Chriss
On a chilly September afternoon, which now feels like forever ago, I stood in Kelsey's kitchen with her and Chriss, cooking vegan french toast which pleasantly surprised us all, as snow fell outside on the balcony. The unwelcome weather having spoiled our hiking plans, we decided we'd simply have a day of baking, drinking tea and chatting. Chriss and I were just about to leave town, so it would be one of the last times the three of us would hang out.
Chriss, Kelsey and I all worked together at Roots which was Chriss's second job until the final few months of her visa when she became full time. Chriss was always such a happy and warming presence at work and I'm so glad to have had her in my life over this past year. Days when the three of us were working throughout the summer were always good days. We didn't often get the same weekends off, so this afternoon to just enjoy each others company and fawn over Kelsey's cat, Willow, was such a treat.
I was anxious to interview Chriss before we both left town for good; her returning home to Taiwan and me leaving to travel more of Canada before I too ventured home. As Kelsey pottered around the kitchen making carrot cakes and earl grey biscuits, Chriss very graciously let me interrogate her and force her to reflect on her time in Canada.
I was sure Chriss had been in Canada longer than I had, but visas for Taiwanese citizens usually only last for one year, I asked how she had managed to stay here for so long: "I don't know, I came in with my friend, I didn't notice I had two years. We went back to the hotel, and I [wondered] why my work permit was different to hers. I checked it and asked her 'do you know what that means?' and she said 'not really' so I posted on a group, we have a Taiwanese Facebook group, and they told me 'you are so lucky, you have a two year visa'. I didn't realise, I didn't expect that to happen. I checked with a lawyer and they said I'm fine. I thought Taiwanese only got one year, how can I get two? but they said I'm allowed to stay for two years because they just gave it to me; they have the right to give you less than a year or over a year, that's their right." Chriss seemed to have been awarded a golden ticket totally by fluke, if you've ever applied for a working holiday visa, you'll know how rare such opportunities are, "Yeah but I hear it's not just me, two more Taiwanese girls got two year visas as well, and a Japanese girl. I only know three people that got a two year visa by accident."
While this was a wonderful spot of good luck, it had a drawback; while Chriss might have got a two year visa, her travel buddy did not. She told me about what happened her friend's visa expired, "Yeah, it was sad when she left. We're university class mates and came to do a US and Canada working holiday together, so when she left I felt a bit sad because we came together but she left early. She's in Australia with another friend right now but I feel sad because I couldn't go with her to the next adventure. If I only got one year, I would have gone with her to Australia. But I got two years so we had different plans. It's sad because it's hard to get real friends, I mean you can have a lot of friends in Banff but like her, she's my best friend from school until now, so I feel a bit sad that she left." I can empathise with Chriss completely; although it was my choice to only use a year of my visa, leaving Sophie behind was not easy. I love that girl to absolute pieces, she's been my rock for so long and even more so over the past year. Now I'm home I miss her so much, but I couldn't be happier for her because I know she's living her life to it's fullest in Banff. She's so happy, and that's all I could wish for her. I asked Chriss how she feels now, having lived here without her for so long, "Now I'm ok. I think I'll finish my two years and then I'll make another plan, or maybe I'll go to Australia with them. She's in Victoria I think, she's working at a ski resort. She learned snowboarding in Banff and then she went to Australia to keep doing that, I'm really happy for her."
Just as it was a joint dream for Sophie and I to come to Canada, I asked what inspired Chriss and her friend to move here, "It's very simple, because [we] went to the US to do a working holiday, when [we] were students, we had a really fun time in the States. We thought working holidays were so awesome; you cook on your own, you hang out with your friends, you are totally independent, you're so happy. I was so happy when I was in the States. We only had three months then we went back to Taiwan, but we missed the States a lot, like our life there, so we wanted to come back. At first we wanted to go back to the States, so that's the reason. I was with Kate, that's my college classmate, we really wanted to come back so we chose Canada."
America had obviously been the turning point moment for Chriss and the direction for her life from then onwards, travel was to be her life's pursuit. I asked her to tell us all about it; where did she go? "South Dakota, Mount Rushmore. Kelsey was surprised, she said 'no one would go there! why did you go there?' I said 'I don't know' *laughs*". Kelsey then looked up from her mixing bowl and restated her astonishment. I too was surprised to learn that Mount Rushmore was in South Dakota, I'd never given much though to it's location but South Dakota was not where I thought it would be, and not the first place I'd have expected Chriss to choose for a working holiday! "We had no idea about the States, we just wanted to go, but the US is so big, we didn't care about which place. The agent gave us some choices where we could apply for jobs, so we just had a look at the jobs and applied. So before I went there, I had no idea what Mount Rushmore was." Kelsey interjected: "I love that *laughs*". What were you doing there? I asked: "First I was doing laundry, but then I asked to be a server. I asked my boss, because she owned a hotel with a restaurant nearby, so I asked to be a server at her restaurant and she said yes. I never had that experience of speaking english with customers, so the first time I was really nervous but it was a really fantastic experience. It was a small restaurant, like a country, family restaurant; we only had the cook and the owner. She was the manager, we had one cook and only three servers, and a pot wash. They were so nice."
In Banff we saw a myriad of travellers from across the world; tourists from the States, the UK, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and many, many more. I wanted to know what kind of tourists Chriss met whilst working in South Dakota, "They have like a motorbike celebration/festival for the Harley Davidson's. So all the people [involved] drive from New York or Boston, across the States from the east to the west. They drive past Mount Rushmore, so they come in for only an afternoon or evening and then they go. It's a touristy place so in the summer its busy. Winter is like here, it' so cold and quiet." Three months seemed like an incredibly short visa, but Chriss was able to extend her trip: "It's three months, but then you can travel for a month so I stayed for four months. So that's the reason I wanted to apply for a Canadian working holiday because it's really near to the States and we wanted to go back. But now I think I prefer Canada *laughs*".
Next came the question that I ask everyone; what has been your favourite part of this experience? To which Chriss answered, as most have, that it was the people she's met. "Friends, people. Yeah I think the most important thing since I've been here has been my friends and co-workers; like you, Kelsey, and all my friends." Everyone is different and some people open your eyes in ways you'd never expect. We all adopt a new family when we travel like this, I wanted to know if Chriss felt she had changed because of her friends here, "I think so, because before I came out, I used to make schedules and plan, but here, you don't need to make a schedule. All the experiences, like camping and snowboarding, I learned how to snowboard here because some of my friends taught me how to, and that's one thing I never thought I'd learn [how to do]. We think it and we go; we go hiking and we go canoeing and it's good. I really enjoy the life here, it's more flexible."
I was curious as to what kind of cultural differences Chriss saw between the people and lifestyle here and back home. Chriss had lived in Canada for two years at this point, and I was intrigued to know what contrasts she could see between here and Taiwan. I asked her to educate us, "We really care about [what other people think], in Taiwan; other people will judge your life, your work, your everything. If your job is doing housekeeping in Taiwan, they will say 'why are you doing housekeeping? you've graduated from university but you're doing this kind of job?' but what's wrong with a cleaning job? it's important ok? People will judge you, they think its a job for people who haven't graduated from university." Chriss expanded on this, telling us that plumbers and mechanics are really cheap in Taiwan whereas in Canada they're paid well and are considered professionals. She said if they have any problems, they call and get it fixed and its cheap, $20 is an expensive service charge at home. When she got to Canada, she had to learn how to do things for herself because its too expensive. It was the same with food; she had to learn how to cook because usually she would buy it cheaply at home, but to eat out is expensive here. She said that she admires Kelsey and I because we are younger than her but we can cook, we're handy and more independent.
This theme of societal pressure and judgment continued in Chriss's reflections about home, "People judge people in Taiwan, but here, you only care about yourself and what you're doing right now. In Taiwan, most of us go to university and our parents pay for it, you don't have a choice. People say 'you've graduated high school, now you go to university or college', they make the choice for you. Here I know a lot of Australians, they came here after high school for a year, and they can decide if they want to go back to school or not. In Taiwan, they tell you you've been to school now you go to university, even if you don't know what you want to study. They look at your scores and you choose your major depending on your scores. Some people don't like what they're studying so they're not happy, [instead] they just have fun. They take their tests but they only just pass, they still say they've graduated. Yes you've been to university, but you've not really learnt anything, you've just wasted time."
At this point Kelsey, who was still baking, asked if universities were expensive in Taiwan, Chriss replied that they can be but it's dependent on the school. The government pays for some and they have scholarships because they want you to go to school. Alternatively you can go to an independent/private school which are more expensive. Chriss added that while they want you go to school, they only really teach you how to pass tests, not actually how to use your knowledge in a practical sense. She used an example from when she was working full time at one of the gift shops on Banff Ave; "One girl, we saw her resume, and her english score was really high, it was almost full marks. The maximum is 900 and she got 800 and something which is really high. But when we met her for the first time and we tried to have a conversation with her in english, it was really bad, she couldn't even speak a sentence." Taiwanese companies want to see good english scores from their applications, but Chriss now has a much more practical use of english although she's never taken a test.
Now I'm home, friends and family keep asking me about Canadians, but to be honest, I didn't actually meet that many. Banff is such a popular place for travellers that I had many more friends who were British, Australian, Chinese, Taiwanese or European than were native Canadians. Working holidays seemed extremely popular among young Taiwanese people, and Chriss had a theory as to why; "I think a lot of Taiwanese come out to another country to do a working holiday and they don't want to go back because of this kind of thing; people judge you or its a competition, we just don't want to do that. We just want to be ourselves, [live] our lives, please don't bother us." Professions that are respected and sought after in Taiwan generally include medicine, the law, teaching and other government jobs because they come with benefits. That's not what Chriss wants however, "I don't want to sit in an office my whole life...I'm really happy outside Taiwan, so I don't care *laughs* I just feel like normal life is so comfortable, living here. And here, age doesn't matter, they won't judge you by age. In Taiwan, if you're 35 and don't have a stable job they might worry about you. But I think 'why would you worry about me? you don't need to worry about me, I will be fine'".
At this time Chriss's visa had come to end and she was returning home about two weeks after this interview. Not quite sure what her plan was to be upon her arrival, I asked how she felt about returning home, "I think if I go back to Taiwan I will try to change the attitude, I won't let people bother me too much. I think I cared about them before, I do care about what they say and how they treat me, but now I feel like 'whatever, I want to do the things I want to do'. This time I feel like going back to Taiwan, I don't feel afraid, I feel like I can still do what I want. I can teach people they don't have to care about other people too much, just care about yourself."
Chriss and Kelsey with Kelsey's beautiful baby, Willow.
I thought this was a lovely place to finish, it was such a lovely afternoon the three of us had and I'm so grateful to Kelsey and Chriss for their friendship over the past year, hopefully we'll all meet up again someday!
Thank you all for reading Chriss's story, I'm sorry these last few posts have been so far between but the next one won't be so far away. The next story is also the first one that I recorded while I was travelling round Canada in October, so keep your eyes open for that one! It's December 1st if you can believe it, and its now officially not too early to say, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, where ever you are.
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Chriss, Kelsey and I all worked together at Roots which was Chriss's second job until the final few months of her visa when she became full time. Chriss was always such a happy and warming presence at work and I'm so glad to have had her in my life over this past year. Days when the three of us were working throughout the summer were always good days. We didn't often get the same weekends off, so this afternoon to just enjoy each others company and fawn over Kelsey's cat, Willow, was such a treat.
I was anxious to interview Chriss before we both left town for good; her returning home to Taiwan and me leaving to travel more of Canada before I too ventured home. As Kelsey pottered around the kitchen making carrot cakes and earl grey biscuits, Chriss very graciously let me interrogate her and force her to reflect on her time in Canada.
I was sure Chriss had been in Canada longer than I had, but visas for Taiwanese citizens usually only last for one year, I asked how she had managed to stay here for so long: "I don't know, I came in with my friend, I didn't notice I had two years. We went back to the hotel, and I [wondered] why my work permit was different to hers. I checked it and asked her 'do you know what that means?' and she said 'not really' so I posted on a group, we have a Taiwanese Facebook group, and they told me 'you are so lucky, you have a two year visa'. I didn't realise, I didn't expect that to happen. I checked with a lawyer and they said I'm fine. I thought Taiwanese only got one year, how can I get two? but they said I'm allowed to stay for two years because they just gave it to me; they have the right to give you less than a year or over a year, that's their right." Chriss seemed to have been awarded a golden ticket totally by fluke, if you've ever applied for a working holiday visa, you'll know how rare such opportunities are, "Yeah but I hear it's not just me, two more Taiwanese girls got two year visas as well, and a Japanese girl. I only know three people that got a two year visa by accident."
While this was a wonderful spot of good luck, it had a drawback; while Chriss might have got a two year visa, her travel buddy did not. She told me about what happened her friend's visa expired, "Yeah, it was sad when she left. We're university class mates and came to do a US and Canada working holiday together, so when she left I felt a bit sad because we came together but she left early. She's in Australia with another friend right now but I feel sad because I couldn't go with her to the next adventure. If I only got one year, I would have gone with her to Australia. But I got two years so we had different plans. It's sad because it's hard to get real friends, I mean you can have a lot of friends in Banff but like her, she's my best friend from school until now, so I feel a bit sad that she left." I can empathise with Chriss completely; although it was my choice to only use a year of my visa, leaving Sophie behind was not easy. I love that girl to absolute pieces, she's been my rock for so long and even more so over the past year. Now I'm home I miss her so much, but I couldn't be happier for her because I know she's living her life to it's fullest in Banff. She's so happy, and that's all I could wish for her. I asked Chriss how she feels now, having lived here without her for so long, "Now I'm ok. I think I'll finish my two years and then I'll make another plan, or maybe I'll go to Australia with them. She's in Victoria I think, she's working at a ski resort. She learned snowboarding in Banff and then she went to Australia to keep doing that, I'm really happy for her."
Just as it was a joint dream for Sophie and I to come to Canada, I asked what inspired Chriss and her friend to move here, "It's very simple, because [we] went to the US to do a working holiday, when [we] were students, we had a really fun time in the States. We thought working holidays were so awesome; you cook on your own, you hang out with your friends, you are totally independent, you're so happy. I was so happy when I was in the States. We only had three months then we went back to Taiwan, but we missed the States a lot, like our life there, so we wanted to come back. At first we wanted to go back to the States, so that's the reason. I was with Kate, that's my college classmate, we really wanted to come back so we chose Canada."
America had obviously been the turning point moment for Chriss and the direction for her life from then onwards, travel was to be her life's pursuit. I asked her to tell us all about it; where did she go? "South Dakota, Mount Rushmore. Kelsey was surprised, she said 'no one would go there! why did you go there?' I said 'I don't know' *laughs*". Kelsey then looked up from her mixing bowl and restated her astonishment. I too was surprised to learn that Mount Rushmore was in South Dakota, I'd never given much though to it's location but South Dakota was not where I thought it would be, and not the first place I'd have expected Chriss to choose for a working holiday! "We had no idea about the States, we just wanted to go, but the US is so big, we didn't care about which place. The agent gave us some choices where we could apply for jobs, so we just had a look at the jobs and applied. So before I went there, I had no idea what Mount Rushmore was." Kelsey interjected: "I love that *laughs*". What were you doing there? I asked: "First I was doing laundry, but then I asked to be a server. I asked my boss, because she owned a hotel with a restaurant nearby, so I asked to be a server at her restaurant and she said yes. I never had that experience of speaking english with customers, so the first time I was really nervous but it was a really fantastic experience. It was a small restaurant, like a country, family restaurant; we only had the cook and the owner. She was the manager, we had one cook and only three servers, and a pot wash. They were so nice."
In Banff we saw a myriad of travellers from across the world; tourists from the States, the UK, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and many, many more. I wanted to know what kind of tourists Chriss met whilst working in South Dakota, "They have like a motorbike celebration/festival for the Harley Davidson's. So all the people [involved] drive from New York or Boston, across the States from the east to the west. They drive past Mount Rushmore, so they come in for only an afternoon or evening and then they go. It's a touristy place so in the summer its busy. Winter is like here, it' so cold and quiet." Three months seemed like an incredibly short visa, but Chriss was able to extend her trip: "It's three months, but then you can travel for a month so I stayed for four months. So that's the reason I wanted to apply for a Canadian working holiday because it's really near to the States and we wanted to go back. But now I think I prefer Canada *laughs*".
Next came the question that I ask everyone; what has been your favourite part of this experience? To which Chriss answered, as most have, that it was the people she's met. "Friends, people. Yeah I think the most important thing since I've been here has been my friends and co-workers; like you, Kelsey, and all my friends." Everyone is different and some people open your eyes in ways you'd never expect. We all adopt a new family when we travel like this, I wanted to know if Chriss felt she had changed because of her friends here, "I think so, because before I came out, I used to make schedules and plan, but here, you don't need to make a schedule. All the experiences, like camping and snowboarding, I learned how to snowboard here because some of my friends taught me how to, and that's one thing I never thought I'd learn [how to do]. We think it and we go; we go hiking and we go canoeing and it's good. I really enjoy the life here, it's more flexible."
I was curious as to what kind of cultural differences Chriss saw between the people and lifestyle here and back home. Chriss had lived in Canada for two years at this point, and I was intrigued to know what contrasts she could see between here and Taiwan. I asked her to educate us, "We really care about [what other people think], in Taiwan; other people will judge your life, your work, your everything. If your job is doing housekeeping in Taiwan, they will say 'why are you doing housekeeping? you've graduated from university but you're doing this kind of job?' but what's wrong with a cleaning job? it's important ok? People will judge you, they think its a job for people who haven't graduated from university." Chriss expanded on this, telling us that plumbers and mechanics are really cheap in Taiwan whereas in Canada they're paid well and are considered professionals. She said if they have any problems, they call and get it fixed and its cheap, $20 is an expensive service charge at home. When she got to Canada, she had to learn how to do things for herself because its too expensive. It was the same with food; she had to learn how to cook because usually she would buy it cheaply at home, but to eat out is expensive here. She said that she admires Kelsey and I because we are younger than her but we can cook, we're handy and more independent.
This theme of societal pressure and judgment continued in Chriss's reflections about home, "People judge people in Taiwan, but here, you only care about yourself and what you're doing right now. In Taiwan, most of us go to university and our parents pay for it, you don't have a choice. People say 'you've graduated high school, now you go to university or college', they make the choice for you. Here I know a lot of Australians, they came here after high school for a year, and they can decide if they want to go back to school or not. In Taiwan, they tell you you've been to school now you go to university, even if you don't know what you want to study. They look at your scores and you choose your major depending on your scores. Some people don't like what they're studying so they're not happy, [instead] they just have fun. They take their tests but they only just pass, they still say they've graduated. Yes you've been to university, but you've not really learnt anything, you've just wasted time."
At this point Kelsey, who was still baking, asked if universities were expensive in Taiwan, Chriss replied that they can be but it's dependent on the school. The government pays for some and they have scholarships because they want you to go to school. Alternatively you can go to an independent/private school which are more expensive. Chriss added that while they want you go to school, they only really teach you how to pass tests, not actually how to use your knowledge in a practical sense. She used an example from when she was working full time at one of the gift shops on Banff Ave; "One girl, we saw her resume, and her english score was really high, it was almost full marks. The maximum is 900 and she got 800 and something which is really high. But when we met her for the first time and we tried to have a conversation with her in english, it was really bad, she couldn't even speak a sentence." Taiwanese companies want to see good english scores from their applications, but Chriss now has a much more practical use of english although she's never taken a test.
Now I'm home, friends and family keep asking me about Canadians, but to be honest, I didn't actually meet that many. Banff is such a popular place for travellers that I had many more friends who were British, Australian, Chinese, Taiwanese or European than were native Canadians. Working holidays seemed extremely popular among young Taiwanese people, and Chriss had a theory as to why; "I think a lot of Taiwanese come out to another country to do a working holiday and they don't want to go back because of this kind of thing; people judge you or its a competition, we just don't want to do that. We just want to be ourselves, [live] our lives, please don't bother us." Professions that are respected and sought after in Taiwan generally include medicine, the law, teaching and other government jobs because they come with benefits. That's not what Chriss wants however, "I don't want to sit in an office my whole life...I'm really happy outside Taiwan, so I don't care *laughs* I just feel like normal life is so comfortable, living here. And here, age doesn't matter, they won't judge you by age. In Taiwan, if you're 35 and don't have a stable job they might worry about you. But I think 'why would you worry about me? you don't need to worry about me, I will be fine'".
At this time Chriss's visa had come to end and she was returning home about two weeks after this interview. Not quite sure what her plan was to be upon her arrival, I asked how she felt about returning home, "I think if I go back to Taiwan I will try to change the attitude, I won't let people bother me too much. I think I cared about them before, I do care about what they say and how they treat me, but now I feel like 'whatever, I want to do the things I want to do'. This time I feel like going back to Taiwan, I don't feel afraid, I feel like I can still do what I want. I can teach people they don't have to care about other people too much, just care about yourself."
Chriss and Kelsey with Kelsey's beautiful baby, Willow.
I thought this was a lovely place to finish, it was such a lovely afternoon the three of us had and I'm so grateful to Kelsey and Chriss for their friendship over the past year, hopefully we'll all meet up again someday!
Thank you all for reading Chriss's story, I'm sorry these last few posts have been so far between but the next one won't be so far away. The next story is also the first one that I recorded while I was travelling round Canada in October, so keep your eyes open for that one! It's December 1st if you can believe it, and its now officially not too early to say, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, where ever you are.
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