Canada Immigration: Don’t you just love airports?
I have always been fascinated with airports. Not only do they come in distinct architectural designs, they also have peculiar personalities, which I find enticing to explore. I must say that I’m only exposed just a fistful of airports in my entire life, but it’s precisely this reason why I’m drawn to getting to know them better.
The lastest airport I’ve been was the Vancouver International Airport (Airport Code: YVR). While our Cathay Pacific airplane was taxi-ing around the tarmac, I tried to peek through the window to get a glimpse of the aiport from afar. To my disappointment, it was just a curtain of mist and hints of dew on the ground.
Alighting the plane was as quick as when we went in, and in no time, we were snaking around the airport on our way to luggage area, which gave me a bit of time to have my first, second and third impression. The hallways of the arrival area was a meter shy of Davao City’s International Airport. It was in fact like a causeway which leads you to a pair of escalators and a lone staircase. While Manila’s Centennial airport greets you with daylight glare, Vancouver International airport meets you with intricate ironwork of ceiling joists and lattice which hangs pretty low, that gives you a feeling of bumping your head in one of these. It was a massive ironwork to match the floor which immediately reminds you that Canada is known for their lumber. But to an untrained eye, the arrival area could easily be mistaken for a lumber yard. Leading to the lower level were the immigration gates with tickers at the top, greeting you twice which reads “Welcome…Bienvenue”. Turning to the left would be a set of streamers of bilingual messages. Since I have limited French reading skill, I can only read the english words and it’s french echo–direct french translation right after the english word. At the moment, I perfectly remember “sortie” as the french echo of exit. The queue was short and in a moment I was infront of the immigration officer and trying my best not to smile sheepishly.
