I am Canadian

I have always enjoyed Canada Day and not just because it is a holiday but because it is a day when everyone seems in the mood to celebrate. It is a day where the red in the flag seems brighter and everyone seems prouder to be a Canadian. However, I’m not sure that those of us home-grown Canadians truly understand how blessed we are to be a Canadian.

Canada Day has been more special to me in recent years because the other half of our family became Canadian citizens just five years ago. There was a wonderful ceremony at the Confederation Building, well attended and a quick glance around the room let everyone see the new Newfoundland and Labrador that is emerging. It was a truly multi-cultural experience.

It was clear to me that everyone receiving citizenship was excited and proud. There were friends and in some cases family there to cheer them on and to share in this special occasion. It was no different for us. We sat there beaming with pride and soaking up every word. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Canada Day and later we continued that celebration with a gathering of many of our friends and family. I know it is a day that we will remember forever.

However, the road to that wonderful day wasn’t an easy one. There is a misconception that Canada’s doors are wide open for any and all to enter. This is not true. Immigration is a challenging and often intimidating process. It starts with the very difficult decision to leave your home country. For many I’m sure this decision doesn’t come easy. Political unrest and even war to those of us who have never experienced it might seem like the perfect reasons to go somewhere else but it just isn’t that simply. There are so many things to consider.

Think about all the little things that you may have struggled with when you took your last holiday; driving on the other side of the road; none of the same brands of beverages; ordering dinner in a different language but then a couple weeks later you’re back home again. Now think about spending the rest of your life in the place you holidayed, far from friends and family. For most people immigration is a forever thing.

My experience with the immigration process was somewhat secondhand but extremely enlightening as I watch from the sidelines; the visas; the paperwork, the interviews, more paperwork, additional interviews, the costs, the legal advice and the struggles to adjust to so many new things and of course the months and years of waiting and wading through the process . This is definitely not for the faint of heart.

I remember distinctly the summons to an interview in Buffalo and Detroit. We were informed that the children were required to be there at this interview. It was flight costs to Toronto for everyone. Then rent a vehicle and drive to Buffalo; not a preferred holiday destination; only to be told the children were NOT required at the interview. No one even apologized and there was no discount to cover the several hundreds of dollars of that we had spent to accommodate the original request.

Once back home we continued the waiting game and continued our struggles to get everyone settled into their new country. I will state right up front that the first year is the most difficult as well as the most exciting. It is full of firsts.

There was that first day of driving on the “right” side of the road. There were the kids second “first” day at school. There was purchasing the first vehicle in your new country and then the buying that first home, just to mention a few of the obvious but there are the things that are no so obvious. Going to the grocery store and not recognizing any of the brands on the shelf. What to buy and how long before I discover with one I will like and what about the favourite things from home that you just can’t find here…more adjustments.

I finally decided that the process takes so long so that when you finally are an official Canadian citizen you have been Canadianized. You don’t need directions to the Confederation Building where the ceremony takes place and you are more than accustomed the side of the road that you take to get there.

Then you celebrate. Like most births all the pain of getting there is quickly forgotten and everyone stands and sings the national anthem…mumbling the French part and feeling that incredible sense of belonging and proudly announcing “I am Canadian”.

Fish out of water

Every once in a while a memory flashes into your mind out of nowhere; bringing you face to face with an embarrassing moment in your life that you’d rather forget.

I had one of those just the other day, a moment that in hindsight was somewhere between completely hilarious and totally mortifying. It was hilarious because 30 years have passed; mortifying because I can still feel the confusion and the embarrassment of being trapped in the Toronto Transit Commission.

“What goes around comes around,” my grandmother would have rightly stated. As is often the case, it took me awhile before I got the message.

Growing up on an island like Twillingate brings with it some special skills: I could moor a boat, cut out cod tongues and was nearly an expert at taking a sea cat off a hook. So, when the come-from-away teenagers came to visit as they did almost every summer, I took a little too much pleasure in watching them struggle with the things that I thought were part of everyday life.

If I had only known!

When the time came for me to head off to the big city in search of work; I had no idea I was about to live out the city/country mouse story of my childhood. Arriving in Toronto was both exciting and terrifying. Everything was new and much bigger.

After spending my first night in my new apartment I was ready to explore. My roommate called me to join her for coffee not far from where she worked. I can still remember the specific instructions she gave me: Make sure to put the chain lock on the door before you leave and at the Kipling Subway Station take the westbound train, then transfer to the No. 10 bus which I was assured stopped right in front of the Second Cup Coffee shop.

I remember repeating her instructions over and over so that when I was ready to leave the apartment and start my first real adventure into the streets of Toronto I’d get it right.

First; put the chain lock in place. Sounded simple enough, but after carefully inspecting the lock up and down I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it worked. I stood outside the door for the longest time struggling to squirm my hand inside to put the latch in place. It was a total mystery to me. I finally did it, but darn near broke my wrist. The thought that I would have to do that every time I went out left me thinking that I’d be spending a lot of time apartment bound.

The next stop was the subway station. I carefully approached the ticket window and passed over my money in exchange for a funny looking coin. I was clever enough to know the coin was the key to get me aboard the train but before I could completely figure it out the person behind me impatiently told me what to do. I obediently dropped the coin in the slot and moved through the turnstile, which is when the fun began.

Finding the westbound train platform wasn’t so difficult and almost immediately there was a train. I felt total relief as I boarded and sat down. I watched carefully for my stop, and there indeed was Kipling Station. I immediately got off and went looking for the buses. I found them soon enough but couldn’t figure out where to buy a ticket. I looked and looked and watched people come from the subway and board the buses but I couldn’t see where they purchased their tickets. There was no wicket, no automatic coin dispenser, and no machine of any sort.

I was trapped in the TTC.

I eventually stopped someone and asked the brave question: “How do I get on the bus?”

“Don’t you have your transfer?” the person replied.

No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know what a transfer was, an important piece of information that my city-mouse roommate failed to mention.

Back I went to the eastbound platform, back to where I started my journey, got my transfer and started all over again. The moral of the story is that every once in a while when life gets downright confusing and the turns in the road leave you bewildered and frustrated, take comfort in the fact that there’s always a bus waiting.

Trick is to backtrack and start again. That’s the ticket.

Take a Hike

Are you up for the challenge? Well I thought I was but I guess I didn’t really know what the challenge was. Does that sound familiar? How many times have you gotten caught thinking something was a piece of cake (cheesecake that is) only to discover, much too late that you were so very wrong.

Admitting that I’m wrong isn’t one of my strong suits. To be totally honest I find it darn right difficult so when I agreed to hike the Long Range Mountains with a really good friend and outdoor enthusiast from Ontario I had no idea what I was agreeing to and seemingly no interest in knowing the difference. It just sounded like fun and that was all the mattered to me – least for that moment.

I was told to prepare. Prepare for what I thought. Sure, I’ve hiked many times in my life and wasn’t this my neck of the woods plus it was months before the trek and plenty of time to pull it together. Week after week my friend would call to remind me that I needed to take practice hikes with a backpack that that we would need certain supplies.

I dragged the backpack out of storage borrowed supplies from friends and each time I explained that I was going to hike the Long Range Mountains I would received that same response “Really?”. “Yes” I would reply confidently and head home to my ever growing stockpile of camping goodies. As it got closer to the time for my friend to arrive I was feeling more and more excited. So excited in fact I never noticed the tentative way in which person after person would respond to my news of hiking the Long Range Mountains.

The drive across the island was picture perfect. As we got closer to Gros Morne National Park my friend explains that before we hike we have to check in with the Park Warden. You have got to be kidding, whatever for? Was I in for a surprise!

We waited patiently for the Warden who was a quiet pleasant man that seemed overly intrigued with us and our quest. He pulled out a large map that reminded me of something straight out of my grade nine geography book.  “Can you read a topo map?” My friend replied a quick yes and I figured now was not a good time to say anything.

The Warden began to explain that the boat on Western Brook Pond would drop us at the dock at the base of a small water falls. That didn’t seem too bad…a boat…and dock and a small water falls. What came next wasn’t as comforting. He suggested that we hike up the left of the falls because there was a moose carcass on the right side and the bears had been feeding off it. Now he really had my attention but before I could say anything he pointed on the map where the first campsite was located.

Much better - a campsite! I listened as he explained the locations of several other campsites along the way and slowly started to relax again but not for long. We required permits and the hike would probably take 3 – 4 days – piece of cake I thought. But he continued; if your permits are not deposited in the box at the end of the trail by day 7 they would dispatch a search and rescue team. It took a couple of moments for that to sink in but suddenly a little voice inside whispered “You better start talking now because I think you may just be in over your head.”

Taking my time so not to appear alarmed or daft I asked a simple question; “how many people will we meet at the first campsite?” His reply still rings in my ears. “None. IF you complete the hike you will be the first to do so this year.” To which I replied “Really?”

I was speechless for one of the few times in my life and we were issued our permits and sent on our way.  The only thing running through my head was “pride goes before a fall” or being eaten by a bear. Still it was the next morning before I backed down from the Long Range Mountain challenge although the boat ride was pleasant.  I think I might be ready for that hike now, any takers?