Homeward Bound

Well folks, it's official. We are moving back to Alberta. We have decided that Edmonton is the best place for us to live. The biggest reason is that pretty much our entire family is there (including a forthcoming niece or nephew!). The exception is my sister, Natasha but we're not moving to England so I guess we have to accept being far away from her. Something else I realized lately is that if we were to plot our friends on a map they would be concentrated in Edmonton and the rest would form a small circle around Edmonton. Do we need any reasons other than those? Well it will be nice to be back somewhere that is familiar. It's also a nice compromise between small, rural Whitecourt and gigantic, metropolitan L.A..

When we were debating where we would live next Asha was fairly adamant that we should move back to Canada. When I asked why she said "because we're Canadians, Mom. That's who we are". Well she's got a point! I've tried to be pretty open-minded and not keep myself in a little Canadian bubble. I have a theory about traveling that when you are in a different country you need to immerse yourself in the country and not obsess about what it's like at home. This means not constantly calculating what time it is at home and converting the price of everything to your native currency. This is particularly helpful for getting over jetlag and basically a necessity if you want to get drunk in Iceland (a beer cost the equivalent of $20!! Maybe that has changed now since their economic crash though.... Melanie??) Anyway, I've tried to do that while we've been here. Yes, rent is ridiculously high here and people complain if it's less than 70 degrees but starting every sentence with "well in Canada..." isn't going to change that. If you're going to move to a new place you have to adapt to your environment.

I've tried to be more than the token Canadian in any given group but it's so hard! Every time I take off my jacket when I get warm at my exercise class the instructor says "Canada's taking off her jacket!". Meanwhile everyone is still cowering from the "cold" in their sweaters and "stocking caps". I want to say "well actually they're called toques" but I'm trying to fit in. I wonder if a person ever sheds their native skin a becomes an actual local. I certainly haven't but it's only been a year.

I have changed quite a bit over the last year. I'm much more likely to run a yellow light (you need to here or run the risk of getting rear-ended). I'm much more friendly and likely to talk to strangers. I made a decision when we moved that I would have to push myself out of my comfort level a bit if I was going to get to know anyone. It's kind of ironic that we think that Canadians are nicer than Americans but it took moving here for me to becoming a friendlier person! I guess most of the things that have changed about me have nothing to do with being in the U.S. and more to do with moving somewhere, anywhere new.

There are lots of things about me that I don't think will ever change. You don't realize how the political and social climate of the country where you are brought up affects you. For instance, universal healthcare is such an ingrained part of me that I continue to be shocked that it can be any other way. I know that Canada's healthcare system is far from perfect but I think there's something about the nation taking care of the health of its people that is comforting. If we were to stay here David and I would most likely have health care coverage through our employers which is essentially the same as having it covered by the government. But even if we had adequate coverage I would find it hard to forget about the millions of people who do not.

Well this post has turned into one giant tangent and isn't at all what I intended it to be. I guess I just wanted to let you all know that we're officially moving back and we are ALL thrilled about it. My sister said recently that she's glad I'm moving back even if I'm not but the truth is that we wouldn't be moving back if we didn't want to be. We will need to be reminded of that regularly when we're up to our eyeballs in snow and cold. I guess we won't be able to complain about the weather anymore, will we!