Thursday 03 July 2003

In September 2000, I began teaching at Holmen with the intent of being there one year. I had some debts to pay and to acquire $8,000 in order to be able to move to Canada. For those ever thinking of emmigrating there (and I wouldn't suggest it... Canada is the USA's jealous younger sister, with 95% of the people there bad-mouthing the States yet eager to accept our dollars), to become a legal resident one must either marry a Canadian citizen (and prove it was not only to move to Canada) or be able to furnish $10,000(Cdn) plus $2,000(Cdn) for each dependent you have in order to prove that you can live there for six months while looking for a job. Yvonne didn't want the first option thrust upon her, so it was up to me to build a bank account of $8,000(US), the equivalent needed in Canadian dollars to move there.

In late October, Yvonne came to live with me for one month... the maximum amount of time she could realistically stay away from her business. We had some very tender moments between us, but there was some friction, too. Sporting an engagement ring, apparently, was not enough to fend off the ex-boyfriend. While she was in Wisconsin, he attained access to her house to help re-wire the electrical system, updated and help set up her mom's computer, and visited her grandma at the nursing home in which she stayed. By no means did it seem to me that he was out of her life at all. Yvonne seemed angry that he was still hanging around, yet at the same time never seemed to state once and for all to him that she was with another man.

Continue...