"Barking"

Ok, it's official...I am barking...barking mad that is. Every single person I have met here, except my roommate Nicole of course, has told me I'm crazy for moving here from the US. Every single one. After a whole morning of lecture in my all day moving and handling induction today, the instructor decided to inquire about my accent this afternoon during the lab practical..."I've been trying to figure it out, is it Canadian?" And when I said no, I grew up in NJ, I'm an American, she said "Noo! I thought to myself, she couldn't possibly be American, no one would come to work over here from the US!" It's really beginning to feel like an insult, as if people think I'm stupid for moving here to work as an OT for a bit, although they don't actually come right out and say that. What I said back was basically,"Well, I didn't move here for the money!" but I suppose what I really meant was that I can afford not to make my choices based on money at the moment. It's unfortunate that we are all so money-focused, and that we judge ourselves and are judged by others based on the living that we make. Not that I am exempt, I guess I'm just very aware of this at the moment, having made a choice to take a gigantic salary cut to pursue other things that I want to do. And since the constant battering of comments like "Why on earth did you do that?" has been practically nonstop since my arrival, I must say it has made me question myself and whether I made a good decision. And I don't like that, because I do think I made the right choice for me at this point in time, it can just be hard to remember that when everyone else is insinuating that I made the wrong one. And Midge, this had made me think of you, and what you told me about what you went through as you made the move to the US- thanks for sharing your wisdom, I have remembered your advice!

I did have a rather nice moment the other day during a different orientation session, one about equality and diversity. We were talking about celebrations, and in the large group discussion afterward, we discovered that pretty much every group had been talking about celebration and holidays within the context of religion. So I raised my hand to say that since I'm American, we had talked a little our small group about Thanksgiving, Fourth of July and Halloween, which have no religious significance, but are rather cultural holidays instead. And our discussion leader said, yes, Americans seem to have lots of holidays, they celebrate a lot:) And I had not really thought about that before, given that I guess we all take it for granted in the US, and I'm only thinking about it now that I live somewhere else...but we do like to celebrate, and I really like that about my cultural heritage. As my parents can attest to, any excuse for a party, be it Cinqo de Mayo, someone's birthday, I've got some new recipes I really want to use...and I'm looking to have a party, a BBQ on the deck, or gathering people to go out. And I love my holidays- I still love Halloween as much as I did when I was a kid. For every holiday I get out the themed decorations, bake my grandmother's sugar cookies, and get dressed up (too bad I didn't think ahead to bring over St. Patty's stuff, like shamrock sunglasses and whatnot, though I do have my kelly green Guiness t-shirt). And thinking of you Kristy, I'm holding you accountable for our double belated bday celebration when you get over here in the summer!

I had something of another shock this morning in our moving and handling training, directly related to OT practice, so for those of you who are my fellow OTs, check out my other OT blog as I finally have an entry for that one again!