Here I am, only half a semester into my year abroad at UW, yet it feels like a lifetime ago that I stepped on a plane at London Heathrow with my eyes on the Atlantic and back to the University of Exeter. As an exchange student, I was worried I’d find it difficult to make friends and to adjust to life in Canada. Thankfully, I was wrong. For an entire week, exchange students had the run of the place, arriving in advance of the regular Waterloo students.
Without the hustle and bustle of the university running at its usual tempo, it was easy to meet others in the same position as myself. Almost immediately, I was added to an exchange student group chat, and it wasn’t long before we started planning trips. I never could’ve predicted travelling to Toronto on one of those first weekends, watching the sun darken behind the CN Tower next to people I’d only just met. Before I knew it, I found myself with an amazing group of friends from France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Together, we’re basically a mini-Europe.
Lena Kunert, an exchange student from Germany, describes how a year abroad “feels like a family trip but with people from different countries.”
“[You make] so many good memories with people you feel like you’ve known much longer than you’ve actually known them,” she said. Throughout our conversation, it soon became clear that her time in Canada had in many ways mirrored my own.
Chatting with a few local Canadians, I gathered that ice hockey is to Canada what religion is to most other countries. England is many things, but hockey-obsessed is not one of them. Between the climate being too mild for ice and football being the most popular sport, ice-hockey has never gained much traction in the UK. I knew that if I didn’t try it here, I probably never would. With this in mind, I splashed hundreds of dollars on comically large pads, ice skates, and a hockey stick taller than I could ever hope to be. I expected to embarrass myself. What I didn’t expect however, was that the university would see my application to join beginners and decide to sort me into semi-competitive hockey! Without any training (save a few quick YouTube tutorials) I found myself on ice for the first time in years. Let’s just say I wasn’t the next Sidney Crosby.
Most recently, 12 of us travelled to Bruce Peninsula National Park. The trip had many amazing moments, but the highlight came in the form of overriding my better judgement to jump off a cliff into Lake Huron. Amusingly in hindsight, we mistimed our hike back from Lion’s Head on the second day. By the time we finished swimming (or attempting to swim) in the surprisingly icy water, the sun had set, and we hiked in near pitch-darkness through the woods back to the car. The 31,000 steps recorded on my Health App will forever remind me of our poor planning that day.
This first half of the semester has been a surreal experience filled with countless surprises. I may not yet be an NHL superstar or a Tim Hortons employee, but day by day, I feel myself becoming more Canadian. This experience has been unique, not only in what I’ve seen, but also emotionally. Being Europeans so far from home, this shared adventure has brought us all together in a way that wouldn’t have been possible from the comfort of our own countries. In the coming months, I hope to experience everything else that Canada has to offer, whether that’s tasting maple syrup from Quebec or watching a Blue Jays game. In any case, it’s already been an experience to remember.
