Just keep moving
The bilingual stop signs in New Brunswick, a testament to our eggshell situation with the French in Canada.
It is nice to be home for the holidays. Back to the relative familiarity of that which I grew up with. Although I can’t lie, things are not quite the same. But these differences – be they real or imagined – aren’t really anything to lose sleep over. One of the big things though is that I can now hear a definite Maritime accent. The same accent may extend across the country, because I’ve never noticed much of a difference in vocal timbre among my Canadian friends, but it is definitely very pronounced here. It is a softer, less threatening sound than the Americans have, which is maybe part of the reason people around the world are more receptive of us… or maybe it has something to do with aggressive political tactics and a lack of tack… who am I to say.
And since I’ve been home, I’ve been on the move pretty continuously. Arriving home on Tuesday, I spent the evening with my family before taking off on a five hour car ride the next morning. Living in Canada your friends don’t always live down the street or even across town, they live in far removed parts of the country, if your lucky they might be in the same province. Or in my case the next province but our Eastern provinces are relatively small. But 500 km is still 500 km. However, that is what friendship and Christmas are all about. It was a great little journey, and I’m glad I got to see Chris again, even if only for a short time. I guess that is how life is when you move away from home, when you return you have a desire to reconnect with those people who you don’t get to see quite as often. Or not.
Have an enjoyable holiday season.