Passport

Hi!

I´ll be going to Canada for an internship at the end of March. Hopefully that is. I don´t think I´ll believe it until I´ve already come back to Finland. Anyway. The process has been quite long. The idea about leaving for exchange came the first year I started the studying. Back then the thought felt a bit impossible because I love my home and my friends and everything about my life. And also I didn´t want to go to some country where the spoken language wasn´t English, I can understand people quite well, but it´s just a lot easier when people speak English all the time and not just for you.

I´m studying to be a land surveyer. Most people don´t really know what that means so I can tell you it has something to do with maps. Last summer I got to meet my mums cousin and his family from Canada. They were spending their summer holiday here in Finland. It turned out that he is an engineer at the same field that I´m studying. He told me if I ever wanted to go to Canada for an internship maybe I could contact him. First I thought maybe after I graduate because I´m also doing my matriculation examinations (for the finnish people: ylioppilastutkinto) this spring I thought I wouldn´t be able to leave during school. But then I began to think that we have out last practical training in April and May and there´s no exams then anymore. So first I contacted my mums cousin and asked him what he thought of the idea. The whole fall went by while I was thinking but now it actually seems like it´s going to be real that I´m going.

I´ve been in contact with the Canadian embassy in Sweden (as it turns out, the one in Finland doesn´t give work permissions or anything like that, so that´s why the Swedish one...) and I have to fill ou many forms and get a registration document from police records that I have a clear record and also I have to prove I have money to support my staying in Canada, luckily the student allowance is enough. I also have to send them my photos and a photo copy of my passport which I finally got today.

When I get to Canada, I also have to get "SIN", which doesn´t mean I have to sin but Social Insurance Number, I´m not sure why though. The company I´ll be working with wants many forms to be filled too so I have quite a lott of paper work to be filled before I leave :)

That´s it for the time being, I still have, well, about 6 weeks to go. I hope I won´t panic, I have so much to do at school before leaving. But bye for now...