I think about the first days after our arrival in Canada a lot these days. Maybe it is because I have come to peace with the fact that I no longer have a land. I have embraced the fact that the reality is not that I have two homes(as my husband says to comfort me sometimes) but that I am a landless gypsy. A sad yet liberating feeling...
Anyways, new immigrants or those who are thinking of moving to Canada often ask me what I remember from the first days... first weeks... first years...
First days? It was December. I remember myself bundled up in two blankets, my eyes all red for all the tears I shed at nights because I missed my family back home, sitting by the fire place at my aunt's home thinking I couldn't possibly survive this cold. All I could think about was that I wanted to go back... go back... go back.
Next thing I remember is that I was horrified by the extreme sweetness in everything. Bread, ketchup, donuts, yogurt, muffins, corns and list goes on and on. You have to have lived in almost any other country but the US and Canada to know what I mean. I was sickened by sweet baguettes. Sweet baguettes? really? (One wonders about the connection between pharmaceutical companies and the food corporations but one rather shut up than be accused of being delusional about conspiracy theory). I told my husband I would starve to death because I couldn't eat bread. And guess what? I LOVE bread.
Well! here I am! Alive and kicking. I survived the crazy Canadian cold and sweetness. Actually, every once in a while I drive to a Tim Hortons drive thru and order myself a very sweet filled with preservatives and additives Boston Cream with a coffee. After all we are the creatures of habit.
