Alberta Newsletter Volume 1 Edition 3

Hello again one and all! Here is the third installment. Have you noticed the time span spreading between editions? That is a clear sign that we are either too busy to write or less interesting things are happening!

A bit of both really!

Over the past few weeks a few things have changed. The weather for one! We’ve had several days of snow recently and the temperatures now tend to stay below zero both day and night. We’ve had our first minus 12 night and minus 8 walking to work. Even though it is cold, I have to say… Edmonton is prettier “in white” If you ever want to check the current weather situation in our neck of the woods go to this link: weather network. Right now it is minus 12 with light snow and it feels like minus 20! The Feels Like component of the weather is to do with wind chill. That’s what you have to dress for.

The last few weeks have really been spent setting up a routine. Will has started indoor tennis twice a week and is in a good squad. Sam goes to Gymfest twice a week and “Cheer” once a week. Anita and Alec have not found a sporting past-time yet! The days are so short and the kids are the priority. Our time will come.

With the development of routine comes a certain comfort plus a measure of inevitability for us all… ie: this is a big move and a long time away from the known and the familiar. Yes, a fair degree of homesickness kicked in over the past three weeks as well.

The known, the loved and the familiar are what keep people where they are, and that is a good thing really. We are seeking this in our new lives I suppose, while trying to keep a balance of keeping ourselves exposed to the new, the exciting and the different!

Edmonton is a big city with lots of shopping opportunities, but really what we are craving is some time to appreciate what Canada really has to offer! We are eagerly awaiting next weekend as we will finally venture into the great Canadian outdoors… The Rocky Mountains. Will and Amanda Johnston (Geelong College friends here on exchange) have arranged a weekend away for us all at Marmot Basin in Jasper National Park to ski and drink hot chocolate!!!! Sam has new snowboarding boots and we’re looking for a “cool” snowboard for her to ride… Will has new ski boots and will use last year’s ski’s (Anita has inherited last year’s boots from him) and Alec is on the look out for a new pair of boots. Fortunately, our shipment finally arrived on Thursday this week just passed, so all our other ski gear (including our own beautiful skis) will be able to be picked up from storage some day this week. Let’s hope we can find it!!!

So, some fun stuff has happened (alongside the routine). Alec went to the Hockey last week and saw the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Vancouver Canucks. Tomorrow Anita gets her chance J We have some great friends who have taken us to the Canadian Footy and now to the hockey. The kind of people you hope you’d meet in a new country. So all I can say is “Go Oilers”. In other Canadian sports news, today the Grey Cup was played, this is the Grandfinal of the Canadian football season. The Saskatchewan Roughriders defeated the Winnipeg Bluebombers. It just made me want to watch our copy of the AFL grandfinal again.

Last weekend we met up with some friends from Vancouver (the McCutcheons) and helped out with Jo and Alex’s Groove Street dance workshop. We had dinner with Sue on Saturday night and then on Sunday Sam and Anita helped sell merchandise to some of the 475 participants in the weekend dance workshop!!! Who are the McCutcheons??? They are a lovely Canadian family who lived in Mulgrave when Anita was growing up there in the late 70’s early 80’s. They moved back to Canada and our families stayed in touch over the 20 years that followed. I think they are a lot to blame for Anita wanting to live in Canada.

We have a new addition to the family… Our Chevrolet Tahoe. It has leather seats that has heated seats added by the previous owner… day three of ownership… we left the heated seats on and drained the battery! A quick call to the AMA (yep the RACV) meant that we could join and get help in 45 minutes. We were lucky that it had stopped snowing at that stage of the day. Hmmmm! Needless to say, we now have a loud checklist upon exiting the car… CAR SEATS TURNED OFF!

Alec has made some great contacts at the University of Alberta and will be teaching four subjects in semester 2. This starts on January 7^th 2008. The irony is Anita has a full time job and will have less contact teaching time than Alec in a sessional position. The good things is that Alec will not be teaching in Summer and will therefore be home with the kids when school breaks up for two months! A long way off now, but nice to know eh!

The kids have made a couple of nice friends. Sam moreso than Will at this stage. Photo attached of Sam on a ride with her new friend Nicki. They are at Galaxyland at the West Edmonton Mall.