The First Day of Orientation

Today was our first day in the orientation program, which lasts throughout the whole month of August. Of course, as usual, I woke up a lot earlier than I was supposed to. I felt like I couldn't let anything happen to the first day. I didn't really trust the alarm clock on the cell phone, so I woke up an hour before it went off.

Anyway, the first thing that caught my attention was the size of the university. The Burnaby campus if just huge and also very beautiful, of course, as it sits on the top of Burnaby mountain. From where I'm staying at the residence hotel until the grocery shop on the other side of campus it is a 15-minute walk. So, you can imagine how not nice it is to go grocery shopping and have to walk all that distance with heavy bags. I guess this is one of the things I will just have to get used to, since I might never have a car  here.

The second thing is that everyone - and I repeat, everyone - was in class at least about 15 minutes before everything started. I guess that even the coordinator got a little surprised, I think she mentioned something related to that. This is the kind of thing that would never happen in Brazil. As we know, brazilian people are always running late and some people believe that it is actually nice not to be on time for things, be it a meeting or just to go to lunch with friends. I'm not here to say bad things and criticize Brazil, but this is the kind of thing that makes me sad about my own country, and I strongly believe that it should never happen. Nobody should ever feel bad for their own country. I do miss Brazil a lot. I miss the brazilian people, my people.

This is the next topic. The lack of brazilian people and what I idea I have from this. Of course, there are brazilians everywhere in the world and Vancouver would not be an exception. However, I'm having difficulty finding brazilian people in the campus. I haven't seen any sign of any brazilians. I know that the classes will start in September but I was hoping to see some brazilian people. About that, in my classroom I'm part of two minorities. First one, I'm the only south american, or even, american in the classroom, everyone else is asian. Second, there are only 2 boys in the classroom, which are me and a chinese guy. Even though I'm very friendly and it's easy for me to make friends and talk to everyone, today I felt like I didn't belong there. I saw all those chinese people speaking chinese to each other while we were on the campus tour, and I didn't have anyone to talk to, in portuguese or even spanish.

What I understand and analyze from that is that south american people are, indeed, too poor. I'm not talking about money, I'm actually talking about the opportunities. I know that there are tons of rich people all around South America, but most of them don't even give a damn about their education. They come from rich families and just inherit everything without any efforts or any dreams of their own. Once again, I feel bad when I don't see my own country participating in the important things of the world. There are 20 chinese people in my class, out of the 23 attending orientation today. The question really is: why? Why aren't there people from other nationalities in the classroom? This is something I hope to find an answer as I progress through life here.

First Few Days

Arriving in Vancouver after 6 years since the first time I was here was very nice. Right away, I had that feeling of starting something completely different, even though I was in the same city again. I believe that when you change the purpose of your trip you also change the way you look at the city. Now I look at the city and think about how life here is going to be for the next couple of years. At the first time I came to Vancouver I was a interchange student and I had support from my host family and all my friends from school. However, now things do feel very different. Of course it's the first few days and I have just met some of my classmates, but I sure feel more alone.

One big difference I noticed in Canada is how things have evolved, I mean, not the structure of the city or so, but how technology, transportation and services have evolved. It is easier to get on a bus, to walk around the city, to find anything you're looking for, and the city also feels very cozy. This is a feeling that was not present in my life in Brazil. In there I felt like things were never going to change, and I guess that this is how a lot of brazilians feel like. We have problems believing that the country will change because of so much corruption and all. Here, it feels safer, even despite the fact that I'm a foreigner and that this is not my country and nor these are my people.

On Saturday, I arrived at the airport a little later than expected because the flight had been delayed in Toronto about 30 minutes. So, I started wondering if anyone from the university would still be at the airport to pick me up. I got off the plane, got my bags, and, for my surprise, there was nobody there. I admit it, it was very scary and uncomfortable. I realized that I had the phone number of the girl who was supposed to pick me up and tried to call her from a public telephone but I had no cash. This guy who I believe was a taxi or limo driver was next to me and I asked him if he knew how to make collect calls. He asked me what number I wanted to call and took a look at the number I had in my hands. He said that it was a local number and that I could make that phone call from his cell phone. So, I called the number, talked to the girl, and in about 15 minutes she was there to pick me up. She had been waiting for me in another place.

I tell this story to show how people are able to trust others without any problems. The guy didn't know me but he was willing to help me anyway. This shows how education changes people and how countries and people are supposed to develop. And, above all, I don't really think he was canadian, he was just another immigrant trying to make a living in Canada, but I guess that somehow, he was touched by the canadian culture and lifestyle.