First Two Days

Hi! I’m writing this to you from the East House day room , listening to the sound of practicing violins, and watching the late afternoon sun drift through the windows. It is a beautiful sight. 

It’s also something that I’ve got to do more here - meaning, making sure to appreciate the smaller moments, and imbue them with greater meaning and significance. I’ve got to remind myself that my greatest memories needn’t be ones with ‘huge’ (exciting/momentous) things taking place. 

Well, it’s been two days here at Pearson so far! I arrived yesterday around 10am, driven by my mama’s old Pearson co-year Robert! He told me lots about his work as a First Nations lawyer, as well as a brief overview of the history of First Nations in Canada. It definitely made me more interested in finding out more about their history. 

It was really strange driving back onto campus; there was a sense of familiarity. No doubt from when I first was on campus in 2012 for Mama’s reunion, but it was definitely weird to see pictures and videos of the place that I’d been looking at for the past few months suddenly appear as real life in front of my eyes. This was incredible! A few things that struck me about the Pearson campus on my first revisit/entrance: the bay is absolutely beautiful, the hills are steeper than I could’ve imagined, the campus is larger than I expected, and the grass is very very dead. Once out of the car, I went to the Admin building, and got my stuff sorted to go to East House, where I’d been told I would be living!

The rest of the day was a blur, already so much has happened and I don’t know how best to describe it without going overboard! Let’s try to streamline things: I met my 3 roommates all at different times; Martha from Oman when I entered my room, Thompson from Brazil when we played icebreakers on the East House Lawn, and Iñaki from Argentina/France when his bus came at 8pm. I toured campus twice: first with Eric (Norway) when I first arrived and was lost as to what to do, and then again with Yucheng (China), my buddy, when he took me around. I am most struck by the spiritual centre, art building, the hammocks on campus, and the deer. 

It seems crazy to me how in only two days, I feel quite at ease on campus already. My first day did feel at times completely overwhelming, but as long as I expressed how I was feeling to people, they were always understanding and caring. I definitely had to go into the library a few times to just be quiet and read a little throughout the day, but I think it’s natural to want to have moments to yourself at times. Life here so far seems inundated with things to do and people to talk to, which is totally great, but also exhausting. Once I hit my pillow, I fall asleep almost instantly, and I’m waking up early too! I think this may still be jet lag hitting me, so I’m not sure how much longer it’ll last, but it has been nice to be up early to catch the last bits of sunrise & be one of the few early birds at breakfast.

That’s all for now - I hope everyone at home is doing well. I will include some pictures down below.