Coming to Canada

Preparing for our new life, my brothers and I browsed through magazines my parents brought back from their visit in Canada. One thing that caught our attention was how far the houses were built from each other. We thought to ourselves, wow, our life will be very different there. We pictured living in a country type neighbourhood and having to drive half an hour to get to a grocery store. Growing up in a city, specifically the capital of Philippines, this was a nightmare to us. Nevertheless, we accepted this thought and continued with whatever else we had to do.

Applying for university was hard and confusing; never having done an online application made it worse. As immigrants, we knew we were going to land in Canada as permanent residents but in the application there was no option for that; either you are an international student or a Canadian citizen. Regardless, we applied providing information to the best of our knowledge. Unfortunately, we did not hear back and had to leave for Canada without a university to study in.

On July 22, 2008 my brothers and I left the Philippines, travelled for over 24 hours, and arrived in Canada on the same date due to time difference. We were welcomed by our parents who left two weeks earlier to look for an apartment and to make sure we had the necessities. They are great and organized like that, which we were very much thankful for. Setting our priorities, we got settled for the first week and did a university search right after. 

My eldest brother can only go to a certain school due to his program. My second brother already had Dalhousie in mind because he wants to study law. I on the other hand had no particular university in mind. One morning, my father and I made a stop at the Mount to take our chances. At this point we were anxious and desperate because classes start in a month. I applied and throughout my application process, I was very pleased of how friendly and helpful everyone was to me. Fortunately, the Mount accepted me because I knew I wanted to study in this kind of environment.

I love the Mount!