Living in Sydney,Toronto and Berlin: 3 Peruvian Girls in 3 megacities

Nobody said it was going to be easy; we all knew this. With doubts in our minds but without any hint of pessimism we embarked on our new lives and pressed "play" on the new movie scripts of our lives and discovered that life had put us on the road to Sydney, Toronto and Berlin.

The idea to record the Peruvian experience in three countries to show that there is more in common than different (despite the thousands of miles separating Australia, Canada and Germany), came after long and endless conversations on skype and facebook, where every day the story of living away took shape and gained all kinds of stories.

The first to travel was my school friend Carla, she left Lima in March 2008. Her journey lasted an eternity, an endless 25-hour flight with two stops, one in Chile and the other in New Zealand. She chose the other side of the world because she knew that the opportunities to study and work were appealing for a Systems Engineer with experience in banking. She didn’t know much about Australia. She only knew what she had seen in the movie "Finding Nemo".

The second to leave Peru was my cousin Maria Elisa, she, her husband, and their two children arrived in Canada in September 2009. Loaded with everything they were allowed: 8 bags, 4 carry-ons and 3 laptops. The aim of moving from countries was to offer their children a better future and seek new horizons in her career as a lawyer.

The third to follow the international trend was me. I crossed the pond and settled on the old continent in May 2010. I wanted to live in my country but my husband was not convinced. "It's much easier for you to work in Berlin, than for me in Peru," was his strong argument and I had to agree with him, though that meant a farewell to my career as a communicator (I didn't know any German). Fortunately, the benefits of Internet technology now allow me to work as a freelance creative writer for an international company, until the "deutsch" decides to settle comfortably into my neurons.

Culture shock and technological advances.

The human being has the advantage of being able to adapt to any environment, whether favorable or adverse. Even if we lived there for more than a hundred years and we became accustomed to the culture, it would still feel strange, sometimes funny. Let's see what anecdotes we find in Canada, Australia and Germany:

• The future is now the present. Without wishing to become fans of the label "Made in Canada, Germany and Australia", the first experience we had, after leaving the plane, was asking if we had crossed the barrier of time and by mistake we were in a futuristic city.
• Is it a holiday today? The calm and silence is constant in Toronto, Sydney and Berlin. Nobody honks their horns, nor is it permitted to have speakers with loud music in public transport, taxis, vans or buses.
• The zebra crossing is not graffiti. You don’t have to be afraid of dying because you will get run over by a reckless driver. Even though the pedestrian light is green, it doesn’t hurt to look left and right, although sometimes this angers the other pedestrians.
• The time is the time. Punctuality is the key to these advanced societies. If you arrive one second later, you miss the train;  and that means losing an interview or important appointment. The Germans have zero tolerance for tardiness, and to a lesser degree the Canadians and Australians.
• Full-time security. All the money in the world can’t buy the wonderful feeling of going out without the fear that a stranger will steal your wallet or personal items. Germany and Australia are very safe but Canada is like paradise:24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the doors of the houses are kept open, and no one steals from each other. 
• Goodbye cheap labor! It is much cheaper to buy a new pair of shoes before taking them to be repaired. There are no ticket collectors on public transport, domestic workers, people who carry the bags in the supermarkets.
• Ambulances and firefighters. If the sirens are turned on, means that possibly there it an emergency. People understand it well and immediately clear the roads (in some cases are parked to the right of the road) in order to save lives.
• Regards evokes respects. The rest and peace of every person is sacred and no one can stop that right we have as human beings. In Germany it is forbidden to use the vacuum cleaner, stereo or hair dryer between 13:00 and 15:00, Monday to Saturday. On Sundays no one makes noise because it is a day for family and rest.
• Disability is not a problem. People with any disability problem find no impediment to be transported by bus. All public transport services have adapted a special ramp to access these vehicles, and the driver is obliged to help these people up and down without much effort.
• Fines if you wash the car on the street. If you do, your neighbors feel the moral obligation to call the police and report you as a polluter of the environment. For that there are special places that filter chemicals without damaging the planet.
• Healthy body, healthy mind. Older kids and elders make all kinds of sports 365 days a year. The weather is not an impediment to play football, hockey, swimming, cycling, etc. With the proper clothing, can withstand temperatures down to -30 ° or 50 ° bordering the heat, such as Canada.
• Art is not a pose. People regularly go to museums, the Philharmonic, the Opera. It is part of their personal development. 
• The umbilical cord is broken with parents at a young age. The emotional and economic dependence ends at age 18. Men and women are taught more independence than Latinos, in order that they can fend for themselves at a young age.
• Less expressive, more analytical. The physical contact and expressiveness that characterises the Peruvians is not observed in the offspring of anglos. It is not uncommon or in poor taste to wave instead of kissing on the cheek. To communicate is more or less the same; we often have to suppress our emotions and exuberance to avoid missing characters with a screw loose in their head.
• It cries out for Astrid & Gaston!  All three cities lack a good Peruvian restaurant with an attractive menu. It is difficult to get the ingredients to prepare dishes. In Canada they are available in specific locations that are not always just around the corner and in Germany I can smuggle them in my suitcase as long as no one comes to check your bags. However, in Australia do not bring anything in because customs authorities are very picky about quality control and prefer to restrict the passage of all food packaging or bottling (dairy), from other regions so that disease can not enter.

  
  
  Copy Editor: Carla Vargas.