A young expat

My name is Paul Bishop and I am a Canadian in Geneva.

 

Having been born in Canada in 1991, I moved to the quiet (well, at least it was then) French border town of Cessy, about 20 minutes from central Geneva, at the age age of a year and a half. Needless to say, the Geneva area has become a a defining part of my personality. Still, despite the fact that there is no trace in my memory of living in Canada, my Canadianess pursues me wherever I go. Through this blog, I would like to convey to people what it means to be a Canadian in a French/Swiss, yet truly international environment.

 

Since the age of four, I have spent my days at the International School of Geneva. It is a school that demands alot from its pupils, but I find that we are given back so much in return, most notably cultural awareness. This, however, I find is not obtained through the teachers (although what is taught is highly intersting and informative), but merely through sitting in a classroom that is comprised of, on an average day, roughly fifteen nationalities. I share the knowledge that I possess regarding my country, as do others, which allows the pupils to get a better picture of the world we live in.

As I said earlier, my Canadianess seems to resurface suprisingly frequently, despite the fact that I have grown up in the Geneva area. As any of my friends could tell you, my passion in life is ice hockey (a Canadian game in the truest sense of the word, although it is increasingly popular in Switzerland), my "ou" dipthongs invariably come out as the telltale Canadian "oo" and I find it hard to get more than a few minutes into a conversation without mentioning my home country. All this solidifies my reputation as "The Canadian"

This is not to say that I have dismissed Swiss/French culture. Having lived here for almost all my life, my French is near fluent, I do and I always will enjoy a stereotypical alpine meal such as fondue, and most importantly, I cannot help but feel homesick when  back in Canada. Perhaps it is the army of malls and two-ton SUVs that I am not used to seeing, but I think a more logical explanation would be that Switzerland/France has become a part of me. 

 

I find this pseudo-dual nationatliy of mine can have negative effects on me, both in Switzerland/France where I am though of as beeing a foreigner by most, but also in Canada. Unlike in Switzerland where a simple "bonjour" is as far as it goes in most conversations with a stranger, in Canada, it isn't long before you are asked where you are from. Not wanting to be thought of as a tourist, but all the while wanitng to add a little spice to what the person who is asking usually hears, it takes me a moment to formulate my response.  I usually manage to give something along the lines of "I'm Canadian but I live in Switzerland/France"(I will respond with either since I live in France but alot of my time is spent in nearby Switzerland), but unfortunately this doesn't show the true complexity of my identity. However, this doesn't stop me from being labelled as the  "Swiss/French person". Although this is not at all meant in a hurtful way, I cannot help but feel a bit sad that I am not really at home wherever I go. For many, being someone who cannot be labelled with a nationality would be a good thing, but in my case, after being neither here nor there for fifteen years, I am ready for some roots.