brainylady

Oh, Canada

I definitely feel like I've been away for a while. Everything here is familiar, yet I feel a bit removed from it. Mostly, Canada's cracking me up. We're such a bunch of jokers. Has anyone ever undertaken a study of bumper stickers or T-shirt slogans in this country? I drove behind this sticker yesterday: All men are created equal -- poor things. (Then again, I noticed only later that the bumper on my brother's truck -- in which Beatrix and I were transported from Vancouver to the Okanagan last week -- invites other motorists to Follow me to Hooters! Good lord.)

The Canadian Olympic coverage, too, is so Canadian. A friend was joking about a new slogan: "Silver: it's Canada's gold!" Or maybe "Canada: our athletes are good enough for us!"

So I've been here in Ontario for several days now. Today is my third day in my newly adopted town; I have a zippy red rental car, I'm staying in motels, and the apartment hunt continues. I'm happy to find lots of different kinds of restaurants here (African, Indian, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, and Thai, that I've noticed). I've seen women in headscarves and heard people speaking Portuguese. These are all good signs, as I was expecting a very white, homogeneous community. Eastern Canada also cracks me up, in a way that is, I think, specific to me having grown up in the West: over the last few days, for example, I've crossed the Thames River a few times. Jolly good!

Oh, you'll appreciate this! I got an e-mail from my mom today, and Bea is doing fine there, but, my mother reports, "We have to keep the BR door closed at night due to an episode of shredding toilet paper!" That's my girl. :)

OK, as much as I'd love to sit here for hours, I have to go and find a pay phone to set up a couple of apartment-viewing appointments. I want this to be over with soon. I can't wait to unpack. In the last month, I've been on ten different flights and spent time in eight different airports. It's time I had a home again, don't you think? I'm ready for this new life to begin.