On a positive note...

I am always reluctant to use a blog as a place on which to post my negative feelings; in this world, there is already sufficient negativity for several milennia, and nobody likes to hear people raving about wholly negative subjects unless of course, they read the tabloids!

My most positive news is that I have finally started on the career path which I chose before coming to Canada. True, I have had to downgrade some of the ambitions; to become a nurse or nurse practitioner rather than a full MD is of necessity a reduction of my ambition. One has to go through life prepared to make these changes to plans, otherwise nothing would ever be achieved. There is nothing wrong with aiming higher than reality permits on occasion, because this way one can sometimes be surprised by what can be achieved!

The change to plan “A” was brought about by my being laid off from the call centre at which I was working. Having worked for over 900 hours and contributed to the employment insurance pool, I am able to draw on this rather than being totally dependant on my wife's salary, which is a huge relief. In the free time since the end of March, I have been able to prepare for advancing my grades to a level which will permit me to take a bachelor's degree in nursing and perhaps specialise still further while working. It is a long term plan, and one which I feel very confident I can stick with.

So what does this career choice mean in the shorter term? Basically my grades from my English schooling are fine, these can be converted by the immigration department here. The requirements for the nursing college, however demand that I sit my sciences again, as the grade has to be credited in the last five years, and my grades are more than 14 years old. We managed to locate a school nearby enough for me to travel by regular bus without crossing the river, and I duly registered for the term which started last week. It is a wonderful feeling to finally be a) doing something genuinely useful towards my career and learning again, and b) to be at school through choice and not because of state demands or conventionality.

I am of course, not familiar with the North American, Canadian or Quebec scholastic environment, so it was with some trepidation that I attended my first class last week. As the Access education centre is specifically a “continued” or adult education centre, it is thankfully free of many of the problems associated with a mainstream school. People in general are there to learn, some of them at their own expense, and are respectful of others. This was the impression I received at the first session, which was individualised learning of Chemistry; everyone had their own books, and worked through at different paces and stages, with recourse to a teacher where necessary. The session was deathly quiet without a teacher lecturing or explaining, and I greatly enjoyed it. Physical Science was a shared class, and here I experienced a great deal more deja vu back to my school days. The class ranged quite widely in age, and was taken by a teacher some 8 years my junior, who was in fact qualified in Gym instruction! Although the other students by and large respect the teacher, it is a very noisy class, hard to concentrate, and some of the pupils are in class merely because it is financially beneficial to them. That means that I experience a lot more frustration, as I have paid out of pocket for the books and materials, and hate my class time being wasted. I ended up taking the first session myself, as the tutor was coming down with bronchitis and could not talk, but I enjoyed the experience! Yet another strata of Canadian society revealed to me!

The school is in a nice suburb of the South Shore, which most people regard as strictly outside of Montréal. As I only have 18-20 hours' study per week, or classes rather, the commute is much more relaxed than while I was employed. I like the experience of meeting many more people, as the school is everything I missed out on while at high school myself; I am free to take part in the school board, debates, have my lunch with fellow students and to discuss careers with like-minded people, all of whom speak English well. I am discovering yet again that the “British accent”, that strange and elusive thing which I cannot myself observe, is a passport to people's interest. Some students are flabbergasted that I left England, which they regard as the acme of opportunity, to move to a colonial place such as Canada. It is long and complicated to go into my reasons, so I always bring up my main motive, that of love!

As I have no pictures of the school available, this entry will be strictly text, my photographic skills are somewhat on the back burner whilst I am trying to concentrate on getting the best possible grades. When I have these, I can then seek work, as the induction for the nursing college's autumn term begins next February, and I will have more than a year's gap in which to study French also. It is available at the Access centre, but I have to wait until September to take “new arrivals” integration French as a second language. It is an exciting prospect, and will help me no end to integrate and feel yet more of a part of this country.