Corkonians Abroad: I came to Toronto for six months, I never left!

Where are you from originally, and what was life like there?

I was born and raised in Dublin Hill in Cork city.

I’m the youngest of five children. I’ve two older brothers and two older sisters.

My mother was a domestic engineer and my dad owned his own plastering company with his brother.

I went to Scoil Oilibhéir for primary school and went to St Angela’s for secondary.

As a kid, I loved Barbie, and art. I excelled where I could use my creative output.

I went to Cork College of Commerce for make-up artistry. I was in the very first class of the course. I made some great friends and love it.

What drove you to move to another country?

Change of scenery. I had been in my role as an assistant counter manager for Clarins at Debenhams on Patrick Street.

I wanted more and remember speaking to a regional manager who left to Australia to get different experience and I thought that would have been a good option.

As much as I love the sunshine, Australia was too far for me. Then, a friend at work who is French Canadian, Catherine, mentioned Canada would be a good option and I looked into it.

My goal was to come for six months to Toronto and six months to Vancouver, as the work permit was only a year. Fifteen years later, I’m still living in Toronto!

Where do you live now, and what is it like there?

I live in a suburb of Toronto called Etobicoke. We bought a house here in 2021. It’s great.

We used to live in an area called Liberty Village in Toronto for years. It was our first home. Where we are now is residential, but close to shopping centres, food shopping, cinema, etc.

We are 10 minutes to downtown or 10 minutes to the airport. So it’s great to get to work and to get home!

We have an almost six-year-old dog Luna who now has a back garden to run around in.

Do you have family where you live now?

Yes, I am married to Maharshi (Marsh) Chaudhari. We married in City Hall here in 2017, and did our wedding services in Ireland. We had a Hindu wedding in Cork Cricket Club. My husband is not only a talented player, but sports-obsessed. We had family and friends fly in from all over the world for it.

Then, we had our Catholic service in Blackpool Church (the same church I was baptised in) and our reception in the Imperial Hotel in Cork city. We had a fantastic wedding weekend.

It’s very funny to us as our Irish side talk about the Indian day being such an experience and our Indian side speak about the Irish day being such an amazing day!

I had a great friend, Keara Buckley, who is an award-winning Irish dancer, have some Irish dancers come to perform for us. That really blew everyone away.

In April of this year, we welcomed our first child, Rían. He’s been the light of our life ever since.

We were incredibly lucky, as my parents arrived in for his birth and were able to help support us into the journey of becoming parents. I was so lucky that my siblings made the journey to see us, or connect with us via FaceTime to see him grow.

We are very excited to bring Rían home for his first visit to Ireland this year. He has lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, grand aunts and uncles to meet as well as my friends! He’ll be a busy little guy.

What has been the most memorable moment in your new home?

The most memorable moment was the birth of our son. It was such a wonderful experience and being able to share it with my parents was awesome.

Outside of that, meeting my husband or becoming a Canadian citizen were also very memorable moments.

What is your job/career where you now live?

I’m currently on maternity leave but I am a regional sales manager in a cosmetics company, Dermalogica. I’ve been there for over three years. It’s a wonderful company and the Canadian team are great.

We have three Irish girls working (including myself) in the corporate team so it’s great to have the banter from home too.

How might you spend your usual weekend?

We spend our weekends usually going for brunch with friends, or out for walks with our babies!

My in-laws come to see our son on Saturday afternoons so my husband and myself get a little alone time, which is great. We will usually either do errands, or go for dinner together. It’s so nice to have a few hours just us.

How is the culture where you live different from Cork/Ireland? How is it the same?

So, it’s different as is in North America. So life here is go, go, go.

What do you miss most about Cork?

Besides my family, I miss the sense of community as a whole.

As Toronto is so big, it’s hard to get a sense of community as a whole.

You’ll have a community of sports parents, or the school your child goes to, but neighbourhoods aren’t as open as everyone is working so much.

We are lucky to have several neighbours who are friends now, but there are still some houses we don’t know yet.

Do you get to go home to Cork often? What do you do when you return?

We are lucky to spend Christmas at home. We’ve been doing it for 10 years this year.

We have such a great time as we get to see our whole family, and watch the kids do fun things together like ice skating or the movies or going to the farm.

We go mad shopping while we are home and enjoy a very relaxed time.

I love the simple pleasure of having a cuppa with my parents at home.

Any special mentions to family/friends back home in Cork?

Yes, to my whole family in Dublin Hill. My parents, James and Eileen, my brother Frank, his wife Christine, and their daughter Emma. My brother Patrick, his wife Caroline, and their daughters Chloe and Lucy. My sister Katie, and her husband James and their adult children Leah and James Jr. Last, but not least, my sister Anna, her husband Gary, and their children Isabelle and Anthony.

If you could spend an ideal day in Cork, what would that entail?

An ideal day is spending time with family. Having lunch in Scoozi most likely and visiting our favourite haunts like Penneys, Dunnes and Marks for shopping.

What are your plans for the future?

Our goal would be move back to Europe to be closer to family. Ideally, Ireland, but we are open to other countries. This would be a five-year plan for now.

We would also like to have more children if it’s possible, but that’s not up to us!

Any other information you wish to add?

I think Corkonians Abroad is a great way to highlight people living away from home, as living away can have bonuses and negatives. You feel in between always and you’ve two homes with two very different lifestyles, which makes life interesting.