Tuesday was the boys’ first day in school. We were all up
early getting ready for the big day. It was strange seeing the boys dressed in
civvies for school and not in school uniforms. They had to take 2 pairs of
shoes to school, the one pair is for outdoor use and the other pair, which stay
at the school, is for indoor use. I packed lunchboxes with ham and cheese
samies, yoghurt, Dunkaroos (a snack consisting of small cookies that you dunk
in chocolate icing sugar), apples and juice. The school day in Canada is quite
long with school starting at 8:35 and coming out at 3:20.
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| Mr Wylie, Cilliers and Eric |
The teachers were waiting for us with warm, friendly smiles.
Loest’s teacher, Miss Pennings, took him into the class, showed him where his
desk was, already marked with his name and packed with his stationary (all
school issued). Loest promptly disappeared into the small reading tent in the
class with a book and a soft toy. Cilliers’s teacher, Mr Wylie, quickly had
Eric, another grade 7 boy, take Cilliers on an orientation tour. Eric soon
became Cilliers’ first friend in Canada.
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| Loest and Ms Pennings |
We had some administrative things to take care of and met up
with the HR lady from Ceva Canada who took us to the government offices to get
our SIN numbers (Canadian ID Numbers). Efficiency is an understatement. The
offices were quiet, and clean with no queues and after spending 5 minutes each
with a friendly lady behind a computer we were issued our SIN numbers. We now
officially existed in Canada.
Then we were off to the licensing centre. Our SA and
international driving licenses were only valid for 3 months so getting driving
licenses were a priority. We thought we were just first going to find out what
the procedure is but the lady promptly pulled out some learner’s tests. Our
hearts did a flip and all I could think of was the driving test booklets we had
bought the previous day and had not yet read through. We decided, what the
heck, just do it, if we fail we come back, if we pass it’s done. Ever gone into
a test knowing you haven’t studied one little bit for it? Here I was, 41 years
old, filled with terror about a stupid learner driver’s test. I couldn’t even
steal my answers from Kobus as we got different tests! The angels were with us
and we both passed, thanks to great guessing skills!! Once you pass the learner’s
test you have to make an appointment to take a driver test, which can take
anything from 2 -4 weeks. The official asked us if we wanted to take our
driving tests that very day as they were having a slow day and could probably fit
us in.
Okey-dokey, by this
time my adrenal glands looked like raisins and all stress hormone stores have
been completely depleted. Keep in mind that I have only driven on the right
hand side of the road twice, when taking my car from the rental place to the
hotel and one late afternoon I drove around on my own to practise some. Now they
wanted me to take a driving test...I would rather have a bikini wax without
general anesthesia.
Anyway, a very friendly lady took each of us driving around town
and asked so many questions about SA that I quickly forgot my panic. Years of
driving experience proved to be deeply ingrained and both of us passed. By
early afternoon we were in possession of brand new Ontario Driver’s licenses.
Now being in possession of all manner of official documents
and numbers we could now get our phones connected. We went to Telus, another of
the cell phone providers in Canada. Not going back to Bell was just a question
of pride, they did not want to help us the previous day without all the
required official documents so now they would not get our business, childish
adults that we are. Kobus got a new
handset and I got SIM cards for my phone, my ipad and Cilliers’s phone. The
connection fees were exorbitant but at least we once again felt part of the 21st
century.
At 3:20pm we fetched the kids from school, both were quite
happy and said that they had had a great day.
On Wednesday was Kobus’s first full day at the office. The
kids were off to their second day of school all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Loest informed me in no uncertain terms that I don’t have to walk with them to
the classrooms. I felt so not needed but also happy that he felt confident enough
that he didn’t need, or want, my hovering.
I decided that I had to go in search of my long forgotten
domestic side and do some laundry. The hotel has a laundry for guests to use
free of charge so I filled my humungous neon orange Samsonite suitcase with
dirty clothes, many of which were still dirty from SA as I didn’t do any
laundry in our last week in SA, and lugged it down to the hotel’s laundry room.
It’s so much easier dragging a wheeled suitcase than trying to carry a heavy
laundry basket. Now you have to understand that being the pampered SA wife that
I am (was) I have never ever had to do laundry myself, ever, not even while
growing up. But hey, I’m an MD so how difficult can it be?
I knew that you have to separate the whites from the dark
colors but what the hell do you do with all the in between yellows, reds and
greens!! The washing machine was labelled “whites”, “colors”, “bright colors”,
“permanent press” , “woollens” and “knits and delicates”. Now “whites”, “colors”
and “bright colors” are pretty much self explanatory (although I can’t think
for the life of me why there’s a distinction between colors and bright colors,
will bright colors fade into obscurity if you wash it at only the color cycle?),
but what on earth does permanent press mean? There in the laundry room I googled
it, but I still don’t really understand what on earth it is and, frankly, don’t
care much. I just pressed any one of the buttons and felt quite satisfied when
the machine came alive and made washing type noises. Come drying time, the
dryer was also labelled with the same ridiculous assortment of buttons, there were,
alas, not one labelled “no ironing needed”......I selected a different drying cycle
on all three machines to do a scientific comparative study on the effects of
different drying cycles on different fabrics. The outcome: after 40 minutes all the clothes were dry,
proving the preposterousness of having so many buttons. Just an on/off button
would have sufficed.
Right next to the
laundry there’s a gym and initially I thought it would be a good idea to get in
some exercise while waiting for the machines to work their magic. Alas, I
couldn’t stand the sight of my domesticated self in the mirrored walls. What’s
with all the mirrors in gyms? Do people who gym have an obsessive narcissistic urge
to watch themselves sweat and dribble and turn all red in the face? I rather
opted for the much more intellectually stimulating activity of sitting outside,
freeze my butt off, surf the net, troll facebook, have a coffee and a cigarette.
Upon taking out clothes from the dryer, and doing some hand
ironing, I noticed a chappie in one of Cilliers’s pant pockets. The chewed
piece of saliva dripping goo had now melted in the dryer and has fused with the
fabric. Why he put a chewed piece of gum into his pocket goes beyond any level
of maternal understanding. Google to the rescue, again, and I found a tip of
using peanut butter to remove it. After begging some peanut butter from the
hotel kitchen I rubbed it into the affected areas, scraped it off and washed
the pair of pants again. It worked like a charm, every trace of the gum was
removed. I felt quite accomplished.
Upon fetching the boys from school Cilliers had a list of
some stationary he needed. “Staples” was the shop to go to so off we went. We
enjoyed strolling up and down the aisles and seeing what they have to offer.
Everything’s pretty much the same as in SA except that the stuff’s called
something different. Upon asking for Prestik I was met with a blank
uncomprehending stare. Upon explaining I wanted grey sticky stuff that can be
re-used to stick almost anything to everything I was presented with UHU tac.
OK, another thing learned.
While still in SA one of the anaesthesiologists I worked
with said that her sister has been living in Canada for many years. I started
corresponding with Martie while still in SA and it turns out that they live in
Conestogo, about 20-30km from Guelph. On Thursday Martie picked me up and took
me to St Jacob’s market. This market is run by Mennonites, a sect not much
different from the better known Amish people. They wear old fashioned clothes,
drive around in horse buggies and disapprove of anything that’s modern. Their
market is really something to behold and the variety of homemade stuff astonishing.
All manner of meats, baked goods, canned goods, leather goods, wooden
furniture, quilts (which they are famous for), candles, handbags, shoes, tea
(even different flavours rooibos tea),
candy, maple syrup (the real stuff), honey, chocolates, condiments, etc.
It turns out that Martie’s husband, who is also a doctor,
worked in the same practise in Pretoria that I did, with the same partner that
I did, albeit a few years before I was there. Later it transpired that we also
went to the same high school...talk about the world being small!!
On Friday I went to Food Basics, the local grocery store.
The trolleys were all locked with chains and I couldn’t figure out how to get
one. Someone came to the rescue and showed me that you have to insert a quarter
(25c) in the slot which unlocks the trolley and when you return it your quarter’s
returned. I strolled through the aisles fascinated by the different products
and variety. Some brands were familiar like Sunlight (although here its not
green but pink, yellow or orange) and Nestle but most were strange and new. I
had to laugh at the vegan chicken nuggets (!!!) and fake crab meat. How strange
it that, you don’t want to eat meat but like veggies disguised as meat???
Overall the groceries are more expensive than in SA with red
meat topping it all. There are lots of lovely readymade things available so I
wouldn’t miss Woolies too much. The fruit was disappointing though, not that a
big variety and the quality not all that good, Woolies fruit I’m going to
miss!! The fruit is all imported (this time of year anyhow) with grapes from
Chile, oranges from Spain and California and apples from Mexico. I found a
dragon fruit, this strange looking fruit we had in Mexico last year and I loved
it. It tastes like a mixture between a kiwi and a pear and I bought one just to
show the boys.
On Saturday we all went to the market at St Jacob’s, I had
seen lovely furniture that I wanted to show Kobus. We ended up ordering a
beautiful handmade bedroom suite in solid wood from the Mennonites. Back in
Guelph we bought the boys an Xbox, so that they had something to keep themselves
occupied when cooped up in the hotel suite.
We Skyped with our parents and family in SA. Isn’t technology
just amazing?? I can’t imagine what it must have been like years ago if you had
loved ones far away. Columbus’s wife had to wait for years for any news and by
the time a letter arrived the news was already old, for all she knew he could
already have died. Even just 20 years ago all you had was an expensive landline
telephone and handwritten letters. Now there’s Facebook, blogs, Skype,
Facetime, e-mail and Whatsapp. Instant communication at the speed of light. I
love the age we live in!
On Sunday Kobus left for France for a week so a tough second
week was waiting without my best friend by my side........
