How my Life Began, in Saskatchewan (Poet, I Know it) X

Ok, so this is my first ever blog; how to begin? Well, being a keen internet surfer (real hip, no?) I know not to give too much away but here goes. The past couple of decades of my life haven't been as amazing as the last year of it has; that being said, they haven't been sad but I've never been happier than I am now. Let's begin the story of the last four months of my life, give or take...
     Well, it all began before this when I applied to study abroad for the autumn semester of the 2011-12 school year. When I first thought about my application I was hesitant, not because of the financial constraints but because of the amount of time I would be spending away from home and my family and friends. I gave the exchange a few days thought and eventually came to the decision that it was too late to reply anyway, how wrong I was.
     A few months later I was talking to a friend when he told me that he had just applied for an exchange to the United States. Of course, I was a little taken aback at this and upon questioning him further on this seemingly impossible event, to my understanding of it, he told me that it was only a week or so before applications must be submitted. With my mind filled with possibilities I returned back to my accommodation and lay in bed pondering this intriguing piece of information. Could I really go on the exchange after all? Night became day and I found myself still laid there, and my mind was set: I could not miss out on this opportunity, for the rest of my life I’d kick myself over a passed opportunity if I did.
     I signed up to the programme, and I was told that I must choose two options on the North American continent; this was a huge surprise to me. Until this point in time I was entirely under the impression that I could only study in the United States of America (US), but now I found that there was in fact an option to study in a place just north of the border in Regina, Saskatchewan. Obviously, I had originally intended to study in the US but this new development blew that out of the water. After a quick bit of research, cap off to Wikipedia as always, it was settled and I chose the University of Regina as my first choice.
     Canada... What did I know about Canada? What did I associate with Canada? A trip through that thought process brings me immediately to D-Day (history frame of mind, me? never...). As strange as it sounds, I’ve always had a soft spot for mostly everything associated with Canada and my Family has too.  You see, a couple of generations ago my Grandfather was going to take my family across there. He even had a job arranged for his arrival in a place called Kicking Horse Pass. Canada had a special place for me and I wanted to see it for what it truly was, study my topic there and understand the world a lot more in the process. After being accepted and going through the ‘ringer’ that is international preparation (insurance/accommodation/flights), I was all set to be my own man and see the world.
     My first memory of Canada, to my own knowledge, was meeting someone who was to become a big part of my life over the ensuing months and to this day remains a close friend. Apparently, when flying to somewhere as remote as Regina the majority of the time you find that your plane connections get smaller and smaller along the way, and this was the case for me. Manchester>New York (JFK) was a killer on a monster of a plane that was obviously built to meet demand and provide luxury, JFK>Minneapolis was the kind of medium that I had associated with air travel and Minneapolis>Regina was only four seats per aisle. As funny as it sounds, and I have heard this from fellow Europeans since, you knew you were in the prairies when there’s nothing to see outside the plane; it kind of looks like a never ending green patchwork blanket from the inside, with the odd weaving road here and there.
     Just as I was settling down in my seat, well seats would be more accurate because the one next to mine was vacant, and stretching my legs out over my couch (as it had become), I became very aware of a very ‘prominent’ conversation behind me. Turning around I found myself listening to the conversation of a bespectacled blonde European lady and an African American man who was asking her every question he could think of to pass the time. As it turned out, not that I was eaves dropping or anything, every passenger on the plane could hear this gentleman’s interrogation, this young lady was also studying at the University of Regina as part of the exchange program, so I made a point to turn around and introduce myself. Her name was Chrisi and we remain great friends to this day, fortunate coincidences!
     We touched down in Canada at roughly 23:25 and after getting off of the plane I made my way through customs (Eventually, after being questioned) and the University of Regina had kindly provided a taxi to take me to accommodation. It was early morning before I’d finally made my bed and gotten to the sleep. It was the coldest night of my stay in Saskatchewan and the only time I wore long-johns, apparently it was a freak night because the first few weeks proved to be beautiful summer weather. I moved in, I met people and friendships grew from that. The first couple of weeks were spent drinking, socialising, exploring, going to lectures and starting over again, with the added bonus of recovering from the time difference.
     Eventually, this open student behaviour became a steadier one and we began to stick to going to karaoke once a week and perhaps dollar draft night. A quick point about dollar draft, it’s actually three dollars a pint (just saying) and nothing to be shouted about. The rest of our time was spent hanging out together for the most part and talking about the world.  One night we decided to have a movie night, which consisted of three with two of them being ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Taken’, which stars Liam Neeson. The reason I mention this night is that this is the first time that I ever met my partner, and she rejoices in reminding me just how enthralled in the film I was. So enthralled in fact, that I neglected to say hello or introduce myself and instead chose to give her a condescending look. The actions of this night are still in dispute, I myself can’t imagine being like that but I’m not going to argue.
     Now, I know that this first meeting isn’t exactly a romantic novel but what was to blossom afterwards certainly means the world to me. It was a week or so later when a mutual friend of ours was organising a trip to her home town and local tourist destination, Moose Jaw, for the foreign exchange students. She was searching for people to take us all to Moose Jaw and ‘Tess’ proved to be one of the drivers. It was a wonderful trip and I saw some good sights and ate some tasty fudge, but the most significant part is that this is when I first began to talk to my partner in depth. There was a lot of teasing involved, I know that, and the fact that she dislikes a Canadian icon was mocked by yours truly in great depth but we stuck in each others’ minds from that moment onward and teasing became invites to meet up and go out.
     More and more we’d meet up, perhaps she’d come to watch the internationals play football, or her and a friend would come to visit me and talk about the world and the regular karaoke every week. This is where things began to grow when I invited her out one time. You see, at first I wasn’t sure if she was going to come or not but when she finally did I took great joy in it.  For those of you that don’t know, she has an amazing voice, and when I sang I sounded like Rod Stewart to her Mariah Carey. But, I enjoyed being there with her more than anything and the walking home talks we’d have. Eventually she came back to mine to talk for a while because she was staying with her friend at the same accommodation building, and we spent the night talking and watching YouTube videos. Before the night had ended we were laid facing one another, fully clothed and talking whilst looking into one another’s eyes. I began edging ever closer until finally building up enough courage to lean in and kiss her, she kissed me back :)
     As the weeks past by we spent more and more time together until we became inseparable from one another. She introduced me to her Parents and the wonderfully logical game of Cribbage, a game I’d recommend to all who like numbers games. October came and went via me turning twenty, and November was one of the biggest months of my life. For a while I had been finding myself looking at Janean and being caught deep in thought. I can’t fully explain what I mean because it’s hard for me to understand it myself. One day, I don’t know exactly when or what allowed for my moment of clarity but I realised what it was. I had never felt more happy and contented in life, and my Dandelion was the reason for it. I plucked up the courage and one night, whilst we were in bed facing one another, I told her how I felt. This next part is something I like to tease her about because she didn’t respond in distinguishable words at first, she was taken aback at my timing, but to this day I thank my lucky stars that she did in the end. "Those couple of seconds were a life-time my Love!"
     Ever since that day I have felt like I was on top of the world, and every day that we have been together I have felt amazing.  She brightens my days and is always there, and I do my best to make her feel the same; she is my everything, and everything I have is hers.
     
That’s the first instalment of my life since I became whole, there are a few chapters missing from where I’ve left off but I’ll get them written down as soon as I can. I hope that you all find your soul mate too; because once you have you will never feel happier. My life began when we became one, and I am so happy I found her :) X