02/08/2023
Canada 2023 Holiday Experience...Tim Hortons (Not) To The Rescue
At exactly 3pm (Canada time), we landed at YYZ Airport in Toronto. The heat that greeted me was synonymous to maiduguri heat. It was summer time, but I wasn't expecting summer, in a country synonymous with extreme winter, reaching -45degrees sometimes, to be that hot.
What a beautiful country Canada is! Its so neat and people are very respectable and orderly.
Toronto Airport is the only airport I have seen that is 100% automated (no single human interaction). I thought Heathrow was automated, but u will still see some staff waiting behind to assist u with one or two things, but not at YYZ.
Who would I ask if I was stock? I asked myself. The crowd reminded of Dugbe market in Ibadan. Everyone was moving gradually to occupy any available machine.
The simple task u needed to do to move to the next stage, where immigration officers were already waiting to question you on why u were in Canada, was place your passport on the machine for scanning, then you input your data and scan your visa if u have one or input your electronic visa reference number (in my own case). Once those were done accurately in conformity with the already completed online form, the machine would drop down and take your picture. If the machine wasn't o.k with your photos, it would continue to snap until it was satisfied.
Then a print out would be generated with a reference number, thats what u would take to the immigration section for clearance and stamping, before u would get your luggage.
As I completed this task, got to the immigration, the immigration asked why I was in Canada, if i had friends and how many weeks I intended to stay? On holiday, yes, I have few friends and i am here for just two weeks, I replied. The next thing is, welcome to Canada 🇨🇦. Yipeeeeee, mo bo lowo won finally.
I was very famished, I looked around thinking I would see an African restaurant to eat nice Amala and ewedu, with correct ogufe...nibo, all the restaurants nearby were either Asian restaurants or proper Canadian restaurants. I couldn't hold the hunger anymore, i went to a local Tim Hortons (a Canadian fast food chain, similar to McDonald's in America).
A tiny thinny burger with a drink cost me 15 fuc.king CAD, then plus tax ontop. Wetin dey shele? Shey nah like this una dey exploit people for this country? I shouted, the customers in the queue behind me looked at me, in their mind, they would be like, where is this JJC from.
Wahala, I no send una, I work hard to earn my £, so no one should use bread steal my "omi obe"(soup). This is how we operate here, u pay tax ontop of everything in Canada. Ha! Canada yi lagbara o, e be like say I no go even spend up to the 2 weeks I intended to spend lol...I said that in my mind.
Did I actually have a choice? I was on holiday anyways, so I had better get used to the new system or go back to my YouK...
To be continued.
