Hi all,

Our arrival in Ottawa was one of mixed feelings; one of excitment and a touch of sadness. We had had a great time in both San Francisco and Fort McMurray and this was now behind us but we were excited to be starting the next phase of our adventure and the reason we came here in the first place.

We were met at the airport by Larry, Marlene and Rowena. Larry and Marlene are friends of Catherine, Donna's exchange partner, and have been wonderful to us ever since. Unfortunately, Donna got crook on the plane and was not her best on arriving but it was just one of those 24 hour things and all is fine now. Marlene had red and white (Canada's colours) leis for us and both Marlene and Larry then waited patiently until we had collected all our luggage before escorting us to their car and eventually to our home for the next 12 months. We arrived to a basket of goodies from Marlene and a hamper of essentials left by Catherine. Marlene is a great cook and the lasagne she left us for dinner that night was devoured with delight by Rowena and myself. We told Donna how good it was next day; she had gone straight to bed on arriving. There were also muffins and shortbreads to savour. Catherine had left some of the essentials we needed like Tim Hortons travel mugs, coffee, wine etc all the essentials including, wait for it, beer in the fridge! Heaven, lives in Canada!!

The next couple of weeks were spent orientating ourselves and getting in groceries and the like, with guidance from Marlene and Larry, learning about milk in plastic bags and Canadian Tyre, a mans best friend (!!), trying to get car insurance, replacing the battery in the car, changing rego on the car etc etc. The days just seemed to fly. Donna hadn't started school yet but did go in a couple of days to get a feel for the school and get to know some of the staff. Lary took me to a meeting of Muskie Fishing Canada, the local chapter he is involved with and on 20th January I drove in Canada for the first time in our very own car. Yay!

The 21st January saw us off to Toronto for an information weekend for Aussie teachers in Canada and a chance to meet not only other Aussies from all over Australia but Canadian teachers who have weathered the downunder experience in Aus. It was about a 4 1/2 hour drive to Toronto fron Ottawa and we decided to take the Greyhound bus. We were a little short on experience at driving in the conditions here and also wanted to see what the service was like for other trips if necessary. By the time we had arrived back in Ottawa I was glad we had made that decision. While in Toronto we were fortunate to meet and be billeted by David and Nancy who had exchanged to West Aus a few years back and we got to stay in their amazing log house that David had built himself.

The Friday night was freezing when we arrived in Toronto, not so much the temperature but the wind chill factor. It was the laziest wind I think I have ever experienced and every point of exposed skin stung from the blast of the cold wind whipping up off the snow and ice. Ah, so this is what they call wind chill we thought! It made us duck into Tim Hortons just to escape the blast even though we didn't really need or want a coffee. Incidently, for all you Aussies out there the coffee here is crap. It tastes overbrewed and burnt. Thank goodness for our closer connection to Europe when it comes to coffee. But I have to admit you do get used to it. I don't think Donna will agree with me there though! Eventually we made it to the reception and had a great night catching up with other expats and meeting a whole host of wonderfully engaging Canadians. The beer wasn't half bad and there was plenty of it. The next day it was a conference for the teachers and heaps of information about teaching in Canada and some general stuff. Some of it would have been handy to know before we arrived.

Ken, a teacher from Sydney, was telling me a funny story. Ken is a proud Aussie but carries with him a thick Scottish accent courtesy of his home country. He was talking to a Canadian and the Canadian aked him where he came from. Ken said , "Australia". The Canadian replied "Yeah I thought so, I could tell that from your accent"!!

After the conference it was time to catch the bus back to Ottawa. As we were waiting to board the bus the weather started to turn quite bad with fairly heavy snow falling. By the time we had left visibility was down to metres and the snow was still falling heavily. On the freeway out of Toronto we passed several cars piled up against the guardrails and into the side cuts. Incidently, it was also dark at this point. Traffic was at a crawl and conditions were not what an inexperienced Aussie driver would want to drive through. It didn't deter the experienced bus driver though, we weaved in and out the traffic and passed everything in our way. Tractors and trailers (semi's to us), cars, other buses and snow ploughs clearing the road that loomed out of the darkness resembling something you would see from a Madmax movie. The trip home was extended by an hour due to conditions but thankfully the conditions improved about halfway back to Ottawa and the second half was not as "interesting" as the first half.

Next week is Australia Day and that got us thinking of home once again.