I have a 10 digit (#CL) Client ID Number for a Canadian Permanent Resident Visa Application courtesy of my amazing Mother.
We’ve been at it since 2009? Or earlier if you ask my Mom.
From that time til now i can count exactly:
560 minutes spent on phonecards.
380 email attachments
25 embassy visits
4 application fees paid by bank notes
and countless of I-Miss-Yous from my Mom and I.
Where am i now? I’m in Manila, in what i feel to be is the last stage of application ominously dubbed as the wait-earnestly-by-the-phone stage. They say if you don’t hear from them, then you should trust that you’re application is moving along well and they won’t need any additional files for submission.
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Last week my Mom told me a few quotable quotes.
“Your hair is too long Gaile, can’t you afford to get a haircut?”
she also told my sister, “Don’t tell this to Gaile, but she’s so fat.”- which of course my sister teased to me with glee, along with a saying that i’m in fact, adopted.
I’m more than amused, i sincerely know why my Mom has been telling me these nuggets of wisdom, she can’t wait for us to finally book flights to Canada and be with her again.
* The Tulip Festival in Ottawa by my Mom
And it took me a very long time to admit how excited i am, firstly i was afraid of being denied, what if they think that i am not good enough to immigrate or that time that i jaywalked, or that i am affiliated with leftist groups. Paranoia crippled me into not planning what i wanted to do once i got there, but that was before. Now every time my Mom travels, she shares how much she wishes we could be with her.
I think she understood long ago that i most likely got my Wanderlust from her, she’s still the most traveled person in the family, and i really want to catch up with her number of visa stamps by the time i get there. I even made my travel list for 2012-2013 already and it’s really exciting especially since i know i’ll be saving airfare expenses, again, thanks to her.
I’ve expressed my desire to her about how i really wanted to go to New York immediately and to Toronto so i can visit a really good friend, both are considerably near, about a 6hr drive from Montreal, i didn’t tell her though that i plan to do the bungee jump from the CNT Tower, where it’s tall enough to view America’s skyline. She was okay with it and i was relieved to hear it, although my plan to view the Aurora Borealis from the Northern Territories in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Yukon Territories were met with apprehensions regarding safety issues. But i’ll cross that bridge when i get there, i have until the summer 2013 to get the best views anyway.
I really think i’m going to have a 180 degree lifestyle change when i finally move thousands of miles across the planet. Not only with my Mom’s plan of only feeding me purely vegetables and minestrone but with me getting my first ever job (so i have a lot of travel allowance), going to school, living in a beautiful city where i won’t dread the commute, going through Driver’s Ed, experiencing snow for the first time and a lot of other things that i am very grateful for.
With gaining another home halfway around the world, it’s only got me wondering about possibilities. There’s nowhere too far for a traveler and i really believe in that, hope to see you somewhere on the road as well, preferably in some obscure country, in a little known cafe run by a gentle woman with her aging husband. And coffee’s going to be on me. 
