When you make the huge decision to immigrate to a different country, be it for work, for an adventure or because you had a crazy idea one evening (not that I’m speaking from experience on the last one), one of the hardest things is how to tell family and friends of your big move. I personally had only told a handful of people of my desire to move to Canada so when I announced I would be leaving Dublin for a new life in Canada, there were a lot of surprised faces and even more questions. The question I was asked most was how would I survive the harsh Canadian winter? I should explain why I was asked this so much. As my lovely mother has said my entire life “there’s ice in our Emma’s veins, that girl is never warm”, I hate the cold, I really really despise it and did everything to stay out of it! So I can completely understand everyone’s bewilderment that I chose Canada to live (and I can also forgive them all for placing bets on how long I would survive)
Now as I watch the UK and Ireland completely shutdown because of Storm Emma (I know, great name) and the worst snow they have had in nearly 40 years, I can only laugh at how different my outlook to harsh winters are now. As Ireland and the UK are closed for business with a couple of inches of snow I have decided I am a complete pro at the Canadian winter and maybe I should send them some pointers to help them through this difficult period. I should probably point out that if I was writing this last year it would certainly have a different tone, something more like panic and fear and I could very well have been pleading for help!
The winter of 2016 was a mild one for Toronto, or so I’m told by proper Canadians, but I struggled to make it through. Somewhere mid November my toes went numb from the cold and it wasn’t until mid April that they finally thawed out, I permanently looked like the Michelin Man thanks to my down filled winter jacket and my fingers were a strange blueish colour for most of the time. But I made it through and lived to tell the tale (and my sister lost 20 euro on the bet, which is another plus). It was definitely not a walk in the park in anyway, the coldest I had ever experienced before this was minus 6 or 7 degrees.
This winter is a completely different beast altogether but I was prepared this time. Layering has become part of the daily routine and I never leave the house without a scarf, gloves and a Tuk (can I have a Canadian passport now?). Over Christmas when the temperature plummeted into the minus thirty’s I did google flights to rainy mild Dublin but again I preserved. I’m going to have to be honest and say there were a couple of hairy moments, grocery shopping in -30 degrees is not fun or easy, falling on my butt every couple of days (with the grace of a Giselle, obviously) and the countless scary Uber trips. But even with the hairy moments and temperatures so cold your face hurts, I have loved this winter and have even managed to spend a good amount of time out and about. So even though the Canadian winter is harsh I will take it over the damp miserable Irish winter all day long!
