An Exchange Student at 17 - Michal Zednicek for the Viaduct magazine
It feels like yesterday that I was on a plane flying to Canada not knowing what to expect. Now I’m back home with memories and I’m writing about my exchange student experience.
I wanted to be an exchange student my whole high school life. I thought that living abroad be the coolest thing to do. So while I high school in the Czech Republic, I applied to an exchange programme agency and waited. Soon I got an e-mail that a family in the province of Saskatchewan chose me to stay with them. It took some time to all the necessary things before my departure. Finally, August 24th 2017, I landed at Regina International Airport to start the adventure of a lifetime.
For the following 10 months, I lived in the city of Yorkton. population is around 20,000. It was colder there than in my hometown in the Czech Republic, but my host family was great: my host mom, Karen, worked as a nurse and took good care of the family. She smiled a lot and she was a good , too. My host dad, David, was an English teacher and we often spent time about the language. He was very on learning some basic Czech phrases. Karen and David had twins, Jasper and Daisy, were my age. We drove to the same high school every weekday morning and after school, I went with Jasper and his team to play baseball. By Christmas, the twins and I really good friends.
But throughout the year I experienced some difficulties, too. In winter, I got really homesick and suddenly disliked everything about Canadian culture. I talked about it with my own family and my host family, which helped me get over it and enjoy the rest of my stay. At the end of my stay, we went on a road trip to Vancouver, British Colombia.
Living alone in a completely different world has me many things. I am now open to new ideas, and I believe in myself. I left as a child and I came back as an adult. If I a chance to study abroad again, I would definitely go. It’s worth it.