We moved to Canada! Toronto more specifically. And we love it! When I was a kid I always wanted to live in London (UK) and now I’ve done that and left my favourite city for somewhere new. I knew it would be cold. Really bloody cold. I knew there would be bugs. So many bugs in summer. But as for the way our lives would change, I didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived here. However there were some things I definitely did not expect and did not plan for.

So here’s my list of 5 things I didn’t know about moving to Canada but I sure do now!

  1. Budget at least $500 for new cables/adaptors
    • Yes of course we knew we would have to buy them but it was incredible just how many things in our home need plugging in and therefore need a new cable. Now we have a massive box of UK cables. Lovely…
  2. You need a dehumidifier AND a humidifier in your house now
    • We found the most beautiful house here in Toronto. It’s near the beach, it has more bathrooms than anyone needs and we love living here. The basement however, stinks of a Victorian public bath through the summer months, requiring a dehumidifier to run almost all the time when we first moved in. As the leaves turned and the winter drew in, the damp turned to dry and soon we were waking up every morning gasping and coughing. The static electric shocks too. WTF is that all about. IYKYK!
  3. Canadians really are that nice
    • Having spent so much time in London I was weirded out by it for about 5 minutes. Then I loved it. And I still love it. Who knew I wasn’t that miserable after all.
  4. Popcorn only comes in one flavour
    • Sweet popcorn at the cinema is not a thing here. So many people have asked me if I miss anything about the UK and a mixed up sweet + salty cinema popcorn is probably the only thing TBQHWY. They also have a butter PUMP here that inexplicably is used to squirt butter sauce into salty popcorn. I know it doesn’t sound real but it’s true.
  5. Merino wool is worth every penny
    • Most specifically in underwear form.

Oh and one last thing… your kids will play with yellow snow no matter how many times you tell them not to.