Zhuli
Profile
I’m Juliette, aka Zhu. Yes, I’m aware of the fact that I’m not even remotely Chinese. I do speak Mandarin though, but it’s a long story.
Anyway… I’m French (and half-Canadian now) and I live in Canada’s national capital, Ottawa. Before I came to Canada, I backpacked the world for a few years and I hope to do it again. Living in Canada is another kind of adventure but I enjoy it very much.
I’m a French teacher in beautiful — yet bloody cold — Ottawa. I teach civil servants since they need to be bilingual. My students don’t always think French is that useful but trust me, they do learn. I love my job and I always found it ironic I ended up teaching French after learning Chinese for 12 years.
Immigrating to Canada has been a very good experience so far. I experienced culture shock for the first few months but recovered quickly enough. Although I still don’t get how Canadians can walk around wearing only shorts and tee-shirts when it’s barely above 0ºC. I’m due to apply for citizenship this year, 2008, and I can’t wait to be able to vote.
Having sorted all all the immigration paperwork and being a landed immigrant was a huge relief but I now long for my traveling days. Was I made to settle somewhere? A side of me enjoy “normal life”: a job, a place to live, I city I now know well, friends, languages I master and a relatively steady income. But the other side of my brain just want to blow it all and pack. Pack and travel to other continents, other oceans, sleep in long distance buses and trains and walk in a new city everyday.
Yeah, I’m not the easiest person to live with. I know.
