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Isabel and Brian Smith

Leaving Europe

We find it hard to believe that our time in London is coming to an end. We arrived here at the end of August 2019 and here we are, thinking about returning to Canada. Already our posting here was a very short one, and yet we are considering a hasty return due to the cancellation of my spouse’s fall classes. Altogether, almost a year has gone between our departure for Europe and our return to Canada.

We do not foresee a reverse culture shock as important as for the majority of OUTCAN people since our stay will have been very short. We only have the impression that our "long journey" will soon be over and that we are just going back home now. Living in downtown London was an experience in itself when we arrived in the country, but we fell in love with everything this beautiful city had to offer, not to mention the thousands of restaurants. There was of course an adjustment at first, but we adapted very well. We couldn't ignore the fact that the rest of Europe was on our doorstep so we did our best to enjoy it when we could and that was fantastic.

The arrival of COVID quickly and dramatically changed our experience. Since our stay was very short, we had a travel itinerary literally planned. We saw our love of travel fall by the wayside pretty quickly with all the restrictions in place, and also our beautiful city close down before our very eyes. These moments were very difficult and we still have some difficulty seeing the reality of things. That's when we decided to look ahead and think about returning to Canada to focus on something positive. Even though our experience is ending sooner than expected and we didn't have the chance to realize all of our dreams, we look forward to returning to our hometown with family and friends nearby. We are excited to move into our new home that we had built during our OUTCAN stay and return to a familiar corner of the world. Since we don't expect to be back to "normal" by our planned return date, at this point, we are much more accepting of our precipitated return.

When we look back and think about what we were not fortunate enough to accomplish during our stay, we realize that, given the opportunity, we may be able to return for another OUTCAN in the years to come and that is what we are hopeful for.



To conclude, our adventure OUTCAN has taught us to adapt to change, but above all we bring back in our suitcases only beautiful memories of the many trips we have made. Looking forward to seeing you again.

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