Living in Canada

One month has already gone since we arrived. It has been a busy but exciting time. The principal of my school and his wife (Tom and Anita) have been very helpful picking us up from the airport, showing us around town and guiding us to the best places to buy essentials. Tom even helped me purchase our family car. We have now purchased two cars at reasonable prices although the insurance is a real killer in Canada. Prices are extremely high (our family car cost over $2000 to insure for 12 months!)

Our family wagon under newly fallen snow

The landscape is beautiful. We are in the northern Okanagan region in a valley with beautiful mountains all around as well as many lakes. The view from the balcony of our house is magnificent. The climate is very cold with snow falling regularly. They have had some unseasonably high falls this winter. The roads are usually well maintained although they get very slippery and icy. They have something called 'black ice' which is simply a thin layer of ice that forms on roads which is difficult to see and very slippery. You hear of cars regularly on the news that are in a ditch or have rolled. Driving on the other side of the road is challenging in these conditions. The hardest part is when the lines get covered with snow and your can't see what lane you are in. We just drive very slowly and get regularly abused by impatient drivers which should be driving slower anyway!

The view from our balcony

School has been great. The kids are friendly, welcoming and have a great sense of humour which is good if they are going to be in my class. My class is Grade 6/7 and they are a wonderful bunch. I have enjoyed getting to know them. They are a very social group and love to interact and talk. I like to do a lot of cooperative learning activities which they participate in very well. They seem happy to work in any groups I put them in. We are doing a unit in Social Studies that compares Canadian culture to another culture which obviously will be Australian. I am probably learning more that they are as I research and prepare lessons on Canadian culture.

I have been ice skating but am yet to ski. I hope to do this in the next couple of weeks.

The front of our house with snow falling

 

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