2009 - Making Lemonade. (Part 5 of the 'Magers in Canada' Miniseries)

Nothing changed in Roland's job. Recession simply passed him by. He was still happy and content at his company, and busy keeping his boss happy, and the regular paychecks coming. So, this will be a somewhat Sonja centered posting, as she ventured off 'making lemonade'. A lot!

Cypress Hills Provincial Park

Unemployment definitely wasn't the best way to start a year. However, it was inevitable, and when Sonja finally collected her pink slip, and left her probably best job ever, she was mentally prepared for it. By summer she would have had applied for over a hundred jobs to no avail. But hey, the year had just begun, and so we flew to Germany to spend some time with family and friends.

We also visited the neighboring prairie province Saskatchewan but there was nothing really to write home about. Then we followed the invitation of our friends in California to spend some time in the sun.

In summer, with Sonja still between jobs, and on her umptiest application, we went on another little vacation, and spent a week on the island (Vancouver Island that is.). Our sojourn got however mildly but somewhat pleasantly interrupted by some telephone interviews that Sonja went through, and by the end of our sojourn she had two job offers lined up.

Late summer Sonja's sister and her son came to visit (and the little guy learned to walk). With Sonja's plenty of free time at hand, she was more than happy to show them the Alberta top tourist attractions. 

In October Sonja had decided on a new job in consulting. For her things turned busy again, it was back to all work and little play, but it felt good to have a purposeful life again.

We also got good news from Germany. Our application for dual citizenship had been granted by the German government, meaning we were set to apply for Canadian citizenship, and would be able to remain German citizens.

For Sonja her seven months of unemployment had been tough, as she wasn't used to staying put. 'The lemonade' she made was good: She traveled a lot, picked up canoeing, got back into motorcycling (Guido's fault, that is!), and subsequently commenced with her two-wheeler blog. Unemployment? The heck with it! 2009 hadn't been bad at all.

Life is good!