It is with a little delay that I finally find the time to share with you the results of this first year spent in Canada. A blog post I wanted to pamper, because it was really important to me. I really wanted to share with you, on one hand, all the things that made me laugh, smile or that constantly surprise me in my everyday life in British Columbia, and on the other hand, to tell you how it took me a year to finally find my feet and feel at home in this province. So, between laughter, tears and rebirth, I will take you this time behind the scenes of this life in the Caribooland... Let's go!
I would like to point out that this is an article to be taken lightly, as it is full of anecdotes and clichés. I am certainly making some generalizations about situations that were specific to me so let's keep an open mind, the idea here is to share a smile together, not to criticize :)
LITTLE THINGS IN MY DAILY LIFE
I remember that at the end of my year in New Zealand, I had shared with you the same type of article recounting all the small details of my daily life that change from one country/culture to another and that kept on surprising me all year long. Between life in Canada (at least in BC because the provinces here are VERY different from each other) and life in New Zealand, there are quite a few similarities... But our canadian friends have their own habits too! For example ?
ROAD TRAFFIC
The flashing lights. I still remember my first days in Canada, being surprised by the color of the flashing lights on the cars. Here, they are not orange but red! At the beginning, it was very disturbing because it seems that the stop lights suddenly start to blink. But with time you get used to it... Worse, I discovered two days ago that some cars don't have red lights at the back when the front lights are on... Personally, I think it's dangerous when you know how few lights there are here on the roads...
The politeness of Canadians and their "super-radars" on pedestrian traffic. For me, the layout of urban spaces seems completely twisted in this country and many times I don't see the pedestrian coming, or worse, I stop in the middle of an intersection to let him/her pass. A good Canadian would have seen the pedestrian coming from miles away, and would have stopped well beforehand, so as not to scare the pedestrian while thinking about not blocking the intersection for any cars that might decide to pass. This makes a lot of sense when I write it, but I assure you that in practice it is completely different. The crossings are not always in the places that make sense to me as a French person and I get surprised by this far too often...
Also, I don't know if it's everywhere in Canada, but it's very common in Nelson, the stop lines for cars are always 30 meters from the intersection. This forces you to stop, look for pedestrians and then proceed to the corner to FINALLY be able to see if there are cars coming or if you can get in... I say finally, but in reality, the streets are so perpendicular and with parking on both sides, you often can't see. Personally, I still haven't got used to it and I always end up doing "give way" rather than stop signs. Oops.
In the same vein, we have intersections with 3 or 4 stops. With this game of looking to see who will pass first and these rules of priority of the first come first to pass... It's going to be complicated for me when I go back and drive in France because I've already forgotten how to do it there!
Red lights that you can run if you turn right. Yes, if the light is red but I want to turn right, I can go. But be careful, it is not without risk. Often, if my light is red, it means that pedestrians on the right of the intersection have a green light, as well as cars coming from the left... So they all have priority, which requires a lot of concentration... Personally, I still have a hard time passing the red light, which irritates the impatient drivers behind me...
Finally, the last one that surprised me the most, Nelson does not have a safe rail crossing. This means that night and day, the train has to honk its horn before each road crossing. A sound that resounds in the whole valley, even at 3 am...
FINANCES
Banks here are the kings of the world. The bank fees in BC (and Canada if I believe what I read) are aberrant. You usually get a limited number of transactions per month (including card payments, money transfers, withdrawals etc) and to get unlimited you have to pay more. Every service, paper, cheque you have to send, costs you a fee. But much more than our French banks. For me, as a big user of free online banking in Europe, it's like I've suddenly gone back in time... And the less money you have in your account, the more you pay... Very capitalist system...
The credit system. It is as important in Canada as in the United States. Here, the norm is to have a credit card. Even when you could do without it. Why ? Because debit cards are not accepted everywhere and this obviously does not make money for the banks. In France, our debit cards actually give us a bit of credit, up to the limit of our overdraft. Here, it's a completely different system. Every time you pay with your card and pay it back, you get an overall score. If you pay back too much or too soon, your score is bad. If you pay back too late, you get a bad score too. You have to be in the middle... Especially when you know that without this rating, it is almost impossible to get a loan... I don't know if it was the same in NZ and I just didn't look into it, but personally I hate this system and find it sickening.
On a positive note, the banks may be a bit of a throwback to the past, but they have two rather futuristic tools compared to France (or at least the France I left 4 or 5 years ago, you tell me if that's changed since). Canada still uses cheques, like us French (this was not the case in NZ or Norway). The difference is that all banks offer the possibility to cash a cheque via the mobile app... A photo is enough! And that's really nice...
They also have a system called e-transfer, to transfer money between accounts. You don't need the other person's bank details, just their phone number or email. Very practical and instantaneous, this is a revolution for giving back money quickly to your friends.
Last but not least, VAT is not included in the prices and tips are not included neither. Canada is very similar to the USA for this, here, prices never include VAT. So you never really know what to expect and at first I must admit I hated it because it only led to bad surprises on my bank account. Not to mention the tips that have to be included in ALL personal services: bars, restaurants, hairdressing, etc. Basically, you add about 15% to the price for VAT and at that price you add another 10-25% for tips. And no, tips are not only given when you are satisfied with the service but are seen as an obligation of sorts. The average salary of a waiter for example is often built around this system. So when you don't tip, it's like the waiter only gets 80% of his/her/their salary... Not cool. And the French have a really bad reputation here because we are not used to that and sometimes when we arrive, we don't know.
DAILY LIFE
Mailboxes. As soon as you leave the city limits, you don't get your mail at home but it is deposited in a group of mailboxes a little further down the road. I know this exists in France (and maybe NZ ?) in a rare way, but for me, this is the first time I've ever used them!
Toilet doors in bars and public places. There is always a minimum of 5 millimetres between the door and the next wall. This has stressed me out many times because you can actually see the person sitting on the toilet from the common washroom area... I have discussed this with friends who have brought up the theory of people who are a bit too drunk or drugged at parties and end up falling asleep or passing out in the toilet. This would be a way of quickly checking that the person is okay. I don't know if it's true, but I can tell you that after a year, I'm still not comfortable going to the loo!
House keys. Well, this will echo New Zealand but here too (in the Kootenays) people don't lock their doors. Just like in NZ, they rarely have keys that fit the lock...
Inches, feet, fractional measures, ounces, cups... In New Zealand I was already a bit confused because Kiwis used feet to talk about height but here in Canada after a year, it's worse! Canadians use kilometres on the road, but sometimes they speak in miles, when it's a residential area. They use metres or centimetres to talk about snow but the rest of the time they talk to you in inches, feet and with fractional numbers that I am still unable to read... When you order a glass of wine, you will be given the choice between 6 ounces or 9 ounces. Don't ask me what that is in cl, I still have no idea. If you ask them for a recipe, they will use "cup" as a reference measurement but the bag of flour will be displayed in grams or kg. At work, we speak in inches, and occasionally they put "yard" as the British measurement. Ah, and when you ask them which measure is what in another system, they are lost. They use all of them constantly but are unable to convert them... NOT CONFUSING AT ALL... And yeah, that's the joys of a country halfway between Europe and the US! :)
The American dream. Canada being quite similar to its neighbour the USA, you have to know that here, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. At least, that's the idea that is circulating. You can do business with anything and everything seems much more possible and achievable, even the dream of becoming an artist for example. On the other hand, Canadians work like crazy. All the time. Two weeks holiday a year is all they get and they don't always take it... It's pretty crazy when you think about the more European systems... (Missing my french 5 weeks a year!)
Blundstones. Blundstones are those boots from Australia that almost ALL Canadians wear. For us French, it would probably make us want to ask them where they left their horse before going to the bar... But, in the same way, if the Canadians saw the French with their Stan Smiths on their feet, they would ask us how our tennis game went... So you get the idea! If you see someone with Blundstones on their feet, chances are they are Canadian or Australian.
The "free piles". I think this is one of my favourites, especially in Nelson. Free piles are simply boxes, filled with things that people want to get rid of, that they put on the corner of their street, or on the pavement with a little free sign for passers-by to help themselves. Legally, it's forbidden to put your rubbish on the street, but in the city, everyone does it within reason. And the cool thing is that you can find everything! clothes, dishes, household appliances, sofas, beds, decorations... It's all a matter of luck...
Public holidays at the weekend: this is anecdotal, but here, if a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it is then postponed to the following Monday! Not bad when you know that Christmas and New Year are both on a weekend this year...
WILD LIFE
Finally, with hummingbirds flying in the summer, nocturnal raccoons scavenging, coyotes calling in the mountains, skunks crossing the roads in the middle of town, bears and cougars scouring the neighbourhood for food, and deer, roe deer, and elk on the roads, the animal life in the Kootenays is enough to make me believe in nature again. I had obviously prepared myself for the bears, but for the rest, I really had no idea. I am thrilled every time I get the chance to see some wildlife. It's quite a change from the possums, birds and rabbits of New Zealand!
(unfortunately, none of the above pictures are mine, I used a free image bank, so I didn't have the chance to photograph these wild animals myself :))
ONE FIRST YEAR IN CANADA
3150 km... That's the distance it took me this time to breathe, to send all my anxiety flying and to enjoy this country as I wanted to. It's funny how this feeling of freedom to live on the road, even just for two weeks, can give lightness to a whole life... In September, I went on a two-week holiday, driving around Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. When I came back, my mind was light, as if healed of all the aches and pains that had been inside me for a year. It was as if I suddenly realised that all my anxieties, all the clichés that frightened me, really only existed inside me. It was as if I were re-discovering that there were other ways of looking at this country and the world, my world, once again.
What was hard in this first year, unlike the one I lived in New Zealand, was the constant lack of security I felt. If we retrace my experience with the kiwis, I was lucky enough (with my Cachou of course) to be integrated into a Kiwi Family very quickly. If we didn't have our own, we had a roof over our heads, food to eat and another family to rely on, in case of difficulties. Here in Canada, for a long time, I felt that I had only myself. Not to mention Covid, making things even more fragile. This gave me a year of doubts, questions and anxieties. Instead of being able to take full advantage of the chance I had to be here, to fully appreciate the landscapes I discovered and the people I met... I had such an intense fear of failure that I often questioned this whole Canadian experience. I suffocated in silence because I didn't want to worry anyone and I must admit that sometimes I was ashamed. Ashamed that this time it would not go as smoothly as New Zealand. Ashamed that I would fail in this almost senseless quest for self. Ashame that it would be much harder than I had imagined. Because in my head, I had already experienced three expatriations. So this one should have been the easiest... But in reality, each expatriation is different and it's not because you've already done it in the past that the next one will be easier. On the contrary... and now I know. I even think that the more you go live abroad, the deeper the experiences are lived and the more difficult they are to face.
So yes, we always think that the grass is greener elsewhere and it's true that if I had written this article just after my return from my road trip, two months ago, I would have tired you so much that I was already imagining myself moving next summer and starting over, once again, in Squamish (near Vancouver) this time. But these last few weeks taken to write this road trip review have really given me the perspective I needed : I really like this life in Nelson. After one year, I finally realize how much I did during this year. The experiences I have accumulated, the landscapes I have explored, the people I have met and the inner path I have travelled once again... As I write this, I can say loud and clear that I feel light and I feel happy. I have recently decided to stop putting pressure on myself. I've started painting again, which feels really good. I'm slowly regaining my faith in everything. It's as if the planets had suddenly realigned in me, after a year of wandering around the galaxies. And there are a lot of things I love here in Canada. For example?
the social life in bars and restaurants, it's a bit like the one in France! (remember, I missed it a lot in NZ and Norway)
the great landscapes I live in and the surrounding nature
the very open mentality of Canadians on many subjects
the change of seasons, we have a real winter and a real summer in the Kootenays
the very outdoor oriented lifestyle
the place given to arts and crafts, here you can make a living from anything!
the presence of culture, even in the most remote places, although Nelson is a small town, we do have a theatre! (I really missed it in NZ)
the width of the parking spaces (adapted to the big 4x4s of the Canadians): easy slots for me!
the size of the territory where the provinces are like countries with different cultures
and the french language for everything administrative !!! that's really a bonus
Anyway, maybe that's why you get a two-year work permit in Canada... because you need one year to adapt and the rest to really enjoy it! Last October 7th I raised my glass and toasted to this second year that started well!
Lots of love.
Co.
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