On Change

I have been in this country for exactly 14 days. It is completely different and yet not so different at all. 

I really haven't been able to get out and about very much. We have frequented restaurants and grocery shops, met the owner of the local bookshop and wandered up and down the walking paths around us. But we, or rather I, haven't really interacted with people very much other than our landlords.

I have been limited by how far I could comfortably walk. The public transport system here no longer accepts cash and so I have been unable to go very far while I waited for my bank card to arrive so I could set up my Oyster card and be able to get around. What on earth is an Oyster card? It's the payment system they use here for public transport. If you are in Edmonton, it's like an ARC card. 

For the first few days, I just slept as my body adjusted to the time change. I started looking for ESOL jobs of which there are precious few especially in the limited area I am looking. I have no interest in commuting across London for 2 or 3 hours twice a day for a job. The public transport system in London is one of the best in the world, but it is also the most expensive in the world. We want to live as close to where we work as we can so we can walk or bike. 

I found a job posting at a local college on my 5th day here and applied. Low and behold I was successful! I am blown away. It is very part-time, but it is a foot in the door. It doesn't start until September, but I will fill my days.

I am not happy sitting around on my fan -- wait, no that word means something very different here -- sitting around on my bottom all day doing nothing. If I don't have a job, I need something to occupy my time and my mind. The local bookshop has a bunch of programs including a monthly book club and a writing group. I signed up to join the writing group so I could meet some folks and maybe get back into writing. I have a number of pieces in various states of completion that I'd like to get back to. My first meeting is next week.

I sought out volunteer opportunities as another way to keep busy and meet some people. The Kingston Borough has a website for non-profits to post opportunities and I found a little nature centre that was recruiting volunteers! I sent a quick email expressing interest and have a meeting with her next week. 

Despite all of these wonderful things, I still have moments of "is this real? Do I really live this far away from my friends and family? What were we thinking moving all the way over here?" 

We have been so busy for the last six months preparing everything to come here, there wasn't a lot of time to really process all of this. Now that my brain has slowed down, it is beginning to sink in. I am having some very big feels today. I miss my family. I miss my kids. I am in liminal space again in a way. My life here hasn't really begun yet, but my life there is complete. 

Greg Hume, CC BY-SA 3.0,  via Wikimedia Commons







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