Canada

My name is Lena and I am from Ukraine. In 2014, my employer proposed that my family relocate to Canada and we accepted this opportunity. It was the beginning of a great Canadian dream.

In 2015 we set foot on Canadian land. The first months in Canada were very hard for us. Four months later, thoughts about returning to Ukraine were still being discussed each evening in our family, but because of the school programs, we decided to stay in New Brunswick - an Atlantic province. Over time, it got better and we have come to love this wonderful place.

New Brunswick is a good province with great nature and very kind people, though the weather is not great. The weather changes all the time from city to city and from day to day. It may even be -20 at night and during the day it can rise to +10. Sometimes during a drive to a shop, you can see snow, then sunny weather, then rain, and again snow.

Right now, we’re living in Saint John and have been living here since 2015. It is the biggest city of New Brunswick which is located on the coast of Fundy Bay. Summers aren’t too hot, so that is very pleasant, but almost all days are foggy. And this is the main problem for my family that came from sunny Odessa. But in May we will move to Gatineau, a city in Quebec. The decision to move to another province was made because of my son’s different educational needs that we cannot find in New Brunswick.

We decided to relocate to find the best education for my sons who enjoy a lot of extra curricular activities such as chess and skiing. We reviewed the ratings of education in each province. We found out that provinces with high levels of education are Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Because the Canadian office of the company I work for is in Gatineau, Quebec, we excluded British Columbia as a possibility.

With the idea of moving to a new province, an additional idea popped in our heads; we decided to buy our first Canadian home. In Ottawa we found the houses too expensive so we started looking for a house in Gatineau. The main fear about Quebec was using French and rumours of different French culture that I was not used to. However, these were all fairy tales about we'd read from thousands of posts in the Internet. We had to decide between fact and fiction in person.

For this reason, we decided to visit Gatineau. And to our surprise we found out that people in Gatineau are very nice and kind, and most importantly that almost all of them speak English in the same level as French. They also have English schools. The main benefit for us from living in Gatineau is a great level of French and English for our children. After graduation, from a Quebec high school, my son will be able to speak French on the same level as he speaks English. As a result, he will be able to select any Quebec university. It is very cool because studying in universities of Quebec for local children is very cheap, while the level of education is very high. Additionally, learning both English and French will give me the opportunity to work for government positions in the future, which is a very important goal for me.

So, we decided to buy a house in Gatineau. Our house is located just outside of the city in a quiet forest area near a river. We spoke with the local high school board in Gatineau and they confirmed that the school bus will even be able to take my son to school and back. A big plus for us is that there are a lot of high-level chess clubs both in Ottawa and Gatineau which is great because my family loves chess.

Now we are just waiting for May when our great Canadian dream begins again in a new province.