Packing for over a year is insane. How is one supposed to pack everything one needs for that amount of time with a limit of 23Kg x 2!? Impossible! But I did it.
Ok, not really. Thankfully my Mom is flying through Milan on her way back to Dubai in about a week and a half and will bring some more of my stuff then.
So Canada, this is it. I will say Au Revoir. Which I think is appropriate since its literal meaning is 'till we see again'.
I am going to embark on a 15 month adventure that I hope will extend to at least 2-3 years either in Europe or somewhere else in the world. I wouldn't be opposed to it extending even further. I would like to explore opportunities in Singapore and Hong Kong or really any other enticing place where there may be a challenging project for me to chew on in the midst of a culturally rich and interesting place.
Canada has been good to me. I have learned so much and grown so much. I was a mere 16 when I moved to Halifax and lived with the lovely Amaratunga family in their gorgeous home on the banks of Lake Micmac. 10 foggy months later I moved to Toronto.
Toronto. T Dot (12 years later I'm still not sure where that comes from). This is a fantastic city. It is so unbelievably culturally rich and diverse. I can eat any cuisine my heart desires and learn about any culture. I love going to Little Portugal and Little Italy during the soccer finale and I love taking in a free concert at the Harborfront in the summers. The festivals every week end of the summer forces you to enjoy the city. Toronto summers are exhilarating. The beach volleyball, the lake, the islands, the food, the people, the culture and the ease. It is so easy to live here, so easy to find a friendly face (although downtown it may be alongside a slightly imbalanced person too but that's part of the charm!).
Its too bad a majority of the fun can be had in a minority of the year. 4 measly months of summer has been a hard pill to swallow given that I had never experienced anything lower that 12C until I moved here! But everything else about Toronto generally makes it worth it and thankfully the summers come just in time to remind me of how great this vibrant city really is.
However, I have been looking for an opportunity to leave for a while. I never really thought it would happen. It was just one of those day dreams. My friends are part of the reason I never pushed myself to find a way earlier. The friends I met in university have stayed with me for 10 years. We are family. We know each other's idiosycrasies and love each other for them. We know when to give each other space and know when to be right there. We have all been through many high points and low points and have ALL always been there. ALL. That is hard to find and I found it here. Perhaps we graduated towards each other because most of us are not from Toronto and don't have immediately family here. So we became each other's. I remember when I was terribly ill one year with the flu. I could barely walk, I was so weak and I was living in a 3 floor house on my own. One friend immediately dispatched another friend with soup and ginger tea. I had to crawl to the door to open it, but they were the only ones to come to my aid in a time of need. If it weren't for them I would have starved because I was too weak to go out and too weak to stand and cook something up. Despite how ill I looked my friend still came in, gave me a hug and made sure I was back upstairs alright before leaving.
There are many other instances where there are no words to express how truly amazing there friends really are. We called ourselves the Museion- the gathering of muses. Rarely do we live up to that name, but we have a lot of fun. The Museion has gathered others along the way, but the bond between the original nucleus is unbreakable. I will forever treasure that and will miss that the most. That has been what has always made me feel safe in a city in which I have been living alone, away from my biological family for many years.
But thanks to the Internet, the world is smaller and they won't seem so far. Thanks skype! :)
With that, skype you later Canada!
Ok, not really. Thankfully my Mom is flying through Milan on her way back to Dubai in about a week and a half and will bring some more of my stuff then.
So Canada, this is it. I will say Au Revoir. Which I think is appropriate since its literal meaning is 'till we see again'.
I am going to embark on a 15 month adventure that I hope will extend to at least 2-3 years either in Europe or somewhere else in the world. I wouldn't be opposed to it extending even further. I would like to explore opportunities in Singapore and Hong Kong or really any other enticing place where there may be a challenging project for me to chew on in the midst of a culturally rich and interesting place.
Canada has been good to me. I have learned so much and grown so much. I was a mere 16 when I moved to Halifax and lived with the lovely Amaratunga family in their gorgeous home on the banks of Lake Micmac. 10 foggy months later I moved to Toronto.
Toronto. T Dot (12 years later I'm still not sure where that comes from). This is a fantastic city. It is so unbelievably culturally rich and diverse. I can eat any cuisine my heart desires and learn about any culture. I love going to Little Portugal and Little Italy during the soccer finale and I love taking in a free concert at the Harborfront in the summers. The festivals every week end of the summer forces you to enjoy the city. Toronto summers are exhilarating. The beach volleyball, the lake, the islands, the food, the people, the culture and the ease. It is so easy to live here, so easy to find a friendly face (although downtown it may be alongside a slightly imbalanced person too but that's part of the charm!).
Its too bad a majority of the fun can be had in a minority of the year. 4 measly months of summer has been a hard pill to swallow given that I had never experienced anything lower that 12C until I moved here! But everything else about Toronto generally makes it worth it and thankfully the summers come just in time to remind me of how great this vibrant city really is.
However, I have been looking for an opportunity to leave for a while. I never really thought it would happen. It was just one of those day dreams. My friends are part of the reason I never pushed myself to find a way earlier. The friends I met in university have stayed with me for 10 years. We are family. We know each other's idiosycrasies and love each other for them. We know when to give each other space and know when to be right there. We have all been through many high points and low points and have ALL always been there. ALL. That is hard to find and I found it here. Perhaps we graduated towards each other because most of us are not from Toronto and don't have immediately family here. So we became each other's. I remember when I was terribly ill one year with the flu. I could barely walk, I was so weak and I was living in a 3 floor house on my own. One friend immediately dispatched another friend with soup and ginger tea. I had to crawl to the door to open it, but they were the only ones to come to my aid in a time of need. If it weren't for them I would have starved because I was too weak to go out and too weak to stand and cook something up. Despite how ill I looked my friend still came in, gave me a hug and made sure I was back upstairs alright before leaving.
There are many other instances where there are no words to express how truly amazing there friends really are. We called ourselves the Museion- the gathering of muses. Rarely do we live up to that name, but we have a lot of fun. The Museion has gathered others along the way, but the bond between the original nucleus is unbreakable. I will forever treasure that and will miss that the most. That has been what has always made me feel safe in a city in which I have been living alone, away from my biological family for many years.
But thanks to the Internet, the world is smaller and they won't seem so far. Thanks skype! :)
With that, skype you later Canada!
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