sheff2van : sheffield -> vancouver

We got a booklet for new immigrants when we arrived. It's got the words of the national anthem on the inside cover:
"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise
The true North strong and free.
From far and wide, O Canada
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

I know that some people change the first line to 'Our home on native land', but what stands out for me is 'free' being repeated several times, and the use of the word 'North' (if we're in the north, who is it that we're standing guard against?)

By comparison, the British national anthem simply claims we're happy having a monarch and hopes that no harm comes to her (catches the flu, chokes on a fish bone, etc).

We went to register the boys for school today.

It was at somewhere particularly out of the way and registration was only open 8am-11am. We were slightly late but they let us register anyway, which took about an hour.

The main thing to sort out was which school Josh was going to go to. Children start school a year later in Canada and move to Secondary school when they are a year older. So although he was in his second year at Secondary school in the UK, children his age are in the final year at Elementary school here.

Eventually we decided it'd be best for him to get to know other kids his own age before moving to big school, rather than being with those a year older than him who have already got established there.

And apart from it being nice for them having each other at the same school, it'll also be easier for us getting them there....

Went to get our SIN number today - it's the equivalent of a National Insurance number in the UK.

Supposedly if you use up all your sins you get asked to leave the country, but mine's a nine digit number so I should be OK for a while.

Today we finally met somebody (well, several actually) who said "Welcome to Canada".

It was in May 2004 that we first applied for Permanent Residence, but the whole process has involved filling in forms and sending off documents. So it was good to meet somebody in person.

We arrived at Vancouver Airport (YVR) at about midday and the whole process of going through immigration and registering as Permanent Residents took about an hour. It was a reasonably straight-forward process and the only complication was that we had Sam's form but he was not with us.

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