I found work in Essex County but I never forgot about my dream to move south. With each passing year, I found Canadian winters increasingly taxing. I might still be in Canada right now, but 12 years after graduation I was passed over for a promotion at the company I had been with for seven years. That was just the impetus I needed to renew my search for ways to move south.

In September 1995, I visited two buddies who lived in southern California, also known as SoCal. I fell in love with the climate and fun-loving, laid-back people. I decided that the easiest way to get down here was to attend school and worry about finances later. By then, I had completed my MBA. I was accepted into the PhD program at the Claremont Graduate University in May 1996.

It was a scramble to sell my house and other personal property, pack up my clothes and drive to California. I had managed to bring about $90,000 Cdn cash with me from the sale of my house, but yearly tuition was over $30,000 US. By the spring of 1997, I was a year away from being flat broke. I decided to teach elementary school, where there was high demand.

During my second year on a temporary work visa I asked my employers to help me get my "green card" and they agreed, provided I paid the legal fees.

I hired a paralegal whom my employer had used twice before without problem. I was not so lucky. Whenever I visited his office, clients were lined up outside the door and the waiting room was full. I never knew if he would make a fatal error on the next filing. Less than a year after that, my worst nightmare was realized. He didn't file supporting paperwork and the Immigration and Naturalization Service deemed my application abandoned. It had been almost three years and several filings. All of this work and money down the drain.

I learned my lesson and hired an immigration specialist. It was costly, but she managed to re-start the process. Since the 9/11 tragedy, the processing times have increased dramatically. When I filed my last document in January 2002, the INS informed me that processing time is between 975 and 999 days.

There are definitely some cons to being in SoCal. The price of housing is ridiculous. I would really love to live by the ocean, but that's a tad unrealistic on a teacher's salary. The rental rates for houses facing the ocean in that area range from $2,000 to $5,000 per month. That's a rental!

Then there's the traffic. The freeways are always crowded. It seems incredible when one considers that for certain stretches there are seven lanes of traffic in both directions.

As an elementary school teacher, my job is next to impossible because the Spanish-speaking population has reached a critical mass, and many new, adult immigrants never see the need to learn English. Some students have no English-language support at home to help them with homework or to read to them. As a bilingual Canadian, I find it hard to understand the mentality that would cause one to not do everything possible in order to learn the official language(s) of the country one lives in.

Californians are a different breed of people. As one of my California-bred friends says, "If you're not from here, then you're a foreigner… The rest of the world revolves around us." I think many Californians never feel the need to leave their own state. With such a large population amassed in a small area, there's a myriad of wonderful and inexpensive ethnic restaurants and a wide variety of entertainment activities. For me, a big plus is the moderate year-round climate. And the exchange rate is a nice bonus. When I fly home for a visit, I gain 60 per cent on every dollar.

Do I miss Canada? Sure. I'm a very proud Canadian. All my colleagues – many of whom have now tasted butter tarts for the first time – know I'm a proud Canadian. Butter tarts don't exist in California. I have created a few mini-lessons of my own for my Second Grade students so they learn about Canada in social studies class.

I very much miss the fall harvest with the leaves changing colours and dropping. Also, I miss the cool, crisp morning air of September and October, and the wide, open space of the farmland in Essex County. My parents had a small farm so I was raised on the edge of town. I now live in the very crowded city. There haven't been farms in the Anaheim area for over three decades. All around me I see concrete, concrete, concrete! I generally fly home at Christmastime and once in the summer to visit my family, most of whom remain in Canada.

Would I ever consider moving back to Canada? Probably not. I have established a new life in California. I really couldn't even envision a move to another state, even one with an equally inviting, warm climate. The California people have been good to me and, although I'll always think fondly of Canada as my first home, California is home today.