Hosting an Exchange Student

Okay, another post because I'm on a roll and I'm writing in English just cause I can.

Today I'm going to talk about -- surprise -- what it says in the title!

To start off with an explanation for those who might not have followed from the beginning of the blog: The exchange I went on was a reciprocal exchange based on the Hessen-Alberta partnership. We were a group of about eight-ish German students all living in the same region. Each student was matched up with a Canadian and I'm so lucky I got accepted because there are roughly 60 German applicants every year and the participants are chosen based on the Canadian applicants (which were eight. German is clearly not a popular language. Sigh). So in August we flew to Canada and lived with our partners for three months, then there was a three month break, and then we hosted our partners for three months in Germany.

I can only say having Miranda stay over in Germany was great -- (nearly) just as good as getting to stay with her in Canada!

So it was definitely great both traveling and hosting, getting to see two different perspectives. Having made the experience of being alone, 8000 km away from home and not being to able to communicate has definitely made it easier for me to understand how she felt (that and maybe because I have had two exchange students before), but I also realized how she must have felt having me stay with her before.

Hosting is fun, but can also be a lot of stress: both from the actual responsibility of having a guest in your home and stress from feeling bad for them because you know they are not having the greatest time, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Like school, for example. I don't want to say my school messed up royally, but they sort of did. Because of Miranda's limited knowledge of German, they placed her in a German-as-a-foreign-language class, which in itself is not bad at all (to the contrary, I got the feeling that it helped her a lot language-wise, and also she might have felt a little less alone because there were others who spoke as little German as her.). But one of the side effects was that she didn't get to follow classes together with me -- I think it was about 5 hours per week. Don't get me wrong, it was great of the school to make arrangements for her German class, but they thought because she wasn't fluent in German yet, she shouldn't go to any other classes. So in the end they signed her up for German, two English classes, Religious Education, Gym, Band and Art. Religion wasn't really interesting for her because all we did was read complicated texts, band she dropped out of because the teacher was mean and made her play an instrument she didn't even know how to play, and after a few weeks she couldn't go to gym anymore because she twisted her ankle really badly. So this meant she only had class for about 12 hours per week in contrast to my 34. Cue a lot of sitting around alone at home and being generally frustrated.

But it wasn't only the administrative things -- she was pretty isolated socially too. I get that exchange students are supposed to be loners for the first couple weeks, but like, very very few people even made the effort to talk to her. Most people only asked her where she was from and how she liked Germany and that was it. No more conversations for two and a half months. I get that people might blame the exchange student for being shy and not initiating contact, but hey, I have been on the other side of this. I'm pretty sure you can't understand what it means to be faced with dozens of strangers who have very little interest in you and who will raise their eyebrows once they hear your foreign accent, until you have actually been in that situation. By the way, my new school regularly hosts long-term exchange students and they usually have a group of friends in five days flat. So yes, I'm kind of mad at my classmates.
Though at the same time it would be wrong to gripe and not mention any of the lovely people who did talk to her a lot. It means the world to me and my fellow exchange students that there are people who are willing to put up with your strange speech patterns and keep talking to you even when you've reverted to nodding and shaking your head. You rock. <3

Hokay... next thing about hosting would be language barriers at home, I guess. I am a defendant of the immersion method. It can be tiring in the beginning to not understand and not be understood, but in the end it will be worth it. That being said: I should really take my own advice. Because communicating in German didn't go smoothly and because I am a selfish bastard who wanted to speak English all the time, we pretty much did exactly that. I would often ask Miranda something in German, then repeat in English. For longer, more in depth conversations, we both switched to English though, which I regret because I have the feeling I could have taught her so much more. One thing we did and which was pretty useful was "German Wednesdays". On Wednesdays we would speak German only, no excuses made. Whenever Miranda didn't understand something, I'd try to speak slower, explain it in German and point to objects whenever possible.
And while we only did that once a week, host families should do it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I'm serious. Watch a lot of German TV with the exchange student and switch on subtitles, give them easy childrens books to read, communicate using gestures, stick post-its with vocabulary all of the house, whatever it takes to immerse them in the language. Your guest will thank you. (Even though at first they might be slightly miffed about not being able to communicate.)

Another thing I think is worth mentioning is giving the student space. When I was in Canada, my family would always ask me to come sit with them (at first they didn't ask, they thought it was strange I didn't join them on my own), but sometimes I felt pressured by that. Exchange students need a lot of time for themselves. For example, hearing and speaking a foreign language all day is incredibly tiring and they might want some time alone to rest or take a nap. Writing diaries, which I didn't do a lot but would strongly recommend doing, also takes up a lot of time and people generally like to be alone for that. Communicating (texting, skyping) with friends and family at home is also something students need a lot of time for if it gives them comfort. (If it does not, you should try to limit communications, but that's a topic for another time.)

So just know if you guest spends large amounts of time by themselves, don't take it personally, it is only normal for them to need space. That being said, please never stop offering them to spend time with you. Even if they need a lot of alone time at first, one day they might be lonely and want your company again. So yeah, nothing is permanent and it is completely normal for them to change their behaviour in that aspect.

Um... and I think that's pretty much it for today? There are so many things that I have left unsaid, but I feel like I'm not able to express them coherently right now, so I'll leave that for another time.

(Side note for those who speak both German and English: Does my writing style sound any different in the two languages? I feel like my English persona isn't even me. Or the other way round. Huh.)

If you liked this post, please feel free to comment or click one of them fancy schmancy reaction buttons! Also I'm always open to suggestions :)

See ya,
Denise

Vorfreude. Klappe die zweite

So... hier bin ich also wieder. Drei Jahre, nachdem ich erfahren habe, dass mein größter Traum erfüllt werden würde, bin ich also wieder hier auf meinem Blog und schreibe einen belanglosen Post. Einige Versuche, meinen Blog wiederzubeleben, sind bereits an meiner Schreibfaulheit und schlicht am Mangel von interessantem Erzählstoff gescheitert. Also warum bin ich wieder hier? Hab ich mich noch nicht genug vor dem Internet blamiert? (unter der Annahme, dass dieser Blog tatsächlich noch Leser hat.) -- Nein, ich hab micht noch nicht genug bloßgestellt! ;)

Aber um auf den Punkt zu kommen: Ich fliege wieder nach Kanada! Zwar nicht als Austauschschülerin, aber als Freundin und Besucherin. Candice, die älteste Tochter meiner Gastfamilie, heiratet im August ihren Freund Everett und ich werde dabei sein. Drei Wochen werde ich also in meinem "alten Zuhause" verbringen und -- hoffentlich -- beim Abschied nicht wieder so viel weinen wie vor drei Jahren. (Oder eigentlich wie jedes Mal, wenn ich nur daran denke. Hmm.)

Natürlich freue ich mich wie verrückt darauf, alle wieder zu sehen (und jeden Tag Fast Food zu essen, haha) und hoffentlich ein kleines Stück meiner schönsten Erinnerung nochmal zu erleben. Wobei wir schon am Knackpunkt wären: Der Austausch war die beste Zeit meines Lebens und alles ist mir in bester Erinnerung geblieben, aber ich habe Angst, dass diese Erinnerung zerstört wird, wenn ich wieder dort bin. Ich neige dazu, Sachen in meinem Gedächtnis schöner aussehen zu lassen, als sie tatsächlich waren; und aus schwer erklärbaren Gründen basiert ein großer Teil meiner Identität bzw. meines Selbstbildes auf der Erinnerung an diese Zeit. (Falls zukünftige Austauschschüler das hier lesen sollten: Macht es nicht wie ich, haltet euch nicht für den Rest eures Lebens an einer einzigen Erinnerung fest. Tut echt nicht besonders gut. Ich bin ein Paradebeispiel von jemandem, der es nicht schafft, die Vergangenheit loszulassen, um sich von seiner erbärmlichen Existenz abzulenken. :D) Und jetzt hab ich ein ganz ungutes Gefühl im Bauch, wenn ich daran denke, dass am Ende alles ganz anders ist und meine Erinnerung eine Lüge sein könnte. So yeah, idk. Kind of panicking about that, but I'll live.

So... jetzt wär der sentimental-theatralische Teil des Posts auch schon vorbei! Ihr könnt wieder aufatmen :D Jetzt mag ich noch ein bisschen von den Details meiner Reise erzählen.
Ich fliege mit Air Iceland, weil das die günstigste Fluggesellschaft war. Den Standard von Air Canada wird es sicher nicht erreichen, und kostlenloses Essen gibt es auch nicht an Bord, aber dafür habe ich zwei Freigepäckstücke (wovon ich mit Sicherheit Gebrauch machen werde) und die Abflug- und Ankunftszeiten liegen auch ziemlich gut. Auf dem Rückflug werde ich ein zehnstündiges Layover in Reykjavik haben, das habe ich mit Absicht so gebucht, weil die andere Option mit 45 Minuten ziemlich kurz gewesen wäre und ich ein bisschen was von Island sehen möchte. Am Flughafen werden nämlich speziell auf Layover-Gäste ausgerichtete Ausflüge angeboten. Ich werde dann wahrscheinlich mit dem Bus zur "Blauen Lagune" fahren und da ein bisschen baden und mir Schlamm ins Gesicht schmieren, bevor es endgültig zurück nach Good Old Germany geht.

Dann hab ich mir noch überlegt, dass die drei Wochen ganz schön lang werden können, wenn Miranda und ihre Familie die ganze Woche über arbeiten. Ich dachte mir, dass ich ja mal mit dem Bus nach Edmonton fahren könnte und mich da ein bisschen umschauen bzw. West Ed plündern könnte. Die Busfahrt ist mit 14$ pro Strecke zwar doppelt so teuer wie eine vergleichbare Fahrt in Deutschland, aber who cares.

Und außerdem wollte ich, wenn das Geld reicht, einen kleinen mehrtägigen Ausflug machen! Als Ziele hab ich mir Jasper, Banff oder Calgary ausgeguckt -- vor allem, weil das die einzigen Orte sind, die da halbwegs in der Nähe liegen. That's Canada for you I guess. Falls ich mich trotz der vielen schlechten Berichte traue, werde ich einen Greyhound Bus nehmen, ansonsten ein touristisches Busunternehmen oder vielleicht sogar eine komplett organisierte Tour, obwohl das dann ja wiederum den Abenteuercharakter wegnehmen würde. Mit meinen (mittlerweile doch schon!) 18 Jahren kann ich ja leider noch kein Auto mieten, ansonsten wäre ich da viel flexibler und könnte mehr vom Land sehen. Aber wer weiß, ich komme ja bestimmt in ein paar Jahren nochmal besuchen und dann gibt's 'nen richtigen Roadtrip, von Vancouver bis Toronto oder so was :D

Anyways, mehr hab ich im Moment nicht zu berichten (eigentlich hab ich das nie; ich hatte nur gerade Lust zu schreiben) und werde mich dann in der Zukunft noch mal melden!
Alles Liebe
Denise

Packing a life into a suitcase

Look at me, promising to make new posts and then disappearing. I realize a most outbounds are already leaving for their host country or are so engrossed in their preparations they won't have the time to read silly blogs. (Or, you know, they won't even know I'm writing this blog because I get like three views per day.)

But, as the title indicates, I'm going to talk about packing in this post! Packing was the most important part of my travel preparations -- not only 'cause you need clothes and stuff, but also because you can a. spend time thinking about your trip which is so so exciting, and b. do something useful which calms you down and usually prevents panicking.

I don't know about everyone else, but for me the countless hours I spent trying to squeeze my whole wardrobe into two small suitcases were pretty much the first time that I realized I was going to be on the other side of the globe for three months, that I was going to live my dream. That was a pretty emotional time for me. (By the way, I listened to one album on repeat while packing and now every time I hear it I'm thrown right back into that state of mind of being so excited I couldn't sit still and being so nervous I thought I was going to throw up.)

So. This was pretty long, pretty ramble-y and pretty pointless, but now I'm gonna talk about the actual packing. Promise.

1. Know what you need. How many months are you going to be there? What is the weather like? What occasions are you going to dress for? What can you buy there or borrow from your host family? My exchange was from August till November in the Canadian prairies, which meant it would be fairly hot in summer and freeze-your-ass-off cold in winter. I packed some summer clothes and a few warm sweaters, but mainly t-shirts and cardigans that  I could just combine to fit the weather and the occasion. My exchange partner told me I could borrow a winter coat, which I did for a few days until I bought my own one. I wore it on the flight home so it wouldn't have to go in my suitcase. (I took it off as soon as I entered the airport though because every building and plane has A/C and in Germany it was about thirty degrees warmer than in Canada.) Then I packed some gym clothes and formal clothes and I was ready to go! Generally it is a good idea to write a list of every specific item you want to take with you, spread them all out on the bed and then take a look at what goes best with what.
2. Don't pack too much. No, you are not going to need that trench coat your grandmother gave you and that you wore twice. You are not going to need five different pairs of heels. Pack with care, but also don't overpack --excess baggage is FRIGGIN' EXPENSIVE, and also you are going to want to buy clothes in your host country. It's just the worst if on your first day of school everyone can already tell you're a foreigner just by your clothes. In Canada I bought at least 250$'s worth of clothes and I know people who bought way, WAY more than me in the same time span. If you plan correctly, your new clothes and souvenirs will take up the same space in your suitcase the gifts for your host family did. Another thing: If you think you could maybe catch up on your schoolwork from home -- don't bring your books. No, just don't. It's not gonna happen. I brought my maths and physics textbooks with me and you know how many times I used them? Zero. Even if you want to catch up, you probably won't have enough time between school, host family and friends. At the end of the day these books were just three extra kilos in my luggage I could have used for something else.
3. How many pieces of luggage? As I said, excess baggage is expensive, but if you know those 23 kg won't be enough, it might be cheaper to pay for a second bag than to pay for the excess weight of the first bag. I flew Air Canada and paid about 90$ for my second bag back then I think, while the fee for a bag heavier than 23 kg is at 225$ as of now. Air Canada also lets you bring two carry-ons and small personal items like a camera, a coat or a small purse. That was pretty handy because my backpack was quite heavy (emergency set of clothes, books, school supplies, laptop etc.), so I just put my valuables like my wallet, phone, passport and the tickets in my purse so I was able to access them quickly and to keep and eye on them. On some smaller planes on short flights you can't bring bigger carry-ons in the cabin, so it was definitely a good thing that I had a small purse to take with me. -- Okay, so now I've talked about the benefits of having multiple items of baggage, let's discourage all that again. Remember that you need to be able to carry all your stuff. On some flights, I think pretty much every time you change at Toronto, you need to get your bags, carry them a short distance and check them again for your connecting flight. I had four items, five if you count the jacket, almost 60kg in total and I nearly died running across the huge baggage claim. Don't be like me. Don't overestimate your ability to take care of all your bags at the same time; lemme tell ya it's hard. If you've got some time, you could try at home how many suitcases and backpacks you can still carry comfortably. (Another thing, and this is a bit embarrassing: If you're short and have weak arms, don't bring huge backpacks as a carry-on. You won't be able to put it in the overhead lockers on the plane without help; you will drop it on strangers' heads; you will want to die on the spot from the embarrassment.)
4. Packing. For real now So, now that you've figured out all the details, you can start actually putting your stuff in your bags. I recommend rolling every item -- it's not as if your clothes are not gonna crease anyway, and rolling them saves a lot of space and time. (LOL. slowly turning this post into science fiction) If everything is rolled up tightly, the clothes all have a similar shape so they take up less room, and they're compressed so the air is pressed out of them. I tried a technique once that suggested picking a round core item and wrapping the other clothes around it. It didn't really work though because in the end the bundle was too big to put in my suitcase and had a funny shape. If you still want to read about it, it should be in my posts from November 2012. You can also save space by putting pairs of socks into your shoes and bras -- basically it's like Tetris, you fill every single gap, no matter how small it is. You can also fit small things like phone chargers, adaptor plugs and small bottles of shampoo in the gaps. Heavy items like books or shoes should be placed on the bottom and toward the back of the suitcase, so they're closest to the ground when the suitcase is lying down or being transported. Make sure that sharp edges and corners are covered sufficiently so they don't poke holes into your other stuff. You can also use scarves, underwear and thin t-shirts to wrap up fragile items. Important thing: When you're finished packing your suitcase, it should NOT be full. Of course it shouldn't be too empty because that can damage your stuff, but you still need a fair amount of room because firstly, you will buy a shitload of clothes and souvenirs, and secondly, clothes always take up more room when they're not freshly washed and ironed and when you don't take enough time to pack. If you can't close your suitcase without sitting on it, leave some stuff behind and try again. For your carry-on, decide what you really need for the flight: A book or magazine to entertain you, an emergency set of clothes in case your luggage is lost, a small deodorant, lip balm and a hairbrush, a printout of your itinerary, a dictionary/guidebook, any medication you might need, your laptop and a small purse or pouch with your valuables and passport/tickets.

Soo... I think that's pretty much it? I hope this post helped you (or entertained you, or helped you procrastinate an important task, or made you feel better about your own writing abilities) :)
If you have anything to say at all, please put it in the comments -- I pretty much live off comments! :D

Good luck packing and have a good flight! (says the person who hasn't had to pack at all in over a year. )
Denise :)

Blog 2.0

Hello everyone!

I know I said I wouldn't post anymore, but as you can see, here I am again. Yes, that's right. Almost two years after I left for Canada, I decided to revisit my blog.

It's just that the exchange has changed my personality and my whole life in ways I could never have imagined and I'm still trying to adjust to that change. I still haven't finished processing everything that I experienced during my three months in Canada; and because I can never shut up about it and I'm pretty certain I've completely pissed off my friends and family with my endless stories, I thought I might put it on here instead.

Also, since it's almost July, the new outbound exchange students are getting ready for their departure and I figured it'd be handy to give some general advice about things that most exchange students wonder about beforehand. (Maybe it's just me, but I had quite a lot of questions - some got answered during my exchange, some I still don't know. But I'll try to pass on what I do know.)

For themes, I thought I would do a healthy mix of a recap of my own exchange experience and general info and advice. So in one post I might be pondering the complexity of life, while another day you could hear about the time I ate poutine with my fingers 'cause I was too shy to ask for a fork. ;)
These topics are what I've come up with so far:

1. Learning your host country's language
2. Friends and host family ... not as easy as it sounds
3. Coming back - adjusting to a new life in an old environment
4. Hosting an exchange student in your home country (because that's what we did and it was super fun - seriously, a reciprocal exchange is one of the best things ever invented)
5. How does an exchange change you as a person? (This is going to pretty meta-y, I can feel it)
6. ???

If you have any comments, questions, criticism, please put them in the comments! I would love to hear from you!! :)

Stay tuned!
Bye,
Denise

Letzter Post / Erfahrungsbericht 3/3

School was an essential part of my student exchange of course. But it wouldn’t have been the same without my host family and exchange partner. We were pretty much a perfect match, and I was glad that they were so welcoming and treated me like a member of their family. On weeknights we often watched TV together, went shopping at the insanely big Canadian supermarkets or talked for a long time. And on the weekends, my exchange partner and I often met up with her friends (that I would now consider my friends too) or simply went for a long drive around town. One of the best moments that I had with “my” family was a weekend we spent camping at a lake. My host family often has big family gatherings with 15 or more people and this time was no different. It was great getting to know all of my exchange partner’s uncles, aunts and cousins! We had a lot of fun, sitting around the campfire all night, playing games and listened to music. In Canada, lots of people like country music and while I was not really a fan of it, it started to grow on me and after this weekend that was spent listening to country all day I just loved it. My exchange partner and her sisters taught me a dance called line dance that fits for almost every country song and that apparently most Canadians know how to dance. When I finally knew how to do it, everybody shouted, “She’s Canadian!” and cheered. This was indeed one of the first moments when I felt truly Canadian and was convinced that I belonged there, in my home 7,000 kilometers away from home.

After this nice weekend trip, time flew by and soon it was the end of September: The weekend I went on a trip to the Rocky Mountains with the other German exchange students! After having seen the mountains in summer, I would have never thought they could be this beautiful in fall, only one month later. All the leaves on the trees were bright yellow and orange and it looked like the pictures in travel catalogues or guidebooks. Our group went canoeing, orienteering, rock climbing and hiking together. On the last day of our trip we went hiking to some waterfalls and those must have been the most fascinating thing I had seen from the Canadian landscape so far. When I put all my photos on my computer after the trip, I wasn’t even surprised to see that there were over 500 of them – I had to take enough pictures to try and preserve the memory of this, after all! We all had lots of fun on our trip and it was good to be able to catch up with the other students and see how they were doing in their host families. But I have to admit: Even after only a couple of weeks of speaking English, I had gotten so used to the language that it was actually really hard for me to speak German again!

And when the trip was over and I happily returned to my host family, time was passing even faster than before. Before I could say, “I love Canada,” the last week of my stay had begun. There was no school because of fall break, so we had some time to do something with my exchange partner’s friends and family before I had to go home. The last days were the best so far, and this was one of the few times in my life when the phrase “Stop while you’re on top” has applied. On my very last day in Alberta my exchange partner, one of her friends and I went shopping at West Ed one last time. It was a great day, and the pile of clothes I bought caused my suitcase to almost burst at the seams. After having spent such an amazing day with two really nice people I thought it couldn’t get any better… well, I was wrong! When we came home, exhausted from all the shopping we did, the whole family was there and surprised me with a “Happy-Early-Birthday-and-Goodbye-Party”! I was so happy about my surprise party as this was one of the nicest things and the best birthday present I had ever got. This party reminded me again of how I lucky I was to have had such a nice host family and so I spent all night on the verge of crying because I really didn’t want to go home. After all, I had just begun a new life with a great family and nice friends on the other side of the world! But nothing helped, and when the next morning came around I had to say goodbye to my family, Canada and everything I had learned to love in the past few months. The only thing that made our farewell a little more bearable is knowing that my exchange partner is going to come to Germany next spring.

All in all, the exchange to Canada was an amazing, overwhelming, unforgettable experience that I wouldn’t want to have missed. And I really hope that someday I can come back to Canada! 

xxx

So! Das war der letzte Teil meines Erfahrungsberichts und gleichzeitig der letzte Post dieses Blogs. Ich würde zwar gerne noch weiterschreiben, aber mittlerweile habe sogar ich es kapiert, dass ein Austauschblog nicht mehr interessant ist, wenn der Austausch vorbei ist. 

Es hat mir echt viel Spaß gemacht, über meinen Schüleraustausch zu schreiben und ich hoffe, es hat euch auch ein bisschen gefallen! :)

Liebe Grüße

Denise

Three Months In Canada - Erfahrungsbericht Teil 2

After we returned from our trip, summer break was almost over and school was about to start. I was a little nervous, but also very excited to see what high school is like in other countries. On the first day of classes we got our lockers and class schedules. I had psychology, bio, math and language arts. At first I was a bit disappointed because these were not the classes I really wanted to take, but the alternatives I had to choose. But actually I started to love these classes! Psychology was really interesting. We did assignments about the human brain, intelligence et cetera and even if I didn’t think about psychology as a normal school subject, it was great to take a class that is not offered at my German high school. Biology was very interesting too because it was completely different from the bio classes in Germany. In Canada the class was less theoretical than in Germany and we even got to go on a field trip and do our own projects, so the class was never boring. But on the other hand I noticed that in Germany it’s more about understanding the connections between different mechanisms, while in Canada I had the impression the students rather memorized the course work than actually understanding the topic. This also applied to my next class, math. The students merely memorized some formulas and then applied them to the questions. Our teacher only told us how to solve a problem, not why it is solved the way it is. That is why I found this class particularly difficult, but this may also be caused by the fact that I got into an AP (advanced placement) class. This is actually kind of funny because at home everyone told me that math in Canada was so much easier than in Germany and that I should sign up for a 20 level (grade 11) class, which I did. The teachers at my Canadian high school must have thought that all Germans are math geniuses too, because they put me in an advanced course without asking me. After a few weeks I couldn’t keep up with the dozens of new formulas we learned every week, so I dropped math and joined my exchange partner in her drama class. This was probably the best decision I have made! Everyone in the class was so nice and welcoming and I became friends with some of the people there. Sadly I couldn’t have a role in the play they were doing because I had to go home before their performance, but it was still great. I participated in the games and activities the class did, I always watched the rehearsals while reading the script, and sometimes I even got to play a small role when a student was absent. The class did a so-called Question of the Day every day: The teacher asked a question, for example “If there was a big fire in your house and you could only grab one item, which one would you save and why?” and everybody answered it. I thought this was great because most of the time people actually listened to each other (which is often not the case at my German school), and nobody made fun of others for what they said. This gave people the chance to say what they really think, and sometimes they even got really emotional in front of everyone. I think it is great that the students were so respectful and understanding of each other, which certainly can’t be taken for granted. Drama was probably the class that helped me most, both becoming more fluent in English and speaking in front of an audience.

My last class, language arts, was quite different from what I knew from Germany too. The biggest difference was probably the fact that we had 15 minutes of reading time every day, during which we read books or magazines we brought from home or borrowed from the school’s big library. In the first weeks of school we learned how to improve our own writing. This was really useful because we were assigned many essays later on and because a good writing style is not something one will never need again after high school. 

In general, high school in Canada is pretty different from Germany. I found it more relaxed as the teachers were more like friends for their students, the classes are a little bit easier than the ones in Germany (well, except for the accelerated AP classes of course) and the students get less homework. In Canada, high school students can create their own schedule based on their interests and talents. There are only four core subjects that everyone has to take every year, the rest they can choose from a wide range of subjects, such as Cosmetology, Foods, Mechanics, Art, Gym, and so on. There are only four periods every day and everyone has the same subjects every day for one semester. At the end of each semester students receive their report cards, but they can see their marks and attendance at all times on a website called PowerSchool where the teachers put up the marks for every single assignment. Canadian high schools in general use modern technology and new media a lot, for example there is a computer with a projector in every room and the students do many assignments in one of the school’s computer labs.

All in all, it was an amazing experience to see what school is like in other countries. All of my classes were interesting and I learned a lot, but I think it wouldn’t have been as great if it hadn’t been for all the friendly people I met. Everybody at school was so nice to me and they were really encouraging and understanding, even at the very beginning when I couldn’t say a proper sentence without stuttering or forgetting a word at least once. These people made my stay absolutely unique!

Erfahrungsbericht Teil 1/??

Hallo an alle, die meinem halb verrotteten Blog immer noch treu sind (oder einfach nur darübergestolpert sind)!!

Für das hessische Schulamt musste ich neulich einen Erfahrungsbericht über meine 3 Monate in Kanada schreiben. In einem Anflug des verbalen Exhibitionismus dachte ich mir, wenn ich mir schon die Mühe damit gemacht hab, können das doch auch mehr Leute lesen als die zwei, drei Leute vom Schulamt. Falls es überhaupt so viele gelesen haben.

Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn: Hier Teil 1 meines Berichts! Falls jemand gerne eine deutsche Übersetzung hätte, mache ich die gerne noch.

Three months in Canada

First of all: This report is not easy for me to write because it’s almost impossible to summarize three entire months in a couple of pages. These twelve weeks have been filled with so many amazing and unforgettable moments I will probably not be able to find decent words for. But I will try and talk about the most important things.

Going on a student exchange has always been my biggest dream, so when I heard about the possibility to participate in a reciprocal exchange with Canada I immediately applied. My teacher helped me fill out the application, which was quite long indeed, and in April I finally received an e-mail stating that a Canadian exchange partner had been found for me, but that I still had to wait for her to consent to the exchange. A few weeks later I was very excited when I got another e-mail confirming that she had accepted me as her exchange partner. After that time went by very fast and soon it was August 25: The day of my flight to Canada! I was somewhat sad as I had to leave all my friends and family behind, but the fact that I would be in Canada in less than a day and meet my host family for the first time almost made me very excited and pretty nervous, too. After all, I had never met my host family in person and was scared we would not get along with each other that well.

But when I finally arrived at Edmonton International Airport, that fear turned out to be completely wrong. My host family was really nice and even though I was pretty shy and didn’t talk a lot at first, they asked me lots of questions and talked to me as much as possible. I immediately felt like a member of the family!

The drive to my host family’s home was about 45 minutes long, which meant that my family practically lived in the immediate vicinity of the airport. I say this as though they lived right next to the airport’s runway, which they obviously didn’t, because everything in Canada is so much bigger than in Europe. The roads are almost twice as wide as the ones in Germany and there are many open spaces. Car rides as long as four or five hours are completely normal for Canadians, and when I told my host family that Berlin is a nine hour drive away from where I live, they only said “Oh, that’s pretty close, eh?” Well, knowing that Canada’s capital Ottawa is at least a 36 hour drive from Edmonton, I guess distances between cities in Europe really are short!

The first few days in my “home away from home” were spent discovering the surroundings, like shopping at West Edmonton Mall (which is North America’s largest mall), spending some time at a beautiful lake, and going to our High School to choose my classes. My host family even took me to the Rocky Mountains for a couple of days! Seeing the Rockies for the first time overwhelmed me, I would have never thought they were this big or beautiful! My host family and I went shopping in the town of Banff, went to see Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, visited an amusement park and stopped in Calgary on the way back. The vacation was amazing because I got to see how beautiful the Canadian landscape is. And, even if it might sound weird, I think I bonded with my exchange partner and host family over the long car rides. Usually I am not a very talkative person, but if you’re stuck in a vehicle for hours at a time, you can’t help but talk to them. So this trip even had nice “side effects”!

Tadaaa! :3 Teil 2 folgt bald.

Gegenargument: Warum Deutschland besser ist als Kanada

#1: Neue Sendung auf TLC (ok, eigentlich ist der Sender amerikanisch. Aber trotzdem.):  
Best Funeral Ever. (deutsch: Beste Beerdigung)

WELCHER GESTÖRTE SCHAUT SO WAS????!

Warum Kanada besser ist als Deutschland

#1: Kanadisches Radio um 4 Uhr morgens: 7 Lieblingslieder hintereinander, keine Werbung
    Deutsches Radio um 4 Uhr nachmittags: Modern Talking, Sarah Connor, Lena Meyer-Landrut, 4 Mal die selbe Seitenbacher-Werbung in einer Stunde

:)

So zieht man also seine Kinder in Kanada groß?

Eben gerade hab ich kanadisches Radio gehört und ein Thema in der Sendung war, ob es besser wäre, seinen Babies bzw. Kleinkindern nichts mit Zucker (also natürlich außer Fruchtzucker) zu essen zu geben. Angeblich machen das 34 % der kanadischen Eltern...
Eine Hörerin hat gesagt, dass ihre Kinder viel gesünder und aufmerksamer wären als andere Kinder. Als die Kleinen dann allerdings zum ersten Mal Zucker bekommen hätten, wären sie total ausgeflippt und hätten sich dann wegen dem Zuckerschock richtig danebenbenommen. Eine andere Frau dagegen hat gesagt, sie würde von dem ganzen Anti-Zucker-Wahn nichts halten und würde ihrem Baby Limonade zu trinken geben.

Das hat mich echt geschockt. Von einem Extrem ins nächste... Muss man echt bei allem so übertreiben?!

Eigentlich ist es ja ganz unterhaltsam, wie die Moderatoren und Anrufer sich streiten, ob jetzt Zuckerverbot gut oder schlecht ist, aber --- WIE KANN MAN SEINEM KIND SO WAS ANTUN? Das ist ja beides total daneben... Ich meine, ganz ohne Zucker ist das Kind dann ja total der Außenseiter, wenn alle im Kindergarten Schokoriegel und Geburtstagstorte essen, und wenn es zu viele Süßigkeiten bekommt, wird es ja garantiert übergewichtig. Warum kann man nicht einfach mal ein Mittelmaß finden??

Was sagt ihr dazu?