Making a home in Victoria

I think we're finally getting settled here, although I still have moments of "unreality". I've had several of those over the past 18 months -- times when I could hardly believe what we're doing: selling our house of 17 years and putting our furniture into storage to live like gypsies for a year; moving to France for an extended stay with no other plans than to travel extensively and soak it all in; and then moving to a city with my family, something that we had planned would happen eventually, but is still a shock to us country bumpkins.

Meghan relaxing with the cats. I'm pleased to say that we've finally got the boxes unpacked.

Victoria is still new enough to us that it seems like part of the adventure, yet we all know deep down that this is where we'll be settling for a while. But I still get those moments of unrealness, like when I was walking in the main hallway of our house last week, suddenly wondering, "Where am I? What place is this? What am I doing here?"; and then I give my head a shake and I'm back in the present again. I think I feel sometimes that I'm living a dream, and when I wake up I'll be back in my bed in our old house in Burns Lake again. I guess spending that much time in one place really burns itself into your whole psyche.

We've already had a few visitors - my mom, my sister Pat, and this weekend, Mark's mom and brother Steve. Here my mom and Mark stare out into the stormy-looking clouds.

This is really a post of family news, so I'll update you on each of us:

Mark

Mark's job here is Director of Forest Worker Safety. At this level, he's really close to government, so he deals with Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the Chief Forester for the province quite regularly. After just over six months on the job, I think he's getting into the groove, but it's still very different from being in a small community like Burns Lake. Sometimes I think it's a little too close to the action!

Mark's also going to Toast Masters to improve his public speaking skills. His group meets before work on Friday mornings, and Mark is so dedicated that he gets out of bed about 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus and get there on time. The only Fridays that he doesn't make it is when he's off to meetings in Vancouver, which seems to be happening a lot these past few weeks.

Chris

I'm really enjoying my new job as an Education Project Manager at Open School BC. I'm in charge of developing a grade 8 math course for distance education, so I get to do all sorts of things that I love: organize things; do math; talk to people; do research; work on the computer; and keep things on schedule and on budget. I'm very busy right now -- it can be a little overwhelming at times. Currently I'm reviewing several fifty-page documents, editing and suggesting changes before forwarding them on to other people.

I now work for the provincial government like Mark does, so I'm getting used to all of the government lingo and procedures. It's a huge organization -- approximately 30,000 people work for the government of BC, and sometimes you can get so caught up in processes that you hardly have time for your work.

When I'm not working I'm still trying to keep up with my French studies. I've enrolled in a French diploma program at the University of Victoria. When I tested for the program I scored at the "high intermediate" level, so I was pretty proud of myself and thought that the year in France perhaps wasn't a total waste! : ) I go to class two nights a week, but sometimes after a full day at work it's really hard to drag myself there. I always enjoy it, though, and I'm really glad when I made the effort. I'm trying really hard to speak French as much as possible in class, and I think that I'm finally losing my fear of sounding silly.

Mark and Chris

We've really made a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions this year, and one of the things that we're doing more is riding the bus. We really only use the van one or two days a week to buy groceries and other big stuff. Both Mark and I were able to get a permanent bus pass through our work, and it's great to be able to hop on and off the bus when you want. We have great bus service almost right at our doorstep and it takes us both directly to work. A side benefit of this is that we can now ride the bus together to work in the mornings -- one of those activities in our new life that still feels strange and different to me! : )

In between work and our extracurricular activities, we're trying to get the inside of the house painted and some yard work done. Mark is much better about this than I am -- even though we both have to start working a little harder!

Our fitness routines have been suffering a little as we try to find some balance in our new lives, but both Mark and I have signed up for a 10 km walk (me) or run (Mark) at the end of April. Mark has to train for running, but I just have to train my feet to not get blisters! That's always the worst part about long hikes for me.

Cameron

Cameron is in grade 8 this year and just had his 14th birthday -- there's no going back on that teenager thing now! I mentioned before that he shot past me in height about a year ago, and he's now very tall and lean. He's doing very well at school although his teachers think that he's too quiet -- but that might just be because the rest of his class is very loud! I encouraged him to join the concert band this year in order to keep busy with some extracurricular activities, so he's playing percussion. Cameron went with the band to an overnight camp in the fall, and they're now preparing for a four-day trip to Whistler in May. It should be fun -- by the time they registered, the only choice they had was a four-star hotel. I'm sure all those 14-year-old boys will really make the most of the facilities!

Cameron's heading off to high school next year; he's looking forward to it, and I'm feeling anxious about it! We're quite excited that he applied for and was accepted into one of the school's special programs where he will be challenged academically and provided with opportunities for leadership training and volunteer work. It's the only program in Victoria where students are invited to apply to become pages at the BC Legislature. Cameron will also carry on with French Immersion; I gave him the choice after this year, and I'm very pleased that he's made the decision to continue.

Meghan

Meghan is also getting tall: if I'm slouching, she can stare me straight in the eye. Unfortunately, she's also now graduated to wearing women's sized clothes; clothing four "adults" sometimes puts a strain on the family budget! Meg just turned 12 (in January), is in grade 6 at the same middle school as Cameron, and she's really enjoying school. She plays flute in the concert band, and since they weren't moving fast enough for her, she's also started to play my old clarinet at home. She has several friends whose houses she's already visited and is doing very well academically. She's a natural writer -- and I'm her mother so I can say, "gifted". : ) Sometimes I read something that she's written and it almost makes me cry, it's that good.

Meghan loves to play soccer, and it's very big in Victoria, so she would have been playing throughout the winter if we had known to register her in the fall when we moved here. However, she has lots of options to play in the spring and summer, and we live right across from one of the big soccer parks, so I think she'll be in the thick of it soon.

One thing that makes us all happy is that the kids can walk or bike to school this year, and either way it takes them less than 20 minutes. Since Mark and I have to leave for work earlier than they leave for school, they get ready on their own. I think it's really made them more independent and has been very good for them.

This was a really long update; I hope you lasted 'til the end! Drop us a line and let us know what you're doing:

christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com (take out the spaces when you email).

Merry Christmas!

We're just enjoying our first Christmas in Victoria. In an unlikely series of weather events, it turned out to be a white Christmas, something we didn't have in Strasbourg last year. However, I don't think the snow will last long -- it rained last night, and today the sun is shining brightly.


Last year we had a tight budget, so we set a 10€ limit for each present. This year we thought we would carry on the tradition, so we were to spend a maximum of $15 on each person. Most of us ended up going over the budget by a bit, but on the whole we were good about sticking to the limit.


We also had fun doing our Christmas Eve presentations for each other. Last night we learned about Christmas traditions in Finland, Germany, France, and other countries, listened to streaming Christmas music from the internet (after I finally found the sub-woofer for our computer speakers in the filing cabinet), enjoyed some of Meghan's flute selections, and talked about our best Christmas memories.

This Christmas and last are very different, yet they're also alike in many ways. Last year we spent Christmas in a foreign land; this year, even though we're back in Canada, we're spending Christmas in a new city, still a "foreign land" to us. Last year it was just the four of us in our little apartment in Strasbourg; this year, since we still live a great distance from our extended families, it's just the four of us again, but this time in our new house. But as always when we have a family celebration, we treasure the fact that our little family is a very close-knit one, sharing adventures that will mellow into memories that will last us a lifetime.

Whether you're celebrating alone or with loved ones, in the middle of an adventure or relaxing at home, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and the very best for 2009!

Victoria, the land of ice and snow

The weather has finally prompted me to do what no other experience in the last few months has managed to -- make a blog posting. The normal temperatures for Victoria are 7C for the high and 2C for the low. During the last week we've had temperatures down to about -10C at night and still below freezing during the day. The temperature has felt much colder on some days due to the wind, which blows quite regularly here.

Not only is it cold, but we're in the grip of a major winter event in Victoria: snow and ice that actually stays on the ground. Now don't get me wrong -- we're not surprised, shocked or appalled. Our many winters in Burns Lake, and before that, Yellowknife, have prepared us well for the white stuff that we have been experiencing. But I must admit that we're not driving our van right now, since we only have summer tires on it. This is a direct result of many years in the north which led us to buy separate sets of summer and winter tires -- and who's going to put winter tires on a vehicle in Victoria!

People who were born in Victoria all have a secret gleam in their eye when you ask them about the weather. Snow (that stays) is such an unusual event in Victoria that they all seem to really enjoy it. However, if you speak to anyone who has moved to Victoria from virtually anywhere else in Canada, they're seriously ticked off about the weather! The worst part for them at this time of year is heading back to where they came from (e.g., Edmonton, Saskatoon, etc.) for the annual Christmas visit. Not only are they heading into cold weather, but they're leaving the cold Victoria weather behind! This time they can't even brag about how warm it is here in the winter.

Surprisingly, the cats are really enjoying the snow: they go outside quite regularly during the day and get crazy in it (especially Aurora). Meghan is also thrilled. The one bad thing about Victoria for Meghan was the idea that there might be no snow in the winter. Perhaps in an effort to win her over and make her feel welcome, the city has provided a blanket of white for her to enjoy, and Meghan is making the most of it. She has been going outside at least twice a day to play in the snow and only comes in when her feet start freezing. Considering she only has rubber boots (another sign of our unpreparedness, having discarded the old winter boots when we left Burns Lake) she does quite well.