Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from My Canadian Eyesight) I am not going to share pictures of this, but over my four years abroad, I had discovered a Bohemian that was living inside me … and I had the attire, the long hair (yes) and the beard to prove it. Honestly, in the moment, it…
My Canadian Eyesight
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Panic Attacks) Home is a blur. I mean that in all manners: it was fast, sensory overload, a long-time ago, and it was disconcerting. I know that I experienced full-on culture shock. I remember walking Ben on the streets at dusk thinking that someone had quietly dropped a neutron…
Panic Attacks
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Export) Leaving Poland was surreal and it remains surreal in my memory. Once we returned from Turkey on October 20, we had but a week remaining to finalize our departure. The Bolesławiec had been shipped before we left for Turkey. After investigating all options for transport, I elected to…
Export
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Perspective) Returning to Canada also involved the assumed complication of setting up an export/import business. That is to say, we needed to figure out how we would get Benjamin back to Canada. To this day, when I introduce Ben or even the picture of Ben to anyone and they…
Perspective
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Decisions) Choosing to return required almost more preparation than it took to leave Canada four years earlier. When we left, we were new grads with little in the way of reasonability and what possessions we owned were mostly boxed and stored away in Andrea’s parents’ basement. In preparing to…
Decisions
Chapter 3: Canadian Soil (continued from Super-Dog) The decision to return to Canada was in many ways obvious and necessary. That didn’t make the decision any easier, however. By the time we made the decision, we’d been gone more than three years and by the time we’d return, it would be over four years that…