Here We Go...

We live in Ottawa now. Well, technically in Gatineau, which is like Ottawa’s neighbor? Sure, we’ll go with that. So technically I guess I live in Quebec. This is a province I used to make fun of. David prepared me as much as he could over Facetime/Skype about what living in Quebec would be like. He told me it would be like moving to a whole new country. He told me that even going to a Subway would feel very different. It sure does. My goal now is to be able to order a Tuna sub (on a Friday because that’s when it’s a Sub of the Day and I get a deal; also, it is probably a popular sub among Catholics. Friday, fish, deal, genius marketing subway, genius). This will be a transition from my 27 years of Alberta living.

I delayed meeting David out in Ottawa/Gatineau because I wanted to have all my medical appointments completed for me and Little Dragon before starting the quest again for a family doctor and a specialist out here. We had good results all around which was so relieving. However, I do not encourage separating oneself from their spouse for four weeks like what Lil’ Dragon and I did, bad idea. 

Our place is just a 10 minute walk away from the Ontario side. Living in Gatineau meant saving a few hundred dollars a month which is a lot of money to us now with me taking care of a Little Dragon at home and David going to Law school full-time. We can definitely feel the pinch as we said goodbye to our full-time Alberta employment and Hello, to the Little Dragon and tuition fees. At any rate I don’t mind staying at home with my boy and wearing the mommy/wifey hat for a while. The city is quite intimidating and I haven’t been as mobile as I would like at this point. People drive like maniacs here and it doesn’t help that I am still not as confident of a driver as I once was since getting into a car accident in March. I am banking that having Alberta plates might make people a little easier on me if I need to merge because I almost missed an exit. Maybe getting a few dozen “Baby On Board!” signs or “Bébé A Bord!” might help as well (I like how they have an exclamation mark on the signs).

Hopefully, by exploring bit by bit with Little Dragon I will eventually feel comfortable on my own. David warned me that with him going to classes and studying that I would turn into a “Law School Widow”. This is true. By being somewhat alone in a somewhat different country I feel like I need to chronicle some of our adventures and give my Alberta hommies a glance of what it is to live out East. There are many, many differences living three/four provinces away.