The following is written by Novice Joseph Vu who, along with Novice Fernando Orozco and Novice Master Fr. John Czyzynski, are visiting SCJ ministries in the Canadian Region.
Look out Canada, here comes the good ‘ole US of A!
Still cool from winning the Stanley Cup, a handful of Chicagoans head to the land that gave birth to the sport of Hockey!
Us heading to Canada…and wouldn’t you know it…EVERYONE ELSE is too!
The SCJ novices have skidded their way to the doorsteps of the SCJs of the Canadian province. We left the house at 7:00 AM (that’s right, AM!!!) and made our way to the chilling north. Unfortunately, “chilly” doesn’t fit the bill. I’m not much of a meteorologist, but I think I am quite accurate in saying that the temperature in the city of Toronto, Ontario, is “egg-cook-able-sidewalks” HOT.
Actually, in all seriousness, Canada is not as different as one would imagine. Well, except that the official national languages are English AND French… and that means that my Spanish dictionary is totally useless! (I threw it out the window at the Ambassador Bridge)
The bridge!
A cool difference about Canada is that you can drive really fast on the freeways, where the limit is 100… kilometers, that is. Ha, ha!
Anyways… the novitiate has landed unto Canadian soil, and of course we paid homage to the Queen as we made our way on the Q.E.W. (there was an old lady with really regal clothing standing at the split directing us to the Q.E.W., but I didn’t catch her picture in time). Although we were in a ‘foreign’ country, I still felt a little bit at home. The “Queen” was a little backed up today — a little slice of Chicago traffic just for little ‘ole me.
The SCJ house in Toronto
After long hours of being in the car (I slept most of it, so it felt really quick), we finally made our way to the SCJ community house in Toronto. The house is on a street that is called Hyde Park, which is amazingly the name of the neighborhood where the SCJ Chicago Formation house is located. (What happened to originality!?)
More to come soon!
Walk with us! 
Hi Joseph,
great things that you can explore. Hope you’ll get good experiences.
All the best
Markus
Joseph, Fer and Johnny, hope your doing well. Joe, thanks for the photos and the updates. Bob