Walking clumsily toward the exit of the airport with two huge luggage. That was me, a boy that had never been so far away from home. I knew that there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in Toronto, so I felt like I would blend into the local communities easily just by sticking with the Chinese people. However, my experience in Scarborough and playing for my school basketball team changed my perspective. Admittedly, sticking with people from home can ease the nostalgia and help with transition to new life, but in order to really get adapted to the new society, it is more important to step out of the comfort zone and interact with local people. In a city like Toronto, which has a large Chinese population, this is especially important.
By interacting with people from homeland, one can feel a strong sense of familiarity, which can ease one's fear and nervous when first coming to a foreign country. I went to a place called Scarborough very often since I came to Toronto. Scarborough is a district known for its massive population of Chinese people. Even though I did not know the boundary of this area, I knew I was there when I saw all the names of the shops and restaurants alongside the road were written in Chinese. I was impressed, and kind of amazed. One day when I walked down the road, the night market already started. Vendors yelled in their own dialects of Mandarin and people gathered at different booth to buy the food they wanted. As the article "Asian American youth culture is coming of age in 'the 626'" describes, "Plumes of smoke from roasting lamb skewers curl into the night air. Crowds jostle past fermented tofu stands and vats of curry fish balls." (Xia, 2012) This quote illustrates the China-like image of San Gabriel Valley at the night market because of its huge Chinese population. Even though the article talks about the San Gabriel area in Los Angeles, the image is exactly the same in Scarborough.