Early in 2020, I met my future spouse, Matthieu, online. I was living in São Paulo, working as an English teacher and translator. A year into our long-distance relationship, Matthieu came to visit me in Brazil and, a few months later, I flew to see him at his home in Sherbrooke, Quebec. In the winter of 2022, I officially moved in with him and his son, Noah, and we became a family.

Going from the biggest city in Latin America to a town of only 175,000 was a big change. There were no Ubers or food-delivery apps and barely any public transit. Businesses closed early. And then there was the language barrier. I speak Portuguese as well as English, so I could communicate with Matthieu, but not with his family or most of his friends, who only spoke French. He constantly had to translate between us. They’d be laughing at a joke, and I was often asking what it meant, or we’d play games but I couldn’t follow the rules. Things that were supposed to be fun became stressful. Even though I loved Matthieu, there were days when I just wanted to go........

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