My Canadian life

I was an exchange student in Canada. I stayed  in Langley, a town next to Vancouver, for three month. I lived in a townhouse in a nice area with my hostfamily. My hostfamily consisted of Lynn (hostmother), Karnel (hostfather) and Aiden (hostbrother). They also got two pets. Ranger (a dog) and Maverick (a cat). This was the place where I would spent the next three month. The first time I really realized, that I`d an exchange was at the airport. The last time hugging my parents, going through the security check alone and then my flight already started. The flight directly into the adventure. To be alone wasn`t as bad as I thought. When the plane landed at Vancouver Airport, I was overwhelmed. I din`t know, where to look first. From this point on everything took it`s course. I was picked up by the organisation and they drove me to my new home. Seeing the people that I`d live with for the next month the first time was weared. But from the first moment they welcomed me with open arms. I had a great room, they decorated it and it was cosy and warm. That gave me a feeling of comfort. The next two days I had time to get to know my homestay. Then my first school day: The first day was just an orientation day. All the new international students came and the school gave us some information. The other internationals came from all over the world: Italy, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Spain…it was a good day. Everyone was nice and open. we went out for lunch that day. After this everything went fast. The next I already went to my Canadian high school. After one or two weeks I had already built up a life there. I joined after-school clubs, made friends and hung out with them after school. The school had a big selection of out-of-school clubs. From ultimate frisbee to hockey they had everything I tried many things. At the end I just joined the track and field club, the badminton club and the dance club. I had training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I always liked it. I met many nice people at the clubs and at the end we did our hobby together. What was every day life like. My day started at 6:40. I got ready for school and at 7:38 the school bus picked me up at the nearest bus stop to my house. The bus just stopped, to pick up some other students and took the fastest way to school. I always arrived at 7:50. I had fifty minutes before school started. That wasn`t bad because the school had a breakfast buffet in the morning. So I met my friends and we ate together. At 8:40 we started to walk to our classes. The school system in Canada was way easy. The student have, like we do, two semesters. Per semester they have to choose four subjects. After the first semester, the subjects will change. I chose food studies, PE, drama and english compositions. My subjects were very easy. I´d the choice between every subject they offered, but only because I was a short-term-student. If the students stay longer than three month, they must enrole into more academic courses. The day was divided into A-block, B-bloc, C-block and D-block. This changed every day. Sometimes the day started with the B-block, sometimes with the D block…we always had two blocks before lunch. Our lunch brake was thirty minutes long. Sometimes I stayed with my friends in school, sometimes we went out to eat. After lunch we had our last two blocks. The school ended at 2:50pm. Mostly I did`nt go home after school, but when I wanted to, I had the opportunity to take the school bus directly back to may house. I didn`t go home often after school. Most of the time I met my friends an d we hung or went out for something. Before that we went together to the out of-school-clubs. As you can see, school was very easy. We didn`t write many test and we got a lot time for homework. The students were also allowed to use their phones and to listen to music in the lessons. The Canadiens were quite open. When I started talking to them, they didn’t ignore me or answered my questions cold on the contrary, they were friendly and showed interest. I met my best friends there in Food Studies. They showed me some cool places, introduced me to their friends and they helped me with my English. We were always together and used our time as good as we could. The school sometimes had fun activities where I had the chance to participate in with my friends. One thing they had was for example A fashion week. The whole school dressed up in themes. One day we all came in pink. They also had a cowboy day. I really liked it because everyone did it. I always liked to plan the outfits together with the others. My friends often took me out for dinner to typical restaurants that i shouldn’t miss out and the must do ´s in British Columbia. I came around a lot. Because of them the time was as good as it was. Over the time I got very close to the people I met there and I made friendships for life. I visited some cool places. Some were more touristic, some were more like secret spots. Some of them I visited with my hostfamily and some of them with my friends. My friends took me to wonderful hikes, food places, activities like golf, a jump-house, festivals… My three best tourist places I saw were:

1. Overall Vancouver ( I visited many places in Vancouver like the biggest mall there, the hotel Where all the famous people stayed, the rose garden, english bay and Stanley park where we went biking…)

2. Victoria ( My hostmother took me there over a weekend. It was beautiful. She showed me around and we had a great time. I saw so much.)

3. A hockey game ( Canada is famous for hockey. I had the chance to see a game in one of the biggest stadiums there named Rogers Arena. We got VIP tickets from the company where my hostfather was working and we had a great view of how the Canucks, that’s a very successful team in Canada, played. It was a great day that i will never forget.)

I had a good relationship with my hostmother. We got along very well. We talked much, we cooked together, we did movie nights, she took me to places and we often went out for dinner. I loved to spent time with her. She always had time when I wanted to spent time with her but she also gave me a lot of freedom. She really wanted to get to know me and to build a friendship. She supported me for example at the Vancouver sun run, which is the biggest 10km run of Canada. She came with me to the start and later I saw her clapping and waiting for me at the end. It was a successful race. To put it in a nutshell, one can say that this trip gave me many new experiences and memories that I will keep for ever. I would do everything like that again. I met wonderful people, did new things that I wouldn’t have dared me to do before and I needed to put myself out there. Even when it was scary in the beginning, at the end it was all worth it. I will definitely go back to see all the people I met there again and I can’t barley wait for them to visit me. Everyone who has the chance to do an exchange but isn’t sure, just do it! You wont regret it. This was just a small insight into my Canadian life. There is so much more to tell but this is for another time.

Lia Smolka (10s)

veröffentlicht am 3.7.2024