Sunday, June 30, 2013

Home

I started writing this blog a few months back, and it has been sitting in a draft form for a while.  I decided that it was fitting to dust it off, revise it and post it just in time for Canada Day.

When I went back to Calgary in April, one of my friends asked me what it was like to be "home" and I quickly corrected her that "home" is where I live and that Calgary was no longer home, because it's not.  Although I still own a house there, I don't live in it, so it is not home.  My mom and dad no longer live where I grew up, not that I really grew up in one place, so their place is not home.  home is where I live.

Canada will always be Home - Home with a capitol H.  home with a small h is where I live and since I now live in The Hague (although it some times feels like a live in a hotel somewhere) that is where home is.  It is where all of my worldly possessions are, it is where I get my mail and it is where I associate with when I say home.  I am also very conscious as an expat to not to refer to going "Home" because to me when you say that, it means that you are really here or putting down roots where you live.  So whenever I talk about Home, I say that I am going back to Canada, I never say that I am going Home.   Calgary, or Alberta for that matter, will simply become a destination on my trips back to Canada.

I will always be proud to be a Canadian and I show my Canadian passport with pride when I travel.  I quickly, but politely correct people when they ask if I am an American and I happily tell them that no I am a Canadian.  It is usually when I say "about" they say, "oh yes, I hear it now" - I really don't think I say "about" any differently than any other Canadian I know ;-)  I am also proud to call myself an Albertan and lately, even more so a Calgarian (I am a born Calgarian).

It has been incredibly difficult watching what has been happening in Alberta over these past 2 weeks.  I had friends who were evacuated in Fort McMurray because of flooding, I had friends in Canmore who were evacuated there, other friends throughout Southern Alberta who were impacted, and of course, friends and colleagues in Calgary who suffered at the hands of Mother Nature.  Thanks to the internet and social media, I have been able to stay abreast of what has been going on and more than anything, I have been able to watching the outpouring of compassion and support for those who have been so profoundly impacted.   I could go on and on about my thoughts on this, but I won't.  What I will say, is once again, I am proud to be Canadian!

Happy Canada Day!





Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Is that grass back there?


Well the day has come that all of my neighbours have been anxiously waiting for - I finally mowed my lawn!  The thing about living here is that we all live in these really old, brick row houses and while each unit is generally separated by fences and you can't really see laterally into your neighbours yard, you can definitely see into your neighbours yard from your first floor (which to us Canadians is really the 2nd floor but they call 1st floor the ground floor or 0 - don't get me started!) So needless to say, I am pretty sure that all of my neighbours have been wondering when the hell I was going to finally mow my lawn!  My one neighbour, Martin, who I literally bumped into in the kitchen in our office in Beijing, 2 weeks ago - weird, popped his head out of the 2nd floor/1st floor window and made a comment :-)

It is hard to believe that a little patch of grass this small, can produce 2 1/2 bags of lawn clippings.  Mind you, when it is already June 10 and you haven't mowed the lawn once yet this season and it has rained a lot and the grass is up to your mid-calf, then I guess you would expect as much!  LOL!

Seriously though, it took me a good 45 minutes to mow my lawn and you will see, it is not that big!  My landlord left me with a little gutless wonder of an electric lawnmower.  Seriously, this thing has no juice whatsoever and I wish that I would have brought over my nice gas mower with me - something with some power!  And what had been holding me up mowing my lawn was that I needed an extension cord, or a "garden cord" as the guy at the hardware store called it.  I was finally able to buy one this weekend and today was the magical day of use!

No my grass isn't dead, but I think it was being choked out by this fern-type of thing growing it it and that is what was giving me this false sense of pride that I had green lawn.  After mowing it 3 times, yes 3 times, I noticed that it picked up all the nice green and I am now left with brown.  Nice.  So it looks like I will be finding the garden centre and picking up some fertilizer and giving it a little boost!  Yah, lawn maintenance isn't exactly my thing.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a green lawn, but I want it to just happen.

I am also going to hire a gardener and come in and figure out what is what in my flower beds and hopefully get me all organized when it comes to that.  I can't see myself planting much this year, because I said it is already June 10 and I don't even know where the garden centre is!  And knowing this country, it is definitely not open past 5:30pm on a weeknight!


So the upside of all of this is that I actually have a back garden and a nice area to sit.

Oh by the way, yah, I am finally back in The Hague for more than 2 days so I should be back to my ol' bloggin' ways!


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Digital Life

I know, I know - I haven't posted anything on here in forever, but I have been gone from home since the middle of April with only about a week back in between trips - so I haven't been able to write much about my Dutch life!  But today I was inspired - inspired by my new digital life.  I am back home next week, so watch out - the blog will be on fire again!  LOL!

What I have really noticed since I have moved overseas just how important technology is to me and the role that it now plays in my life.  I have always been a fairly connected person, and do enjoy my technological gadgets (ie. iPad, iPod, Blackberry, computer, etc.), so I shouldn’t really be too surprised at just how important they are to me now and just how much I use them..

With the joy of technology – primarily FaceTime, I am able to keep in touch and even see people (mainly my family).  But also with that technology, I was able to take my cousin and aunt on a “tour” of my house – pictures are one thing but to walk thru the house and show them real time what it looks like is completely different.  Then, just last week when I was in Beijing, my mom FaceTimed me!  Who would have ever imagined that #1 I would be in China and #2 my mom and dad would be able to see me and talk to me there.  I also quite regularly FaceTime with my cousin and her kids and I can watch them grow up and see how they change – they are some of the people that I have missed the most since moving but knowing that I can still easily see them and talk to them, makes it easier!

I have also had to learn how to manage a lot of different facets of my life digitally and often through electronic communications.  My work travel has had me spending a fair bit of time in Asia which puts me 14 hours ahead of Alberta, so most of my awake and working hours are after hours for most businesses and when people are sleeping – so email it is!  Case in point – I need to get my car serviced, so 2 weeks ago I spoke with a lady at the Audi dealership in The Hague (it is only a 6 hour difference) to make an appointment.  Somewhere along the way I wrote an email address down wrong (ugh!!!) but since managed to send it to the general service email address.  Since then, I have been communicating back and forth with a new person.  Most recently they asked for when my last service was (in Calgary) – hell if I know and that information would be back in The Hague – assuming that I kept it.  So, instead, I fired off an email to Glenmore Audi, asking for that information.  When I am asleep tonight in Malaysia, someone in Calgary will look up that information and send it back to me, at which point, I will let Wittebrug Audi in The Hague know - and somehow it all works out!

Or my dentist appointment.  I will be back in Canada for a few weeks this summer and while I am back, I need/want to go to the dentist, so I have booked my entire appointment online, through my dentist’s website.   Throw into the mix international banking!  What did people do before email money transfers?!  I booked a holiday with a girlfriend and sent her the money via email.  My tenant – she pays me her rent via email.  I guess the old school way would have been with cheques but given how often I am away from home, Lord only knows when and how I would have ever have deposited them.

Overseas living (and travelling) really forces you to embrace a digital life.  As much as I would love to see everyone in person and do many things either in person or over the phone, it is not always possible or practical, so the digital life it is.