So, I’ve completed my first year in Canada – without a whimper. Happy first anniversary to me! And now without further ado, here’s a customary list of only a few of many, many things that I’ve come to see, like, love and dislike in this great country. Please note that this is a very incomplete list, and I may add, retract, revise or improve on any item – for of course, I take the liberty of a dumb newbie, as always.
The snow builds up on the side-walks inch by inch. It’s soft, fluffy and when you step on it, your water-proof shoes leave a deep imprint. So perfect is the impression planted by the sole of your shoes that you cannot help but to try to turn around and see what is left behind. Your neck is stiff with the parka over your head, so you can’t look behind without turning your entire body around.
In the Greater Toronto Area – or the GTA as it is called – the suburban city-town of Mississauga, where I lived right after I landed in Canada, is a sprawling sister-neighbourhood of Toronto which strives hard to deserve the respect of being called a city. Or does it?
As my Canadian experience grows with each passing day, I am becoming more and more aware of how expensive things here really are – in Ontario at least, where I live.
I was waiting for a bus and saw this across the street:
Two Indian-looking guys (both 30ish, real South Asian “Indian“, not “native” Indians) were standing outside an apartment building, with their backs to the Lobby. A white (40ish, ‘visible majority’) guy accompanied by a woman, came out of the lobby, sneaked up behind them, and yelled at the top of his lungs, over their heads: “Shoo!”. This startled the hell out of the two guys.
It has finally happened. And it was bound to happen. The relevance of it that this happened during my first 3 months here in Canada has special significance for me. Have I moved to a hotter Canada already?
As a result of Israel‘s bombing of Lebanon, some 20,000 Canadian citizens are being evacuated from Beirut. The Star, the leading newspaper here, asked its readers “whether Ottawa is doing enough to evacuate Canadian citizens from Lebanon”.
I am neither a Canadian citizen (yet) nor from Lebanon, but I found the following answers particularly distressing interesting. Note that these are two replies out of 9, and that could make, unscientifically sampled, 22.2% percent of Canadians who feel that:
