This morning’s visit to the consulate was quick, simple and not at all what I expected.  There was no sitting down across the desk from an official, no questions asked or answers given.  Documents were simply signed and passed under the window separating us from the lady who served us, we were asked to wait a few minutes while everything was checked and then we were sent on our way.  The visas will be issued on Jan. 22 and returned to us via express post so we should have them in hand a full month before our departure.

On the way back to Melaina’s, we stopped to do some shopping.  For the first time in his life, Richard will be required to wear dress shirts and ties to school so we needed to add a few of those to his wardrobe.  Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of the January sales.  I also found a couple of tops to enhance my working wardrobe but the most exciting purchase was a gift for our unborn grandson.  We bought him a Fisher Price baby swing.  Unlike the wind up models that our babies swung in, this one is pretty high tech featuring 12 songs as well as rainforest sounds!

We’re back in Calgary again.  The Certificates of Eligibility that we’ve been waiting for arrived in this morning’s mail so I called the Japanese consulate here in Calgary and made an appointment for tomorrow morning, packed a suitcase and we were on our way.  The Certificates are issued by Japanese Immigration and are a required part of the visa application process.  We have to apply for the visas in person.  After tomorrow’s appointment, the consulate will hold our passports for one week then stamp them with the visas and return them to us.  Fortunately, that can be done by mail.

I also joined the world of Facebook today.  Actually, my kids have been telling me for some time that this was something I needed to do and when Melaina heard that I was coming down today, she decided to go ahead and set it up for me.  Upon arrival this afternoon, I was introduced to my new account and given a mini inservice!

The decision was made last night. With three weeks left until performance time, I’ve been asked to take over a lead role in our upcoming play. I’ve been working on memorizing the lines for some time now so that I could step in if necessary and replace a cast member who, due to a stroke suffered eight months ago, was having difficulty memorizing her lines. Instead of sitting in the director’s chair at tomorrow afternoon’s rehearsal, I’ll be onstage. Fortunately, the real director, who has been away caring for her ill mother for the past several weeks, is due back on Wednesday. I’m much more comfortable acting than I am directing but stepping in at this late date is far from ideal. I would definitely feel more comfortable taking over this role if we didn’t also have to make another trip to Calgary sometime in the next couple of weeks to visit the Japanese consulate and arrange for our working visas. Oh well, at least life is never boring!

We bought our plane tickets to Japan over three weeks ago.  When we were told that we should plan to arrive on or about Feb. 25, I asked whether we should go ahead and book our flights or whether we should wait until our visas were in place.  Go ahead, we were told, and so I began searching for the best price available.  After checking Air Canada and United Airline prices online and what kind of deal we could get as automobile association members, I contacted the travel agent who arranged our flights last time we flew to Japan and learned that she could offer us a much better deal.  Congratulating ourselves on saving a large chunk of cash, we purchased the tickets.

Now Air Canada is advertising an international seat sale!  Did I do the right thing?  Should I have waited?  Would I be able to buy the same tickets cheaper now?  I don’t know.  Richard assures me that it would have been foolish to wait on the off chance that a better deal might materialize and I’ve refused to check out the seat sale price because if it’s significantly better than the price we paid, I don’t think I want to know!  That’s how I shop.  Once I’ve made a purchase, whether it be a pair of shoes, a coat or an airline ticket, I refuse to look at the same or similar item elsewhere in case I could have got it cheaper.  Right now, though, I do wish that every seat on an airplane sold for exactly the same price so that I wouldn’t have to wonder whether or not the person sitting next to me got a better deal than I did!

Though it’s awhile before we’ll begin to pack, I’m already making lists of what to take to Japan with us. How do you fit everything you’ll need for a year in two suitcases and a carry on each? The school has sent us lists of things to bring and I’ve found other useful lists online. One suggests that the most valuable things to bring are a positive attitude and a sense of humour. Fortunately, those won’t take up any space in our luggage!

Being about the size of an average Japanese man, Richard shouldn’t have any problem buying clothing or shoes in Japan. I, on the other hand, may have more difficulty. I’ve been told that women who are taller than 5’4″, weigh more than 130 pounds or wear shoes larger than size 7 can expect to have difficulty finding clothing or footwear to fit. I passed that height and shoe size back in junior high and am slightly over the weight limit as well!

Our apartment will be furnished with the basics including bedding and dishes so we don’t have to worry about those. Of course, we can shop for any additional items we might need when we get there but we have been advised to bring certain toiletry and health care items with us. Unlike North American products, Japanese deoderants do not contain aluminum and are, therefore, not very effective. Toothpaste is another item that doesn’t meet North American standards and multivitamins are extremely expensive so those are a few things that we’ll take a year’s supply of.

There is one treasure that I absolutely must not forget to pack. On June 1st, at a year end concert in honour of the two teachers who were retiring from my school, I was presented with a very special gift from the students. It’s special to me because the students who chose it clearly put a great deal of thought into selecting something that would be meaningful to me. It is a brown leather bound journal and the inside cover was signed by every student in the school. Knowing my love of traveling and that I was dreaming of living and teaching overseas, they told me that I was to take it with me wherever I went and write down my memories. I will do that and whenever I do, I will remember the students of Lougheed School.

I’ve spent the past two days making lots of phone calls to arrange to have services like phone, cable, internet & newspapers cut off when we leave the country.  I also called Canada Customs about how to register things like the computer and the digital camera that we’re taking with us so that they don’t think we bought them in Japan and charge us import duties when we return.  Another call was made to Revenue Canada to find out about how our foreign income will be taxed.  Of course, all this involved lots of time on hold listening to boring music and even more boring recorded messages but I want to get all this kind of stuff taken care of early so I don’t get stressed out later.   Now we’re in the process of trying to figure out what kind of health care coverage we need.  Those of you who know me well can probably imagine all the lists that I have going these days but every time I cross something off, we’re one step closer to being ready to go!

In the teaching profession, our year always began at the end of August or the beginning of September so New Years didn’t mean very much to me but this year is different.  Today is truly a day of reflecting on a wonderful year just passed and looking forward to the one ahead with anticipation.

Looking back, we reflect on our retirement at the end of June and all the celebrations and accolades that went along with that.  We spent lots of quality time with family in 2007 including a DeBock family reunion in August.  This was also the year that I learned to operate a combine and helped my friend, Louis, with harvest.  What a great time that was!  It was also during harvest that we learned that we’re going to be grandparents in the coming year as our daughter, Melaina, is expecting a baby boy in May!  Though we’ll be far away when he arrives, we’re absolutely delighted!

As I look ahead, I’m reminded of the exhilaration I experienced as a little girl whenever I had the opportunity to be the first to leave my footprints on an area of fresh fallen snow.  A new year – a new beginning.  How exciting!

Of course, we look forward to our time in Japan with excitement and anticipation and wonder that this dream we’ve had for so long is really coming true.  As I question what else the new year might hold, I’m reminded of a line from a song that says “I don’t know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future” and I am secure in that knowledge.

May 2008 be a wonderful year for you and yours!

Last night, we had the privilege of sharing Christmas dinner with Lita, a live in nanny from the Philippines who came to Calgary two months ago.  Prior to coming to Canada, Lita was nanny/helper to our friends, Tess and Charles, in Hong Kong helping care for their four young children, Sebastian and his triplet siblings, Jasper, Sela and Carys.  We first met Lita two and a half years ago when she came to Canada with Tess and the children for a summer visit.   We saw her again this past summer when the family was once again in Canada.  This time, we also met her husband, De.  De continues to work in Hong Kong and their 3 year old daughter is in the Philippines where she has been cared for by Lita’s sister most of her life.  Lita will have to work in Canada for 3 years before she is able to sponsor her husband and child so that they can finally be together as a family.  As a mother, I find it hard to fathom the sacrifice involved being separated from her own child and caring for other people’s in order to eventually build a better life for her own.

Over the years we’ve picked up a few Christmas traditions from friends of other cultures.  About 25 years ago, I went Christmas shopping with a friend who was born in Holland.  We stopped at a little Dutch import shop in Edmonton to pick up chocolate initials, one of her family’s special Christmas treats.  I decided that they would make great stocking stuffers and one of our enduring Christmas traditions was born.  Some years they’ve been easy to find but other years the search has been long and difficult.  Not once, though, have we failed to find them in time for Christmas.

Today I’m making French Canadian tourtiere, a delicious meat pie.  It’s one of our traditions that was born several years later when we spent Christmas in Cranbrook with our dear friends, Joan and Rod and their boys.  Every Christmas Eve, Joan, who was of French Canadian descent, served tourtiere for supper.  Though I had never made it before, I found a recipe the following year and we’ve eaten it for Christmas Eve dinner ever since.

I wonder if next year we’ll find something Japanese to incorporate in our ensuing Christmases.  I understand that there is very little Christian influence in Japan and that Christmas is, for the most part, simply a commercial endeavor but perhaps there will be something that we can adopt.

Happy Christmas to all!

December and Christmas seemed to sneak up on me this year.  I think that’s because it took a long time for the reality of retirement to really sink in.  Being a teacher, I was used to the long summer break.  When fall rolled around and I didn’t go back to school, it seemed as if it was still summer at least until winter arrived!

At first, as I Christmas shopped, wrapped gifts, started baking and decorated the tree, it seemed as if I was just going through the motions but now that Christmas is just a few days away, the excitement of the season has caught me once again.  Perhaps it was the nativity play at church last Sunday evening where the littlest angel fell asleep onstage or maybe it’s been the Christmas music filling the house the past few days.  It could be the cards and letters arriving in the mail each day catching us up with news of friends and family or maybe it’s the scent of the white spruce Christmas tree and the taste of mandarin oranges and shortbread.  Most of all, though, it’s probably the fact that we’re off to Calgary tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with our daughter, Melaina, and her husband, Aaron.  Our son, Nathan, will be joining us there.  This will be the very first time that we’ve celebrated Christmas in one of our children’s homes and I’m really looking forward to it!