–Nathália Hipólito Cardozo, University of Prince Edward Island
Part 3: One year in Canada
Sometimes I wake up and I feel like I’ve lived here in Canada for years-like 10 or 15 years. Sometimes I feel like I’m just here on vacation, I arrived yesterday, you know? And that at any moment I can just go home, because it seems to be so near that I can take a bus and I’m already there. There are days that I think I’m dreaming, that I have created all this in my mind. It’s almost utopian this chance to come to another country, to study in another language, to know a whole new culture. I always thought about traveling to other countries, but the possibility of studying abroad never crossed my mind, let alone for 16 months.
A year ago, I left my life in Brazil back temporarily. My family, friends, routine, everything that I created in order to pursue my dream to be somebody who did something different. To return to my country with more experience, more knowledge, and power, so I can, somehow, contribute with everything I learned.
Are there differences between Brazil and Canada? Of course, sometimes big, sometimes not even that much. Do I prefer one to the other in some aspects? For sure. It may seem silly, but after all that I’ve lived here, my green and yellow heart has a red spot now. Always Brazilian, I love my country, but I now have a place for Canada as well.
How many people I met, many of them also just passing through here, how many interesting things, how much I have improved. I also contributed to Canada during my time here. I encouraged some Canadians to become more outgoing, speak louder, laugh more, speak more with their hands, “sambarem”, and to hug more often. That’s my culture, I’m not ashamed of it and want to show it to the world.
Thank you, Canada for letting me be part of your people during this time and for another 4 months. Thank you for welcoming me so well and making me realize that all the fear and insecurity that I had when I arrived-it was all in my head. No one judges me cause of my nationality or if I feel like going to university in pajamas. Such a welcoming, multicultural country. This red spot in my heart will never burn out
Some people say that time is relative, and that when you live good times, it goes fast. For me, these 365 days have passed in a flash, and when I stop to think about what I have done during this time, I can’t believe all the things I did. Maybe, for the ones I left in Brazil during that time, life may be going slower or faster, I don’t know. In fact, I cannot even imagine the people I know continuing their lives, their routines, their stories. It seems that I left everything and everyone frozen there for when I return. It sounds crazy, but that’s how I feel. Frozen or not, the countdown starts now. Only four months in Canada remain. But even before the time is over, I can already tell that Canada has changed my life!
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