Life settles into a routine .... of sorts

As the title says, life is starting to settle down. We can't stay in holiday mode forever, as nice as it sounds ... life (and the children) need some routine. Routine though, in a snowy environment like this, is still exciting and great fun for us!

We explored some one of the local parks on the weekend, which of course was completely covered in snow. We were looking at a huge lake and were assuming that it was completely frozen. We could see some reeds coming through, so guessed it was shallow. While we were there, a group who unusually, were speaking English, came and made their way onto the ice. We watched with interest and then decided to strike up a conversation. They were scouts who were doing some of their winter adventures. We decided if they were brave enough to go out onto this frozen lake, we were too! It is a surreal feeling walking on a frozen lake and I wasn't brave enough to stay out very long. The scouts were cutting holes through the ice, with hand held drills, to go ice fishing. We had a peak and then took off. One of these photos shows Lach on the ground (not on the ice, but in the snow) - he really can't help himself! Its irrelevant if its -10 degrees ... he constantly wants to climb, crawl and explore! Yes, his head is under the railing of the bridge. He's trying to work out whether the snow ball he just threw into the stream will freeze instantly or not. (It didn't, but it did form icy clumps). The photo of us walking shows me being hit with a snowball. Throwing snowballs is a favourite activity ... the children just love picking up the fresh powder.

 This trip to the park also involved sledding.  Our kids love this.  There are heaps of photos of the kids racing down the hill, but the photos of Tony and I have a go are less common: so I'm sharing a couple now.

The children have continued happily at school. We decided to move Sophie as we discovered that kindergarten here is not compulsory and is a year focused on emotional and social development (like preschool in Australia). They have activities that focus on early literacy & numeracy skills, but having done a whole year of school, Sophie needed something more formal. So we decided to change here into Yr 1. This also meant buying her a school uniform. Sophie finds change challenging, so it was unfortunate that she had to settle into a new class after doing so well in Kinder. She was a bit wobbly & there were some tears but she is much happier. A reader came home on the first night & she is enjoying using her brain again!

Sophie also lost her second front tooth this week so we had to write to the Canadian tooth fairy. Luckily, she delivered so that was exciting for Sophie.

Olivia had several days off school as picked up strep throat, which is going around school. This meant that we had to negotiate the medical system as she needed a doctor. It is a drop in system, but you go to the doctor to get your number & then wait. Or, you can pay a fee of $3, go home and get hourly phone calls advising of your progress in the queue. Best $3 ever spent. We were number 285 & they were up to 227 as we left! They rang each hour, then ring 20-45 mins prior to the appointment. So while we were daunted by the wait, at least we were able to go home and get on with our day. We got our number at 11:45 and were seen at 4pm. Imagine sitting there for most of the afternoon.  Tony thinks this is a fantastic business idea and is trying to work out how to import it to Australia! Imagine how it would transform Ginninderra Medical Centre!

There has been one day of snow this week (Monday), which was exciting and made walking to school fun! It refreshed the environment & looked beautiful. I love how the snow is so light it rests on the leaves of the trees and every surface. I'm not sure if you can enlarge this photo of our house, but its on top of the lamp and letterbox. It is just beautiful. But once it stops snowing, the snow quickly gets very dirty. Salt is spread regularly on the road, to stop cars from slipping around. It doesn't melt as the temps are still below zero, rather it just gets dirty and sludgy, then freezes again. And, it ruins your shoes! Shoes get covered in the salt and get wet, so you have to be particular about what type of shoes you wear. These photos show how thick the sludge is: it is on the edge of the road near the curb, but it also is on stairs, footpaths and everywhere else that is commonly tread. We try to mainly wear our snow shoes when we go out.

 

 

Today has been a pupil free day for the children. As I write this, Tony has just returned from taking Lach and Sophie skiing for the day. We had planned to all ski, but Olivia being sick changed that plan. Tony decided to still take the others but go a smaller ski field closer to home. Well, they loved it. This is their third ski and each time, we find a new favourite! We are hoping Livvy is well enough on Sunday and we hope to all go back there again. Lach and Sophie made great progress and for those up with ski knowledge, both did black runs today.

Tony's in his element!

We awoke to a winter wonderland this morning. Snow fell all night and while it was only reported as 4cm, it felt like 40 to us! The kids loved walking to school, kicking it up. It was so soft & fluffy! The landscape looks so much brighter and fresher after the snow.

With this much snow comes the social responsibility of clearing your footpath. This is essential as the postman needs to be able to walk up or your front door to deliver the mail. Many people outsource it but Tony is embracing it! He is a farmer at heart! So.... out he goes! These photos show some before & half way through photos, as he clears the car.

 

 It is mornings like this we wish there was a garage! We thought it was a lot of snow.

 

Then of course he needed to do the driveway- so we could reverse out! Imagine doing this before you can drive to work on several days during winter?

 

We don't need to do the street or the footpath. Snow clearing vehicles come along during the day to do this. It means there is a huge amount of snow on the edge of the road. The snow from the road is pushed to the edge of the road and the snow from the footpath is pushed to the edge also - making it pretty deep. Lach chooses to walk in this pile as much as possible!

 

We are wondering how the local council manages the road clearing when big dumps like this happen. It is so unpredictable: so are workers employed for the whole winter and some days you work a lot and others you don't; or is it a casual work force that all get a call when the snow starts falling? We will keep trying to find things like this out!

Remember the day we skied at Bromont ...

We think Australia Day 2014 might be remembered as "one of those days". We headed off early to Bromont, a small ski village 1 hour south of Montreal, towards the US border. It was cold, but we thought we were appropriately dressed and we'd be fine.

    

All in our new jackets!

Well ... after just one run, we found that we were wrong. We weren't dressed appropriately. We were freezing. Olivia & Soph were in tears because they were so cold. But .... the run was so good; so long; so empty .... but even with all the ski conditions in your favour, if you are cold, that wins! It was -18 degrees. We had to do one more run to get back to the cafe, where we sat to re-evaluate!

The girls wanted to go home & were definitely refusing to go it again( it's all of about 9:30 am at this stage & we've just paid for all the day ski tickets). Tony & I were sensing that this ski field was pretty good, so we wanted to explore. So hot chocolates all round & time to defrost before trying to motivate the kids again.

Hot chocolates to warm us up! Everyone looks happy here ... this was not the case 10 mins prior to the photo!

It's worth adding in at this stage that the conditions at the two Canadian ski fields we've seen (Mont Blanc last weekend) are much, much better than what we find in Australia. There are large rooms with tables & chairs, where you can put boots on. Everyone leaves their gear/back packs lying around, so you can put snow boots back on as soon as you finish skiing. There are lockers, like large pigeon holes, to leave helmets/gloves/scarves etc at lunch time - all free. There are microwaves so you can bring your own food & reheat it at lunch time. It makes the day much cheaper. The cafés sell hot large cups of hot soup, for about $3 - perfect for lunch. We've been impressed!

So after the hot chocolates, the children were a little more revived & agreed to do two runs then come back inside. We thought if we just tried to (bribe them) get out there for short bursts, they would enjoy it. That theory worked & we stayed around the closest slopes for a while.

With so many breaks during the day, we decided to sample the local delicacy, poutine. It is hot chips with gravy and cheese. Its fair to say this dish is targetted at children ... but none of ours were particularly taken by it!
Tony and Sophie with the poutine.

On our second break, I took the children inside while Tony went on his own for a little while. We must have looked cold, as this lovely gentleman came up to us & offered us some "hotties". These nifty little things look like an over-sized tea bag.  You shake them & they warm up. Don't ask me about now that works but they are magic! You then slip them inside your gloves while you ski. These are the little extra things you need when you ski at -18! The children loved them & he ended up giving us enough for us all to have one. So morale was lifted once again & we managed to stay put for three runs.

We ended up skiing until about 2pm, which was fine; especially as at one stage, I thought we'd be leaving at 10:30!

Bromont is a great ski field & we are very keen to go back when it's not so cold. The slopes are so long & the snow was beautiful. There is a gray variety with 7 different sides of the mountain. But, for Australia Day 2014, it will always be remembered as the coldest day we've ever skied!

 

 The amazing slopes. So few people on them! In the first photo, you can see Sophie in the distance and Lach in the blue jacket. Look at the view of the township far below!

 

Exercising in Montreal

Most people know much I like to exercise. Many people asked how I was going to keep up the exercise here in the extreme temperatures to which I answered I had no idea! Well, I have a few answers now! They just do!

This is Tony setting out one morning for a run. Our house in the background.

From Isabelle's recommendations, we contacted a lady who runs exercise classes outdoors all year round. Both Tony & I have been along to a trial class and actually enjoyed it! Here are some observations ....

• Drink bottles freeze when you carry them with you outside for over an hour in -15 degree temps.
• You don't exercise in running shoes ... you need to wear hiking boots because of all the snow. Running in hiking boots makes your times much slower.
• You need to wear two pairs of gloves to exercise (really I need two pairs of gloves to do anything).
• You wear about 4 layers on top.
• You do actually get hot but the secret is to not strip off the top layer as it is the shell that holds your warmth. You need to strip off an inner layer. 
• Eye lashes freeze, as does any sweat that drips off your face. For those not on Facebook, I'm including a photo of what I looked like when I returned from my run this morning. It was -24 degrees. I didn't know that when I set out. To my mother ... don't panic, I was fine and I was hot when I returned. It was kind of funny!
• Running on week old snow is slippery, icy and therefore very slow. 
• Lots of people still run in Montreal despite the challenges. 

Despite hoping to exercise together, it won't happen during the winter for Tony & I. I'm going to a ladies class on Tues & Thurs mornings & Tony is going to a class on Tues evenings. Working around school drop offs was hard as one of us needs to walk the children to school at this stage. 

We are hoping to do some cross country skiing together during the days. We've been once & enjoyed that. Hopefully we'll do that once a week. As the weather improves, we'll do some runs together during the day while children are at school.

Guest post ... from Olivia

What I've learnt about Montreal, after one week:

What -20c feels like.
- That French is very hard to learn.
- That Montreal is almost as big Sydney.
- There are lots of ski fields around Montreal with in 1 1/2 hour away.
- Children use agendas for their homework.
- When it's less the -15c we don't go out for recess or lunch.
- Mittens are warmer then gloves.
- We get milk at school.
- When you go ice skating and fall over and land on your wrist it really, really, really hurts.
- You have to provide your own supplies for school.




Note from Editor:  Olivia has since found a beanie that covers her ears, at the request of her school teacher!

Filling our days ...

Tony and I are really enjoying time to ourselves and working to our own timetables, not those of the children's! We have been out exploring each day this week, gradually broadening the areas in which we venture and those with which we are familiar.

The roads have been a big challenge (I'm improving as a navigator). Lefts and rights have never come easily to me, so now coping with directions while driving on the opposite side of the road has made my directions a little challenging for Tony to understand. The first few days were terrible ... we frequently went the wrong direction on a freeway. And freeways world-wide are the same: once you get on them, you can't get off easily! I inadvertedly directed us onto a freeway, going the wrong direction, middle of the afternoon on a Friday afternoon. Busy time. Then there was an accident nearby. We've since done the same trip since and it should take a max 12 minutes. It took us the hour. The children were incredibly patient but we did have to take them sledding in the dark to make up for it! Sledding had been promised for the afternoon ... so there was no way we could get out of it. There were not many people on the local "mound" at 5pm in the afternoon!

So.... some of the things Tony and I have done this week include:

• made friends with the staff at our local ski shop. Love the display outside! But look at the range! Just so much stock. They generally sell products that are 12 months old and the prices are fantastic. We have new jackets as a result.

• Shop calmly and get to know some of the new products around. We look at the supermarkets as an activity during the day, discovering new items. We never have time to do this in Australia.  Self serve check outs are terrible - much quicker in Aust! We love the cheeses. Montreal is very like France in that respect - the cheeses are great and everyone has lots around. Most things are in French though, so we spend a bit of time trying to translate and guess!

 

 

• Explore Montreal. Montreal is an extremely flat city built around the St Lawrence River. In these photos you may notice that the river is partly frozen at the moment. There is one big hill in the middle of the city - Mont Royale - but you can only enjoy the view if it is a clear day. The river is in the centre third of the photo and it is partly frozen.

• Cross country skiing. We have found a great outdoor nature area and used the cross country tracks there. Lots of layers of clothing in this picture!

• Enjoyed lunches and coffees on our own. So calm and peaceful! We've been into a couple of cafes near the uni and student area. We were the only people not on a laptop. We felt quite out of it. As a business owner,Tony is perplexed at businesses that are happy for students to come in and hang out, drink one coffee over a long period of time and not spend much money. He wants a higher turnover than that!
  

Starting at Parkdale Elementary School.

The children have started school and have made us so proud. They have settled into their new classes very calmly and have taken to the work with a great attitude.

 

All of them were very nervous in the days leading up to the first day and on the morning of. There have been a couple of minor bumps along the way, but all have handled the challenges so strongly.

The school uniform is only applicable for Yrs 1-6. They need to wear a white t-shirt and navy pants. You will notice that in this photo - first day photo - that I made Olivia and Lach wear a long sleeved t-shirt underneath. They soon ditched those, as the classrooms are so warm. So they go to school in  a t-shirt and then their ski jacket. Not nearly as many layers as me (read my post about the climated). Sophie is allowed to wear anything comfortable. This is just inside our front door: the stairs lead up to two bedrooms; over Olivia's shoulder is the family room and kitchen.

This next photo shows the children walking to school - the difference between what they get dressed in and then what they wear outside. This again was the first day - we have added more layers. They didn't have scarves on or beanies that covered their ears - so we were asked to wear those. This photo is just outside our house and that is our car, with the pod on the roof. There is plenty of snow around but it is old and very icy. We are very keen for some new fluffy stuff to fall soon!

 

Most children catch the bus to school and all the students stay on the bus until the bell goes at 9am. Then everyone is immediately ushered inside - no outside time at all. As we walk (about 800 metres) there is no point arriving any earlier as you just have to stand in the cold!

 

This is the trudge home from school. Generally very cold but they chat the whole way. The procedure each day is to come in and defrost and straight into hot chocolate!

Sophie has one hour of French a day and Lach and Olivia have about 90 minutes. Their timetables (called schedules) are complicated as Lach's teacher takes Olivia's class once a week during one of the French classes; there is a separate Science teacher who also does art and there are at least two French teachers. Not sure about release time for the class teachers as they are plenty of comings and goings. The Yr 3, 4 & 5 classes seem to join together each morning for a literacy program called Success For All. Olivia and Lach are staying with their class teachers this week and then may move into different groups next week.

Lach is learning about the solar system in Science, which he loves and knows a lot about .... but they are doing it in French! He told me they had to write in French the other day and he just wrote random letters! The teachers are very understanding and are not expecting much from them. Olivia is keen to learn but Lach would prefer to write random stuff!

          

Sophie is very happy and has rarely cried: for those who knew her at school last year, this is a big achievement!

The classrooms are very, very warm and the children just wear t-shirts inside. They change into their shoes once they arrive at school. They did go outside to play on the first day, but haven't been out since. The measure is about -15 degrees. After that, it is is inside for the day. Going outside means dressing in all those layers - can you imaging Kinders managing scarves, beanies, mittens, snow pants, jacket and boots? These kids are well trained, I tell you!

 

This is the school playground. Lach is not impressed. He is desperately hoping some soccer goals appear before spring! On the first day when they went outside, all they had was sliding mats, like toboggans. He was bored and wanted a ball. Since its been indoor weather, he has managed to join the group of boys who play basketball inside at lunch time - he much prefers that. He couldn't believe it when he found out that one of the school rules is no throwing snowballs - that is his favourite activity! For an active little Aussie kid, snow is just asking to be tossed - especially at your sisters!

 

 

I love the buses - it is such an American image, so I just had to include a photo of them. Each school seems to have their own fleet of buses. They line up each morning and afternoon. The buses have these nifty "arrete" signs that come stick out on the drivers side of the bus and flash. Apparently if you drive down past them while their signs are out, you can be reported to police by the bus driver. They also have a long metal bar that extends out the front of the bus, to stop children crossing to close to the front of the bus. The bar extends out about 2 metres then folds back against the bus once it is ready to go.

The climate .... January edition

One of the biggest adventures, and challenges, in coming to Montreal was the climate. Becauseit is going to affect our daily lives in extreme ways, I am going to revisit this top regularly: hence the title!

I do enjoy the snow and associated activities (skiing, enjoying red wine ....); I wouldn't say I like the cold weather! But at the same time, for this adventure, we wanted to experience a different way of life - so a mild, temperate environment wasn't what we wanted. I remember in the early months of 2013, when this adventure was becoming a reality, we watched the Montreal weather rather closely. It got to temps around -15 & -20 degrees. I really couldn't absorb what that meant. But as 2013 progressed, I talked myself out of those numbers: I thought I must have misread and there was no way a place could get that cold.
 
Well, the numbers were accurate. It can and does get that cold! This photo was taken today in the middle of the day.

Yep, that says -17! We have still walked to school and home again each day with the children and they are actually just getting used to it! The mornings are generally about -22 to -20 degrees - and that is just before 9am, when we leave for school.

So, coping with temps that far below zero.  It involves many, many layers of clothes. To walk to school with the children, I wear:

• a long sleeve thermal;
• a long sleeve polar fleece top for skiing;
• a vest;
• my ski jacket;
• a pair of thick tights;
• my ski pants;
• a pair of thin running gloves;
• a pair of mittens;
• a neck warmer;
• a beanie that covers the ears;
• my new hiking boots that are very thick and made for walking in snow.

By the time the day ends (3.30pm) it is already cool and the light is fading, so we wear exactly the same layers again.

It takes a good 5 minutes to dress before you leave the house! The children have become very competent with this procedure. They don't wear as many layers as us but it still takes several minutes to dress. Snow shoes are not worn inside, so you have to be organised - no dashing back for anything. I feel for parents of toddlers - imagine doing this to a wriggling toddler every time you go outside! To attempt to explain how cold it is out there, here is a quick ancedote: I asked Tony to take a bag out to the bin one evening and he said no, too cold - even to just dash. In the cars, we still wear all these layers - and have the heating on. You really don't go anywhere without many layers. Our car has heated seats - one of my new loves!

While this isn't a very flattering photo of me, it does show how "padded"

we look. I truly have't put on weight - it is just the two pairs of pants and about 4 layers on top! I was cross country skiing with Tony and had the same amount of clothes on as I listed earlier. I did't take any layers off, despite skiing and moving for well over an hour.

The sense of fashion is completely compromised as all that really matters is your boots and your coat! Most people walk around in hiking/snow boots and leave shoes at their work places. This also happens at school - the children leave a pair of shoes at school to wear during the day. More about the children and their clothing at school in a post about school.

The cold just bites at your face or any exposed skin. I've never experienced anything like this before!

My first run

I attempted a run this morning! -6 degrees C, so it beats Ginninderra parkrun last winter when the coldest was -4.

For the information of parkrun friends, my time was pathetic but I was dodging ice .. haven`t had to do that around Lake G. Clothing included three layers on chest and two on arms; long pants; gloves and beanie: and I didnt take anything off along the way - in fact my legs were still cold after the 4 kms (all I could manage).  Hard work!