First Week

A year ago, I could never have imagined that I could be halfway around the world for an entire year. I’m one week in and it’s been crazy. We’ve been to The PNE Fair, Cultus Lake Water Park, Vancouver Island, and I’ve gone mountain biking. I’ve even had my first day of school. 

The PNE fair is like the Newtown fair, but bigger, better and far weirder food. They had everything from deep-fried Oreos to mac n’ cheese ice cream. I even tried poutine, a Canadian classic. We saw super dogs perform tricks and won 20Gb of free data from a mobile company none of us was with and a bag from another mobile company none of us was with. 

Cultus lake Water Park is “The best water park in BC” and it didn’t disappoint. I don’t think I have ever gone down a water slide as fast as I did on the free fall. Which is so steep it was almost a 90° angle. 

Whenever I imagine an Island, I think of a small tropical island that is only ten meters across. Vancouver is anything but that. It’s 460 Km across and has multiple big supermarkets, stores, petrol stations and restaurants. We went to Costco, which was a total experience in and of itself. They stock everything. It was like some crazy cross between Bunnings, The Warehouse, Moore Wilsons, Briscoes and Pack n’ save. 

My mountain biking skills are far short of amazing. The only thing I was remotely good at was the uphill, and that isn’t really the main attraction of mountain biking, surprisingly. Although I am proud to say I haven’t come off the bike yet despite my inability to ride in a straight line. 

I had an orientation day where every international student in the school district all converged on Windsor Secondary, where we were told to be nice to our homestay families. We were also told in no uncertain terms that if we decide to take any drugs from nicotine to cocaine, we will be sent straight back to our home country. 

I’ve had a great time so far and there is so much more to come. I’ve got my first actual day of school today.