Winter is Coming in Vancouver

People in Vancouver talk about the weather a lot. Weather does affect people's lives here (in addition to the fact that Canadians love small talk).

As winter approaches, when I wake up at 7 to walk my dogs, it is still dark. When I arrive home after work at around six, it is also dark. I kind of live in the darkness nowadays. It is only going to get worse as we dive deeper into the winter cold and rain. I do not ski, so there is little to look forward to during the notorious Canadian winter. (Actually, the West Coast is not that bad – Vancouver barely had any snow last year.)

Time flies – an exclamation we make from time to time. But we cannot really help when we reflect on the sequence of events that have happened in a short period of time, or, paradoxically, on the rather long period of time we have spent doing something or living somewhere. It is a strange feeling to realise that I was still living in Taiwan merely last year, while at the same time realising that I have already been living in Vancouver for over nine months (if that makes any sense). All of this could only be summarised as a cliche wonder at how “time flies”.

Over the last nine months, we have experienced the changing seasons. We had picnics while appreciating the sakura at a park in Spring, picked berries in Summer, and played pickleball under leaves of all earthly colours in Autumn. After all the fun activities, or the gruelling work at the office, we are able to go home and enjoy food and comfort in the company of the person we like.

Travelling is living in a foreign place. As in, experiencing all four seasons of normal life in a foreign place. Leaving behind a home environment where one’s habits have settled into old, tired ways and spending one’s days somewhere else, trying to find some new feeling in the mere act of being alive in this world. In this sense, travelling is a way of cleansing one’s body and mind – starting afresh. – Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ

旅行啊，是在外生活，就是在外地試著度過四季的生活，日常的生活。拋卻由於習慣而生出陳舊之氣的生活環境，走到另外一地去過日子，重新找回生活在世間的新鮮感受。–《臺灣漫遊錄》 楊双子

Uprooting ourselves from Taiwan, a place where we were close to our families, had made friends, and had grown accustomed to life, was difficult. Yet, I am grateful that we are now properly travelling in Vancouver and experiencing all four seasons of normal life here.

I am ready to be surprised by the Winter here.