I am emigrating to Canada

It doesn’t take us long to find the Canadian building a few doors up the road. They are much more helpful there, and give us a lot of pamphlets and some forms to fill in and tell us to come back if we are still interested. 

         My parents have mixed emotions when I talk to them during dinner that night, My mother is excited for me and tells me, as a young girl, she always wanted to go some places, see the world, but my father is not pleased at all, saying that I am selfish for wanting to leave them.

A few days later, my mother mentions to me that she had bumped into one of her old school friends, who had just returned back to Switzerland, after spending more than twenty years in Australia. Her marriage came to an end and she decided to come back home, but her ex-husband, daughter and married son were still living in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. When my mother told her, her son was thinking of going to Canada, she told my mother that I should also consider Australia as an option and she would be glad to show us her photos of Australia. She invites Ben and me for dinner and shows us some home movies and photos of Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, her home and also some brochures of Lone Pine Sanctuary. We are very interested and ask all sorts of questions of her. I had heard from a schoolmate who spent a year in Canada how cold it gets in winter. He told me about tree branches falling to the ground because of the sheer weight of ice hanging from them. And here we hear from Mrs. Pieren how much sunshine they have in Queensland, it really get us excited.

A few days later we are on a train to Geneva to visit the Australian Consulate there. There we are told that people with certain trades have their fares to Australia paid by the government in return for a signed agreement that they will stay in Australia for at least two years. This is too good an opportunity to turn down and after all, two years isn’t such a long time at all.

The consulate advises us that even though they cannot at this stage guarantee we will be accepted, we should organise a current passport.

My Dad is very upset when I tell him but my Mum is still encouraging me to go for it. Dad says, 'I have a son for over twenty years, then I don’t have one anymore'. I tell him, I was only going for two years but he insisted that I would not come back if I liked Australia. I guess he knew.

The next few weeks, we fill in forms; go back to Geneva for an interview with the Australian Consul General who conducts the interview in English, with an interpreter translating his questions and my answers. The interview is done on a one-to-one basis and I am very nervous, trying hard to give a good impression. He asks what I expect from life in Australia. I answer that I don’t really know but am willing to make a small contribution to Australian life.

I think he’s impressed with my answers, although I don’t understand what he is saying, I can feel what he says to the secretary is positive.