Tag Archives: vanier

Limbo Land

Posted in Finding Home, Life, Travel by

I have that limbo song in my head just thinking about this post. Every limbo boy and girl, all around the limbo world, gonna do the limbo rock all around the limbo clock! You can thank Chubby Checkers for those awesome lyrics.

We have moved out of our Vanier apartment. Good bye massive kitchen, good bye clouds of smoke and screaming neighbours. Good bye Snack Shack, good bye walking to Bridgehead, Good bye lovely neighbourhood! While I will miss the neighbourhood – we really came to love it (with spring here, folks are beginning to venture outside again. It’s gossip on the street all spring & summer long!).

Dagmar Goodbye

We are out.

I did like it there to be honest. It was our home, and it was HUGE.

Anyhow, limbo land. I called DR Canada about whether I’m able to get onto this big important study, and have not heard back. Not really surprised. We have an appointment with him on April 20th to find out more. So, I’m okay not hearing back. I keep waiting to buy that ticket to Hungary, but may as well embrace the stillness for the brief moment that it lasts.

The move this past Sunday went very well. There were some moments of panic. Firstly, we couldn’t get the queen box spring mattress into the truck bed. So, my little brother strapped it on top of the truck and we drove at 20 km/hour to my friend’s house in the neighbourhood where we are storing our furniture for the summer. But then, the darn tootin’ box spring wouldn’t fit into their basement! My little bro gave me a jolt of panic when he said: Do you have any backup storage? Can you arrange that right now?

To which I replied: Augh!

That was pretty much his prediction over and over throughout the entire day: You will need more storage.

Actually, we did need more storage. But thankfully my friend’s lovely neighbour popped up outta nowhere (okay, from next door) and offered to house our mattresses IN HER BASEMENT! This is what I mean about Vanier having some truly lovely people. We don’t even know this lady, and she lent us space in her home. I guess the world in general is full of lovely people.

With my Dad’s truck not getting the job done fast enough, (and my entire family present, slowly losing their patience with job of moving boxes one vehicle at a time) little bro had another idea: he’d rent us a MOVING vehicle/truck! While we all thought he was away picking up some tools, he was actually out renting a moving truck. Smart guy. Once he arrived the boxes were loaded in, and off they went. It was a good idea, I’ll admit it. I’m also quite glad I didn’t  need to arrange it.

Days prior to the big move, we were dealing with the big PACK. Honestly it was driving Zsolt and I crazy sorting through so many things, packing boxes, sorting closets, cleaning spaces, sorting charity . . . packing just takes forever and it turns everything upside down. We were losing our minds in the mess, and our apartment turned into a strange maze where you navigated between stacks of cardboard boxes.

Now we are in my parents basement again, soaking up the calm spring rays of sunshine, and clean smoke-free air. I feel as if we’ve come full circle from the time we first arrive in Canada. Except, you know, it’s not at all the same, and we won’t be here for long. I’m still itching to buy that ticket to Hungary. I suppose I’ll just have to wait till April 20th to learn what type of schedule will be happening. Fingers crossed for the study. I like that option & I want that option.

And that is all. Excuse me while I go listen, again, to that limbo land song.

Moving the Moving Boxes

Posted in Finding Home, Life by

This evening Zsolt and I removed nearly all the boxes from our apartment. We’ve been holding onto these boxes ever since moving from England, if not longer.

Cockroach Update: The exterminator came round today and laid a paste in various/many locations of the apartment. That’s right, you read correctly – Exterminator. Turns out the entire building has a cockroach problem, so the landlord is tackling each flat. I haven’t at all built a ‘community through cockroaches’ (excepting a 1 minute conversation in the corridor today that involved three opened doors with heads sticking out as we all exchanged with the exterminator about the problem), but at least the issue is being handled throughout the building.

Sending our boxes into the light.

So this evening Zsolt and I packed up the boxes to be put out for recycling. Apparently cockroaches like the cardboard glue. It just felt so strange to let these pieces of corrugated cardboard go . . . like I totally didn’t want to, like somehow I’d assigned emotions to these boxes and getting rid of them was cutting me off.

But what emotions could they be? Attachment to England? The feeling of not yet being home (since we’ve been storing boxes ever since moving to the UK, where they hid on top of closets, under the bed and behind the sofa)? The lack of moving ease?

I’ll psychoanalyze myself a moment, and say that for nearly the past seven years Zsolt and I have become accustomed to being transient. The idea that we would stay put – in one flat, for a long period of time really does feel bizarre. Like, could this place be home? Are we home? Can a place you rent be home, aren’t we not home until we buy our property? But there go the boxes – out into the street for the recycling truck to collect.

We’re transient without anywhere to go, or any means to easily get there. So maybe we should just change mental modes and instead be ‘settled’ .  . . settlers, who settle, and grow tomato plants and get to know their neighbours in a way that actually sticks.

Well . . . I don’t know. The cockroaches have forced us to get rid of the moving boxes. We have to accept being here. I guess in a way that’s one step closer toward community, eh?

The boxes are going.

We are staying.

The cockroaches must die.