Wednesday, January 27, 2010

 

Chan Wang @ University of Vicoria, Canada (from CityU) 2 September - 30 October 2009

2nd September, 2009

Today was my second day in Victoria. I woke up early because Mary Lynn, Breanna, Coco and I were planning to go hiking. Mary Lynn taught me to play their family game which is to find out one kind of small cars as much as we can during the drive to the hiking area. I was the big loser in the game because their reaction is much quicker than mine. But I still had lots of fun and I felt less nervous in the following conversation. I really appreciated Mary Lynn because she always made fun for us in the whole way.

During the hiking, Breanna and Coco were really energetic. They ran and ran in the hiking path and always asked me to complete with her. But I was tired after just half an hour since I seldom to do exercise in Hong Kong. Mary Lynn said it was important for us to do more exercise in order to keep fit and get a healthy body. Yes, she is right. I always give up to do exercise because of some excuses like feeling tired after part time job or no time to do exercise. I really enjoy this hiking experience because the scenery is beautiful, the air is fresh and the atmosphere is relaxing. We reached the highest part of the mountain and saw the whole view of Victoria. Victoria is fabulously pretty and I love its nature so much. Mary Lynn pointed at some main buildings and introduced them to me so that I can have a deeper understanding of the places. I believe that I will have a happy experience in this town in the following four months.

After the hiking, Mary Lynn took me to buy some daily necessities. The staffs in cashiers here always greet and chat with you during the payment. They are nice and polite which is the place that we can learn from them. After that, we had a yummy lunch at home. She taught me to make an Indian pizza and it was delicious. Tonight, I played a new game called RUMMOLI with the host family and two other Japanese exchange students. It was really enjoyable. Every time when Breanna and Mary Lynn won, they stood up and dance on chair. They are really cute and passionate. Finally we danced and laughed together under the music. It was really an unforgettable night.


5th December Windy

In today morning, I helped Craig to renovate his office. Actually I just did some simple work and listened to him how to renovate a house. It was amazing that most of the parts in the house such as the room of Colin and the windows of the dining room were renovated by Craig and Mary Lynn. They are awesome.

Originally Mary Lynn, Breanna, Colin and I would go to see the truck parade at night, but Colin got accident in the football match and his leg got hurt. Luckily, his leg was not seriously hurt after checking in hospital. Although we cancelled to see the parade, we also had a good night.

Mary Lynn decided to start the Christmas decoration for the house. First, we moved the Christmas tree and decorations from the basement to the up stair living room. They were really heavy and there were more than six big boxes of decorations. Christmas was really an important festival for the Canadian families. After moving all the decorations to the up stair, we took out chips and coke and turned on the music. We were dancing while we were building up the Christmas trees and decorating the house. At this time, Emi came back and joined us. This was my first time to decorate the house for Christmas and the house was already full of Christmas atmosphere although it was just the beginning of December. Now, I really expect Christmas coming since it is my first Christmas outside Hong Kong. Will I have a white Christmas?

After the decoration, Colin came back from the hospital with two sticks helping him walking. But he was fine and then we watched a typical movie together. Today I really had lots of fun.


9th September, 2009 Wednesday Raining

Today was my first school day in University of Victoria, but it was raining most of the day which was annoying. My lessons started in afternoon so I followed Mary Lynn to a local big store called Costco to buy food and daily necessities. Only members could come and shop here. There were lots of different types of stuff ranging from clothes, furniture, decorations to food. The most interesting was all packages of food are in large size, but the price was relatively lower than the stores outside. I was excited and curious about everything. We spent the morning in the store and bought more than CAD 300 stuff.

After backing home, I quickly took my lunch and then went to school. This was my first time to take the bus here. Maybe due to less- dense population and most people drive to work, the bus lines are few and schedule is not tight. I waited for long time. But the driver was very helpful and polite. They greeted to everyone and thanked you after you pay for the fare. The most surprising thing is everyone said ‘thank you’ to the driver when they took off the bus. People here were really nice and polite. When I arrived, I could not find my classroom since the university is huge. Luckily, two Canadian students guided me to the classroom and I could attend the lesson on time.

I was excited about the lessons because the learning environment was new but I was also so nervous because everyone spoke English and I was afraid I could not make new friends. What was surprised me was their interactive learning atmosphere. The local students were so active to ask and answer questions. But they speak English too fast and I just can understand half of the meaning. I worry I cannot communicate with them in the discussions in following lessons. Here, the coursework for each course was not heavy and the learning atmosphere was much relaxing. It is very different from Hong Kong which has heavy academic work load and stressful learning atmosphere. After the lessons, I went to visit the bunnies again. There are many rabbits in this university which have many different colors and pattern like brown, black, grey, white, etc. I love them so much.



10th October, 2009 Sunny

Today was the second day for my Rocky Mountain trip and it was my first time to see snow. It was really an exciting and glacier experience.

We woke up at five thirty then took the tour bus towards Columbia Icefield area through Icefield parkway. In the way to the Icefield, we saw the mountains covered with snow which were very beautiful and marvelous. However, I also saw one large part of trees was logged. I know Canada has lots of natural resources such as timber and its economy relies on it. But I do not understand why on one side, Canadian emphasis on environmental activities such as recycling. On the other hand, they waste the energy. For example, all the shops in Victoria will light up at night after closing hour with the view to let people look at inside to prevent theft. There are other ways to monitor the shops and no need to light up the shops for whole night.

After few hours, we arrived the middle of mountain and then transferred to a special designed icefield bus to enjoy the Canadian Rockies and reached the peak finally. When the bus stopped, all the exchange students were excited and took off the bus immediately to have a snow fight. It was an amazing experience that I was surrounded by thick snow. We took myriad pictures and really do not want to leave. The nature is unimaginable and mysterious.

Then we transferred to one of the world’s most beautiful scenery—Lake Louise. The water was very clear and calm which never could see in Hong Kong. We took pictures with the lake and ice mountain as background which just like pretty and imaginable pictures in the journey books. Travelling can let you see more, learn more and widen more your horizon. This is really true.


30th October, 2009 Sunny

Today was so happy and memorable. All Chinese exchange student cooperated to organize a Chinese Party tonight and it was very successful. There were more than seventy exchange students joined the party and everyone had Halloween dressed up which has a strong Halloween atmosphere.

Every Chinese student made at least one dishes and brought to the party. I made the dessert ‘Sawdust Pudding’ and help Charlotte to make her dish ‘Ma Po Tofu’. When I bought the ingredients in the China Town, I saw the Winter Olympic torch relay. Since I had to prepare my dessert, I could not stand there to watch the relay although I was excited. It was really difficult to buy Chinese ingredients in Canada even there was China Town. After that, we started our cooking and it took us more than three hours to finish the dishes since the size of the dishes were relatively large.

Then we went to the venue to set up the tables and heat up the food. There were more than twenty types of food which were unbelievable. Exchange students come one by one and most of them dressed up as different characters like monster, angel, etc. Some of them I even could not recognize. When they saw the food, they were surprising and could not imagine that all dishes were made by us. All of them thought the dishes were tasty and always asked the name of the dishes. There were interested in the name of ingredients too. That was interesting.

Some of them could not use chopsticks. But they were willing to learn and it was funny to see them use the chopsticks. The happiest thing is most people like my dessert and many girls asked me how to make and even asked me send them the recipe which was shocked me. I really enjoy chatting with them. I also asked them what kind of dessert they usually made and they said they may organize French food or Korean food party. I was looking forward to joining their parties.

After that was photo-taking time. We ran in the crowd and asked people to take pictures together no matter we knew each other or not. Everyone enjoyed the time and made new friends. However, time flew. The party had to end and we took the group photo together. I believe that everyone will remember this year Halloween, a special Halloween which we shared happiness with people come from different countries.

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