Jules
Of all my expectations of this trip and the climate, to arrive in Toronto in September to 30 degree heat was not one of them. It was on a particularly tropical afternoon that Sophie and I met Jules, a refreshing, 27 year old Brit, at Dineen Coffee Co. on Yonge Street, Downtown Toronto. Despite the season we were all wearing dresses and sunglasses and we were still roasting! None of us had really packed for Toronto's heat wave...
I ordered three iced lattes with what must have been an atrocious accent as each of our cups had the name "Colleen" written on them, and we sat down to begin the interview. I felt instantly at ease with Jules; she was genuine, patient and courteous and our conversation flowed naturally. We sat talking for well over an hour without noticing the time melting away, all of us perfectly content to chat and laugh at each others stories.
I began by asking where home was, Jules and I met on Facebook which stated she was from New Orleans so I was a little surprised to hear her obviously British accent when she first spoke. Jules grew up in Tonbridge, Kent, UK however prefers her place of residence to still state Louisiana after studying abroad there as part of her degree. "It confuses everybody and I should change it but I can't. You know when you get attached to something? I'm like I miss it so much I can't change it."
Jules' relationship with America goes way back; "When I turned 18, I kind of left as soon as I could and went to America to work. First I was a nanny, which was terrible, *laughs* there were four children, and I was really young looking back on it. I quit that and went to work in a sandwich shop, which was great, on this little island in Massachusetts. Then I came back to go to university in the UK, did my year abroad, then after I graduated in my final summer as a student I worked in Hawaii in a hostel on the same visa, so that was really cool. That's kind of my experience of America, but I think New Orleans has my heart."
Jules was in Canada on a 10 day "reccie" to investigate two potential new homes for her come January when she returns to Canada to activate her visa. "I've never been to Canada before so I don't know where I wanna go, what I want to do. I'm living in France at the moment and I found a cheap ticket from Paris to Toronto so I thought I'd come over, have a look around and see which one I feel like. I go to Montreal tomorrow to see what that's like so hopefully I'll choose based on the feeling that I get. I was really pleased when you said 'we love Banff, we're going back' I thought I hope I get a feeling like that and that it will make the decision for me."
Then I asked the question that before our trip, I resented everyone asking; why Canada? "It's funny whenever I tell people I'm moving to Canada that's always the first question [they ask] and they follow it with: 'what do you want to do?' Neither of which I know the answer to." After her time in America, the U.S seemed tempting, but similarly to the U.K., the current political climates didn't really appeal to Jules: "Canada seems really liberal and calm, they have a good prime minister that they like, it seems really different to where I've been before. It seems very stable and safe, and I'm not a million miles away from home. I needed a change and the IEC was a good option."
Intrigued by Jules' rich travel repertoire and her aspirations for Canada, I wanted to know what is was that she'd like to do for work "What I'd actually like to do is casting for television and theatre, so obviously Toronto is a good place to do that. I actually walked through a movie set on my way here, they had the New York subway set up on the street, I was looking at them like 'I didn't think there was a subway here' and then the next one said 'New York'. I think they'd turned it into New York to film a TV show. Toronto would be a good thing for [casting] but I see aprons in my future for a while, I'll probably end up being in a bar or a cafe for a bit while I do an internship, I imagine you have to break in."
I imagine for most of us doing the IEC, it's not necessarily the job that has brought us Canada, but instead how we will spend our days off. As you could probably have guessed, it's the photography, hiking and meeting all walks of people that has brought me to Canada, so I asked Jules how she should like to spend her free time while she's here "I found in London it was very hard to meet people, everyone just seemed so busy all the time and everyone lived very far away from each other. I think I'd like to find a nice community of people really, where I can get more involved in volunteering and stuff like that." Not only is Jules looking to find a new crowd, but get back to herself "I'd like to start running again, I found that in London I was working so much I stopped doing various things that I liked doing. I'd like to get back to running, I used to knit and I stopped. To have more time, I think, is what I'd like to have here, to have a better work life balance."
One of the biggest fears I think my mother has for me on this venture, is that I won't want to come home at the end of it. It's something I heard a lot before I came here, all my friends and work colleagues would say 'you won't want to come back', so I put it to Jules to see if she might like to stay in Canada at the end of her two year visa "I don't see a huge future for myself in the U.K. especially given recent events with Brexit etc, I don't really like the way the country seems to be going. For me, Canada would definitely be an option. Having said that I'm 27, so I'm aware that for a lot of the visas that we can get, 30 seems to be the cut off. If I wanted to do Australia or New Zealand I'd have to do that before I turn 30."
I found Jules' wanderlust so compelling, it seemed to be such an innate part of her character. Her openness to my questions clearly mirrored her open-minded attitude to life and the world, something I think we could all do with a little more of. Then she said something truly beautiful and accurate about Canada and its diverse population "Someone explained it to me, they described [Canada] as a mosaic whereas America's like a melting pot: they want everyone to become American. Here it's like a mosaic; you have all these different areas, everyone's sort of part of the same thing but everyone keeps their own, and that's kind of nice, I hadn't thought of it like that."
It seemed clear to me that Jules was searching for something, and I say that with the upmost admiration and faith. These days anything but a clear and focused direction seems looked down upon, for what reason I cannot understand. There is no shame in taking in your surroundings and knowing it's not for you. Not feeling any real connection to Kent besides the presence of her parents, she's looking for a place and a people to belong to "I'd like to think that when I find that sense of community I'm looking for I'll stay, and that will be me not kind of 'done' but I can stop searching in that sense." Jules knows what she wants and she's happy to search for it, but approaches her endeavour with an equal measure of realism and sentimentality "When I travel, I tend to approach every place thinking 'could I live here?' I don't know why I just always kind of have. I feel it's like trying on a jacket, try on a place if it fits then you stay, if it doesn't you move on."
There are so many cliches around travelling and "finding ourselves" but its a truth that travel teaches you lessons about life and yourself. It would be arrogant of us to think that everything to be learnt from life can be found within our native culture and country. Self-directed education seemed to be key to Jules' love of travel "Whenever I travel I learn so much about other places, other people, ideas. I just feel it makes me a better person, it opens my eyes and I always end up learning something new about myself. There's so much to see, it would be a waste to stay in one place."
Not every interview goes as well as this one did, and I felt so grateful that Jules was as happy as she was to be my guinea pig. It's conversations like this one that make me feel more grounded and inspired than ever, that what I want to do with my life isn't such a ridiculous idea after all. I'm not the only one who wants something more, who wants to wander and doesn't set deadlines in their life, as Jules said; "London can't be it."
Sophie, Jules and I continued talking all afternoon without noticing the time or encountering any awkward silences. We left the coffee shop and walked up to City Hall to take our obligatory photos at the Toronto sign. After practising being tourists, we walked down to the waterfront where we bought ice creams and spent another three hours talking about life and travel, looking out at Lake Ontario. I feel very humbled that I have been able to make some amazing, and truly genuine friends whilst travelling in Canada and that I can now include Jules in that group. It's a wonderful feeling to laugh so heartily with someone you've just met.
I can't thank Jules enough for being my first interviewee, it was honestly such a lovely afternoon. I've shared Jules' Instagram at the bottom of this post if you'd like to keep up with her adventures. Thank you all for reading her story, I hope it inspired you as it did me.
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Jules' relationship with America goes way back; "When I turned 18, I kind of left as soon as I could and went to America to work. First I was a nanny, which was terrible, *laughs* there were four children, and I was really young looking back on it. I quit that and went to work in a sandwich shop, which was great, on this little island in Massachusetts. Then I came back to go to university in the UK, did my year abroad, then after I graduated in my final summer as a student I worked in Hawaii in a hostel on the same visa, so that was really cool. That's kind of my experience of America, but I think New Orleans has my heart."
Jules was in Canada on a 10 day "reccie" to investigate two potential new homes for her come January when she returns to Canada to activate her visa. "I've never been to Canada before so I don't know where I wanna go, what I want to do. I'm living in France at the moment and I found a cheap ticket from Paris to Toronto so I thought I'd come over, have a look around and see which one I feel like. I go to Montreal tomorrow to see what that's like so hopefully I'll choose based on the feeling that I get. I was really pleased when you said 'we love Banff, we're going back' I thought I hope I get a feeling like that and that it will make the decision for me."
Then I asked the question that before our trip, I resented everyone asking; why Canada? "It's funny whenever I tell people I'm moving to Canada that's always the first question [they ask] and they follow it with: 'what do you want to do?' Neither of which I know the answer to." After her time in America, the U.S seemed tempting, but similarly to the U.K., the current political climates didn't really appeal to Jules: "Canada seems really liberal and calm, they have a good prime minister that they like, it seems really different to where I've been before. It seems very stable and safe, and I'm not a million miles away from home. I needed a change and the IEC was a good option."
Intrigued by Jules' rich travel repertoire and her aspirations for Canada, I wanted to know what is was that she'd like to do for work "What I'd actually like to do is casting for television and theatre, so obviously Toronto is a good place to do that. I actually walked through a movie set on my way here, they had the New York subway set up on the street, I was looking at them like 'I didn't think there was a subway here' and then the next one said 'New York'. I think they'd turned it into New York to film a TV show. Toronto would be a good thing for [casting] but I see aprons in my future for a while, I'll probably end up being in a bar or a cafe for a bit while I do an internship, I imagine you have to break in."
I imagine for most of us doing the IEC, it's not necessarily the job that has brought us Canada, but instead how we will spend our days off. As you could probably have guessed, it's the photography, hiking and meeting all walks of people that has brought me to Canada, so I asked Jules how she should like to spend her free time while she's here "I found in London it was very hard to meet people, everyone just seemed so busy all the time and everyone lived very far away from each other. I think I'd like to find a nice community of people really, where I can get more involved in volunteering and stuff like that." Not only is Jules looking to find a new crowd, but get back to herself "I'd like to start running again, I found that in London I was working so much I stopped doing various things that I liked doing. I'd like to get back to running, I used to knit and I stopped. To have more time, I think, is what I'd like to have here, to have a better work life balance."
One of the biggest fears I think my mother has for me on this venture, is that I won't want to come home at the end of it. It's something I heard a lot before I came here, all my friends and work colleagues would say 'you won't want to come back', so I put it to Jules to see if she might like to stay in Canada at the end of her two year visa "I don't see a huge future for myself in the U.K. especially given recent events with Brexit etc, I don't really like the way the country seems to be going. For me, Canada would definitely be an option. Having said that I'm 27, so I'm aware that for a lot of the visas that we can get, 30 seems to be the cut off. If I wanted to do Australia or New Zealand I'd have to do that before I turn 30."
I found Jules' wanderlust so compelling, it seemed to be such an innate part of her character. Her openness to my questions clearly mirrored her open-minded attitude to life and the world, something I think we could all do with a little more of. Then she said something truly beautiful and accurate about Canada and its diverse population "Someone explained it to me, they described [Canada] as a mosaic whereas America's like a melting pot: they want everyone to become American. Here it's like a mosaic; you have all these different areas, everyone's sort of part of the same thing but everyone keeps their own, and that's kind of nice, I hadn't thought of it like that."
It seemed clear to me that Jules was searching for something, and I say that with the upmost admiration and faith. These days anything but a clear and focused direction seems looked down upon, for what reason I cannot understand. There is no shame in taking in your surroundings and knowing it's not for you. Not feeling any real connection to Kent besides the presence of her parents, she's looking for a place and a people to belong to "I'd like to think that when I find that sense of community I'm looking for I'll stay, and that will be me not kind of 'done' but I can stop searching in that sense." Jules knows what she wants and she's happy to search for it, but approaches her endeavour with an equal measure of realism and sentimentality "When I travel, I tend to approach every place thinking 'could I live here?' I don't know why I just always kind of have. I feel it's like trying on a jacket, try on a place if it fits then you stay, if it doesn't you move on."
There are so many cliches around travelling and "finding ourselves" but its a truth that travel teaches you lessons about life and yourself. It would be arrogant of us to think that everything to be learnt from life can be found within our native culture and country. Self-directed education seemed to be key to Jules' love of travel "Whenever I travel I learn so much about other places, other people, ideas. I just feel it makes me a better person, it opens my eyes and I always end up learning something new about myself. There's so much to see, it would be a waste to stay in one place."
Not every interview goes as well as this one did, and I felt so grateful that Jules was as happy as she was to be my guinea pig. It's conversations like this one that make me feel more grounded and inspired than ever, that what I want to do with my life isn't such a ridiculous idea after all. I'm not the only one who wants something more, who wants to wander and doesn't set deadlines in their life, as Jules said; "London can't be it."
Sophie, Jules and I continued talking all afternoon without noticing the time or encountering any awkward silences. We left the coffee shop and walked up to City Hall to take our obligatory photos at the Toronto sign. After practising being tourists, we walked down to the waterfront where we bought ice creams and spent another three hours talking about life and travel, looking out at Lake Ontario. I feel very humbled that I have been able to make some amazing, and truly genuine friends whilst travelling in Canada and that I can now include Jules in that group. It's a wonderful feeling to laugh so heartily with someone you've just met.
I can't thank Jules enough for being my first interviewee, it was honestly such a lovely afternoon. I've shared Jules' Instagram at the bottom of this post if you'd like to keep up with her adventures. Thank you all for reading her story, I hope it inspired you as it did me.
Follow Jules' story:
Follow our stories:
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