FROM

THERE

TO HERE

Leaving Beirut was the hardest thing to do.

My beautiful, colourful home.

I left because of the conflicts and I decided that,

to feel safe, I should go as far away from it as possible.

Thus I applied to become a student in Canada and I

left home hung in between two feelings: sadness

and happ

iness.

What will it be like? How will I a

djust? How will I get around?

Departure

I left on a beautiful day.

I said goodbye to my family

and hopped on the plane.

6:00 pm

I st

uck

my

nose

to th

e

win

dow

hop

ing

to g

rasp

the last details

and trying to guess

which building is which.

And I fle

w away

farther a

nd farth

er away

Beirut w

as slowly gettin

g smalle

r and sm

aller.

30

minutes later

later6 hours

While on the plane, people were snoozing and I was watching in flight movies. I was reminiscing on the past and looking forward to the future.

Toronto on the horizon! How organized and unknown to me

Arrival

2:00 pm

GMT -5

Landing in Toronto made me feel overwhelmed.

Everything was big, similar,

nothing appealed to me

I missed home.

Where am I?

How do I get around?

Amazing skyscrapers

so many people around me

A week later or so,

Toronto came to life right before my eyes

everything started to make

sens

e.I s

tart

ed to

dev

elop

a warm feeling.

Could this be the sense of safety and the feeling

of happiness?

Yes!The feelings were real!

I felt a warm and homey feeling,

even though the buildings were

still overwhelming and there

was still too many people

Queen Street

BUT

ANDSpadina Avenue made it all worthwhile.

Toronto is now my second home.

I know my way around, I understand

the lifestyle, I appreciate the diversity

especially since I became part of the community

and made my own circle of friends.

Based on a tru

e story;

Writ

ten and Illustr

ated by

Nour Bawab

© 2010