Culture Shock....at Home???

It"s been another day of jet lag, shopping and getting ready to go camping on our little piece of land in the Lanark Highlands!  The day started well with a lovely breakfast for all of us at Tim Horton's.  We watched the sun rise as we walked down to fetch our bagels and tea :-).  As we sat in the restaurant, relaxing, we noticed more and more the number of rusted out cars and trucks driving through.  They would never be considered road-worthy in Europe!  But we know that things are different here.  I started to realise just how long I've been away.  It has been four years and I have become much more used to European ways, or have forgotten the reality of life here, in those years.  Yesterday morning I noticed it when I realised that I haven't driven an automatic in four years!  That was an easy adjustment but being in a poorly-insulated wooden house with five children with jet-lag is not so easy.  Especially when we're trying to keep them from waking up Grandma and Grandpa! The whole house shakes when anyone even walks across the living room floor upstairs! Can you imagine it when the washing maschine is on the spin cycle?
Then we have the debacle of the missing Visa card.  I tried to get a new card as we thought we had left the new one in Austria.  It turns out that the new card never did arrive and was returned in the post to Visa who promptly cancelled our account!  Well, the problem is being worked on.  After 25 years of good credit I refuse to be dismissed so easily.  Then came the problem of trying to apply for a fishing license.  As Dominik is not a Canadian and not a resident of Canada it just confuses the poor staff who have NO IDEA and they sent him away to another office.  That office was just as bad. So, working on that issue too! 
On the bright bright side....we now have 14 litres of Mountain Dew ready to be consumed whilst we are camping, and bacon and eggs lined up for some breakfasts.  Finally some nice, thick, juicy bacon! But first we will start with barbequed ribs for lunch.  Yum.  I shall try not to gain 10 kg while we're here!  Elena needed some running shoes and now has some Princess shoes which light up almost as much as her face when she's stamping about in them!  The children have also become pretty good fishermen- in the yard practicing their casts.  We will soon see how they do with real fish in real water!
We will be out in the woods for the next two weeks, camping on our little piece of land in the Lanark Highlands.  I can't wait to see what Dominik and Severin have accomplished building in the last couple of years.  But consequently, we will be next posting when we are back in civilisation (i.e. somewhere with an internet connection).  We won't even have mobile service there so, internet is a definite bust! We will maybe have more for you on the weekend!  Thanks for reading! :-)

Und fur Tanja in Klaus...und alle Deutsch sprachige Freunde! Ich probiere ein bisschen auf Deutsch zu schreiben!  Es tut mir leid- es wird schrecklich! Also... Alles geht's gut hier...aber es ist so kommisch!  Es ist nicht mehr mein Heimat.  Viele sachen sind so fremd...und wie die Leute reden und so...dass ist auch Kommisch.  Es ist ein bisschen unangenehm fur mich.  Und bei meine Eltern zu sein.  Dass ist auch manchmal anstrenend.  Aber die Kinder sind glucklich...und Dominik auch- ausser von ein wirklich schlechtes Haarschnitt.  Wieder ein Person mit keine ahnung!  Wir freuen uns auf Camping fahren...morgen vormittag geht's los.   Bald werden wir wieden schreiben.  Liebe Grusse auf alle zuhause!