The Kindness of Strangers

So, we're starting to get nervous about not having done things. Like enquiring about schools, for example. Last night, we sat down and got our heads together about School District 57, and agonised over an email explaining our position; how to word it, who to send it to, how much help to ask for - that kind of thing. Eventually we settled on a wording which would pass muster in this country, and hopefully would ease us into the morass of bureaucracy which surely shrouds these matters. Then we scoured the website for the right contact. Eventually, I reckon that we should aim high - send it to the Superintendent of the School District, and hope that he will pass it on. So we cross our fingers, and send.

Five minutes later there is a reply. The first word? "Welcome!" Here is a man who, in this country, would employ someone to answer his emails, and set us off (if he was helpful at all) into a tangled web of People To Contact and Things To Do. Instead, we get a personal note, full of friendly advice, putting us at our ease about the process, and exhorting us to let him know how we get on.


It's going to take some getting used to, this Canada thing.