I first came in Canada as an international student in 2003. I came here out of my curiosity about foreign counties and my destination was Saint John, a small city by the Bay of Fundy. Ten years ago, not many Chinese were in Saint John and I stayed with a Canadian family as a home stay student.

The first thing impressed me after I arrived in Saint John was that I suddenly realized that I was a Chinese. I am different than the people around me. They are Canadians and I am Chinese. I didn’t have this feeling when I was in China because all others were Chinese too.

Then I started to think what the differences are. Gradually, I found the differences are anywhere! For example, Brian, my homestay parent, asked me for a dessert after a traditional Chinese meal I cooked for him. The disappointment on his face after I told him that there was no dessert after Chinese meal made me even felt I did something really terrible. Hey, it is a big deal for Canadians, the dessert! There are hundreds of examples to show the culture difference, especially between the East and the West.

For the first several years, all I saw were the differences between me and other Canadians. That made me homesick and it was a hard time. However, with the wisdom of age and time, I realized that all the differences are facts and they will be there no matter I like it or not. Also, on the other hand, we have more similarities than differences, which is more meaningfully for me to discover and to pay attention. Fundamentally, we all grow old and have to die someday; we all have sicknesses from time to time; we all often have to say goodbye to the people we love and we all sometimes have to do what we hate to do. We are more the same than the difference. I am very glad that I discovered that and from that day with this conclusion, Canada became my home.

Not much can tell with current space limit but there are a lot to share. I love Canada and I feel good living here!

- Xin in Saint John, NB

-Image:  ©EdArias