Monday, June 27, 2016

Days here are a strange mixture of paradise and boredom. I want a social life –my best friends are a four-year-old and a six-year-old –but there is also so much peace found here with nothing to do. Today I grocery shopped, and I took my time. There was no rush. I am so accustomed to feeling the need to rush and get on with my day, but I need to remind myself to relax. What is so pressing that I must hurry? Nothing.

Yesterday I attended a new church. Since I arrived in Ontario, Canada, exactly a week ago yesterday I have been praying to make friends. I specifically prayed for a girl to take me under her wing and introduce me to everyone, make me feel welcome.

And God provided. He provided everything so specifically it is amazing. I met a large portion of the congregation yesterday. I was shown around. I had people to sit with.

During service it was announced that the annual barbeque and pig roast was to take place later that day. However, I knew I had no way to get there and prepared myself to return to a house that would soon be quiet, and spend the rest of my evening alone as my Canadian family traveled to a wedding several hours away. They were to return late that night and had offered me to come, but I had passed.

But as I made myself lunch after church I received a text from the girl who was an answer to my prayers. She offered me a ride to the barbeque.

God knows what we need. What I needed was to meet several dozen strangers, eat good food, play water balloon toss and not return home until almost sunset. And He provided. 

Saturday, June 25, 2016

They live on the Georgian Bay, and the sunsets are unreal. My first night here I witnessed the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. It was breathtaking. Since then sunset has become my favorite time of day. I sit at the end of the dock and wait for the sky to turn to shades of pink, the endless water a line of blue.

The kids love to play in the water. Ben, the four-year-old, and I spent several hours the other day filling his Tonka trucks with mud and then emptying them into the cool water, a contrast to the humid air. The Bay is also oddly filled with golf balls and we searched endlessly for them, Ben immediately throwing them back into the water once I handed them to him.

Mirabelle, who is six, likes to hunt for frogs and bugs and insects. We went frog hunting and found one the size of my fingernail. She was on cloud nine.

The days pass leisurely, filled with keeping the kids occupied and trying not to be too excited about bagged milk. I’m working on my Canadian accent. Maybe someday I’ll perfect it.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Portland, Dallas, Toronto, Collingwood. The night can feel the longest when you’re traveling across the country.

“I’m going to Canada,” I whispered to myself as I sat with my fellow blurry-eyed flyers who were also taking this red-eye flight. I checked my watch: midnight. My flight out of PDX should board any minute.

It takes three hours and some change to fly from Portland to the Dallas Fort Worth Airport. I could feel the humidity between exiting the plane and entering DFW. I had lost two hours already, and the late night was taking its toll. On the plane I had watched a movie and jealously eyed the guy next to me who slept soundly through the entire flight.

I was off the plane at 6:18 a.m. My connecting flight boarded at 6:30, and I was in the biggest airport in the United States, sleep-deprived, and drowsily carting my backpack, duffel bag, and an Oregon Duck pillow pet. I approached the first help desk I saw and handed the man my boarding pass. “Please, I’m just trying to get to Toronto,” I said.

“Are you up for a bit of a hike?” He asked me.

I eyed him warily. “Maybe.”

I hiked. The airport became a blur as I hightailed it past fellow flyers, Puddles my pillow pet bobbing in my backpack, only his head visible. I made it to my flight on time, sweaty and out of breath, I slept through the two hour flight, and I had arrived.

“I’m in Canada,” I said softly as I waited in line at customs. I was going to spend the next two-and-a-half months as an au pair for a family in Ontario. What an adventure.