08 September 2005
Williams Lake and the journey thereto
Our journey to Williams Lake began in March or April or May or something. All those months ran together in Fox Lake. At some point the snow melted, but in that span, that and the start of our journey is all I remember. So at some point in those 3 months Ang got a call from the good people at Maranatha Christian School in Williams Lake. She had a applied for a job with them and they wanted to interview her. Wow. This was very very exciting but we had to make sure we didn't get very very excited because if the interview didn't go well we would be that much closer to another year in Fox Lake and that would make us very very very sad. Ang checked the education Canada website for job listings two or three times a day. Sometimes, If Fox Lake was being particularly Fox Lakeish, she would spend good chunks of the day staring at the job listings page hitting 'refresh' every few minutes hoping for "Dream Teaching Job" to appear. As the year went on and she continued to not get hired by any of the schools she applied to, "Dream Teaching Job" came to mean "Anywhere but Fox Lake, Please, We're Begging Here". And so when Maranatha called we thought little of what and where Williams Lake was, we just knew it wasn't Fox Lake (that they shared the word 'Lake' made me a little uneasy, but I got over it).
Fox Lake did all it could to keep it's talons deep in our souls and not let us leave but Ang fought bravely and prevailed. The interview went well we guessed, sometimes it's hard to tell and despite Ang mentioning Hitler we starting getting our hopes up. We knew it wasn't wise. We knew that it would just make it that much harder if things didn't work out. We couldn't help it, we started researching Williams Lake on the web.
"A Save on Foods!!!, Tim Hortons!, a movie theatre! and oh my.... no way! A REGULAR ROAD!!!"
We were getting pumped.
And then, a few days later, on the day of... um.. ok, in the season of spring, 2005 she got the call and the job. It was great. We jumped, we danced, we smoked a cigar. We called our families and they shared our Joy. Everyone we knew congratulated us.
The rest of the year was a breeze, it went by fast and we were itching to leave. We no longer plotted to conspire with students to burn the school down. The sky was bluer, the packs of stray dogs friendlier and the garbage that covered the landscape sparkled in the sunlight.
When we finally left, it took us some time to adjust. I couldn't shake the feeling that we'd have to Go Back. My mind wouldn't stop telling me that I had to buy lots of things because eventually I'd have to Go Back and I wouldn't be able to. Also, in Fox Lake, the teachers get used to knowing every white person they see. And so, when you first stroll around West Edmonton mall, you keep thinking you must know these people and you try to place all the faces and you go mad. Eventually, you come to accept that there are more than 40 white people in the world and that some of them are, wonderfully, strangers. After a few days we were acclimatized and able to enjoy ourselves.
We spent the summer driving all over the place. We went from Fox Lake to Sherwood Park to Camrose to Radium Hot Springs to Abbotsford to Whistler to Victoria to Kelowna to Williams Lake to Whistler to Abbotsford to Keats Island to Radium Hot Springs to Calgary to Radium Hot Springs and, finally, to Williams Lake. According to google maps we drove no less than 6549km. This number isn't exact as google maps shows no record of a town called Fox Lake; wishful thinking. On the way from Victoria to Kelowna, the driver's side window in our car exploded for no apparent reason showering Ang with glass and scaring the bejesus out of us. So we carried on, sans window, to Kelowna, Williams Lake, Whistler and finally got it fixed in Abbotsford (a shout out Kaptain Krunch auto wrecker in Abbotsford for not only having the right window for us, but for not making us retrieve said window from a car that housed a large wasp nest). Mr Wiens installed our shiny new window (for a time, the cleanest part of the car) in exchange for some cookies which, to date, comprise an outstanding debt and we hope he doesn't repossess our window when he visits.
The final trip from Radium to Williams Lake was a bit of an adventure because I had to drive a 17' UHaul moving truck. Ang in our car, myself in the beast and Mrs. Wiens in her car formed a 3 car convoy. At times Ang would ignore the fact that I was driving a huge truck full of loveseats and boxes and pass people going up hills but for the most part it was a smooth drive. It was boring of course, having no one to talk to. The most exciting part of the drive was when other people driving huge UHauls would go by. I waved at all of them and of the 6 I waved at 4 waved back. I think the other two must have been still trying to come to grips with the fact that they had no rear view mirror. It's an adjustment.
We stopped in Kamloops to stock up at Costco and buy a vacuum at Sears. I don't know how or why some things are the way they are but the vacuum we bought is an enigma on it's own level. For some reason, in this day and age of sleek looking brushed stainless steel home appliances, this is what our vacuum looks like.
One wonders what else the good people at Kenmore could do to make vacuuming more emasculating.
So again we moved into a new place with the help of Angie's mom. The first day and a half we were here I did nothing but assemble Ikea furniture. 2 kitchen carts, tv stand, bookshelf, 2 bed side tables, bathroom shelves, office chair, desk and a huge dresser. I am now very good at assembling Ikea furniture, some of the pieces didn't even have any screws or bolts or mysterious swedish hardware left over.
Williams Lake seems like a great place so far. Angie has had nothing but praise for the school. The first day she went in I went with her and was there when the principal told her about her students. He said that 9 of her 22 are keener straight A students. She asked him what sort of trouble the kids get into and he said sometimes kids get sent to his office for 'not taking homework seriously'. I thought she was going to weep tears of Joy.
I detest moving but I have to say that the move to Williams Lake was relatively pain free. With this move under my belt I offered to help my brother move from Vancouver BC to Hillsboro OR. Let's just say things didn't go perfectly. Stay tuned here for the tale of the move to the USA and the horrors therein.
Fox Lake did all it could to keep it's talons deep in our souls and not let us leave but Ang fought bravely and prevailed. The interview went well we guessed, sometimes it's hard to tell and despite Ang mentioning Hitler we starting getting our hopes up. We knew it wasn't wise. We knew that it would just make it that much harder if things didn't work out. We couldn't help it, we started researching Williams Lake on the web.
"A Save on Foods!!!, Tim Hortons!, a movie theatre! and oh my.... no way! A REGULAR ROAD!!!"
We were getting pumped.
And then, a few days later, on the day of... um.. ok, in the season of spring, 2005 she got the call and the job. It was great. We jumped, we danced, we smoked a cigar. We called our families and they shared our Joy. Everyone we knew congratulated us.
The rest of the year was a breeze, it went by fast and we were itching to leave. We no longer plotted to conspire with students to burn the school down. The sky was bluer, the packs of stray dogs friendlier and the garbage that covered the landscape sparkled in the sunlight.
When we finally left, it took us some time to adjust. I couldn't shake the feeling that we'd have to Go Back. My mind wouldn't stop telling me that I had to buy lots of things because eventually I'd have to Go Back and I wouldn't be able to. Also, in Fox Lake, the teachers get used to knowing every white person they see. And so, when you first stroll around West Edmonton mall, you keep thinking you must know these people and you try to place all the faces and you go mad. Eventually, you come to accept that there are more than 40 white people in the world and that some of them are, wonderfully, strangers. After a few days we were acclimatized and able to enjoy ourselves.
We spent the summer driving all over the place. We went from Fox Lake to Sherwood Park to Camrose to Radium Hot Springs to Abbotsford to Whistler to Victoria to Kelowna to Williams Lake to Whistler to Abbotsford to Keats Island to Radium Hot Springs to Calgary to Radium Hot Springs and, finally, to Williams Lake. According to google maps we drove no less than 6549km. This number isn't exact as google maps shows no record of a town called Fox Lake; wishful thinking. On the way from Victoria to Kelowna, the driver's side window in our car exploded for no apparent reason showering Ang with glass and scaring the bejesus out of us. So we carried on, sans window, to Kelowna, Williams Lake, Whistler and finally got it fixed in Abbotsford (a shout out Kaptain Krunch auto wrecker in Abbotsford for not only having the right window for us, but for not making us retrieve said window from a car that housed a large wasp nest). Mr Wiens installed our shiny new window (for a time, the cleanest part of the car) in exchange for some cookies which, to date, comprise an outstanding debt and we hope he doesn't repossess our window when he visits.
The final trip from Radium to Williams Lake was a bit of an adventure because I had to drive a 17' UHaul moving truck. Ang in our car, myself in the beast and Mrs. Wiens in her car formed a 3 car convoy. At times Ang would ignore the fact that I was driving a huge truck full of loveseats and boxes and pass people going up hills but for the most part it was a smooth drive. It was boring of course, having no one to talk to. The most exciting part of the drive was when other people driving huge UHauls would go by. I waved at all of them and of the 6 I waved at 4 waved back. I think the other two must have been still trying to come to grips with the fact that they had no rear view mirror. It's an adjustment.
We stopped in Kamloops to stock up at Costco and buy a vacuum at Sears. I don't know how or why some things are the way they are but the vacuum we bought is an enigma on it's own level. For some reason, in this day and age of sleek looking brushed stainless steel home appliances, this is what our vacuum looks like.
One wonders what else the good people at Kenmore could do to make vacuuming more emasculating.
So again we moved into a new place with the help of Angie's mom. The first day and a half we were here I did nothing but assemble Ikea furniture. 2 kitchen carts, tv stand, bookshelf, 2 bed side tables, bathroom shelves, office chair, desk and a huge dresser. I am now very good at assembling Ikea furniture, some of the pieces didn't even have any screws or bolts or mysterious swedish hardware left over.
Williams Lake seems like a great place so far. Angie has had nothing but praise for the school. The first day she went in I went with her and was there when the principal told her about her students. He said that 9 of her 22 are keener straight A students. She asked him what sort of trouble the kids get into and he said sometimes kids get sent to his office for 'not taking homework seriously'. I thought she was going to weep tears of Joy.
I detest moving but I have to say that the move to Williams Lake was relatively pain free. With this move under my belt I offered to help my brother move from Vancouver BC to Hillsboro OR. Let's just say things didn't go perfectly. Stay tuned here for the tale of the move to the USA and the horrors therein.
