As most of you already know, I moved to Canada about 6 years ago from the states. It was hands down the best thing I've ever done in my life. It was exciting, life-changing, and even educational at times. Ignorant to my American ways, I had no real idea what was so different about Canada. I just thought it was probably a cold place to live. I remember school kids joking how Canada was a "generic USA." Or on one more memorable occasion of bringing my husband home to Indiana, we met a friend of one of my family members who shook our hands and said "Canada, its not even a real country." Now not to insult all of my American friends, as I know this person had the IQ of a sandwich and isn't a good representation of all Americans, but nevertheless, I was fully aware of how many Americans viewed Canada, which was with no real education on countries outside their very own.
Here we go.
Moving to another country was no simple feat. To gain permanent residency I needed the proper paperwork, fingerprints, background checks from both the RCMP and the FBI, a medical evaluation with blood work and urine samples, financial information, etc. It was pretty intimidating stuff. After all, it is a completely different country its not like moving to another state.
Now onto the weather aspect. I'm only bringing this up because whenever I tell people from the states that we live in Canada I ALWAYS hear,"isn't it cold up there?" or something along those lines. Now, when you cross the Canadian border it doesn't magically turn into the Arctic where we all live in igloos and ride dogsleds. Where I live in particular is not much different weather than where I grew up. Its close to the same latitude as Chicago. The summers aren't as miserably hot as they were in Indiana (which I don't miss by the way,) but it does get quite hot up here during the summer. We have a pool in our backyard to put things into perspective, you know, right behind our igloo. I live in the Niagara Region of Ontario about 20 minutes or so from Niagara Falls. We are close to Lake Ontario which I find keeps our winters a bit more mild in comparison to the Indiana winters we had. When I lived in Indiana, I remember it getting way below 0 F and that's pretty darn cold. Heck, I remember putting antifreeze stuff into my gas tank to keep the gas from freezing on really cold weeks in Indiana. To get that cold here is a rare thing and to get below that is even rarer, but it can happen. Obviously the more north you get the colder it will get, but where I live its pretty nice.
Something I absolutely love about the area that I live in is all the FRESH FRUIT. This particular area is quite the fruit farming area with strawberries, cherries, peaches, apples, pears, grapes, etc. There are fruit stands and markets EVERYWHERE. In the summertime, I just love driving by a stand on the way home and grabbing fresh peaches or whatever might be in season. I never ever had that back home in Indiana, where all we grew was corn (which don't get me wrong I certainly loved that too.) It was rare to see stands on the side of the road selling fresh produce and here I can think of several that are just down the road. Not to mention how gorgeous it is in the springtime with all the fruit trees in blossom. My family is fortunate in that my husband grew up on a grape farm/vineyard and I got to see it all firsthand when I moved here. Picking grapes right off the vine.. that mouth watering burst of fresh fruit.. heaven.
Also, where there are grapes, there are wineries. This area is a HUGE wine region. I can practically drive around the block and hit 6 or 7 wineries. Which, admittedly, I might have done. Maybe not all at once, but who could stand up straight after the first few. Anyways, my point is that this area is just lovely and beautiful with wineries, fruit stands, and more. Here are a few pictures from my in-laws vineyard.
Another big change for me was the metric system. I about died one of the first times I crossed the border and saw the speed limit was 100. It took me a second to realize that it was in kilometers (which converts to about 60 mph.) Oh and the weather is all in Celsius. Yes, Celsius. Who uses Celsius? Well, as it turns out just about everyone but the good ol' USA. This one took me a little longer to get used to, but I've got the hang of it now. 0 C is 32 F, 10 C is 50 F, and 20 C is about 70 F. I remember my first summer up here and my now hubby had on the weather channel and the weather was in the 30's. I thought oh my goodness this is going to be a cold week in the summer, but what did I know really about Canadian summers. I mean, as far as I knew "isn't it cold up here?" He explained it to me and now I don't even think twice when I see the weather in Celsius, but it certainly did take some getting used to.
I've learned a lot living up here and will try to post several more blogs about my Canadian adventures. So until next time.
xoxo
