Gurasis: 0:01

okay. So now have you been in the final segment of the podcast. I call it beneath the accent. I'm gonna ask a couple of questions. You can answer them in one word or a sentence, or how several you feel like. The idea is just to know more about you. So ready, yep. So the question that you asked me. So what advice would you give to your younger self, and at what age?

Javier: 0:22

um, I would go back to when I was just out of the bachelor and I would go back and say do your proper research. That's what I would say.

Gurasis: 0:36

What's that one dish from your home country that always brings you comfort and nostalgia?

Javier: 0:42

So, as a Mexican, I have to say tacos, but there's so many different kind of tacos, but there's one in particular, one dish, that is uh mole. I love mole man. Uh, it's really good. Which it could be kind of similar to to curry actually, but the base of the mole is chocolate oh, okay yeah, so so what?

Gurasis: 1:03

what is in it?

Javier: 1:04

it's not a sweet dish, even though it has chocolate. Okay, it's actually spicy. Okay, a little bit spicy, it's chocolate, uh, and and different kinds of uh chili and so many, so many different uh spices go into it and then you make kind of like a sauce or a curry with it and you put it over usually chicken and rice and that's it.

Gurasis: 1:23

But it's amazing, it's amazing okay, I hope it's readily available in canada. I would love to try it. Kind of sounds interesting yeah, of course.

Javier: 1:32

Of course, if I, if I find a place near you that they sell more, I'm gonna let you know yeah, please do.

Gurasis: 1:37

Yeah, yeah, right. Um, what's your favorite cultural festival or celebration in canada and have you like started celebrating anything?

Javier: 1:49

hmm, that's a good question. Um, I think here in vancouver there's a celebration they do which is called honda celebration of life. I don't know if it's cultural or not, but it's something really vancouver right which is a fireworks competition, international fireworks competition. So every year they invite three different countries to participate in this competition and they do, uh, half an hour continuously non-stop show of fireworks that they need to synchronize with music and and that's from that event for me it's amazing because there's so many people that go to see that event.

Javier: 2:28

It's like half a million people gather in the beach to go see that event.

Gurasis: 2:31

Oh, wow.

Javier: 2:32

And usually that event celebrates each of the country's culture that they invite, because they can invite India, Korea, Japan, Mexico and they usually play music from their own country to also celebrate.

Gurasis: 2:50

So I know it's a really interesting and fun event to go and watch yeah, sounds very, very fun.

Javier: 2:53

I wish I could able to witness that sometime this year maybe amazing.

Gurasis: 2:55

Yes, yeah, wow.

Javier: 2:56

Okay, tell us about your first friend that you made in canada first friend that I made in canada, so I would say that's a brazilian, brazilian classmate that I had, um, because I mean, I I came in with my, me, with my best friend, so for me I had already a friend in canada, right, of course, yeah, but someone that I met here was this friend from brazil that we met in our um school. Um, we're really close friends, really good, she's really funny. And then there's so many similarities in mexican and brazilian culture, of course, because we are latinos, so we are allowed and we are usually extrovert and that kind of stuff. So, um, it was really nice to see somebody else that I could feel, uh, related to, even though we were from different countries, right okay, and you were still in contact.

Javier: 3:47

You said right yeah, of course, of course. And for me, for me she's kind of like a mentor also, because she already had a lot of experience in marketing and I was just quite new I was maybe, but she has already been working in marketing for a while, so so every question I had in the program I would go and look at her like, hey, can, can you help me with this? And she would help me out.

Gurasis: 4:06

Okay, amazing, and I'm not sure if you have any Punjabi friends. But being loud and extrovert is not limited to Latinos. We are very loud and extrovert as well, if you don't know, no, you know the school that I went to.

Javier: 4:20

Most of the students were Latin American, so Colombian, and we had a couple of people that I don't know how they ended up there, but somebody from Kenya, somebody from Indonesia, but we didn't have any Indian at the time in that school. So if it's not on school, it was really hard for me to meet people from other countries you know.

Gurasis: 4:44

So no, I have never had the pleasure to hang out with Punjabi friends.

Javier: 4:50

Now I know more people because I've been working in the industry, but back in the day, when I was a student, it was not the case Okay.

Gurasis: 4:59

Well, now you've added me to the list. Yeah, of course.

Javier: 5:01

of course my friend and I can see a lot of similarities between Latinos and Punjabi.

Gurasis: 5:08

Absolutely. I mean whole my student life. I have just hung out with Latinos literally Really. I've gone to like their parties and their food and everything, but surprisingly, none of them introduced me to mole. I don't know why.

Javier: 5:22

Bad Latinos, Bad Latinos yeah.

Gurasis: 5:26

All right, tell me what's something that you ate for the first time in Canada tell me what's something that you ate for the first time in canada.

Javier: 5:35

Something that I ate for the first time? Uh, there's many things that I ate in canada for the first time. Um, because one of the things I like about here is that it's so multicultural that you get to try things right yeah I tried libanese food for the first time here, which was quite good.

Javier: 5:50

Uh, mediterranean foods also really really good um different dishes from india that I have tried here for the first time, because of course in mexico we have indian food, but it's our own version of it, so I don't know if it counts. So here is more authentic, I would say um canadian dishes. There's not that many, so of course, for the first time ever, I put in here um beaver tails. But that, that, that's about it, yeah.

Gurasis: 6:18

Okay, and did you like that? Like poutine? Did you like poutine?

Javier: 6:22

It's okay, it's not that special. To be honest, yeah.

Gurasis: 6:27

Okay, I get that response. That's why I asked you I, I get that response. That's why I asked you.

Javier: 6:31

I get that response a lot. It's just okay, man, there's actually no culinary culture in Canada.

Gurasis: 6:38

Unfortunately, no, yeah. Okay, if you had to describe yourself as any creature, what would it be and why?

Javier: 6:51

Any creature, I think I would say a wolf. The reason why is because I do understand that it's quite common for them in their social behavior to know when they need to go in a pack and know when they need to move and shift for a while to be alone.

Gurasis: 7:06

But they can't go back if needed, right, so I would say yeah, If you could have one superpower, what would it be? One superpower? I think that would say yeah, If you could have one superpower.

Javier: 7:13

What would it be One superpower? I think that would be teleportation. No question, no question. So I would go back to my family, eat some mole, come back to my work, something like that, go visit different countries okay, if you had to create this one law that everybody has to follow, what would it be?

Gurasis: 7:33

one law taco tuesday okay, no, no, I'm joking, it'll be fun, I'm joking, yeah, it would be nice, but I'm joking, you know.

Javier: 7:42

I think something I would do, uh, for one law in canada is that I would. I would make it mandatory for recruiters or companies to know about immigration for them to be able to operate, because it's so basic for companies to need to hire immigrants. We are 50% of the workforce, or more, in Canada, right, and companies still don't know about immigration and laws, and it's infuriating.

Gurasis: 8:11

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I would create another law which would be like five weeks of vacation for immigrants rather than just two weeks that would be amazing too yeah, because it's not limited for us to just do the local things we sometimes we want to like travel back and we cannot because one week is not enough, like two weeks not enough when you're traveling like seven seas apart after like 22 hour flight. You know, that's fine that would be good.

Javier: 8:37

That would be good, or at least for you to work, uh, up to one month remotely if you're going to your home country, I don't know, but that would be really nice.

Gurasis: 8:46

I would vote for you if you were to run for prime minister all right, thank you for that, um, and how would you describe canada in one word or a sentence?

Javier: 9:00

oof. That's a tough one, I would say challenging. I would say challenging because, again, coming from a third world country to a first world country, challenge is not something that you think you're going to encounter, but canada is definitely challenging you all the time and all the time.

Gurasis: 9:20

Yeah yeah, yeah, okay. So, lastly, if you could leave me with one piece of advice, have you had? What would it be?

Javier: 9:28

leave you with one piece of advice. I think we were talking a lot about imposter syndrome and I think that would be that. Not everything that goes through your head it's true, right, we usually, whatever thoughts come to our head, we usually treat them as if they were true or if they were real. But we need to understand that many of them, they are simply not true. So we need to be able to tell apart between something that is useful for us and could help us drive forward and things that are there just to mess our heads. So we need to be self-conscious, like whenever one of these thoughts come like hey, maybe you are not enough. It's like no, no, no, no, this thing you're saying is not true. Don't listen to that.

Gurasis: 10:13

So yeah, wow, that's, that's deep. Thank you for sharing that. I feel like I needed to hear that somehow, so thank you for that yeah, of course okay, and lastly, how would you describe your experience of being on this podcast today?

Javier: 10:31

loved it, loved it, I I. There's um incredible podcast. You go from some really fun stuff, deep stuff, nostalgic, because you start asking about people's background, so I think it's quite a holistic experience, um, and I can wait to hear more and more stories of people that you bring into the podcast. My friend, Awesome.

Gurasis: 10:52

Really glad to hear that, so thank you. Thank you so much, javier, for being on the podcast and adding value to my listeners. Thank you.

Javier: 10:59

No, no, on the contrary, my friend, thank you for inviting me and providing information to people like us that might need it and that might need inspiration or resources for them to move forward. So thank you for what?

Gurasis: 11:13

you're doing.