frithblog: With a lot of help of my friends!

One Year later

Today exactly a year ago I came back to Canada for my second (and last) immigration. In many ways this second time was harder than the first time. More responsibilities and pressures and no realistic way back put a lot of pressure on this project. I had to make it work. Especially the first couple of months – as far away as they may seem now were quite taxing. Right away decisions had to be made because I was not at all sure where I wanted to end up. I also got another firsthand experience of how it feels to be hindered by having to wait for the right papers to arrive. Finding a job was not as easy as I had expected and took about twice as long as I had hoped. In the same time life in the Okanagan quickly proved even more expensive than I had imagined. Often (like in the months leading up to moving) it seemed that I had bitten off more than I could chew. I scraped by taking on potentially disastrous job propositions or jobs that would have gotten me working but for wages that would have been impossible to survive. My belongings had to stay boxed up and the weather turned colder quickly.

Things started turning around when I could finally start my new job for the Mark Anthony Group at Mission Hill. I quickly found out that I'm working in a wonderful team, a totally new field of work and therefore lots to learn and a company that offers me not only room to grow but amazing potential for further development. There was still the possibility of this ending when the initial contract ended but fairly early on I could feel that there was a great interest to keep me on and I'm very grateful that it happened.

With the spring the opportunity to get back into my favourite sport – dragon boating presented itself. Not only that but my skills and experience steering dragon boats was needed and appreciated. Just like the sport had done for me in Frankfurt, dragon boating quickly became a major part of my social life outside of work. With working two jobs and all the other continuing pressures the two hours a week on the lake offered a small get away every time. It was very rewarding to watch both teams develop and our company team to come together as a group. The Kelowna Dragon Boat Festival was certainly the highlight of the whole year.

Earlier I talked about the challenges of this move to Kelowna. I certainly left more good friends behind in Germany this time and I'm happy that I could maintain contact with quite a few of them. Looking back though I have to realize that this time I was able to meet some amazing people along the way and quickly build relationships to way more people than last time. These friendships make me look back at the past year very positively and look forward to a great future.

I'm happy that my daughter Amelia has managed to find her place and grow and I'm very grateful for all the help and friendship I have received from all of you. Aside from the major obstacles it's the uncountable little things that make a move like this challenging. I couldn't have dome it without you. Each one of you has made an incredible difference in making this critical first year of my new life a success. THANK YOU!