Passage to Canada

I decided to take a 2 week break and visit my uncle's family in Toronto after my semester ended. I flew to Canada last week on Wednesday. It was rather eventful. This is what happened.

The 3 hour flight to Toronto was rather uneventful, partly because I just slept. The flight was early in the morning. Air Canada has comfortable seats; the plane was rather empty. I was hungry and was waiting for the pretzels - but these cheepos din't even give that. All that was offered was a beverage ! Sheesh !!

I reached Toronto around 10:30 am. I could see CN Towers while the plane was landing. The city looked very green and pretty. I got off and walked towards the immigration. The lady at the counter asked me the routine questions - purpose of visit, duration of stay, details of relatives etc. Here is where things goofed up. While applying for the visa, I did not write the address of my uncle. So, I thought if I mention an 'uncle' now, it would look fishy. So, I decided to just say that I had a 'family friend' who was hosting me.

The first lady directed me to another immigration line. Oh o. I see trouble.

The next immigration officer was a middle-aged lady. Let me call her X. She looked like a typical strict school headmistress.

X: How long is your stay ?
Me: 2 weeks. I showed her the ticket reservation.

X: Do you have any relatives in Canada ?
Me: No. I am staying with a family friend. He is coming to pick me up.

X: When did you see this friend ?
Me: Last year. We are very close.

I give my uncle's name and other details. She asks me some more questions about school.

X: Who pays for your school ?
Me: I do. I've funding from school.

She asks me more weird questions like ' do you have a credit card', ' who pays your bills' , ' what will you do when you go back to USA' . I was getting extremely annoyed now.
Her questions seemed silly and stupid. Her questions seemed to imply that she feared I was going to stay in Canada ( so what even if i did ? I had a 1 year visa afterall !! ). I think because I was hungry, I was in a bad mood and gave her snappy answers.
Anyway, she wrote down all the info I gave her.

X asked for my uncle's cell number. I promptly told her that I had only the land line number and gave it to her. When I switched on my phone to get the number, I seemed to be 'in roaming' and had full signal. I did not even have my uncle's address. Damn ! I wish I knew they were going to ask me all these questions, I would have discussed it with my uncle atleast. Somehow, going to Canada always seemed like going to some place in US and hence my complacency.

Then X tells me she is going to page my uncle in the airport. I could hear the announcement. Oops. She asked me take a seat. I decided to call my uncle and warn him about the situation. When my uncle picked up the phone, I quickly spoke in Tamil and told him to tell that we're 'family friends' and are very close. By then X tells me ' sorry no cell phones here'. I gave her an innocent look and hung up. Sometimes its good to know non-english languages !!

I could see her talking to my uncle. She called me after a few minutes. I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. She gives me an annoyed look and said ' your uncle says he is your biological uncle and you said you were family friends'. Oh o. I said ' ofcourse he is my biological uncle'. X looked confused. I then began to explain ' you see in India, after we get married, we belong to another family. So my maternal uncle is no longer my relative. That is why I said he was a family friend.' ( what the heck was i blabbering). I don't know if X bought the story; she said ' but you have been living in the United States for so long, you must know what we mean by relatives ! '. I give her a puzzled look. She gives up. And gives me the stamp needed to stay for 2 weeks. Yaay !

I get my baggage and meet my uncle and cousin outside. Turns out we gave her two different stories. My uncle told her that he has never seen me in years; he is not close and has no idea about what I am studying. Some more details were also complete opposites. I don't know how X bought the story ! Anyway we had a good laugh over it.

I mailed A and told her the set of questions to expect. I told her to stick to the family story and gave her some other details. I hoped X would not be there for her too cos then she may conclude that my uncle may be smuggling many nieces.