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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Catching up

I haven’t written in a while. It’s not that nothing interesting has happened but rather the fact that there are so many other ways for me to tell people what’s going on. I thought that my blog would be a way for me to stay in touch with friends in South Africa and give them an insight into my new life in Canada. Skype, MSN and the cell phone have made that part easy. Then I thought that my blog should become a diary but do you really want everyone to ready your diary? I didn’t think so.

Quite a lot has happened as life in Toronto has fallen into it’s own routine. I got my driver’s license! Canada does not accept my South African license. I was allowed to use an International one for 60 days but after that it became defunct. Ontario has a graduated license programme. First you write an exam on the rules of the road and road signs. It’s computerized and gives you a G1 license, which allows you to drive with a licensed driver for a period of 1 year. After that you get to take a road test and you get your G2 license which allows you to drive but with conditions attached. After another year you take your G2 test which includes highway driving and if you pass you become a fully fledged G license holder which means you can do pretty much whatever you want, however if you break the rules, you lose points. For those people with licenses from other countries, you have the option of skipping through the timelines and going straight to G2 immediately. If you fail however, you start from the beginning. Naturally I got my G1 and decided to pass go and attempt the G2 test. I went for two driving lessons and driving on the “other” side of the road proved to be quite easy for me. The more difficult part was breaking the bad habits and trying to remember to “look left, look right, look left again, check your mirrors and blind spots (chin to shoulder) and keep to the speed limit”. It’s way too much PT for me! Anyway I went for my test on Tuesday. It’s been snowing here and the one thing I vowed not to do was attempt to drive in the snow. I was going to wait until summer and do it on dry roads but those who know me well, know that I can’t resist a challenge. The test took all of 20 minutes. We drove around the streets and I did a 3-point turn and a semi-parallel park. (I call it semi because there was only one car in front of me. Apparently you don’t parallel park in-between two cars in case you hit one!). We then went onto the highway, off the highway and back onto the highway again. Names are confusing here, the highway is the road and the freeway is the highway and the pavement is the street and the sidewalk is the pavement. Then there are express roads and collector lanes and traffic lights, not robots. But I passed, and that’s all that matters. Maybe it seemed easy because I’ve been driving for a long time, but I still think that the South African K53 test is way more difficult. Oh, and I got to take my test on an automatic car and be able to drive either type. Like I said, not as strict as South Africa but the roads are definitely safer, no crazy taxis and Joburg drivers.

We had a good Christmas. It’s the first one that we haven’t been with our friends or family. I miss our “Jewdo”. It’s a tradition that we started about 12 years ago where we all get together on Christmas day for lunch and exchange cheap, silly gifts. Keith and I promised each other we would not buy gifts this year. He wants a new TV so we decided to buy that and it would be the gift to each other. The catch was that we were waiting for the Boxing Day sales to buy the TV. Now there is no way that I was going to allow him to wake up on Christmas morning and not get at least one gift, that’s not fair and certainly not in the spirit of the holiday. But I made a promise. So I kept it, and made sure that the dogs each bought him 2 gifts. And he kept his promise and bought me a Chanukah gift! All in all, we were both sufficiently spoilt. We headed out to the Boxing Day sales yesterday and bought the TV at a ridiculously low price and then hi-tailed it out of there. The 200 long queues outside Abercrombie and Fitch were warning enough.

We definitely weren’t alone for Christmas. We are incredibly fortunate to live on a very sociable street. Our neighbours are a couple that has lived here for 16 years. They are friendly and they know lots of stories. Not only are they happy to finally have good neughbours that also sweep their steps in the morning instead of just doing half, we are happy to have friendly neighbours that also sweep our steps in the mornings instead of just doing half. Our street is short and lined with houses filled with similarly friendly people who greet each other. It is a welcome change from the high walled fortresses we are used to. We spent Christmas Eve with our neighbours, their family and a few people that live on the street. Everyone was so happy to meet us and made us feel very welcome. When they found out that we didn’t have plans for Christmas they immediately invited us back the next night for dinner. We had a great dinner with lots of wine and games on the Wii…. And then at about midnight the neighbours started coming over. A couple that we had never met arrived with gifts in hand for the newcomers. We got home that night feeling very much at home.

I’m looking forward to 2009. I’m looking forward to summer in Toronto although Winter really isn’t bad at all. I’m looking forward to Doreen arriving on Monday. I understand that it’s expensive and far to fly to come visit us. I understand that if you’re going to go on holiday that you’re going to go somewhere fun, especially when you only get a few days off a year. The only reason why I’ve been fortunate enough to visit so many friends that left South Africa is because I get to travel with work. If I was paying for it myself I’m not sure I would have done it as frequently, opting rather for trips to Thailand. Having said that, the best thing about me being able to visit my friends in other countries is that when they call, I can picture the room they are calling from because I’ve been there, I know the street they live on and the store around the corner and it makes me feel closer to them. So it means the world to me that Doreen immediately added Toronto to her USA holiday when she found out that we were moving here and then decided to come earlier. We have lots planned for the week that she is here.

I hope that my friends know that they are always welcome to visit and learn a little about our world in Toronto so that when I call, they will know exactly where I am.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Changing accents

I don't quite understand why some South Africans that move away suddenly develop accepts. I can understand it if you've been here forever and since a kid but come on, the fake "yeah" and saying "last week" instead of "laaast week" just sounds so ridiculous when it doesn't come naturally.

Sometimes the Canadians don't understand what I'm saying, nobody understands it when I say "Reiter", they pronounce it "Rider" instead but all I do is repeat myself. When Keith asks for "ice" for his wine, he means "ice", not "ass". Doesn't mean we have to suddenly develop accents. I'm proud of my accent, in fact many people love hearing it.

Have you ever heard an American or Canadian suddenly start saying "Howzit boet, ja it's good to be in Johburgh"? I didn't think so.

We have a friend that had a friend that went to America for 3 weeks. He came back with a full on accent yet everyone knew that he hadn't lived there for that long. They called him "Miss California".

I'm still going to say "Ja, my name is Lawrence Reiter and I'd like some ice please" and I don't plan on changing that.