A Little Piece of the World

It’s funny how casual conversations can suddenly take a profound turn. This happened to me at the beginning of January during one of our downtown tours.

It had been rainy that week so we had only a handful of students instead of the usual dozen. After a nice walk around downtown Victoria (thankfully it didn’t rain!) we settled down in a Starbucks and started chatting about various things. There was a lot of the typical chatter about girlfriends/boyfriends, what you study, what your family is like, etc. but then I was asked a simple question that caused me to stop and think. “Why are you a CA?” I could have given a generic answer: “It’s fun.” “I love people.” But instead my thoughts went back to the English Language Centre’s open house house last semester…

Every room of the Continuing Studies Building wore the decorations of a different country, and inside people were busy participating in all sorts of cultural activities. As I welcomed people with “passports” at the front, I caught glimpses of Chinese students with sombreros on their heads and students from Saudi Arabia getting their names written in Japanese. It was like the whole world was brought together in one building. I wondered how this was possible, to have so many people with completely different beliefs and cultural backgrounds all working in harmony. Then I realized the answer: everyone here was connected by their common goal to learn English. And it was English — the one language that everybody in the program knew — that made all this cross-cultural communication possible. That night, I went home glowing because I had had a brief glimpse of a world where we all have the same goal, and differences are not to be feared but are an opportunity to grow and learn…

Back in the Starbucks, I knew what my answer had to be. “Every time I work, I see a piece of the world I want to see.” The student who asked the question smiled. “Wow, that is a very serious answer.” “I guess it is,” I replied, and the conversation continued on.

Love is all you need

*Note* I realize that Valentine’s day is over, but I have been sick the past couple days and didn’t get a chance to post it earlier! Enjoy!

It occurs to me that, no matter what cultural background you are from, everyone loves arts and crafts. It’s great to every once in a while let your creative juices flow and just feel like a kid again.

Last Friday’s coffee social activity was to make homemade Valentine’s day cards. We had two tables set up with assorted paper, paper flowers, stick-on sparkly felt hearts, markers, glue, etc., and everyone was allowed to do whatever artistically floated their boat. I have to admit, I was a little doubtful when I first learned that this was the activity of the day. I thought that some people would object to participating in such a “childish” activity, and I did not think the guys would not be inclined to play around with various pink and red sparkly objects. But to my surprise, the first people who started making cards were men! Soon, everyone was crowded around the tables, cutting, pasting and “ooh”-ing and “aah”-ing over their friends’ creative accomplishments. I thought I was doing a pretty impressive job with my cards, but I had nothing on their creativity!

My lovely homemade cards ^_^

Of course the most asked question of the day was “who are you going to give your Valentine to?” And I got a lot of different answers. The most popular answer was “I don’t know,” but I did get some definite answers. One was for a friend “because I love him” (said teasingly), another was for a boyfriend left behind in Mexico, another was for a husband who got two made for him “because he is my husband” (SO adorable!).

This got me thinking: even though Valentine’s day is one of the most shamelessly commercial holidays ever, it does remind you that love is a universal concept. The love of a friend, a family member, or a life partner is something that transcends the language barrier, something we all can relate to. Sometimes it just takes a “childish” activity like this to remind you.

Fresh Start, Fresh Snow

Even though I have no classes on Fridays, I am happy to report that I am going to be busy tomorrow… working! Yes, that’s right. I finally won a last-minute shift thanks to some luck, my impeccable email-answering skills, and the fact that I have my iPad connected to me at all times! So I guess I will be gaining some more experience to write about. But for now, I thought I would write about my whirlwind week of shifts in January.

At the start of any new semester, we get a lot of new students. Lots of new students means a lot of people needed to show them around and get them feeling at home in Canada. Even though I know this, I was still shocked to see I had 4 shifts the first week of classes. I was excited, but a little wary because now I had to balance my new classes and a lot of early morning shifts.

And when I say early, I mean early. I’m not used to waking up at 5:30 in the morning in order to catch a 7:00 bus! But waking up at ungodly hours and snoozing through my first week of classes was worth it to be involved with start up week. It was the new students’ first week in a strange country, when their wonder and excitement outweighs their jet lag. I felt like a terrible student because I’ve never been as excited about going to school as they were!

A couple moments of that week really touched my heart. I was leading some students around the campus when some light flakes of snow started to fall from the sky. It never seriously snows in Victoria, so I barely noticed it. But it was a bigger deal for one of my students, who stopped abruptly and stared at the sky. He turned to me and asked, “Is this snow?” “Um, yeah, it’s not very much. But it’s snow,” I replied. He stared at the sky again and mumbled, “I’ve never seen snow before”. His face lit up like a child’s, and it made me pause and smile for a moment. Something I saw every year and took for granted was like a dream come true for him. It’s the same feeling I got when seeing the cherry blossoms in Japan for the first time.

Another rewarding moment happened when I was saying goodbye to the students at the end of the day. I asked them if they had any last minute questions or concerns before they went back home to their host families. One of them shyly said, “Well, I want to make sure I get on the right bus. I don’t want to get lost.” I helped him find his bus, and told him that I had also been really nervous about getting lost when I first moved to Victoria. He smiled at me and said, “Yes. When you are in a new place, you feel almost like a child in kindergarten.”

This job makes me realize that the smallest things in life can make a difference. You can find joy in them; like snow falling from the sky and flowers in full bloom on a tree. And they can bring comfort to someone who is starting a new life far away from all they’ve known.