Start your morning with a Bang

The deafening sound made me an leap to my feet as the windows shook. Julien was on my heels as I ran into the living room to see what had happened.

We looked at each other in bewilderment. "Did you hear that?" I asked, feeling a little silly for asking such an obvious question. Why else would he be up at 5:45am? All of the possibilities ran through my mind in the blink of an eye: a car running into the building, someone getting shot, a bomb going off. Julien ran to the front door and looked down the hallway. I checked the laundry room, the den, the bathrooms, and Charlotte's room. Nothing.

Then I opened the balcony door and a horrible site awaited me: Fire. Flames were licking our balcony rails. Thick black smoke curled upwards and made me cough as I closed the door as quickly as I had opened it. I ran to get Charlotte as Julien and I pondered what to do. Many seniors from the building across from ours had heard the explosion too and had made their way to their own balconies to watch the action. They yelled to us to call 911, but our phone hadn't been hooked up yet. Our home of 4 days that we had been so excited to get had become a nightmare in the blink of an eye.

I ran for the building manager as someone in the other building called 911. The firetruck seemed to take an eternity to show up, but in reality it only took a few minutes. We watched as they extinguished the fire and started to interview witnesses. The police showed up and also started their investigation. After we were told it was safe, we went back to bed and tried to piece together what had happened.

The building manager called us to thank us for getting him, and explained that a tenant on the 4th floor (we are on the 2nd) had gone camping and had transported a propane tank and some briquettes in a big plastic storage bin. When they somehow caught fire early this morning, he made an executive decision to throw it over his balcony, knowing it was better for it to explode outside than in the building. It turns out that it exploded right in front of our bedroom window on its way down and kept burning once it hit the ground. We were a little bit stunned at the news, especially when we heard that our windows should have imploded with the force of the explosion and would have surely hurt us, as our bed is beside that window.

So knowing this, is it coincidence that just last night Julien and I prayed for protection from walls to windows, floors to ceilings, and doors to doors on our new place?

I think not.

The grass is always greener...

We've moved out to our own place and the dust has started to settle. And with that, so have the stars in my eyes. At first, I was so excited to be home. To have my family close, to see my friends, and to have a better quality of life than we had in Europe.
As I started to set up house, however, there are things, though, where I can't help but feel utterly extorted here, and it is definitely starting to irk me.

Like cable, phone, and internet. For 30 dollars in Europe, you have all channels, mega internet, and your telephone, and it is free to call 50 countries. Here though, it's 100 dollars just for a basic plan, with no options and no channels. There, an unlimited cell phone costs about 50 euros a month. Here, it's 140 dollars. There, all the tax is included in the price. Here, you have to add it after. Groceries over there: 200 bucks a month. Here: we're at 450 and the month is not over.

While I knew that there would be good things and bad, I didn't realize how expensive it is to actually live here. I guess I totally had my head in the clouds. If any of you know by experience how to get things cheaper, please let me know, especially for groceries. I feel like such a foreigner now! And while it is more expensive than Europe, (yes, seriously, this is a sad, sad fact Canada) it is definitely worth it to have the mountains, the lakes, the rivers, and the ocean. And my family and friends of course.

And on a brighter note, Charlotte has finally learned to fall asleep by herself after waking up in the night. I have learned to just let her cry it out (seriously, if I had just been able to wait 2 minutes, this whole no night thing may have been over a long long time ago!) So what is that worth to me? Well, it's priceless.

Long Overdue

It's been a while. I don't blame anyone for not reading this blog anymore, because I have pretty much been the worst at keeping it up. I do have several excuses though if you're willing to read them.

We moved to Europe from Canada on one of the smoothest flights we've had. We had really prayed about when the best time to move would be, and were convinced that it was mid May. We weren't really able to explain why, but it just seemed the direction God wanted us to take. So we had faith, and left without having closed the sale on our apartment. The airline was awesome and gave us all of our extra luggage for free (we literally had 4 extra bags all over-weight) and Julien got his visa within 15 minutes on the other end. My mom and brother were waiting for us, and brought us to our new temporary home at my mom's.

The next day we spent our time running around getting Julien's social insurance number, applying for medical insurance and baby bonuses, and of course looking after my growing little baby, who is into absolutely everything and needs to be watched like a hawk.

So the last 3 weeks have been spent trying to get settled, picking our things up at the cargo hold, catching up with friends and family, and desperately looking for a job, especially for Julien. After about a week and a half of applying all over the place, we were starting to get a little nervous as no one was getting back to Julien. Then the incredible happened: he was offered 2 interviews in 2 days. During the last interview, he discovered that this particular company not only worked with the same supplier that he worked with in India, but also the exact same contact person. Seriously, it is a small world. After the interview on Friday, he had only been home about 5 minutes before he got a call saying that he was to start on Monday. Se exactly 3 weeks to the day we arrived, he started his new job. What an incredible answer to prayer.

In the mean time, we celebrated my 30th birthday, Charlotte's first birthday, and my mom's 60th birthday. I got my hair fixed from that horrible tang orange colour, and even though it is the darkest it had ever been in my life, I don't think it looks horrible. I just need to get used to it.

Now in 3 weeks we will be moving to the town where Julien's working, and I'm pretty excited about that. We found a great condo for rent, and I'm excited to go furniture shopping and stuff. So those are pretty much my excuses for the last while. I hope you think they're valid, but I will be coming with more soon.

Becky