A person will do some strange things for love.
Like moving to a place that is as far away from your own country as it is possible to be, without actually leaving the planet.
Or being blithely, absurdly, unconcerned at the fact that you speak nary a word in the language of your new home beyond bonjour and merci.
Love will make you believe that the massive, plodding, obfuscatory bureaucracy of Canadian Immigration will - against all evidence to the contrary - make a rapid decision in accepting you as a resident.
And not only will they accept you, they will positively embrace you with open arms and copious good wishes, a bottle of champers and a letter saying, "Your love affair is the real thing, the real shebang, it made us all cry and we're delighted to have you here. Welcome, welcome, welcome."
Ah, the joyous naiveté of one in love.
Suffice it to say, the reality is not quite what you'd imagined.
Life is effectively put on hold as you flounder in the peculiar grey area accorded the non-resident - where you are required to pay taxes, but are ineligible for subsidized health care or French language classes - while you wait for Immigration to process your application.
And wait.
Then, just to up the ante, your working visa expires. Those nice people at Immigration inform you that you may not renew it; nor may you leave the country or legally work while they are processing your forms. Unless, of course, the idea of deportation appeals. Which, oddly enough, it doesn't.
Meanwhile, on top of not being able to work, you have a credit card debt the size of Mount Vesuvius, the monthly interest of which could probably clear the deficit of a third world country. (Or go some way towards digging America out of the red, at the very least).
If all this is beginning to sound bitter to you, think again. This stuff is a snap when you're madly, giddily, deliriously in love.
But if people will do some funny things for l'amour, they'll do even stranger things for money.
Which explains why, while idly flicking through a newspaper one day, your eye is caught by an advertisement from a pharmaceutical company offering upwards of $1000 for volunteering in clinical trials.
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