The Middle 4

On Sunday morning,at the start of our third week in Canada,we went to Sears, one of the many get-everything department stores, to buy track suit pants for Cilliers. Cilliers came out of the fitting rooms with his mind made up about which pair of pants he wanted and then we just strolled through the shop gawking at all the merchandise and having mini heart attacks when seeing the price tags. After about 10 minutes Cilliers made a choking sound and yelped that he had left his wallet and Blackberry in the fitting rooms. I wasn’t worried, this is Canada after all and not SA, so I just sent him at a run to fetch them.  Unfortunately a thief had already gotten his grubby little fingers on the loot. Cilliers’ phone and wallet with about $400(!!), was gone. We didn’t yet have any insurance in Canada so it was a dead loss.

We were really angry at Cilliers for being so absent minded but also felt bad for him as he was still whatsapping with a lot of his friends in SA and now that means of communication was gone. He was also very angry at himself and for months would grumble every time we had to go to Sears. Sometimes the best lessons have to be learnt the hard way and hopefully he’ll be a bit more responsible with his stuff in future.

While still in SA I joined an internet forum for South Africans living in, or wanting to move to Canada. One of the families from the forum contacted us and invited us for a visit. Charles and Catherine live in Erin, about a 30 minute drive from Guelph. They have 2 boys, aged 9 and 11, and have been in Canada for 9 years. Off we went to go visit complete strangers we met on the internet....... exactly what we warn our kids about!

In the forest of our new friends

What a wonderful visit we had on this lovely warm spring day. The boys biked, we had a stroll in the forest and our new friends treated us to a wonderful braai on their deck. After this lovely day sitting outside, braaiing and enjoying the sunshine, the next day dawned cold and grey and it started snowing! The kids were quite excited, it being their first snow, ever. If you like the weather here just wait a minute.....

The boys all bundled up while its snowing

 

This is the deck where we sat in warm sunshine the previous day
 

This week the boys had their first school field trips. Cilliers went to a conservation area with his class. He got confused and kept calling it a conversation area, which of course had us dissolve in fits of laughter. I joined Loest’s  class on a visit to a retirement home. They treated the residents to songs and poems and played games with them. This was a good opportunity for me to connect with some of the parents. The school has a volunteer program and parents are obligated to fulfil 30 hours of volunteer work at the school per year. This is a great way to get to know fellow parents.

Loest’s class was incubating some chicken eggs and on Friday Kobus, being in the poultry business and all, presented a talk to the class about chickens. This was such a big event for Loest and he was so very proud to have his dad there.

The eggs eventually hatched and the boys loved the little chicks

 

During this week Cilliers had a test about the countries of Europe. None of us had any idea that there were so many countries in Europe and we had loads of fun trying to figure out which country goes where on an interactive map exercise we found on the internet. The well known countries were easy but there’s a myriad of smaller ones with names I can hardly pronounce, let alone pinpoint their positions on a map. Two weeks later Asia proved to be even more difficult!!

On Friday evening we went to Pizza Hut, remember when we still had those on every corner in SA? The pizzas were great but, once again, gigantic in size. We were learning that Canadian portions are much bigger than what we’re used to. A medium pizza in SA is as big as a small one here and a large pizza here.....well, it is unfinishable. Our entire family of four could have dined on one large pizza and we ordered 4!!  At least we had some pizza leftovers to enjoy for the next week.

Just before annihilation by pizza

 

Milkshakes are not readily available in all restaurants and chocolate milk is the preferred kiddies drink in restaurants. I have yet to find a restaurant that knows what a rock shandy is and a mojito is nowhere to be found. Cappuccinos I have only found in a few places but a cafe latte still eludes me.

Something more needs to be said of the glorious mojito, this favourite of Ernest Hemingway. Although I liked this refreshing Cuban libation before it really became my favourite whilst visiting Cancun, Mexico, in August 2011. Ever since then the sweet taste would conjure up images of dancing the Macarena on the beach with a mariachi band, scuba diving in the azure Caribbean, palm trees swaying in the wind and being in a far away exotic place. It is just nowhere to be found in Canada’s restaurants. Is it just too much effort to make with its myriad of ingredients? The excuse most often given is the lack of mint. Perhaps I should grow my own mint and take it with to a restaurant. Imagine the waitress’s face when I yank out my own supply of mint from my big handbag! No more excuses signorita and bring me my mojito, pronto!!

Television and radio ads are really funny. There is no law prohibiting competitive advertising so rival product bashing is common. Sometimes a company would only allude to its competition but often the competitor would be named outright and its product slammed in no uncertain terms. Nandos would have an absolute field day here! I’ve never heard so many ads promoting products to enhance male performance, from the “total testosterone male enhancement system”, to the product hailed as so effective that one guy bought the entire company after trying it once! Wonder with which brain he was thinking..... Viagra is offered at rock bottom prices with online ordering promising to be discreet......

 In SA we speak an African British English while in Canada it’s more American English, so quickly we learnt that terms here are somewhat different. A robot is a traffic light, tissues are Kleenex and a shopping centre is a mall. Toilet paper is advertised as bath tissue and chips are french fries. Potato wedges are called fat potatoes and Tippex is white-out. There are no suburbs but sub-divisions and sellotape is scotch tape. Eight thirty is the correct term and not half past eight. Some people call a slowcooker a crockpot and I elicited many giggles when explaining that a crockpot in SA means someone who’s gone nuts. One lady said she would never think of her crockpot in quite the same way again.