Looking more like a local

Until today, we had Saskatchewan plates on our car. When we moved out here, I read through all the requirements for students living out of province, and I did everything that Saskatchewan's auto insurance company required.  We kept renewing our plates and buying insurance, and then some friends of ours were in an accident and found out that the province had stopped covering married students (but their brokers didn't stop selling insurance to married out-of-province students).

And so today we went and got BC license plates.  It wasn't too much work to import our car: Chris always makes sure that our car gets properly maintained, and so the only thing that didn't pass inspection was a small burnt-out light bulb that illuminates the plates.  Which cost $2 to replace.  Getting the insurance took some work, but we found a good company, and we aren't paying too much money because we both have been driving for more than ten years, with good driving records.

But it's all so strange. Our Saskatchewan plates made us stand out around here.  It was so easy to find our car, and it was an easy way to show people that, while we may live here, we aren't from here.  We're permanent residents of another province, and we think that this province is insane.  We still get to keep our Saskatchewan permanent residency as long as I'm a student, but not very many people look at my health card or my tax forms.  It feels like we've given up a part of the prairies.

Chris is especially sad because we can't have our Saskatchewan Roughrider front plate anymore.  BC requires two license plates, and so our Rider plate is now in the back window.  He'd been hoping to get the real Roughrider license plates this summer, and then he found out that we had to give up Saskatchewan plates altogether.  It was a sad, sad day in Christopher land.

I'm just glad that I know that we'll be fine if we're in a car accident now.  But with a Toyota with BC license plates?  Our car just became much, much harder to find in a Victoria parking lot.