Historic trip

 

I was packing my bags last night, and the heavier my little carry on luggage became, the heavier my emotions felt. It's just a little trip of a few days, which will go by so fast before I realise I'll be back home again. But it's the significance of the return, for I will be returning as a permanent resident. 

Five years (or so if you count the days I was away --- and there are many, many months) in Canada, and finally I received my permanent residence status. Nothing really changes, except my official status here, and to be honest my return may not be all that dramatic given the fact I'm not arriving in the country for the first time, but returning to a place I've more or less been calling home for the past five years.  My address has only changed once since I arrived in Canada, and it was literally to another address around the corner. 

I took two favourite items of clothing with me... a red Canada hoodie, and a tshirt with "Love" on the front, the same one that I wore on the day mum passed, and on the day of her funeral. I wanted to take an animal with me, but since the loss of my favourite bear, the one my mum gave me (still missing, and I know now forever gone...), there's really no other animal that is so special. Until I found a little "rainbow bear", one that I bought for myself three or four years back when I was back home in Taiwan. "Rainbow Bear" is special, I guess, because just before my nephew was born, mum bought two large towels with the character, and one she gave me. I still have it, drapped over my arm chair in my bedroom. It's been there since last year when I returned to Canada...

I took with me also a picture of mum and dad, with mum holding onto dad's arm... It will be very significant, very meaningful when I return in a few days' time and have my parents with me as I enter Canada...