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| my version of Emily Carr's painting "Odds and Ends" |
I am writing this blog on the 21st anniversary of my
arrival in Canada. While I love the Canadian nature, regained my love for painting and have been lucky enough to spend a lot of
time creating or teaching art, I am still not sure that my move to
Canada was the right thing for me. My ties to my family and friends in Germany are still very strong. I miss being more actively involved in their lives, whether it is in good times or in challenging moments. For my husband and children this longing is often hard to understand as the people who are important to me are mostly strangers to them.
I feel lucky that I have made some very good friends here in Canada - most of them through our shared love of art. However, the bonds are different compared to those of my friends in Germany. I guess it is because we never spent time together until I was a wife and mother.
I am thankful for my husband's parents and siblings who treated me as an equal part of the family from the moment they met me. They supported us in our decision even though they thought that our plan to move together to Canada was very risky. Once I started getting serious about my art, they have continuously encouraged my artistic endeavors.
I certainly have adapted to the life in Canada and changed. While I keep in touch with my family and friends, I am certainly not up to date with the cultural and economic changes in Germany. As everyone who lives away from his mother country, I hold on to the memories and traditions to keep my culture alive and sometimes might see the grass as greener in Germany. I guess what it comes down to is that I will always be torn between Germany and Canada, feeling that I neither fully belong to one country nor the other.
I certainly have adapted to the life in Canada and changed. While I keep in touch with my family and friends, I am certainly not up to date with the cultural and economic changes in Germany. As everyone who lives away from his mother country, I hold on to the memories and traditions to keep my culture alive and sometimes might see the grass as greener in Germany. I guess what it comes down to is that I will always be torn between Germany and Canada, feeling that I neither fully belong to one country nor the other.
When I left off my memories of our trip to Vancouver at the beginning
of April, my future husband and I had just embarked a ferry to
Vancouver Island. On the two hour trip, we saw the water framed by
the snow-peaked mountains and one lonely sailboat. We docked in
Nanaimo. We had planned to drive to Kelsey Bay along the Johnstone
Strait with a huge concentration of orca whales. However, we wanted
to have enough time to visit Victoria and leave the island two days
later again as the prices for the ferry were higher on the weekends.
We turned back to Qualicum Beach and continued in the direction of
Port Alberni. We stopped at Cathedral Grove, a part of the MacMillan
Provincial Park, with Douglas firs which are up to 800 years old. I
have never seen such humongous trees. Ingo took some great pictures
of us among those huge trees.
When we finally settled into our motel in Port Alberni it was almost
8 pm. The days just seemed to fly by. We had so much fun discovering
the areas that we totally lost track of time. Usually, we were much
too tired at night to go out but rested in our room.
The motor inn in Port Alberni offered not only a suite but also had
its own pizzeria which delivered the pizza straight to our room. What
could be more convenient? You just have to ignore how unhealthy the
food itself was. The constant fatty and sweet foods created lots of
problems for my stomach. I was definitely not used to so much fat and
sugar in my diet.
I hope you liked my travelogue. Please feel free to share my blog
with family and friends. To find out what we experienced the next
day, please return to my blog next week.
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