I’m a city kid. I know it, anyone who’s ever seen me camp (er, try to camp) knows it. It’s hardly a secret.

I got my first bus pass when I was 12, I’ve lived in exactly 2 free-standing houses (as opposed to my 10+ apartments and townhouses), and in high school I knew most of the homeless drunks and addicts that hung around downtown by name. (I knew the hookers by sight, but they weren’t chatty.) Apart from a stint in a small British town* for grad school, I’ve never lived anywhere with fewer than 200,000 souls calling it home.

Still, I didn’t really think spending a couple of months in a rural village would bother me. I’d write, I’d go for a walk now and then, I’d watch movies, I’d do my thing. Right?

Wrong.

I’ve been in Verona, Ontario for just about 10 weeks now. In that time I’ve been back to Ottawa to visit friends at least 5 times (once for a two-week stay), I’ve made it down to New York City twice, and I’ve been to Toronto once. I don’t think I’ve actually spent more than 10 days here at a stretch – and I’m STILL climbing the walls.

I know it’s all about what you’re used to, but there are still a few aspects of life out here that I just can’t quite get my head around.

HOW do people do it their whole lives? And… why?

1. Proximity

Nothing’s close to anything else out here. At home, I could walk to work, walk to the store, walk to a friend’s house, walk to Chinatown, walk along the river, walk to the library, walk to the movies. Here, I’m lucky to be staying at one of a handful of houses that IS within walking distance of the local grocery store. So that’s something. Most everyone else in the region has to drive.

Which brings me to my next point…

2. Public transit

There’s none. The distances wouldn’t be so bad if there were any alternatives to driving. There’s a train station 30 minutes away (and we’re talking a real 30 minutes, on the highway, doing 100 clicks an hour), and a Greyhound station 30 minutes away too. But that doesn’t help me much without a car to carry me those 30 minutes. I’ve never been dependent on a vehicle before, and I don’t like it. Not one bit.

Yesterday I drove 30 minutes on the highway just to deposit a cheque. Then I drove 30 minutes back. Just think how it’ll be when winter really comes! I’ll be completely at the mercy of the roads. To say nothing of the appalling gas usage…

3. Security

Okay, this really is one of those “comfortable with what you know” things. It’s not objective (or rational, I know) in any way. But I’ll say it regardless: I don’t feel safe out here. It’s dark, and it’s empty, and I don’t know my way around.

Some people get scared when they come to a big city and are surrounded constantly by hundreds of strangers. Me, I get scared when I know there’s no one within earshot to hear me scream.

4. Street Lights

See above.

5. Company

I know, I know. I’m not from here – if I was, I’d (probably? hopefully? theoretically?) have friends - someone to talk to besides my mom and my bedroom walls. But even if I did have friends, I’d have to drive to their house to see them. Or, hey, we could go out for coffee or a drink!

(Wait… Scratch that. The nearest coffee shop or bar is… you guessed it… 30 minutes away.)

6. Green Space

I sound crazy, right? I’m surrounded by woods and rocks and nature. Yesterday a deer ran clear across the front lawn. But there’s no PUBLIC space – nowhere that isn’t private property, or Crown land, to just wander and chill. (Of course, I could trespass. But it’s hunting season, and I don’t want to get shot full of lead. I’m a city kid, what the hell do I know about where and when it’s safe to wander?)

There’s a fantastic provincial park about 20 minutes drive away, but… Well, there’s that carbon-dependence rearing its head again.

I could amble along the side of the highway as much as I want, of course, but inhaling truck fumes all day is not my idea of communing with nature.

7. Pizza

Yeah, I said it. Sometimes, after a long day of work, you just want to pick up the phone and have a piping hot pie (or some Thai noodles… or some greasy Chinese… or a bad-ass curry… or a juicy sweet Shawarma…) delivered to your door.

We can’t even get the paper delivered here, let alone a meal.

*

Really, for me, it comes down to the car thing. I’ve been mobile and independent (in my own mind, at least) since I first toddled off down the sidewalk to my first day of kindergarten. I’m used to just walking someplace when I need to get somewhere. Here, it’s all about the car. (And it’s not even MY car!) It kills me. It’s probably the one thing I’ll never understand about rural life.

But of course it’s not all bad here! Stay tuned, as my time in Verona winds down, for a follow-up post, covering the things I’ll miss most about this pretty little corner of Eastern Ontario.

*And really – if you live in a small town but can walk 10 minutes to a mainline British train station, from which it’s 15 minutes to the nearest big city, 45 minutes to the nearest major international airport, or 3 hours to London, is it still a small town? Not by North American standards. Isolation factor = 0.