Maryanne of the Island

First: My Realisations
So I'm back in Saskatchewan, for a month and a half. And now my feeling is more "I'm back, but only for a month and a half," instead of "now I'm home," thanks to the trip to Victoria. Well, no. That's not entirely true. Part of me feels like I've never left. And part of me has this awareness that I have now rented an apartment in another province, and am a student in a school in British Columbia. I have dinner plans (for Chris and me) with the staff workers of the Navigators group, "when we get back." Because I started to refer to moving to Victoria as "coming back."

In a month and a half, I -- a prairie girl who had barely ever seen an ocean before this week -- will live in a city that is not only on the Pacific Ocean, but is also on an island. I'm going to live on an island. Within sight of mountains. And the apartment I've rented is going to be for Chris and me. For myself and my husband. Because when I move to another province, I'll have a new husband and a new last name, and will be a student at a different school. In a city that is obsessed with being British and clean and flowered and perfectly manicured. In a city where flowers bloom in the winter.

Am I justified in feeling stunned by these realisations?

Next: The Newsy Section
My trip went well. I had a new WestJet plane, with the leather seats and the little personal TVs. Lots of legroom, which I appreciated, because it was a longer trip.

My time in Victoria really was delightful, in spite of all the competing emotions regarding moving out there. (I love it out there, but the distance from my family and friends is beginning to sink in. Not to mention the distance from the University, which has been my home for seven years. Will I ever adjust to a new school?) Last night, my cousin Saryn and I took a walk to my new place: it takes a half an hour to walk from Vic and Barb's (where we were staying). On my last day in Victoria, Barb took my cousin Saryn and me around the Inner Harbour area, giving us a chance to be tourists. I took tons of pictures of all the buildings and flowers that you would see on any Victoria Tourism website. So, we peeked around the wax museum and the Empress Hotel, like any tourists would. I was thrilled to see live statue buskers, similar to the King Tut that was outside the Louvre. (I'll post some pictures after I get some rolls developed.)

And Finally
To dispel myths regarding the Island: we were not panicking due to tsunami warnings last night. That was in the United States. In Victoria, no one had any idea, and we're on the sheltered side of the island anyway. Yes, I said "we." As well, it was not gloomy nor was it rainy while I was there. In fact, we had an amazing amount of sunshine, in contrast with Vancouver, where I never came in contact with direct sunlight. No wait, there was about an hour of sunlight on the day of Julia's wedding, and I became like those kids in that book/movie about that planet where they only got sunlight for an hour every bazillions of years. Ky? What's it called?