(Happy birthday) my Canada

Last week, I went for a laser eye surgery at Lasik MD #GlassesFreeYay. As soon as I arrived at the clinic the employee handed me a contract to read and sign. I made my way to the waiting room and sat down to start reading the 18 pages long contract. The moment I flipped the first page, I realized that compared to the 10 other persons sitting beside me, my contract was in French.

There I was, in British Columbia, reading a French contract specially made for me. I couldn’t believe it. At this moment, I started reflecting about my country, Canada.

Montréal <3

Being 5000 km away from Quebec, I couldn’t have pictured myself being greeted so many times in French. That I would frequently speak French with my colleagues at work. Or even that English-Canadian would appreciate my values of French-Canadian.

Let’s say I never really paid attention to Canada day’s festivities. While living in Quebec, the St-Jean-Baptiste’s festivities always take place a week before Canada day. It always turns out to be quite the party. So when comes Canada day we usually just returned to life from our weeklong hangover, so we keep it easy and we enjoy our long weekend #TrueStory.

I certainly miss Quebec. I miss my friends, my family, but also Quebec’s language, the festivals (always so much fun) and the food. Take note that you cannot find fresh poutine cheese everywhere in this country. Here, you can only buy it frozen #WTF. I miss the SAQ and the cheese store at almost every corner #CheeseAddict ;). Here 90% of the cheese you can find at the supermarket is orange. Can somebody explain to me where orange cheese come from? I also miss the bring your own wine restaurant. It’s the coolest restaurant concept in the world. I still wonder why Canada doesn’t make that a law “Minimum of 65 bring your own wine restaurant per province”. Oh well, that’s another subject!

Something else I never thought I would be missing is the first couple weeks of winter. That moment when snowflakes are slowly falling from the sky. You are there, on your couch, covered with a warm blanket. I missed those cozy moments. Yes, I admit it! But I didn’t miss the 49&?*$4 days of winter, the facts that it never ends and the slushy roads at the end of winter. Oh! That I didn’t miss. The moment when you just want to give up, because no pair of boots will get you through this weather.

After all, I am quite enjoying it out here. The life habits are very different. There are so many possibilities of activities to do outside. So many mountains to hike or even beaches to visit. Actually, the sceneries are breathtaking. Vancouver is a city where there is a lot of food option for the vegetarian and vegans and even most of the coffee shop offer their own homemade almond milk #HeckYes!

Even though I often feel far away from Quebec, this country allows me to feel at home, more than 5000km away from my family. This year I will be celebrating my country. The country that allows me to be who I want to be and to feel like I belong here. This year I will celebrate all of us because we are Canada.

Cheers to our amazing country!