Recap of first week..
Kids settled well at school..
Yaya is going on a school camp for 5 days !!!!
I absolutely hate when I have to send my child away to any place for more than 6 hours. I know I can’t keep them under my wings forever.. still I wish time would go a little slow..

Toothless got a wonderful teacher..This morning he has gone to attend some environmental conference at the University.. He is on cloud 9.

Baby is thrilled because she is one of the tallest in her class.. ( more so because she was the shortest in her class in Canada !!!)..

Schooling is ( though it is a public school) is expensive.. I wish Mr. Paul Young will move to Down under.. ( He is a school trustee from Victoria who went to court so every child in British Columbia can have ‘free’ education..Because of him I never had to pay anything.. be it school trip or text books)
So far I had to pay an arm and leg for uniforms, books, photostat fees and even a voluntary contribution of 100$/family..

I seem to be the reason why many of my neighbors currently take Prozac.. They just can’t figure out why I drive my car straight on to the oncoming traffic..Not enough, I also keep switching on the wiper instead of the signal !!! ( I hate when I do that)
Also the fact the car I am driving is my cousin’s old beat up Corolla that was born in 1985, sans power steering is not helping either.
The school is almost 30 minutes brisk walk from home and we leave home at 8.15 so in the event the car doesn’t start( which is very often) we can still walk to school and won’t be late.

Food is expensive.. choices are poor..
The first thing my son noticed was that there are no proper wieners( my son is an ardent hot dog fan and he is heart broken after seeing the wieners here).

I miss my usual Friday morning drive to Bellingham (US) to buy groceries and odds and ends from Fred Mayers and ROSS.

We still haven’t got a library card..first of all the libraries have so little books and the selection is appalling..The nearest library for me is 2 bus zones away and the hours of operation is pathetic. The librarian was very kind to let me know that they need an official letter in my name to prove my proof of residence!!!! to open an account! And they let you borrow only 20 books ( 35 in Canada which they used to override for my kids)

There are so many beautiful birds around where I stay.. I don’t know the name of any.. Have (been wanting to buy a book about Australian birds.. for that I need to go to town (68 km away!!!)..Can’t think of taking my old car that far and then having to walk back home…

Every time when I see the beautiful blue sky, I think of the miserable winter we have in Canada.. the grey skies, the frozen car windows etc etc.. Then I ask myself, would I want to settle down here?? Then I tell myself.. I still have Venezuela ( south America) and Botswana( Africa) to go to.. ( then I would have stayed a year in all the continents!!)..Then I shall look for my Shangrila!!! !!!!!