Life of an owl
Zunayet Anis :
Imagine going to bed in Bangladesh when everyone is eating breakfast in Canada as it is 7 a.m. on the eastern coast of Canada!
This is the story of a Bangladeshi student studying at McGill University. The process for entering Canada began well before for Fardin Nilavro, a 22-year-old student from Dhaka.
International students who wish to enter Canadian territory need to fill out a form. That form requires biometric data from the applicants. It cost them about $200. Afterwards, they needed to pass a medical evaluation done by a physician assigned by the Canadian Embassy followed by a police clearancewhich takes up to three weeks to complete.
Nilavro started this process in July 2020. By the time he got his immigration papers, the travel restriction by Canadian Government due to the Covid-19 pandemic was not lifted. This forced 22 years old student to live on Canadian time while staying in Bangladesh.
“I slept during the day and stayed up during the night,” he said. He arrived in Canada in September 2021. Time difference was not a problem for him anymore.
He however needed to get himself use to the Canadian lifestyle; immigrants coming in Canada faced drastic changes in term of lifestyle. The lifestyle in western countries is quite different. The life pace is very fast and individual. People are not always available – not even for their loved ones.
The Computer Science graduation student soon realised this will be his new reality.
“You have to cook, […] to study, you also have to work and you are living alone,” he said. This way of living is frequent for young adult in western world. Some days, Nilvaro barely has time for breakfast to attend his morning classes.
The cultures of the two countries are different. In Canada, it is very egocentric. For example, when someone turns 18 years old, they leave their parents’ house to live alone. Canadian parents do not try to convince their children to stay. Canadian students pay their own tuition. For that reason, they tend to take more time to finish their education. In contrast , parents are left alone when they become old. In the western continents, when someone is near retirement, they sell their assets and go to old home, instead of passing it to their progeny.
In Canada, if someone knows how to fix broken thing, they will find job quickly. They value the technical skills. The intellectual skills brought from another country are worthless. That is especially true if a person wants to work in human care or human interacting sector. A lawyer for Bangladesh will not have the right to practice law in the second largest country in the world. In order to be lawyer in The Great White North, they need to go in law school for four years for common law(except in the Quebec). In the province of Quebec, law school will last three years for civil law. They will have the right to be a lawyer only in Quebec. If they study the common law, they will have the right to be a lawyer nationwide, except in the Quebec. After their degree, they will need to pass the bar exam to practice law.
The Canadian weather is very different from Bangladesh. In the summer, temperature can be as high as 40 degrees Celsius. Weeks can pass without a drop of rain. In the three months of bone-chilling winter, the thermometer mercury may go down to -40 degrees Celsius. Days can pass without any sign of sun. Canadian houses are built keeping this fact in consideration. Houses have isolations between the walls. Furthermore, every house has a heater installed.
For people like Nilavro, it is very difficult to initially cope up with these differences.
“When I am outside for a long time, sometimes it’s hard. Though, in Canada, air pollution is less,” he said.
Despite all the difficulties he faced since his arrival in Canada, he did not regret coming on the world’s north, far away from home. He learnt to manage his time, his finance and his time. He became more independent since he left his country.
“It has been a great learning experience,” Nilavro said.
[Bio: Zunayet Anis is Bangladeshi-born Canadian citizen. He is doing a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Concordia University.]
