The hope did not vanish, fortunately. The possibility of going to graduate school as a transition to settling on a career opened up our perspectives.
"Do you think that is a good idea?" I asked Jun when a family friend of Jun's came to visit and brought up this option. In fact I was going to say "Don't you think that is a good idea?" but rephrased it before I opened my mouth. I wasn't as confident as my intuition was; Jun, and I, could not afford another mistake.
The fact that graduate students were usually subsidized in their study made this option appeal to Jun, although to me what would matter more was the Canadian credential -- the graduate degree-- obtained and the experience interacting with the society. It took two weeks for Jun to make up his mind applying for graduate school.
Jun applied for a master's program in electrical engineering, a field closely related to his undergraduate study. He sent his applications to almost all Canadian universities. Following the advice of this family friend, he called up a number of professors to whom he had expressed interest in their research directions in his applications. Not until that time, I began to know that in graduate studies, it was required that some research work be completed to fulfill the degree requirements and apparently it was the research component, supervised by a professor, that was central to the program.
The applications were mailed out during Christmas that year. When the snow started to melt, arrived at our door a letter of admission, and to our great surprise, it was from one of the best schools in Canada. The admission letter also offered a full scholarship, not abundant, but sufficient to cover the tuition fees and all our living expenses.
That night Jun and I had dinner in an Italian restaurant. It was for the first time we dined outside since we came to Canada. We ordered a bottle of red wine to celebrate this news. In the flickering candle light, Jun for the whole night wore a smile, which made him look more childish than ever and which made me feel happy and greatly relieved.
In the summer, we moved to the West coast, the city where the university was located. We spent a few leisure summer months in the beautiful weather. Every saturday, we would saunter hand in hand on the Pacific beach, feeling the moisture in the breeze and picturing the new world that was unfolding in front of us.
When September came, Jun quickly became extremely busy with school. It had been a long time since Jun was handling work load of such intensity and it wasn't at all easy for him to adapt to the rhythm of a student's life. Except playing soccer once a week for a few hours, his days and nights were all spent on studying for courses and reading articles assigned to him by his research supervisor. I took care of all housework, which, although tedious and sometimes tiring, gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I saw that as a manifest of my love for Jun and of my effort towards our exciting future.
The first real break Jun had was the Thanksgiving holiday, when we hosted a party in our apartment and invited several friends of Jun's.
That was the first time I met Rabbit.
