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Spray on "Sanity". Clearly, I'm in the wrong business.
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo

Well here we all a full month into 2008. We’ve been back in Canada for a little over 6 months and it already feels like we’ve crammed a lifetime of events into that short time frame. As of December 21 we’ve had our own home sweet home in lovely Westboro Village, we’ve both got good jobs, we have a car and Keenan’s daycare is a stone’s throw away. We’ve found a great local eatery within walking distance that serves a wicked brunch for under $5, is kid friendly, has fast a turnaround time and just so happens to be the home address for the International Elvis Spotting Society (or some such craziness). We are thrilled to be living 30 minutes from my brother, 45 minutes from my sister and only a days drive from Sean’s folks. We have a Canadian address, phone number and cell phone number that we actually live at which feels exceptionally good. We miss Japan everyday.

Life here is at times insanely busy for us. We try to work opposing schedules as much as possible so that we don’t have to pay over $1000 a month in daycare and babysitters. So that means we (Sean and I) rarely see each other on the days that we’re working and on the days we’re not we’re chasing after boy wonder and trying to unpack at least half of one of the many boxes still stacked in our front hall, living room, kitchen and bedroom. It’s the times when we stop and think for a moment that we miss the view of the Hidaka range from our balcony in Obihiro, the get togethers with our Tokachi clan, the scent of flowering Memuro wheat on the breeze in June, the neverending Hokkaido adventures and that exciting feeling of just living abroad. Life was a heck of a lot slower for us in Japan, albeit sometimes too slow but we sure miss the fact that I worked part time, daycare was $15/day, Sean was often off before 2 pm and sometimes before noon and we actually really had our shit together there. It took lots of time to get it that way but by the time we left we were totally dialed. We knew all the places in town to get foreign (North American) food and if not we could order anything on line and have it delivered. We knew how to conduct ourselves in all our day to day functions and if not we had a great group of pals to help us out. It’s hard for me to remember the fact that we were really burnt out by Japan when we left. And then when I look back at how I’m feeling about being in Canada after 6 months it’s similar to how I felt about being in Japan after 6 months. Liking it but still not quite home yet.

The next few months will be another adjustment period for us. Spring is such a beautiful, transformative time and I’m anticipating getting swept away by the green freshness of that season. Hopefully I’ll find the time for another blog post before the tulips wake.