Eight Years (and the eight miracles of immigrating to Canada)

Eight years.

It's been eight years and it feels like "wow, how has it been eight years already?!", but also "has it only been eight years?!".

Life is strange and funny, and crazy and full of miracles.

This year we mark eight years in Canada just a few days before Hanukkah, an eight-days-long holiday celebrating miracles and deliverance, and so it's only fitting that I mark this date with a list of the eight miracles I found in immigrating to Canada:

1. Diversity Canada is known for embracing multiculturalism and immigrants and has even made it a policy in the 1970s to promote multiculturalism. It is a place where people from all cultures live in harmony, while also maintaining cultural heritage and religious practices. Sounds too good to be true? I thought so too at first, but it was only when my daughter Eve started going to daycare that I realized there is a way to live among other cultures and still maintain your cultural identity. My kids can identify as Jewish but attend a public school that marks all holidays (Diwali included). They identify themselves as Canadians but will proudly tell everyone how their parents moved here from Israel and how their family still lives there. Toronto might be more diverse than other big cities in Canada, so I guess we're lucky to have chosen this city to be our home, but still, I'm pretty sure the experience would have been more or less the same even if we chose a different city.

2. Four seasons I wrote about this many times before, but even after living here for 8 years, I continue to be amazed by how different and beautiful each season is here in Canada. Let's start with the fact that there are actually 4 seasons! which is for me a miracle in itself. Where I come from there's only summer, and when it rains twice a year they call it winter. It doesn't stop my mom from complaining to me about how cold it is in their 'winter', and when I ask how cold, she always replies "so cold, you wouldn't believe it". Oh, wouldn't I?! I'm not gonna lie, it can be expensive to have 4 different wardrobes, especially when you have kids (rain boots, snow boots, sandals, sneakers, indoor shoes - and that's just the shoes!), but nothing makes me happier than seeing the colors change, the leaves falling, the first snow or the cherry blossom. Miracles all around, 4 times a year. 3. Access to universal healthcare Canada’s universal healthcare system was adopted in the 1960s. Under the program, every province or territory in Canada has a healthcare plan which provides all residents with reasonable access to medical services, without paying out of pocket for healthcare services such as hospital visits or access to doctors. Free healthcare may sound obvious to some of you, but for many, it's an unattainable dream. Not having to worry whether you'd be able to afford to see a doctor or cover all costs of tests during pregnancy for example is huge, and so I'm grateful for this miracle. 4. Bilingual kids Nothing says Canada more than having kids who speak English better than you. My kids were born to parents whose first language isn't English, and we've worked really hard on maintaining the Hebrew at home so that they speak both. I mean we kind of had to, so that they can communicate with their grandparents :) but also because for us, it's part of our identity. The only thing we did not think of is that they would become our best and worst teachers, and teach us words we didn't know but also ones we wish we never knew. 5. The great outdoors Canada’s huge land and water masses and varied climate provide countless opportunities for outdoor pursuits, and for my partner who would always choose a campfire and sleeping in a tent over a night at a hotel, this is a dream coming true. During our eight years here (and also thanks to Covid who didn't allow us to leave the country for almost 2 years), we've visited 5 provinces (out of 10 provinces and 3 territories), Ontario included, and I can safely say that we only touched the tip of the iceberg. A country of this size, with so many places to explore, would take us at least another 8 years to cover just another small portion of it. Its beauty is breathtaking, and every new park/lake/city we visit feels like we're watching a miracle. 6. Multicultural food Oh, the food. How do I describe it? Imagine living in a huge food court, only each cuisine has 500 restaurants. Mexican, Persian, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Israeli, Portuguese, you name it.

Thanks to immigrants who are shaping the culinary landscape, multiculturalism is on the menu in Canada, so think of poor me having to choose what to order for lunch at work...It's a miracle I still find foods I never tried.

7. Costco Miracle? more like the 8th wonder of the world. The most remarkable man-made creation has over 100 locations in Canada, and nothing can describe the experience of walking into Costco for the first time well enough. It is heaven but you would always spend two to three-time more than you planned, because, well, Costco does miracles! You gotta see it to believe it.

8. Justin Trudeau If you don't know who's Justin Trudeau, Google it. And if it gives you Justin Bieber just keep scrolling until you get to the right Justin. Canada's Prime Minister is the whole package (and a miracle)! He’s handsome, he has a job, he has a giant tattoo of a bird on his arm, and he speaks French. Need I say more? Oh, and he's also the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history, and being the youngest is always better, am I right? These miracles didn't bring me here, but they sure help me stay.

Happy 8 years in Canada to me!