All right, I'm here since August 24th and have a lot of stuff to say.Maybe it will help people in the same situation or bring up some interest in exchange trips.I really hope my experiences can be useful not only for me but for other travelers too.
The School:That's a crucial difference between Brazil and Canada since exchange students are supposed to have good marks in all the courses otherwise they will be sent back home. I remember being lazy to get up in the morning and going to school in Brazil, maybe because it was the same school and I pretty much enjoyed to be home by my own.But here I just love going to school! I have heard this from other exchange students too and I think that's because it's very exciting for us to get in that yellow bus that at home we only knew from the movies, and more important, is that at school we don't feel lonely.I mean leaving your family and friends behind and traveling alone for a whole year when you are a teenager can be really depressing if you don't quickly make new friends, and in my case the only place to make friends is the school.
System:The school system is different too. Here the students get to choose their courses each semester and have to walk to the classes, and each teacher has a classroom. While in Brazil the schools have a classroom for each grade and the teachers are the ones who have to walk from class to class, besides, in the Brazilian schools no one can choose their courses, everyone has to study the same thing, 14 courses.This is a picture of our school:
Hants North Rural High School
Teachers:Because that different system most exchange students don't have any trouble at school and even find it easier than their own.
The teachers here are friendlier then anyplace else, but when I talk to Anne( the other exchange student that is living with me)she says that teachers in Germany are not as friendly as the ones in Brazil.So I guess the schools are different from place to place, but have some similarities.School in Germany is much more similar to the Brazilian ones to the Canadian ones.
Friends:One of the things this kind of experience brings up is how sociable we can be.I have to confess I used to be a very shy girl in my school, but I think that's because I was feeling comfortable between friends and people I know, I could be shy.Here I can't. Being shy here is a passport to loneliness, because people are used to exchange students so they have to try hard to make friends as soon as possible, and tolerating all the different groups of friends that can appear.I think I just realized how important it is to have friend around now that I have seen how horrible it is to be alone.
Family:It has been hard for all the family to have someone this far away from home.But homesickness is something inevitable, and the only thing we can do about it is learn to live with it. But is always good to know there is someone supporting you back at home and counting with good changes in the way we see things, in our personalities.
Host Family:The host family is the base for everything, maybe the most important help any student will have.I was incredibly lucky with mine, It is good to feel at home and with nice people around to have fun.It is a little strange in the beginning, before we start to know these people.I remember at the airport when they picked me up, I was feeling completely out of place, but time fixes things up and soon I started talking more and more, and now I can't believe I was once shy.
Food:The way people eat is different even from family to family, imagine how different it is from country to country.In Brazil the main meal of the days is lunch and here lunch is just a sandwich or something like that.Having lunch at school was really strange in the first week, I even forgot to put my lunch in my book bag one day, but now I got used to it.
Habits:There are many things I was curious to find out here. One of them is the fact the teachers here are called by their last names, it's funny.In Brazil nobody calls anybody by their last names but police officers and lawyers. Other thing is taking your shoes off when entering a house, I never did it back at home, but I will probably start doing that when I go back.Also people here don't kiss and hug as much as south Americans do.Only when they are vary close to each other. But these habits are easy to get used to.
Weather:My city is in the coldest region of Brazil.But our winter doesn't get as cold as it gets here.It has been a warm fall until now, but I'm looking forward to seeing lots of snow!
