or how much repetition and lost-in-translation slang run-ins I will have the patience for ('bumming a fag' comes to mind..and sends me barrelling into a ball of cringe quite spectacularly).
Over 2cm of snow does NOT always have to mean life shutting down completely in a city....
(Yeh yeh...Canada's the Great white North, the Uk is not, I get it...)
This is another quite typical one, which may come across snarky at my homeland's expense but really United Kingdom, whether it is still snowing in April or not is another story for another day but 1cm of snow should not shut down your entire infrastructure, especially transport. It has snowed more than a inch or two every year since I can remember in England, and if anything this has decreased, and I must say being able to enjoy myself, do day-to-day errands and not fear my entire journey will be buried [literally even] should there be a scattering of the white stuff was so novel, but grew thin when I returned, used to it, and realised that yes...10 minutes of snow on the British coast WAS going to delay my train to work by up to 45 minutes. I also grew a slight immunity to cold weather which when faced with insanely out of season snow fall and 60kmph winds on my return to the UK, meant I was at least reasonably content, if not puzzled, breezing down the road in a thin jumper, my fluffy coat and a coffee gripped in my hands- sans gloves.
It also meant I had the bitter desire to take photos of every 'Transport is running on time' sign from the O-train and buses alike to point something out here...now if it could be spring soon too, that'd be lovely.
Boys are messy and I am done with student living, perhaps...
This is one to tread carefully with, as I adore my boyfriend and his friends were some of the most intensely welcoming and generous people I have met to date, but have I ever lived with a partner...4 boys....students while I'm in a limbo of being denied the chance to work/study and funds which would not support constant to-ing and fro-ing and 'trips away', no, is the short answer.
Things take getting used to but despite the sink clogs and the 5am shouting at Call of Duty I have come to realise that the somewhat snooty feeling in the back of my head of being 'so done with house-shares and student life' has actually taken a back seat now. As the practicalities of moving there for a year, with a lot of uncertainty about where anything will go afterwards, come to the forefront of my life here I realise that the idea of house-sharing and being able to work and earn my own way and independence without the extremity of living alone, especially in London (and thus perhaps, get to explore western Canada, something I've been craving since a good friend wittered on about Banff...multiple times, despite my constant-stating that I'd be nowhere near there) is immensely exciting and not so off-putting any more.
Plus the people I met, well, that's another story for another time. For now, I will just say, they are some of the best people I have met, and I am sure there will be many more to meet- these new friendships to develop and I miss everyone there, a lot.
I love being off the grid.
My Christmas adventures up to the North were everything people said they would be ...and a lot more, especially where the quiet little town of Dryden came into play. No phone signal, no wifi, and having to be driven everywhere, for a 23 yr old used to growing up in London with it's sprawling tube map- which incidentally, has wifi now(!), and night buses a'plenty- where I'm never 140 characters or an instant message to the smartphone away from a social life or piece of gossip, should have been off putting right? Not so much, it would seem.
Excepting, perhaps, my birthday which fell on the day of our 10 hour journey to Dryden from Ottawa international via Toronto Billy Bishop airport and Thunder Bay International [one flight to America does constitute an international airport apparently] I barely felt the need to reach for the phone or social networks, and it was nice that to contact someone I had to make the effort for once, instead of everything being so instantaneous This was of course a lot easier due to my boyfriend's father's incredible generosity with me calling out of the continent to talk to my mum in the UK.
Days slipped easily by with, again let me emphasize, a lot of snow, skiing in the 'back yard', morning bird-watching in a log house drinking way too much coffee (because some things in my life will never chang) and 3 layers of gloves. Not to mention chasing a marten with my camera every once in a while and a FANTASTIC birthday cake and one-too-many pecan tarts...
It also meant catching up with friends back home a lot more interesting as there were none of the 'every day' banal updates Facebook is ever so prone to these days...
I am ready to spend another year in Canada...
I have a weird fascination with the colouring/shape of Canadian currency, even if the 5/10 cents coins are 'back to front ' in that the latter is larger in size/weight than the former, but I digress with a banal fact here.
Expecting not-quite the differences I'd have experienced in Turkey, for example, nor quite the familiarity of Western Europe, I did not know what to expect coming to Canada for the first time, and in such unusual (if amazing) circumstances (to be explored in a later posting).
Whether it was finally getting to see my boyfriend's life back home, the incredible people I met, eating dinner atop the CN tower, or skating and falling plenty on a 6km ice rink [or indeed, river] I had no hesitation and actually lost a lot of sleep, applying to the International Experience Canada visa scheme for 2013/14; since being approved late last month, this will now allow me to go back any time within the next 5 months and 'activate' an open work visa to live/work anywhere in Canada for up to a year.
So...
Now, at home again, racking up money slowly via a quick-paced succession of temp jobs all with varying levels of enjoyment, I am once again scanning the web for insurance, for flights, waiting for my boyfriend's uni work load to decrease and getting excited about jumping on an Airtransat flight from London Gatwick to once again discover Canada, with some new challenges ahead but I am sure, plenty more adventures and memories to be formed.
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