It’s human nature to compare. As an immigrant, I compare every day. After spending almost a year here, I noticed that there are five awe-inspiring things that you wouldn’t pay attention to if Canada is your home country. Let me know if I’m right!
1. Sky and Personal Space
My home city is twice as small as Edmonton, but 200.000 more people live there. To make a picture clearer: about 25% of Edmontonians live in apartments. In my home city, this proportion is close to 90%.
When we just moved here the air, the distances, and the space seemed astonishing. Now I’m more used to this insane feeling of freedom. Yet, every time I look at the sky hugging everything around me, I’m on the verge of crying. This freedom affects people: they respect your private space — a priceless thing for me. In my home town, I felt insecure because of all the stares and glares. I thought there was something wrong with my hair or my outfit was inappropriate, or the lack of makeup. Here I am comfortable no matter what I’m wearing or doing.
2. Sun and Green
Moving from the south of Russia I didn’t expect Edmonton to have so much sun. I was more afraid of wintertime and even bought a wool vest (which I never wore). The amount of sun you get here is unbelievable. A day when it’s -30 and the sun is shining is a blessing since the winters I’m used to were all gloomy, wet, and dirty.
We did our research before choosing Edmonton. When I saw “Edmonton has more than 800 parks” I couldn’t believe my eyes. Now I know that sometimes a couple of trees and a bench can already be called a park. At the same time, those huge parks scattered all over the city make me forget that I live in a capital city. I’ve never seen so much wildlife in my entire life: squirrels, hares, owls, ducks, and geese. A different life right next to you — a fantastic feeling.
3. Support for Parents
Last weekend I was looking for a new place to visit with my little one. I saw cool theme playgrounds: life under the sea, dinosaurs, bear lodge, space, etc. Every time I see a playground here I ask myself “Is it free?”. Of course, I know that we pay taxes to have that infrastructure. But in Russia I paid taxes as well and had nothing of the kind.
No one gives you the stink eye if your baby is crawling around the store or playing with dishwashing sponges. As a parent, I am more confident here.
4. Customer Service
It was a striking experience. We were checking in for our flight from Toronto to Edmonton. It turned out that we had booked extra baggage space which we didn’t need. It was around 50 bucks. When the lady at the desk told me that I could only reply “well, it’s our bad, no worries”. She spent the next 10 minutes trying to hack the system and return our money. I was shocked: she went the extra mile without being asked.
Our first steps to starting a new life were to rent an apartment and to buy a vehicle. We were sure that public transport would be enough for the first days (that was a big mistake by the way). So we went to several dealerships using LRT, buses, and on foot. When we were at the last dealership the agent found out we had no car and were traveling around the city on foot with a stroller. Instead of saying “That must be hard” she offered us a drive home. I mean, it was the first time she saw us, we didn’t buy anything with her and it was the end of her workday. But she was eager to help. This is the customer service I never got in Russia.
5. People
So we moved at the end of September, and Christmas was already in the air. I was sure it would be an ordinary day for us since we had no friends or relatives here. What happened is more like a fairy tale: a colleague at my first job invited us to celebrate Christmas with her family. Needless to say, it was so heartwarming I was crying before we left home.
Everyone said “Welcome to Canada!” after hearing that we moved a couple of months ago. They asked polite questions respecting our boundaries and offered help. It is a pleasure to share our story, for sure.
We got so much support that I haven’t been homesick at all.
If you are a Canadian, do you appreciate or notice these things? If you are an immigrant, do you agree?
