People & Places
Pass notes on NB
Kate Warren, husband Mark and their three girls, moved to New Brunswick in May 2008. Here's what Kate has to say about life in Hanwell and all the big and small ways it differs to their old life back in Devon.
We've been here almost a year now, and we've noticed many differences, apart from the obvious ones like getting used to the money, and looking the other way before crossing the road. It's very spacious, the roads are wider and the buildings here are mostly two storey, no high-rises, so it looks very open. The commercial buildings look very square and squat, and all very similar. Because of the space, buildings laid out on one level, and seem huge, especially compared to Exeter where many of the streets are narrow, and the buildings are in many different styles, from medieval to modern.
There's no central shopping area, the stores are in malls ranging from huge to just a few shops, scattered fairly widely across the town. You have to use a car if you have several things to do, the bus service isn't frequent, and also seems to be aimed at shipping people to and from work rather than shopping trips. The parking is free at all these shopping centres, the only pay-and-display parking is in the centre of the town, and is free at weekends. Possibly because the roads are clearer (NB's population is about 750,000, in an area roughly the size of England) drivers are more considerate, people drive slower, and are more likely to observe the speed limits. Petrol is much cheaper, about 85c a litre at the moment, but this is balanced out by the fact that most of the cars have three-litre engines, or larger, so they use more fuel anyway. People complain about how expensive the petrol is, and there is a move towards buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Your car has to be "winterized" each year, we did ours in late October when the temperatures started to drop. This includes putting in gas-line anti-freeze, non-freezing windshield wash, and snow tyres. We had temperatures as low as -32C this winter, so if you want to stay mobile, this has to be done! Also, you have to leave the handbrake off when parking overnight, or it will freeze up, and not release when you want to drive.
Supermarkets are pretty much the same anywhere, we were surprised not to find more familiar labels though, and we couldn't find certain things like fruit squash at all. We buy frozen concentrated fruit juice, and dilute it as we need it. Chicken is expensive here, and fish is cheap, so our diet has changed a bit. Lamb is difficult to find, so is back bacon, it's all streaky, and quite fatty. There are still a lot of colourings and additives used here, like tartrazine, msg, and hydrogenated fats, it generally applies here as in the UK, that the cheaper the food, the more likely it is to have additives in it, so you have to be a bit careful about reading the labels. When shopping, a sales tax is added at the checkout (except for food), which caught us out a few times, as the price on the shelf is not what you pay at the till. You pay tax on your income, as in the UK, but you have to file a tax return each year, which sometimes leads to nice surprises. This year we got a $1,500 rebate on overpaid taxes. Alcohol cannot be bought in supermarkets, corner stores etc., but only from government-licensed outlets, of which there are three in Fredericton. They open during normal shopping hours, so if you fancy a bottle of wine at 7pm on a Sunday, you're out of luck. Also, it's quite expensive, they don't do special offers on buying cases of wine, for instance. Most people here use wine-making kits, which can be made in the store they're bought from, so you don't have to have all the equipment at home. It works out much cheaper per bottle, and it tastes fine. The legal age here for buying alcohol is 19, it seems to be more strictly enforced than it was in the UK. It got on the local news here when there was a drunken fight outside a nightclub, whereas in Exeter it was an almost nightly occurrence.
Women like to look as well groomed and stylish as they do in the UK, but there isn't a 'designer label' culture here as such. There's very little point in spending $500 dollars on a pair of shoes if you have to take them off whenever you visit someone (hardwood floors). There aren't any big-name designer stores in Fredericton, although you can buy fur coats here.
Home appliances tend to be bought because the old one wore out, rather than to get a more fashionable look, so it seems a bit behind the UK, in that convection ovens are fairly new, and condenser tumble dryers are not available at all. Propane gas is used for heating and cooking in many homes, but very few people I've spoken to are keen on the idea of piped, natural gas, seeming to regard it as dangerous. Appliances like ovens and laundry machines are larger, ovens are 30" wide as standard, and I cooked my first Christmas meal without having to juggle the food!
Family doctors are hard to come by, but the healthcare system is being updated over the next few years which should mean more doctors. With a medicare card, seeing a doctor, and some forms of hospital treatment is free, but if a prescription is needed, you pay the cost of the medicine, not a standard prescription charge. Dentists are plentiful, but expensive, medical insurance helps to reduce these costs.
Elementary schools start at 8.15, half an hour earlier than our Exeter school, grades K-2 finish at 2.10, grades 3-5 at 3.20, except for Wednesdays, when they all finish at 11.50. Children start school a year later than in the UK, and most schools here don't have a uniform. There is a school bus system, which is free, for children who live more than 1km from the school, this is practically door-to-door. Most families use the bus, so there's no scrum around the school gates. The summer vacation is ten weeks long, but there's no two-week Easter break. The school playground is left open all year round for local families to use the slides etc outside school hours, I have never seen any evidence of vandalism, and in Fredericton as a whole there is very little graffiti, or mindless damage done to public property.
NB, like the UK, has problems with obesity, the schools emphasise the importance of keeping fit, and encourage children to take part in sports outside school hours. Possibly because of the long winter, people here have a very outdoor-based lifestyle during the warmer months, and even in winter there are free public ice-rinks and ski-trails.
Fredericton has recently been voted the 4th most family-friendly city in Canada, we've noticed all the restaurants welcome families, and activities such as theme parks, zoos, and museums are cheaper than in the UK. There's also a huge amount of things to do as a family for free, with loads of parks, hiking trails etc. During the winter, many parks have sledding areas open to all, and ranging from gentle slopes to terrifying drops, we had fun at some of these this winter, and there is a great atmosphere. Most of the festivals here are aimed at children, Hallowe'en is huge, but also on Valentine's Day, and at Easter various parties and activities will be going on.
The winter is very cold, and goes on for a long time, our garden was under snow by early December, and didn't reappear until the second week of April. The lowest temperature was -32C, but in Jan/Feb it was quite normal to be below -15C for days at a time, and for three months, it never got above freezing. This cold is not a problem if you dress for it, the children have to have snow boots, snowsuits, hats and proper (not woolly) gloves for school, or they will not be allowed outside during breaks. We also bought proper gear for ourselves. Our worst snowstorm gave us 48cm of snow overnight, which drifted, and was chest-high on Mark the next morning (he's 6'3"). Because of the cold, it doesn't rain, we had a lot of beautiful bright sunny days, but we learned to be careful of windy days. When it's already -20C, the windchill factor can take it down to something like -40C, and then it gets dangerous to be outside for too long.
It's cheaper in some ways to live on a subdivision rather than in the city proper, as the property taxes are much lower. This is because we don't get the same services outside the city, i.e., we have no mains water, there's a well, also we have a septic tank which needs to be emptied every 3-5 years. but we get more space, as each plot has to be an acre at least, so that the wells don't get contaminated or drained. The houses generally are very spacious, mostly detatched even in the city centre, although there are some townhouses (terraces) and apartment blocks. New Brunswick is 80% wooded, so it's no surprise that most people have hardwood flooring, which seems amazingly cheap to us, about $3 a square foot. The houses are mostly wood-framed with vinyl siding, and shingled roofs, although some of the older properties have tin roofs. Because of the use of so much wood in building, the local fire department has an incredibly quick response time!
Fredericton is very technology-conscious, the whole downtown area is wi-fi enabled, but we used the internet a lot in the UK, and were surprised to find how few businesses have websites here. Where finding a particular item may mean a drive of 100km or more, it would be useful to be able to get more local information.
Having got used to being on CCTV almost everywhere in the UK, I was also surprised at how casual security is in many places here. Our local bank, for instance, has no bulletproof plastic screens between customers and tellers, they stand at an open wooden counter with not even a division between each teller.
For Mark, finding a job was not as easy as we'd hoped, it was quite an experience to be the immigrant in a foreign country with no easily verifiable work history. Canadian employers also take their time, it can be a month between going for an interview, to finding out whether you've been successful or not. The rates of pay are lower than the UK, but this is balanced out by cheaper cars, petrol, houses, etc. Also, most jobs only offer two weeks paid holiday a year until you've worked there for a few years. It took two months before Mark had a job, and his employer had initially turned Mark down, as "English people always give up and go home after the first winter."
Our family is very happy here, the kids have more space to play in, we're not all on top of each other all the time so we're more relaxed. Although it gets cold, it's also usually sunny, so we get outside more often. We miss our families and friends obviously, and I for one seriously underestimated the homesickness problem, but we've met loads of great people here, and I think we have various family members visiting for the whole summer!
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