As so we begin...

And so we began our new life in Burnaby, British Columbia. P is tired, I’m excited and lil Lanes is just confused. Where’s my stuff? Where’s my peeps? That’s what she wanted to know when we moved. After all three of us managed to get gloriously sick in Seattle, we had to cancel our flight to Vancouver, and my sister and her uncle-in-law, our Uncle Gene, drove us up the day after.

Turns out it was a blessing in disguise since we were thus spared the long wait at immigration. Lanes was delighted with the beautiful drive (having enjoyed it so much that she fell asleep with her mouth open most of the time—much to my relief).  P and I were delighted since we no longer had to worry about weight limits and our baggage and finding cabs and lugging car seats.

M was told we were going to Canada. Having no concept of geography, this made no sense to her but when she saw the greenery at the border, she decided Canada was one big fabulous park, which I guess is an ok description.  We were presented with three Canadian flags after we were processed and the big red maple leaf with the bold red stripes on the side just appealed to something in Lanes and she ran around the grounds shouting with glee—like she was auditioning to be the poster child for immigration. My sister was so amused she snapped about a dozen or so pictures of that.

We got to the hotel and Lanes and I were really sad to see my sister and Uncle Gene go. We were also exhausted. The rest of the days went by quickly. We set about finding an apartment. That was our priority. We also tried to get our banking sorted out and were astounded at the level of incompetence and confusion at our branch. It is nothing like the branch in Colombo. Customer service? More like customer disservice. The person we are dealing with is just so darn nice though. Makes it hard to tell her she is not dealing with a full deck of cards.

Any old how we were lucky and found an apartment in a couple of days and by day five, we moved in. Our container came in the next week and we were so eager to set up, within two days we unpacked and sorted everything out. Then realized maybe we should have sent some more stuff.

We are doing a LOT of waiting. Waiting 21 days for the folks to come and fix our internet, cable and
telephone (apparently one can live without these things—it’s not pleasant, but can be done), waiting 12 days for the folks that brought our container here to come and take away the boxes(as per our agreement) and their doilies, which they left behind. Waited ten days for our SIN cards (fair enough), waiting 8-10 weeks for our PR cards, without which we cannot do our driver’s license. But we have only 90 days to use the international license, and right now tests are booked up till December. I don’t know how that will pan out. I’ll worry about that 60 days from now. I’m sending good vibes to the Canadian post that our cards will come soon. Waiting perpetually for our credit cards to come in. Without which, we can’t do anything as we have no credit history. Waiting 30 days to get out of the mobile phone contract because they charge for everything. Next thing we know we will be billed per second just for breathing.

P is attending seminars on how to find jobs in Canada. I hope he just finds a job. Got some good tips on how his resume should be and some different angles to go for so I guess that’s something. He is treating finding a job, like a job, which I guess you have to.

As soon as we moved in to the apartment we found a preschool nearby for Lanes, as she was getting rather annoyed with her situation. They had one spot available and we jumped on it. On the first day she was hesitant to leave me. She has been scared that I might disappear since everyone else in her life did. She checks closely to see where P or I am all the time.

Another girl started the same day as her and that little girl was crying. Fortunately (I know that’s terrible), Lanes was so worried about that little girl she left me to go and investigate and comfort her. I took the opportunity to back away. She came running to me and asked if I would come back later. I said I always do and so Lanes merrily went to class and that was that. She has her moments though.

Some of the other moms drive me up the wall though. A rather snotty lot. I don’t know if it’s because we’re new, or Lanes is the only brown child in the school (fortunately Lanes is at that lovely age where she sees no differences between people—if only we all stayed that way) or if it’s because I walk her to school (looking rather frazzled since it takes me 15-20 minutes to get there and I always forget to brush my hair).

There are four or five of them that annoy me. All are cookie cutter versions of each other. Brown hair, drive SUVs, about three kids a piece, and super skinny. Like their stomachs caved in with each birth (perhaps that’s what annoys me the most). And the other kids who are waiting with them are always immaculately dressed and clean. How annoying is that?????????? Oh and there is another snotty one, blonde with Mystic Pizza hair, not a size zero, and always terribly late. We met her in the mall the other day and she looked away!!

Any old how they used to annoy me because not only would they not smile or say ‘hi’, they would deliberately look the other way or blankly into the distance, building a wall of conversation around themselves so that even if I tried to initiate the smile or the greeting, I could not. Now that’s just rude.
The other moms have been pleasant and spoken to me since. So that’s been nice.  And I like the vexation caused by the stepford moms because it helps me jet propel myself up and down the slopes with Lanes’ tempetuous stroller, but what made me feel really happy was hearing snippets of conversations like ‘now I can sit on the sofa and have two hours of tv to myself’. So at least they are thinking like me, even the cookie cutter moms.

On the plus side, we made friends with our neighbor. P spoke to her a couple of times and I met her in the laundry room. She was furiously scrubbing the dryers and came and scrubbed mine. I was highly flummoxed that an elderly person was cleaning for me, but then 2% of me was relieved that it was being cleaned. She was talking and talking and although I really had to get back upstairs, I waited since she did clean my dryer after all, even if I didn’t initially want it cleaned (now I have all these unwanted ideas about the cleanliness of the washer dryers, but it sure beats the laundromat).

Turns out the lady is from Thailand!! I spoke to her in Thai and she was delighted (as was I). She pops in every now and then with news of the apartment and bowl of soup, whether we want it or not:)  So I have taken to returning her bowls with whatever we have in the house, whether she likes it or not:)  Lanes has taken a great liking to her because when they first met, she gave her a doll and loads of chocolate. She loves going to visit ‘aunty G’ because she is sure she lives in a toy/candy store. She puts in requests for what she would like ordered for next time. Luckily, Aunty ‘G’ finds it amusing.

Aunty G was hoping I’d be a whiz in the curry department and was rather shocked to know I just started cooking. I have been surprised to find I like the kitchen. I don’t enjoy cooking, but I’m not scared of it anymore. And my roast chicken is delicious, if I do say so myself. P likes my mashed potatoes (made from scratch with a special secret ingredient). My repertoire is strictly Western at the moment.

Other than that we take great enjoyment in little things. Like the fabulous scenery. Lovely pine trees and mountains. Going for drives or just on the bus/train on sunny days. Walking. Or just putting sugar out and finding NO ANTS (or worse, roaches) a couple of hours later. Our building allows pets, and there are many dogs. I miss Muttley greatly. It makes me wish I had a job involving animals. But I guess that will have to wait till I get Lanes sorted (and P had a proper job).

Lanes has got taller and rowdier. She is no longer timid. I don’t know what happened. This also means she gets in trouble a lot more. Just today she was told not to do things that would result in her falling down. After 4pm, she feel down three times. Will she ever learn? So that’s our life so far.

If you are reading this, we no longer are waiting for our cable, internet, phone. So that can be scratched off our list.