Life in Canada from John's perspective

Thought I’d finally contribute to the blog and let you know how things are going. We have been here nearly three months now, and have seen considerable change in the landscape now that the snow has melted. Kingston is a great place to live – small enough to find your way around in, big enough to have all the facilities we need. We have settled in well and have done a lot of things so far – lots of skiing, tobogganing, skating and seeing lots of sights. We have met quite a few people and everyone has been very welcoming. The kids have got themselves well involved in their schools, and are doing lots of extra things after school – in that respect, not much has changed from home in Narooma.
Veronica is enjoying her teaching and has been well accepted by the staff – in a school of 1300 students, she has only met a small number of students and staff, but it’s all been good so far. The house we are living in is small, but it is warm and a good base for us.
As for me, work is still proving elusive – I got a little frustrated towards the end of last term but right at the moment I don’t really care. I have a job each Thursday delivering newspapers for 8 hours, so at least I’m doing something. I’ve had four days of teaching (three as a French teacher!) and two days as a Teacher’s Aide (I enjoyed that!). I’m sure the teaching work will come – I am classed as ‘unqualified’ until my accreditation comes through and can only be employed as an emergency teacher. The accreditation process is very slow and frustrating but I can’t really do anything about it. Thanks again Linda for the reference.
We have just returned from a week in New York. In Canada they have a week off in March before going through until the end of June. Veronica and I have always wanted to go to New York and we enjoyed every minute of it. The highlight was seeing ‘Mama Mia’ on stage at Broadway, a fantastic production that all the family enjoyed. We did all the touristy things you do in New York – Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, riding the subway, etc. We stayed in a hotel in Queens, which was an experience in itself.
Veronica has done a great job on our blog up to date, and Max provided the text of our trip to NYC.
Everyone’s now back at school with a fourteen week term until the summer break. There are lots of lakes around Kingston and many people have holiday cottages on the lake for the summer break. At the moment we intend to go the Maritimes (East coast) during the two month break, but several people have offered us their cottage locally over the break.
Emily is dancing and enjoying a more professional and competitive dance studio than Narooma, and the boys are both swimming for the Ernestown Barracudas Swimming Club. They have just signed up to play soccer with the Cataraqui Clippers Soccer Club, and will be playing over summer. I have resumed my traditional role of driving them everywhere for their sports.
I hope everyone is well back in Australia. I can’t honestly say I am missing work and school, as this experience has been very positive so far.
As the weather gets warmer, more and more Canadians emerge from their houses to enjoy the outdoors. We have met more neighbours in the last week than we did in the first two months.
Anyway, all of you back to work – it’s time for me to go to bed as tomorrow I have to deliver 700 newspapers.