The roller coaster ride of residency

So, our first full weekend in the city was a lot of fun.  On Saturday, we ferried over to Granville Island to do part of our grocery shopping.  Most of you know how much I love the Granville Island Public Market, so you can imagine how exciting it was for me to buy all our fruits and veggies there for the week.  And it cost us less than $20 CDN!  Amazing.

The following day, we attended our first event in the city as residents.  I’d been keeping an eye on the festivities going on for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Ohanami – the Japanese term for cherry-blossom viewing - at Nitobe Garden was on Sunday.  We headed out to this Japanese garden (on the UBC campus) in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine, blooming flowers and sounds of a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and koto (Japanese harp).  Around 7 p.m., the special paper lanterns in the garden were lit (a “magical, once-yearly event”).  It was beautiful, and we took our time circling the paths by candlelight.

Then came Monday.  (Damn you, Mondays.)

We once again headed out to take care of more paperwork – squaring away car insurance, renter’s insurance and health insurance (which we will need for three months before our public healthcare kicks in).  But I was completely unprepared for just how much this was going to cost us.  We are now paying TWICE as much for car insurance and renter’s insurance as we were in MN.  This, on top of finding out about the high rates for cell phones here, made me homesick for the de-regulation of the States...which in turn just made me homesick overall.

The thing is: I knew Canada was going to be more expensive, particularly since we wanted to live downtown.  But knowing that a box of cereal is going to cost $7 CDN when I am living in MN (and employed!), and paying the $7 (sans income!) are two separate things.  Right now, I am struggling with that adjustment.  And I’m just hoping those all-important first jobs will make us feel more confident about affording our new life here, rather than making us want to run for the border. 

Time to hit the job boards...