Patience Pays

I said to myself, when I wrote my previous blog entry back in November, that I wouldn't do another post until I had some progress with my immigration application. Well, Dear Reader, I'm posting again, which means things have finally moved on.

After 12 weeks of wondering I was finally presented (in the mail) with an envelope from the Canadian Immigration people. Inside it was a big pack of paper, which had the satisfying title of "Provincial Nominee Letter of Acceptance" written in big, bold letters. I've been waiting, wondering and worrying for three months now, in the hopes that this day would come. When I applied for the BC Pilot Project - in order to become a Provincial Nominee, I worried that I'd left things too late. The scheme I was applying for was a two year scheme, due to expire January 2010. Well, that date came and went, and I had no feedback from the authorities until a couple of weeks ago when I received a short Email informing me that my application was being processed. Thankfully things progressed as I hoped, and I am now able to apply for Permanent Residency. With any luck, I'll be a landed immigrant in six to nine months.

Now, all I need to do is fill in another mountain of forms, pay a load more dollars and continue with life as I was before. At some point I'll be asked to go for a medical, to ensure I won't be a huge drain on Canada's healthcare industry, and all things being well I'll be granted residency.

Being a Provincial Nominee is a huge step for me, as what it basically means is that the Province of British Columbia has decided that I am an important enough asset to the Canadian economy to stay in the country permanently, rather than leave when I am no longer able to get a work permit. Having the backing of the province, when applying to the Federal Government should provide me with huge swing when the decision making process comes.

With the 2010 Winter Olympics only two weeks away I can now sit back and enjoy the games, rather than worry about immigration. Everyone at work will spend two weeks wearing Hockey Jerseys from various countries, so we'll be in the spirit of things. Hopefully I'll get to watch some sport on the TV, as my favourite winter hangout - Whistler, is pretty much off limits for the duration of the games. I did manage to get a day on the slopes there a few days ago with my buddy from England Nick, but I think that this is it for me in snowboarding until March.

Anyway, things are good. I have no complaints. Time to enjoy the winter.

Snow, friends, and immigration

Life in Canada is good. Very good. It's now November, in fact almost half-way through, and I'm getting excited. Why? Well, on my way to work this morning the suns rays shone down on my face, and the skies were clear for the first time in a week. In the distance I could see the results of a week of rain in Vancouver - the North Shore Mountains are now coated in snow. Here that will mean one thing - the ski and snowboard season is almost under way.


Being rather partial to the latter of those activities, and thus craving the slopes ever since my final evening up on Grouse Mountain back in April, the sight of the white gold to the North is one that got me very excited. I knew that the 2010 Winter Olympic Venue, Whistler, was due to open this weekend, but when I received a text this lunchtime from a friend telling me that the local mountains were also opening for business within the next 24 hours I almost spat out my sandwich. Cheese and Salami shrapnel however is a small price to pay for being able to go riding for the first time in seven months. How time flies.

I've already bought myself a pass that allows discounted rates for the duration of the season at Cypress Mountain, so that will be my first port of call. Soon I'll get to Whistler, but some patience will have to be enforced beforehand.


Another thing that I've been looking forward to greatly is the social aspect of snowboarding. This time last year I lacked many friends who were as into winter sports as I am. I had only a couple of 'boarding buddies, so now having made a number of new friends in the intervening 12 months who are as crazed about riding as I am I can forsee immense group trips to the mountains. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm also going to enjoy teaching Tissa to snowboard. There are good times ahead.

So aside from strapping myself to a piece of wood, fibreglass and plastic, then throwing myself down a mountain at high speed, whilst enrobed in oversized and brightly-coloured attire, what else have I been doing?

Well, working a lot is the answer. Since I got back from my brother's wedding in Armenia, I've been catching up from my time off. It's not all doom and gloom though. I've now completed nine months of employment at Mink, thus I can now apply for the next stage of the immigration process.

As I've learnt over the duration of 2009, immigration to Canada is extremely time-consuming, and sometimes stressful. I like to think that I'm not easily knocked off balance these days, but immigration is one thing that does cause me a burden at times. It took a full six months to get my extended work permit, meaning I'm now legal in Canada until the summer of 2011, but my goal now is gaining landed immigrant, or 'Permanent Resident' status.


With Canada being almost entirely built on immigration these days, there are an untold number of ways to emigrate here permanently. A week ago, the day after I turned 24, I sent off my application for the immigration scheme I want to be on. Now I'm playing the waiting game. Theoretically I should have a response within a month or two, so once again I need to be patient.

Also I've recently been joined in Vancouver by an old friend whom I have shared many fond memories. Anyone who has known me for a while will know of my University buddy Luke. Back in 2006/7 we spent a lot of time hanging around on Luke's roof, playing PS2, being drunk, taking pictures, or generally driving aimlessly around the New Forest back in Southampton. Finally, in the summer of 2007 we embarked on something meaningful, driving around Central Europe, visiting hot spots such as the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the Bavarian paradise of Munich, and the historic city of Salzburg, with its baroque-era architecture.


The last time I saw Luke was in March 2008, and Luke and his good friend Felix I'd met back in the UK had flown on one-way tickets to Vancouver with the aim of buying an R.V. before driving south, to Central America, where they plan to teach English.



The day of arrival dawned, and so after heading to the airport I sat in Arrivals for a few hours, watching all the people the London flight stroll by. Around this time Luke and Felix were collared, and were grilled by immigration authorities regarding why they only had one-way plane tickets to Vancouver. Apparently there was no rubber glove usage, and eventually we were all reunited. Bantering about good times, bad times and ratherdrunken times commenced instantly, and the three of us spent a joyous time wandering around Vancouver, buying an R.V. which was lovingly dubbed 'Clive' before driving it up to Whistler for the day as a test run.



12 days after they flew in they drove out, aiming for Seattle and beyond. I have no idea where they'll end up, and I don't think they do either, but what I do know is they'll have a great time getting there.

Three continents, 12,000 miles, 10 days, and one wedding

Salzburg, Austria. It's summer, and the waters of the Salzach river shimmer in the afternoon sunlight. Locals go about their business, and tourists wander the narrow streets of the old city. I'm standing with my Univesity friend Luke on one one of the many cobbled streets close to the river. Across from us is the house that the world-famous composer Mozart once lived. The two of us are in the middle of a couple of weeks of driving around central Europe, a journey that took us from Portsmouth in England, to the tiny village of Rauris in Austria, via France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.


That was two years ago - July 2007, and that day was the last time I saw Tom, my brother, and Andy - his best friend, as they embarked on what was the early stages of their global cycle ride - Ride Earth.

Much has changed since then. Tom has cycled 11,000 miles - a journey that has seen his thigh muscles bulge to epic proportions. I, on the other hand, came scarily close to getting something apparently called "a career" a couple of times, had a few trips away to various places, before making my move to Vancouver in June last year.


In the intervening 26 months since I last saw Tom his life has changed in ways that he would never have imagined when he set off. Cycling through the Middle East, journeying across the Sahara desert, catching Malaria, finding unchartered villages, sharing a boat across the Gulf of Aden with 300 cows, and having heat-induced nose bleeds at 56 degrees centigrade in Oman are just a few of the things he's done recently, but those are all eclipsed by his chance meeting with Tenny in February 2008.

She is the reason I've been on three continents and travelled through 12 time-zones in the past couple of weeks. Tom and Tenny are getting married, and so I've flown to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia for the wedding.

My journey was not a straight-forward one. I travelled, for the first time since last summer, to England, giving me a chance to see my 91 year old Grandmother, and many of my friends whom I hadn't seen since I left.


The day of departure dawned, and after a Ricky's fried breakfast in Downtown Vancouver with Tissa, Thomas and Sophie, I started my journey home. I was greeted with overcast skies in London as I was reunited with my parents, and we headed for home.

Being back in England gave me a chance to go over my decision to stay in Canada. It had been a long time since I left, and although I had many fond memories from the place I grew up, I felt that after I finished university it was time to move on. Relocating to Canada was a whole new challenge for me, and when I left to start my journey, I didn't even consider the possibility that I might not want to come back. Now, I couldn't even entertain the thought of coming back to England long-term. Vancouver is an amazing city, and in the months I've been there I've gone from being a random guy in a new city with a bag, a bank account, and a 12-month work visa, to having a whole life out here - great friends, a job that I enjoy which sponsors me, a brilliant active lifestyle, a girlfriend, an arrogant Russian cat, and the opportunity to stay in a place that I love so much.

I decided that being back in England was nice, but only for a visit. It was great to see my friends, but having seen what else is out there it was time to leave my hometown in the past.


A few hours later, having spent as much time as possible with friends, and being reminded of the green and pleasant lands, rolling hills, dales and old stone buildings that occupy my part of England, my parents travelled back to Heathrow. Shortly after we touched down at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan. Tom was waiting for us, and so outside the terminal building the Allen family was finally reunited. After cramming five people and six bags into a very small taxi we headed for the apartment we had arranged to rent for the duration of our stay.

My first impressions of Yerevan were indeed ones of Soviet times. We sped through the epicentre of Republic Square, with it's grand architecture, housing the National Art Gallery and History Museum, as well as the Marriott Hotel. And a post office.


We arrived at our apartment, located in the centre of the city. It was then that I was also reunited with Andy, who is now living in Tbilisi, Georgia, and best man at Tom's wedding. I hadn't seen Andy since the same day I'd seen Tom, and the three of us together again reminded me of times playing football in Andy's home village of Stoke Albany, relaxing in the surrounding fields, and making ridiculous home movies about finding musical enlightenment with garden hoes and ski masks.


The following day I started to get an idea of what Yerevan is about. The feel of the place was decidedly Russian. It turned out that the main city centre was designed by one man, with many of the main central streets designed to line up together, so that landmarks such as the Opera House, and the aformentioned Republic Square, are visible for miles around.

After my first walk around the streets in daylight something else became apparent - I am in fact a walking circus attraction. Armenia isn't your regular tourist destination - in fact most people I've spoken to don't have a clue where it is, and here societal fashions seem extremely regimented. Almost all young folk, male and female alike seem to comform to a strict dress code. Whilst 99% of men I saw on the street wore smart long-pants, pointed shoes, and had crew cuts; I generally wander around in shorts, T-Shirt and flip flops, so with my lack-of-haircut and general ragged appearance I caused quite a stir on Yerevan's busy streets. On more than one occasion someone would see me, double-take, grin, grab the nearest person, and point and laugh. Being a cause of amusement or bemusement was something I got used to very quickly in Yerevan. Fortunately it's not something that bothers me.

Another thing about Yerevan which is extremely apparent is the sheer quantity of unfinished buildings and untended gardens, pathways and roads. Armenia is not nearly as afluent as Canada or the United Kingdom, and things tend to go unfinished. The Cascade, Yerevans immense white steps which are set into the south-facing hill on the north edge of the cities 'downtown' area is another project which remains incomplete. The project was started in the 1970s, and includes a series of waterfalls which run down the middle of the impressive set of stairs from Haghtanak Park and the Monument Neighborhood down to the smart Boulevard, which houses a number of higher priced cafes and restaurants. Although still an extremely captivating site, there is still a lot to do, although recent privatisation of the project means that things may, or may not, progress faster now. Regardless of this, The view from the top of the Cascade is awe-inspiring with the dominant Mount Ararat towering over the city, dwarfing anything else in sight. Many buildings were in a similar state, and sidewalks and gardens were often not maintained. However, this is in fact the case in the majority of places in the world. English and Canadian people just aren't used to it.


Tom and Tenny's wedding however, was a complete and successful affair, and was more than worth the 12,000 mile round trip. To finally meet Tenny, my new sister-in-law was worth the trip alone. Tom has truly found a match, and someone who is fun loving, laid back, and a joy to be around. The wedding ceremony itself was also something I looked forward to. The service was conducted almost entirely in the ancient Armenian language, so many of the locals could not understand what was being said. As well as that, there were no rehearsals. This made for a flying-by-the-seat-of-the-pants affair, but an experience that was a lot of fun.


Tom being Tom, there also had to be cycling involved. Armenians as a rule don't see cycling as a viable form of transport, but for the drive to the church my brother had arranged his friends at the local cycle activist group to bring along a rickshaw bicycle taxi, to transport bride and groom. Following the strange looking convoy of cyclists all in bright orange shirts through Yerevan's centre was an experience in itself. Locals pointed, pedestrians stopped in their tracks, and many grins were cracked.


Following the service, the wedding party descended on the Arma Hotel in the hills overlooking Yerevan, for the reception. The geography of this place felt a lot like West Vancouver - a place where some of the most expensive real estate in the world is located, and I thought about how much accommodation here would cost if Armenia was suddenly transported across the Atlantic to the West Coast of Canada. It's strange to think - the view from here was spectacular.

The reception itself was a lot of fun also. Wedding receptions in England are often fairly formal affairs, where it takes many hours, and many whiskys later for the guests to open up and have fun. Not so here. The Armenians and Iranian's - who populated the entire guestlist aside from the Allen family party - love to have fun and dance, and here was no exception. Between courses the dancefloor would swell with people dancing to Armenian, Persian, and Western music. Much Vodka and Whisky was drank, the tunes got louder, and the stocks of food depleted.


Unfortunately things came to an end too quickly. My week in Armenia flew by, and soon I was back on a plane to London, where I spent one fleeting afternoon catching up with a couple more friends, and wandering along the banks of the Thames, before catching the next flight back to Vancouver the following morning. It was a great trip, and one with many memories that I will cherish forever. Landing in Vancouver again I was met with bright sunshine and a friendly bus driver who chatted to me about my trip all the way home. It's good to be here.

A visit to the UK, and a wedding in Armenia

So my second summer in Vancouver is almost over. The sun is still out, but the heat is gradually receding. The trees outside my work are slowly losing their leaves, and it's less than three weeks until I set foot on UK shores again for the first time in 15 months. It's going to be a flying visit, but one that promises to be packed with intrigue. I'll spend two days in the UK, catching up with as many people as possible, before heading to Yerevan, Armenia for my brother's impending wedding to Tenny, before flying back to Vancouver, via London, a week later.



Armenia is somewhere that before Tom's engagement I knew precious little about. As far as I knew it was a country near Turkey and Iran, and that was about it. Since then I've learned a lot about the place, the people, and the region.

Armenia is a tiny country located in Caucasus mountain realm of Eurasia between Western Asia and South Eastern Europe. It borders Georgia to the north, Turkey to the west, Iran to the south, and Azerbaijan to the east. The Soviet-influenced capital of Yerevan, with it's skyline dominated by the commanding Mount Ararat in neighbouring Turkey, is a large city with a population of over a million people, and the place that Tom has spent a large chunk of his time over the past 18 months.



Armenia is a place that has experienced tragedy on an epic scale less than a century ago. As Europe was dealing with the plight of World War I, large scale genocide was occurring further south in Armenia - at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, now known as Turkey. Although not as well-known as the Nazi-inspired genocide that occurred during the Second World War, it is thought that up to 1.5 million Armenians died between between 1915 and 1917.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey have remained strained ever since, with Turkish authorities often not recognising the past events, and presently the Armenian-Turkish border is permanently closed. The Armenian Genocide Museum has since been opened in Yerevan to help educate people about the events that happened almost 100 years ago, and this will be somewhere I look forward to visiting.

Although the wedding of Tom and Tenny is happening in Yerevan Tenny herself was actually born and raised in Tehran, Iran's capital. Tenny's family are ethnically Armenian, but have lived in Iran for many years, with Tenny spending the first 24 years of her life in the country before moving to Yerevan, where she met Tom in early 2008.



Their relationship has been blossoming ever since their chance visit that fateful January evening, and to finally meet my new in-laws, and have the Allen family back together again for the first time since mid-2007 is going to be worth a journey that spans three continents alone. The Armenian-Iranian-English wedding should also be an interesting blend of cultures too. I don't really know what to expect.

I've also met someone recently who has also added an extemely Iranian tint to my life. Working at Mink has allowed me to meet hundreds of new people on a daily basis, and with Vancouver being such a diverse place, the people I meet are from all over the globe. One day which turned out to be quite pivotal was when I asked one first-time customer at Mink where she was from. As it turns out, Tissa was born in Vienna, but settled in Vancouver five years ago. Her family though, is Persian, having moved to Austria from Iran back in the 1980s.

Our chance meeting at Mink turned out to be the first of many, and after getting on extremely well, and realising we had a lot in common, things have progressed. My relationship with Tissa has allowed me to meet even more new people - new people who I can call friends in their own right, rather than just friends by association, and it has made my second summer in Vancouver extremely enjoyable.



Since then we've spent many a day and night at friends houses relaxing, talking, playing drinking games, singing along to Frank Sinatra, listening to Pink Floyd, or whatever else. We've swam in rivers, slid down waterfalls, been to the beach in the day or at night, eaten meals out, driven to Whistler, and ridden Vancouver's new Skytrain line.



Something else I've been introduced to recently is Persian cuisine. Tissa's family is extremely close-knit - a lot more so than what I've been used to back in England. Huge family dinners, or what you could call banquets even, have been a regular occurrance recently with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and close family friends all in attendance, as well as the direct family members. I've met many many new people in Tissa's family at these dinners, had a lot of fun, drunk my fair share of alcohol, and gorged myself on plentiful and delicious Persian food. This type of cuisine, with many different types of rice, meat, sauces, herbs, and fruits has proven to be a real hit with me. Unfortunately I can't pronounce the names of most of what I'm eating, but I'm working on it.

Ultimately, this summer has been a huge success, and the next major event I have to look forward to is my trip in a matter of days. There is going to be a lot of flying involved, and with that comes a lot of jetlag, but I can't wait. Bon voyage.

Life in Technicolour

It’s 9am on another sunny Vancouver day, and I’ve just finished my bowl of Cheerios. I’ve got a few minutes until I leave for work, so I check my emails, do some washing up, and chat to Thomas, who has also just risen. Suddenly an unexpected knock comes at the door. We don’t know who it is. “Hide the cat”, whispers Thomas. We aren’t supposed to have pets in our apartment - it might be our landlords. I make a beeline for Handsome, who decides he has probably done something bad, and makes a break for it. After a few seconds of manic chasing around the living room, jumping over chairs and sofas I eventually have a rather bemused Handsome in my arms. Thomas tentatively answers the door.



“Letter for Allen Benjamin”, I hear a voice say, and so I join Thomas to collect a brown envelope with the unmistakeable markings of the Canadian government printed on the front. Suddenly apprehension hits. This could be my visa decision. I feel the packaging. My passport. Postman leaves as I hastily rip open the envelope to find a short, one page letter enclosed along with my Passport. “Your visa application has been approved, and your new document will be sent to you shortly”, it reads. Relief.



It had been six months since I made the decision to stay in Canada, so ever since then the prospect of being either unable to find sponsorship, or finding sponsorship but being refused a visa due to the current economic climate, loomed large. I’ve been very content with life out here, but always had the niggling doubt in the back of my mind that one day in the not-so-distant future that I’d have to hurriedly pack my bags and get a flight back to England. Now, a huge weight had been lifted.

Fast forward a few days and I had just cycled home from work. Thomas and our other friend Dave are sitting around in the living room. Sophie is at work, and so the other two are about to go bowling. Me? Well I was tired, and was planning on having a relaxing evening in. They leave, I stick the television on, but a few moments later the phone rings. It’s Thomas. “Come on down”, he says. There’s another letter waiting in our mailbox. A few minutes later I’m downstairs. We live on the eight floor, so the mailbox is a trek. I’d been checking the mailbox every day since getting my approval letter. Finally, it seems, my visa has arrived.
I am greeted with another brown, Government Issue envelope. Once again I tear it open. It is indeed my new visa. All I need to do now is staple it to my passport, and I’m set. But wait - the expiry date. It says July 2011. I was expecting only a year, but Canadian Immigration & Customs have given me two. I knew I had a two year Expedited Labour Market Opinion certificate stating that I was needed in this particular job, but I was expecting to have a one year visa, and have to reapply for a second on next year. Apparently not. I guess being English makes you entrusted.


The feeling I’ve had since that moment has been amazing. I’ve always had my doubts I’d be able to stay in the country, but now I have the piece of paper that allows me to live and work in the place that I love. Over the past weeks and months since I applied for the new visa I’ve been unable to make any plans more than a few weeks in advance, as I would never know if I was going to be around then. Now, this has all changed. Now I can get everything I’ve wanted to get in life arranged. And I know I can do this long into the future. Yes, I’ve been in Canada for just over 13 months now, and that has flown by, but another two years is a long time. Time to do so many things, and time to plan, plot and arrange life. Time to live.

It may seem like a small thing, but not being able to arrange to take a trip with friends, or save up for a new snowboard for the next season has been frustrating. Now I have a total feeling of release. I have no weight on my shoulders – something that I haven’t felt for quite a while. I have been extremely settled in Canada, but there had always been some feeling of uncertainty, or something holding me back. Now, that feeling has gone. I can now look forward to my future in Canada, the prospect of permanent emigration, building up my life here. I am completely at ease.


Next on the list of things to do is to head back to England. My parents had been waiting for my visa situation to be resolved before very kindly booking flights back to the UK, but now everything is arranged. My brother Tom’s wedding (see www.ride-earth.org.uk) is happening in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital in September, and so I will be making the epic voyage from Vancouver to Armenia via a couple of days in England. I can’t afford to take more than around 10 days off work, so I only have a short time in the UK, before I head over to see Tom for the first time in over two years, and meet Tenny my new sister-in-law, and her family. We have spoken on the phone, and over the internet, but have never had the chance to meet. Now, I am relishing it. The chance to visit a new country – one that I knew very little about until Tom’s chance meeting with Tenny in Yerevan one cold evening in early 2008, is going to hold a lot of intrigue for me. It will also be the first time my parents, my brother, and I have all been together since July 2007, when we sat in a square a few short metres from Mozart’s house in Salzburg, Austria, and ate lunch together. At that time, Tom had just begun his voyage on bicycle, and had no idea what his future held. Me? I was driving around Central Europe for a few weeks with my University friend Luke, and had no other plans formulated, having finished my degree a few short weeks earlier. Now, I’m living in Canada, and Tom is getting married in Armenia. Who’d have thought it? Life is Technicolor. I love it.