It has been five years since I joined the church's altar serving club in 1996. I have had a lot of colorful memories in that club. In July of 2001, my parents told me that I was to enroll in Vancouver College in September. When I heard the news, I was confused; I have no idea how I would have to cope in an unfamiliar environment in Canada. But nevertheless, I accepted the fact and realized that it is for the betterment of my future. That's why I was able to get over it within a few days.

Leaving home was never a good feeling, especially when I had to depart from my family and altar serving club. On August 26th 2001, I left my sixteen years of living in Hong Kong behind and embraced this alien territory - Canada.

For a better educational opportunity, I was to live with my aunt. From that moment on, I had to live with aunt's family & myself and accept a different lifestyle. To me, this presented a new challenge. My first impression upon arriving Canada was one that reminded me of China: for example, there are mostly short buildings in the area. Only in downtown can l see skyscrapers, and there aren't too many of them in there either. The people here are from many different backgrounds & cultures, and fortunately a large amount of them are Chinese.

To me, Canada is a huge place, and I'm very interested in it. Every Sunday I'd go to mass, and I don't feel too different from Hong Kong. Before I would be on the altar assisting the priest, but now I would be a parishioner taking audience to the mass.

About my school, Vancouver College, it is a big place, and has many classrooms. When I first came here, I had to spend quite some time just to familiarize myself with the school. In this school I was able to meet many friends from different cultures. They are very friendly. We have a lot of fun together, and they also help me with my homework and studies. School life in Vancouver doesn't differ from school life in Hong Kong too much, except that my mother tongue is Chinese, and we speak English in Vancouver. That's why there's a small language barrier between my fellow student and I. But through a lot of practice and studying, the barrier is getting smaller each day. Hopefully one day I'd be proficient enough in English to remove this barrier.

Time flies-it has been a year since I left Hong Kong, and in summer, I'll be able to travel back to Hong Kong and reunite with my family and friends from altar serving club. Every time I think about this I get very excited. At school, my friends ask me about my feelings for being able to return to Hong Kong. I told them that I am not feeling overly excited. But without anyone knowing, I had been counting down my days from returning to Hong Kong.

Patrick Tse
June 2002