Andrea Beth, a pharmacist from Hamburg, Germany, arrived in Fort Frances last Friday to spend two weeks getting to know the community that could very well become her next home.
Responding to an advertisement in a pharmaceutical magazine for pharmacists, Beth decided the possibility of moving and eventually working in Canada provided a challenge she just couldn’t turn down.
“I was very excited about coming here,” she admitted Tuesday. “I know that it would be hard to leave things behind but I like challenges.”
Despite her eagerness to leave her hometown, Beth’s family did not respond to her decision with equal enthusiasm.
“My parents are quite old now,” she said. “My mother is 77 and they were not too happy that I was coming here. They are worried and I know it will take time.
“My parents have never made holidays to go this far so my wanting to come here was very different for them.”
But since her arrival, Beth already has had the chance to experience a number of things she never knew existed before her trip to Canada.
“I got to go ice fishing,” she said. “I went out on the ice and actually caught some fish. I had never done anything like that before and I had such a good time.
“Back home we don’t get that much snow.”
Beth also got the chance to go on her very first snowmobile ride–an experience she won’t soon forget.
“I went so fast that I shook all over,” she remarked as she held her arms in front of her to simulate the bumpy ride.. “At first I thought I was going 60 miles per hour and then I found out that was kilometres per hour.
“That was faster than my car back in Germany.”
Staying with a host family for her two-week visit here, Beth immediately was struck by the differences between life in Rainy River District as opposed to back in Hamburg.
“Back in Hamburg, all the houses are made out of stone,” she related. “Here houses are made out of wood. In Hamburg, it is very expensive to buy a home. I believe that a home there is about $300,000 in Canadian money.
“The houses are not very big and most people never are able to afford one,” she added. “Here most people have a home. I guess people here make more money than we do in Germany?”
Although there have been many differences the 37-year-old has had to get used to, one she’s had no problem getting accustomed to has been the friendly demeanor of the people she’s met so far.
“Everyone here has been so nice and polite,” Beth said. “In Hamburg, people are too busy and it takes a long time to get to know people. Here people are more friendly, they have a different attitude.
“I like that very much.”
While this is not her first time to North America, Beth admitted this one visit is much different from her past trip.
“When I was younger, I went on vacation to Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C.,” she said. “I was very young and I stayed at youth hostels while I was there.
“This trip I am older and it is for a different reason that I have come. I am enjoying myself much more on this trip.”
At the end of her two-week stay, Beth will return to her home in Hamburg to decide whether she wants to make Canada her permanent home.
“If I decide to come to Canada, I will have to do a number of things first,” Beth said. “I would have to go to the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and then I would have to write the pharmaceutical exam in Toronto.
“Before I can go, they will want to make sure that I have work there first. It will all take some time still.”
Until then, Beth is happy to enjoy the sights and take in as much as she can before she must return home Feb. 8.
“Everyone has been so nice to me,” she noted. “I am not very homesick. I feel very relaxed here and I like it very much.
“I am so used to waking in the morning with things to do [but] while I have been here, I just get up and see what is happening,” she noted. “I think I could get used to that.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
