Ell novel Adventures in Canada 2016 17 by Queen Elizabeth School

Adventures Coming to a New Life in Canada

Stories from Newcomers and International Students at Lillian Osborne High School â€“ June 2017

Dedication This book is dedicated to the students and staff at Lillian Osborne High School. These are our stories. These are our adventures coming to a new life in Canada. We have come from far away and found a new home in Canada, in Edmonton, and at our school â€“ Lillian Osborne. Coming to a new life in a new place can be difficult, but this experience also taught us so many new things.

We want to thank our teachers, volunteers, and the students who helped us to write our ideas, to fix our mistakes, and to find the words to tell our stories. Especially we want to thank, Ms. Radcliffe, Ms. Langland, Mrs. Hartley, Ms. Eldon, Ms. Laird, Mr. Mokua, Mr. Batchelor, and Mr. Fitzgerald.

Thank you, From the Newcomer and International Students at Lillian Osborne

Contents Strange, but Exciting ............................................................................................................................................................... 5 On a Ride to Buy a Flute .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 The First Day at School ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 A Summer Vacation Spent in Canada ..................................................................................................................................... 9 A Brave First – Time Skier ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 My Adventures in Canada ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 Trying My Best in this New Life ............................................................................................................................................. 13 Photographing Memories ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 MY ADVENTURE IN CANADA ................................................................................................................................................. 16 Our Differences ..................................................................................................................................................................... 17 A Life Changing Experience ................................................................................................................................................... 18 Life is not Hopeless at all in Canada ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Our Family Trip to Lake Louise .............................................................................................................................................. 20 More Experiences to come in Canada .................................................................................................................................. 22 Adjusting to Differences........................................................................................................................................................ 24 “Hello to a New Adventure!” ................................................................................................................................................ 25 Life in Canada for an International Student .......................................................................................................................... 27 One year Later – Life in Canada ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Boxing – My new Canadian Adventure ................................................................................................................................. 31 Life in Canada ........................................................................................................................................................................ 32 Adventures in Canada Pursuing Dreams ............................................................................................................................... 33 First in Canada....................................................................................................................................................................... 34 My First Car ........................................................................................................................................................................... 35 First time I came to school in Canada ................................................................................................................................... 37 My adventure in Canada ....................................................................................................................................................... 38 My first time skiing................................................................................................................................................................ 39 “The Day I Struggled On My Way Home.” ............................................................................................................................ 40 My First Job ........................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Lost in Edmonton .................................................................................................................................................................. 42 Study Abroad......................................................................................................................................................................... 44 The First Time........................................................................................................................................................................ 45 3

My first day in the school...................................................................................................................................................... 46 My first time to came to Canada .......................................................................................................................................... 47 The first time skiing ............................................................................................................................................................... 48 My adventure in Canada ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 First time sick at school ......................................................................................................................................................... 50 My first time at the Airport - Alone ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Pursuing Dreams ................................................................................................................................................................... 52 My personal Narrative-Our Lady Queen of Peace ................................................................................................................ 53 Adventures In Canada Pursuing Dream ................................................................................................................................ 54 The time I went to the Muttart ............................................................................................................................................. 55 Canadian story, short but full................................................................................................................................................ 56 Adventure in Canada............................................................................................................................................................. 58 My study life.......................................................................................................................................................................... 60

Strange, but Exciting Hayley Park I want to talk about my first experience of studying abroad. When I was in Korea, I couldn’t think about studying in English because it seemed so difficult to me. I’ve always worried about my English and also my Math too. It was pretty hard to study subjects in English and unfamiliar to me, because Math and Science were hard even when I studied in my native language in my country. When I first started to study, it was interesting because It was so strange for me and unfamiliar to me. And also the other subjects, at the very first, it was hard to understand everything what teachers said, but few months later, it was getting better and I felt like I am improving my English. As I get my English skills better, it was getting easier to understand in class, or even what teachers say to us or like when I watching some English TV shows & movies. That was my major adventure when I studied in school, but the other one was to meet people from many nations for the first time. Since Korea is the only nation country, I’ve not met a different countries people that much in my life unless when I’m traveling. But when I came to Canada, there was so many people from many different countries as I expected and I thought it is a great opportunity to experience to be able to improve English and also learn a lot of cultures that I didn’t know before. Also I enjoyed cheer team for the first time of my entire life. I didn’t know well about cheer and It was totally different with cheer in Korea. I tried stunts, choreography, cheers - all of this stuff and as I practice more and more it got way better than the first time. I was so happy that me and our team improved. At the first competition, we were so nervous and scared to perform in front of a huge audience, but when we started to perform, we tried our best to be confident and not making mistakes so that our result was really good. Even though we had tiny mistakes, since it was our first competition, we were so proud and happy.

On a Ride to Buy a Flute Angela Chen I think the first time my friend and I went to a really far away from my home’s place to buy a flute is an adventure to me. Once, Liz and I went to West Edmonton Mall to buy a guitar. When she got her guitar, I suddenly wanted to learn the flute again. I learnt flute for a year in China. But my junior high school is far from my home, so I had to give up my flute lesson. And now, I want to learn it again. Then I said to Liz, “I want to buy a flute, but I am not sure whether they have”. Liz said, “Why not ask them?” And I replied, “because, I am afraid of talk to them.” Liz said,” I’ll help you.” Then we got two places where we never heard before. We googled it on google map, but the solution will take us a lot of time. Maybe we can’t go back home on time, so we were going to call them to know the fastest way. We chose one of the store’s number and we called it. They told us the bus number and where we need to get off. But the bus number is a bus what we never take. I forgot the number but I know it is green and really expensive. I don’t have a bus pass and it spent me about six dollars. Liz had a bus pass but she still need to spend one dollar and fifty cents. And I don’t have many cash, so we search the bags, purses and pockets to collect seven dollars and fifty cents. Then the bus drove to the way where we never went and became far. I began worried about this trip. Because I never took bus. Liz comforted me,” It will be ok, I took bus really often.” Then we stopped talking and payed one hundred percent attention on the avenue and street. And we count the avenue and became more and more nervous. The number is near enough and we got off the car. The place is really like waste, and nobody here. The first time we went to the east, but the avenue is totally wrong and we go back to the origin. Then we saw a street had a lot of stores is in the north, then we walked really far away the origin. But we didn’t saw the instrument store at all. So we had to go back to origin and found the new way to explore. This time we go along the street to south. We walked to the intersection and we looked as far as possible. But there is nothing, just the street and cars. When we back to origin, we were totally disappointed. Even we conjectured the store whether is exist. Then we were going back to the place where we got off. But we saw the numbers next to the doors. And we thought it is the place where we can buy the flute. We searched the store one by one. The store numbers are really same as musical instrument store number, but they are not. Even we found one’s number is just differed two and we searched everywhere, but we didn’t saw that. We had no chooses, so we called to store and asked the exact address. And we found we got off the bus too soon! Then Liz used her mobile internet to search the place. Well, it is about 2.4 kilometers far from us. We according to the map and walked to the store. It was summer and really hot outside. And we don’t have water any more. We were thirsty and tired. We saw the restaurant and it seem like it was opened, but when we got closer it was not. We were so hopeless at that time, and another bad situation is Liz’s phone’s power is not enough. We just walk and talk not really often. 6

We saw the advertisement on the screen and saw the drinks, we were so jealous that the characters were drinking the beverages. We walked really near the store and walk through the lawn. When we go into the store, we laughed and walked into the store. Then I told to them, I was going to buy a flute. And they told us they don’t have. WHAT! YOU DON’T HAVE? We were totally hopeless. Even though we have another store’s name and address, they look like not at the same place and not near. So we asked them the store’s distance from this store. And they told us it is not far, and the manager of the store said,” I can drive you two to the store.” And we were never happy like this. Then he drove us to another store. It is not far at all. Just about 150 meters. And we prayed they will have the flute. They have it indeed. And I choose one and pay for it. It was so difficult to get a flute. Then I learned the flute as I wished. Sometimes I practice it not really earnest, when I saw the flute I will recall the scene how we got the flute. I think it is the way let me learn it seriously and won’t give up. It is an unforgettable adventure and I will never forget it.

The First Day at School Peter Pu

I still remember the day when I first came to this high school. Everything that occurred on that particular day still remains fresh in my mind. The first day of high school life, I had many thoughts and feelings about the first day at school. The passage of time can always give people some special things like friends and new memories. I was so excited and nervous about the day before I went to school. I couldnâ€™t sleep well and woke up very early, packed up my backpack, sat on my bed and imagined what the school life would be like on the first day. When I went to school, everyone was assembled in the gym and teachers would bring all the international students to the right place. All the international students were sitting together. No one has seen each other before, but fortunately most of international students are all from China, so we can communicate easily and not feel embarrassed. Some outgoing Chinese people introduced themselves and talk about the things that interested us at our age. The atmosphere in the class gradually became active and more and more people became willing to know each other. There are also some grade 11 Chinese students that came to help us. They told us about some experiences to adapt to the new life in Canada. Then we walked around the school and I saw the differences between Canada and China like how some buildings were small and crowded. In China, our lockers are all in the classroom, but in Canada all lockers are all in the corridor. In China, schools usually have four or five floors but here school has only 2 floors. After that it was time to leave and we had a wonderful day. When I walked along the street by myself after school, I imagined the future of school life would be funny and impressed.

A Summer Vacation Spent in Canada Jade Chen My last summer vacation was spent in Canada. That was the new experience different than my summer vacation in my home country. I have camped at Banff National park, I joined anime-thon with my cousin, I have watched lots of movies. I can’t do those things when I at my home country, students always have lots of homework to do during vacation, so we didn’t have lots time to have fun and relax. In here, I really enjoy the time: I can play, I can study, I have enough time to do what I want to do, I don’t need to stay up for doing homework, I can review knowledge freely, not only do homework for a long time. When I came to Banff, there has few of snow on top of the mountain, lots of trees ordered on both side of roads, cool cloud blew to me when I opened the window. There like a place separated the world, when people saw animals they must stop driving, if you not near the animal, you should drive the car slowly, There are so quiet, so pretty, so imaginal, I enjoy the feeling with all my heart. I heard my cousins told me they can always saw the bear cub when they came here before, and antelope. Once they came Banff, they saw a antelope licked my uncle’s car, I forgot what they called the sheep. when I really saw it, I felt excited and happy. I felt I have come to a place where are wonderful and pretty, there are lakes are so green, Lake Louise is one of them. We wake up early every day, to one special place to pick some woods, then make the fire to roast foods. My cousin with I always sleep early, I follow the sound of wood crackle and people’s laughing, smell the taste of pine tree to sleep, cute squirrels still get their activity during the night. The camp was a good memory to me. Animethon is very much like a show of anime, but kinda different than show. Animethon got the activity on the university, total three layers can have to be used for us. The first layer is the park underground, there always have some famous people sign signature to their fans, and some people make booth to sell their product to us. The second layer is for people watch different anime, each room has different anime, and some games have been played in that time, the last layer has a big theater, lots of show begin on here. Different activity can begin at the same time, different spot, and I always like all the activity, but I can only go to one place, when I came back home, I just felt so tired, then go to sleep. Every day was full and I very enjoyed that.

A Brave First – Time Skier Ken Tan A bus is moving on the highway in a night. In the bus, I am sitting on the bus and trying to watch the scenery outside. But outside was too dark, so I could barely see anything. I changed my mind to not watch a skiing video on YouTube. My uncle is sleeping deeply beside me. Now, we are going to go skiing at Marmot basin and this is my first experience skiing. I am really interested to try the new things. New food, new sports, new games … So when my uncle asked me do I want to join in skiing with him. I felt really excited in my mind. Skiing is a really cool sport. I watched the skiing video on YouTube. People did the awesome tricks in the air, and then jump off to land safely. I am wondering if I can do those tricks by myself. Suddenly, a loud voice interrupted my imagination. “Hi everyone, we have arrived at the hotel, and we will have a bus connect from here to the snow mountain tomorrow at nine AM. And we will have a bus come back to here at five PM. Have a good night.” Then, I woke up my uncle and we were so tired so I slept deeply after going back after to lie on my bed. The sunlight made my eyes feel uncomfortable; I opened my eyes and looked at my phone 6:00 AM, still early. I lay in my bed and wanted to sleep more to get enough energy for skiing. However, I felt really energetic, so I had a shower and brushed my teeth. After I finished the preparation, my uncle woke up. After the breakfast, we took the bus to the snow mountain. When we arrived to there, I saw some people are skiing down from high position. I felt really excited and couldn’t wait to ski. We entered the shop to rent protective clothing for myself. My uncle clearly taught me how to wear the helmet, eyewear, gloves, and skis. He told me what should I do on every step, how to adjust the ski onto my ski boots. After the preparation, he led me to the beginner level snow mountain because this was my first ski experience. I followed my uncle carefully and learned how to balance my body. Learn how to stand up when I fell down .We were going to the high area by cable car. From there I looked down to bottom side. I saw people are very small and felt the wind pushing me from behind as it was like encouraging me to go ahead and ski straight down to the bottom. I imagined how people began to ski from yesterday’s Youtube video. I tried to imitate them. And then I moved too fast. “Stop, you still have something need to learn!” My uncle said. I ignored him, because I didn’t know how to stop and I didn’t want to stop. Then I regretted when I passed through the middle part. Suddenly, a child appeared. In that situation, I could have turned left or right, or have stopped to avoid the crash. But I didn’t know how to do any of the above, so I chose the third way, falling down myself. I felt a little bit hurt, but at least I didn't hurt the kid. The child just kept going. He didn’t know how lucky he was. “Are you ok?” my uncle asked. “Yep, I think I am fine.” I said. “I am going to silver level to ski,

I think you know the basic skill of ski, call me if you have any problem. Keep training by yourself here.” He said. “OK.” I replied. Then he fluently skied to the line to wait for the cable car which is going to the top. I fell down and stood up again so many times. I learned from the kids and teacher who were beside me, “put your legs to make the skis shaped like a pizza, so that you can balance yourself.” I hope no one realized a 15 year-old boy is following a bunch of kids. I am feeling I am a fish learning how to walk on the land. A few hours later, I figure out how to start, stop and turn left and right. I look at the clock; it’s time to go back. I called my uncle, and then we returned the clothing and items, and went back to the bus with our tired bodies. On the bus, everyone said how they were brave, how they were fast on the gold level snow road, how many awesome tricks they made today. But I just learned the basic skill of skiing. But it is a big improvement for me. I felt really tired, so I slept even in this noisy bus. I dreamed of my best day ever, as a new skier.

My Adventures in Canada Emanuel Garnica My name is Emanuel Garnica. I was born in Tijuana, Baja California. I came to Canada on November 13, 2013. I came here with my mom including my brothers, but my dad had arrived to Canada three years before us. We had to wait until our Canadian passports came, so we could come to Canada. When we got our Canadian passports, my mom called my dad to tell him that we had received our Canadian passports and that now we could travel to Canada without any problems. My dad got really excited because we could be together as a family after quite some time. After talking to my dad about the good news, my dad gave my mom the schedule for his flight back to Mexico to pick us up to accompany us together to Canada. Unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes to our friends and beloved family. Later on after arriving to Canada, I knew that it was worth doing therefore Canada is a much safer place and environment for me and my family to live in. My dad’s decision of moving to Canada was a life changing choice because it gave me the opportunity to learn and change our lives. My first day of school at Lillian Osborne made me nervous. My old teachers from Junior High told me that if wanted to go to university I had to be in -1 classes, I got really worried that I wasn’t going to reach -1 classes’ expectations. It was going to be really hard for me since I’m an English learning student, but thanks to my understanding teachers and classmates at Lillian Osborne, it made me realize that as an English learning student I wasn’t forced to take courses harder than what I am capable of. The school also helped me a lot by putting me in an ESL class with other international students that are new to Canada and that have very few understanding of English. That class was really helpful because I got to make new friends that know how hard it is to be in another country. I also got to learn new vocabulary that helped me improve my English and allowed me to take higher level classes, so I could graduate and get my diploma and now I know I can get into a university or college.

Trying My Best in this New Life Alan Law I remember that last night I spent in my home country. I lay on my bed, wondering what my new life would be like. I imagined that Canada would be cold and less people in a peaceful prairie. Canada is a good environment for learning English. Before I left, I heard that Canada has many Chinese in Vancouver and Toronto. When I arrived in Canada, first I saw a huge airport. Then I met my mum and stepfather. It was an immaculate night that day. After my grandma and I had a good sleep, we traveled to Calgary. I felt tired because the destinations are far away from Edmonton. When we went to Calgary, we ate fried rice in a huge shopping mall for an hour. After that, we went to downtown. Calgary’s downtown is much bigger than Edmonton’s. We went to Chinatown to have a dinner in a Chinese restaurant, I was so excited. Chinese food was delicious. After that, we went to a hotel and slept for one night. The next morning, we went to a hotel and slept for one night. The next morning, we went to Banff National Park. When we arrived there, we were waiting for tickets for a long time and someone helped us buying a Starbucks iced coffee. When we arrived at the top of a mountain by tram, we took a picture in nature between a wood step and the mountainside. After that, we used the tram to leave the mountain and went back home. When we went back home, my grandma bought much of food to cook and I wondered that trip are touching and walking in nature. Finally, we slept a night at home in Edmonton. We ate a simple breakfast. We went downtown to have a little tour then we visited a Vietnamese restaurant immediately. The Vietnamese noodles were really immaculate. Everything tasted great. After that we took Grandma’s carriage and her plane ticket to the airport. She was moving because she needed to go back home. After that, she left us and flew back to the United States of America, California, San Francisco airport. Finally, we went back home to have a dinner. After this trip, I started learning English hardly. After she left a long period, I started learning English. I participated in some ESL internet courses. In that time, I cleaned up the garden because the garden was messy. It seemed like after a disaster and was all covered by weeds. The chair were mildewing, the other plants were dead because of no one care. My stepfather did not clean the chair. After a year and 8 months, my schools were developing other schools high technological facilities and more international students studying at these schools. Actually, I travelled to Lessard, Northgate, Sherwood park, Millwoods, Strathcona. There were many communities were similar to our village. Surround the Lessard, there were peaceful and clean. Comparing Terwilliger and Lessard, there close to West Edmonton mall and much of Public transport provided the optimum service to people travelled around Edmonton. Finally, I got my Permanent resident card on 31th of May, 2017. I could travel between my living place and Canada and residences inside Canada. WE WAIT 2 YEARS ABOUT THIS CONFLICT. Anyway this is my new life in Canada and I really enjoy it, I will keep learning English and trying my best in this new life. 13

Photographing Memories Aaron Padron Hi name is Aaron Padron. I’m 16 year old and I was born in Philippines. When I was 13 years old, I starting to explore and take photographs. Exploring and photography is Important to me because the photographs on the walls of a person's home or office can communicate a lot about what is important to him. Important people and events often are captured in photos that are preserved long after the people themselves are gone, allowing later generations to experience history. Opportunities to take photos allows for the remembrance of things as they once were. I don’t why I’m so addicted to photography. Because my dad told when he was 20 years old he starting to took a picture on the road in our country and my dad. He climbed on the mountain and I love climb too. In my house we have a big mountain on the back in our When I came to Canada and I ask my dad where is the most beautiful place and dad told me don’t worry son I’m gonna bring you on the Devon. After that MY dad bring the camera and I was exciting that time because that was my First time to take a picture in Devon Alberta. If you don’t know Devon is home to one of the largest oil discoveries in the world. << This is my first to take a picture on Devon. Devon Is my favorite place in Alberta because if you go there you see lot of flowers my favorite in Devon when I was there is the butterfly garden and was so cool.

After 5 Months my dad enrolled me on Lillian Osborne and felt so anxious. Because I see lot of people and they are spoken English, Then we had one teacher to came in my chair and when she came to my seat I’m so nervous and my hand is shake and wet. After 2 weeks that was my first day in Lillian Osborne. I still nervous because I don’t have friend in our classroom, because all of my classmate is Chinese and I don’t realize we have one Filipino in the other table. Then I go to another table to talk to him and he is laugh and he asked me where I came from then said Philippines then he said same, “I am from Philippines too.” Then I asked him which provinces then he said “I’m from Ilocos Norte.” And I’m shock because we both from Ilocos Norte and asked him what his name he said, “Christian”, and “I’m Aaron”, I said. After 2 days when walk in the hallway I saw a lot of Filipino then come and join us then said why not then one of my friend ask me what talk to if I’m available this weekend. HER- I saw your Instagram is so cool are you photography. ME-No I’m not photography but I love take a picture where I never I go. HER- Oh I see so do you want to come with us to go downtown to take a picture. ME- Yes let's go because I never been the Edmonton downtown . After a few days the whole squad went to downtown to explore the city When we arrived on downtown my first impression is not kind of beautiful because there are not a lot of buildings, like in Calgary, but when walked on the street then I saw the big wall behind of the Canada Place. Wall is beautiful but is so scared if you go there because if you go there you are gonna see the gangster or homeless. Then our next is on Whyte Avenue. Whyte Avenue is perfect place for because there lot of wall and 14

graffiti. When I walked in the street again and I saw the girls in street and she drunk I think I was afraid. After that my friend told lest go back in downtown because that time it’s already 7:00 PM is already dark that time me and my friend it’s our plans is to take the whole downtown and everyone is excited because this is our first time in downtown. After that we take the picture then we just go home already and all of my friend saw and upload all of picture in Facebook and I started to edit my picture to upload on Instagram. A few minutes ago I upload my downtown picture on Instagram after 1 day my picture took the urbanyeg and they repost it on there page and this is the picture:

^^ When I saw this picture on Instagram I’m so happy because this is my dream to post my picture on there page. After one years to explore on the downtown Edmonton I decide to stopped to take a picture on downtown because this time I want to focus in school and i want spend my time to my family because when i explore in the city I don’t have time to see my mom and my sister. It’s not bad to explore in the City of Edmonton but give us the time of our family.

MY ADVENTURE IN CANADA Dabeer Naqvi I think I will write about my summer holidays and my adventures in Canada. I remember the time when my mom told me that we all are going to Canada as permanent citizens. So at that time I’m not ready to choice my decision for I’m staying in my home country or leaving for Canada. After some important conversation with my family, I already took a decision to going with my family for Canada. Because I’m realized that it’s very important for my future so on the other hand I was excited too for this journey and my younger sisters was excited too. So we left our home country and leaving for Canada. When I reached at Toronto airport I was really scared to how to talk to other people because I feel they are different from us. And I was shy too at that time but after three hours my next flight for Edmonton. After we spend some days in Edmonton my parents giving me admission at Lillian Osborne, for further studies. I was really happy to make new friends at Lillian and my first day at Lillian this is really excited to me, but the same feeling of shyness. After the semester I learned so many things here about studies and got good marks in first year. So my new friends told me about summer school in Edmonton because my all friends going in summer school so I took that decision to go there. Where I went to summer school I saw the downtown first time and I was really happy to saw that building and some old building and the best view for a Edmonton from a mountain and I feel this is my best experience to use bus system to travel in Edmonton and train system and this things giving me support to go other place too. After this all things I feel this is my best experience to discover this beautiful city. I wanted to add more stuff about my journey in summer. Because I already took admission there So this is not random for me to go there because it’s my own decision. Before a day I’m so nervous how to travel this new country. But on first day my mom helps me to get there. After this I decided to go with myself and start earning some new experiences there. By the time is going I’m so use to for this situation. So I finished my summer school after one month but never forgot those moments of my life to explore this city and country. My parents saw my result for summer school and they decided to give me one month holidays vacation outside Edmonton. So we left Edmonton for further travelling. It’s really hard to choice where we wanna go for holidays after this long chat my parents decided to go Banff and jasper for ice skating. This is also I very new experience for me because back home I never seen snow in my entire life to saw snow and start skating on that and I’m so scared to do that but on the other hands I saw my little sister and cousins doing ice skating in front of me and showing their skills to everyone there. After saw these I decide to go and start ice skating with other peoples and really enjoyed my journey and my time there and although this is my one of my favorite adventure in Canada and my story for that. I am most thankful to my parents to give me this chance to come here and study with these students in Canada and try to learn more about life. Although life is an adventure .We faced so many new problems every day and Canada is like me as ab adventure and some difficult lifestyle, but I considered them as a big adventure or challenge in life.

Our Differences Annie Ding Back in Beijing, my school was an international school. Usually we are not allowed to speak other languages than English in the school, therefore I adapt to the English environment quite fast. Different from others, I also have one year study experience in America, therefore life in Canada isnâ€™t very hard for me. Firstly, the experience between Canada and my international school is a little bit different, although in similarities we learn and speaks English in the school which is same as Canada but since our school is in China, the students tends to be more Chinese than others. Furthermore we need to wear uniforms every day to school which is very different from Canada, and I think not wearing uniform is a good way of helping the students to identify and express themselves as individuals. Wearing uniform is a force to make everyone the same and students will feel like being controlled or classified to a group of people. I feel relaxed and energetic since the school start at 9 and finishes at 3 meanwhile back in my old school I get up very early in the morning and finish school around 5. Secondly, the way how the people in the cities live is different. Back in Beijing, the pace is really fast, everything changes really fast, and there is many entertainments and temptation which I could go or do with my friend after school or in the weekends, and usually we forget about the importance and joy we can get from exercising. Yet in Canada we have more free time and people here are slow pace and relaxed also I think local people enjoys exercise and sports more, which really affected me, therefore I go to the rec center every afternoon with my friends to do exercise, play basketball, or even swimming. Also when I took taxi or Uber in China the people always think Iâ€™m very young or from middle school, but in Canada when I took Uber the drivers always ask me if I was working or going to university in Edmonton, which always made me think if I looked too old or not. Thirdly, although Americans and Canadians argue they are very different from each other but from my point of view I think they are very similar. I get to wear my own clothes ad show my own identity in both American and Canadian schools. Also both countries are slow pace and calm, I have loads of spare time after school which I can do sports and hangout with my friends. Lastly I really like the lifestyle in Canada and I think I would be more adaptable to the culture of Canada.

A Life Changing Experience Kyra Ellamil Since the day I came here in Canada, every day is always a beautiful day to start a new chapter of my life. I was really astonished when I came here and saw the real beauty of our mother nature. High mountains filled with snow on top, tall and enormous buildings, captivating city and street lights, wow. Just wow! November 13, 2016- The day I left Philippines, this is the day I left everything I had. I had so much when I was back at home. There were so many heartaches, rejections and failures. I felt lost and empty before, all I ever did was to cry and pray as well. Family & relationship problems, name it; they came in my life at the same time and no doubt, with the same reason too. I have so many questions, but I don’t know who can answer them. Or worst, I don’t know if I’m ready to hear and accept the answers I want to know. I can feel my heart breaking into pieces, but the pain I felt, I laid everything to God. I let him took the sorrow inside my heart and mind; I just can’t take it anymore. I’ve been through hell. Maybe I am just not enough, maybe I never was, and never will be. Maybe because I can’t be the Kyra they want me to be. But now, here in Canada…Opportunities, privileges, and chances are everywhere. Why not grab one, right? “Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back: a new life, anew friend, a new love, a new country.” Starting today? I need to forget what’s gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what’s coming next.

Life is not Hopeless at all in Canada Ted Luo I came to Canada about half year and I have solved many difficult things. I think the biggest adventure thing is decided come to Canada. In Canada, I have to living with the different people, understand the different culture, and I have to control the depression must out of my mood. Because the different organizations have the different rules, I need to take care of my feelings. Sometimes I feel so tired to control the emotions. The second thing is solitude; I live in homestay, even they from the China we are not talking so much. Seriously I begin to download some app made for speed dating. We do not celebrate the traditional festivals. I have to accept those unpalatable foods and eat sandwiches 5 times every week. But the life is not hopeless at all in the Canada. There also have something interesting to do. In China, we donâ€™t have so many fitness clubs, like the Rec center. But in Canada there have so many gyms around the school and neighborhood; you can choose going to get exercise after school or during the weekend. The second thing is volunteer opportunity. In the high school, you can feel there have so many activities and sports games happen in the school times or holidays. So you have many chances to do volunteer. You can judges or timekeeper in a debate. You can be a scorekeeper in a basketball competition. You also have chances to play the folk costume game with kids. Those will be you amazing memory in your life. You can have fun and learning valuable experiences in the meantime. The last thing is that I will share some useful life experiences in Canada. The first thing is if you live in homestay, you better go through the bus sign and walk 2 times to back to your house. Because the houses in the community all look the same, like your own house. And school will help you to apply for bus pass. You can use your bus pass to take all the vehicles in Edmonton transit system. In the restaurant you must pay the tips when you finish and that usually will be the 15% of total for the meal. So international students you can have the good life time, in Canada.

Our Family Trip to Lake Louise Andrea Mata Hi, my name is Andrea Mata and I’m 17 years old, I was born on March 16, 2000 in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. I’m a grade 11 student from Lillian Osborne High School. I arrived here to Edmonton on October of 2015. Since I’m here, living in Canada, I’ve been in a lot of beautiful places, but one of my favorite is Lake Louis. I visited it twice, the first time was in June of 2016 with my family. The weather was perfect, not hot, not cold. The Lake looked amazing, the water was completely blue, there were a lot of colorful flowers, everything was so colorful and obviously I took a lot of pictures. After we saw all the Lake, we went to see this really famous and fancy hotel in there. It was giant. I looked at it with a lot of detail, everything was so beautiful, it had a lot of paintings, valuable and expensive I assume a lot of stores where you can buy souvenirs. I was simply fascinated, I was wishing that one day me and my family could stay in a hotel like that one. We stayed there for a few minutes more and we left. That trip was definitely one of the bests. The time passed, and it’s already 2017! January 23 to be exact.

One night my parents called me and my brother to go to their room, they told us that they needed to talk with us. We were kind of scared, we started to ask to each other things like “oh my god, are we in trouble?” “What did we do?” “Are they mad at us?” So when we came into the room both of us said at the same time “It wasn’t me” and they just started to laugh, so I took that as a sign that they were not mad. They told us to sit in the bed, and when we sat, my dad started to talk. “So guys, do you remember Lake Louis, right?” My brother and I nod with the head trying to figure out what they wanted to tell us. He just continued talking. “So, do you remember that fancy hotel that it’s right in front of the hotel?” We nod again, with a surprised face. My mom said, “well, we have a little surprise for you two”; at that moment we were assuming what they wanted to tell us. “We are going to stay in that hotel for two days with your uncle, your aunt and your cousins” my dad said. I looked at my brother and he looked at me, and we both screamed, we couldn’t believe it. “Are you serious dad?!” I said, and with a big smile he said yes. My brother and I were so so happy, we hugged our parents and we said “thank you” like thousand times. We asked where are we going to leave and they told us that we leave the February second in the morning. We were so excited, and the day to leave arrived. My dad woke us up at 4:30 am, yes, 4:30 am, that’s insanely early, but I actually didn’t care, I was really happy. We left our home and our trip started, there’s not much to say about the time that we spend in the car, because I slept all the road and I woke up 40 minutes before we arrived to the hotel. 20

When we arrived to the hotel, the day was so cold and snowy, but it looked really good from the outside. My dad parked the car and we went to the lobby to get or key’s room. My parents took like 20 minutes in the lobby, because there was a lot of people waiting too, but when we get our keys and we went to the room, we were so surprised, the room was really nice, but the thing that we loved the most was the view. We had a enormous window with a mountain view, it was simply beautiful. Later when all out things were in the room, we decided to go and see all the hotel. After we went to swim at the pool the whole night. The next day we went to eat breakfast in a restaurant and then we went to the pool again. We went outside to see the ice sculptures, there was an ice castle, a mamut, a throne, it was amazing. We were so happy to be there, but in the afternoon we had to leave, we were sad because we didn’t want to leave, but at the same we were so happy because we had an opportunity to live that experience. I think that’s one of my favorite trips with my family, we spend such a good time there. I would definitely go back again if I could.

More Experiences to come in Canada Joel Murillo

Hi, my name is Joel Murillo, I’m 17 years old, I was born in in the beautiful city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, in September 16 of 1999, but right now I’m living in the amazing city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I have 1 year and 5 months in Canada, I came to Canada without knowing any English and it has been difficult for me to learn and attend classes without knowing English but the teachers in the Lillian Osborne are very helpful and is more easy for me but I don’t wanna talk about my process here in Canada, I wanna talk about some experiences that I live here in Canada, like my first winter in Canada, my first day in the high school, and my first time that I play in the snow. My first winter in Canada: My first winter in Canada is a hard experience because where I come from the weather is Mediterranean temperate and here is so cool, the first day in Canada I remember that the temperature is a -14 c and I’m feeling freezing, I never live before in a place where see snow is normal and the temperatures too is so different from my home country, but a outside of that I like the winter, I love how the city looks when it’s covered in snow and you can play in there, but from other side I don´t like that every day when I wanna go to somewhere I need start the car before and clean the windows in the middle of the storm and is the worst experience in my life because the temperature is sometimes -30 or more, and for me that is my first winter in Canada is so hard, I'm feeling literally freezing like I said before.

My first day in the high school: My first day in the high school is so bad and funny at the same time, now I going to explain why I say that my day is bad and funny at the same time. I wanna start in the night before the day when I have go to the high school, I remember that this night is a February 6 of the 2016, I can’t sleep for the obviously reason that I’m was nervous because is my first day in a school, where the all people is new for me, where I did not know anyone, much less spoke their languages, because when I came to Canada, I don’t speak nothing of English, that’s why I’m nervous and worry about how I was going to do my first day in high school. Later in the morning I wake up super early, because the school start at 9am and I wake up at 6:30am and I’m ready at 7:30am but I have to wait until 8:15 because is when my bus pass because that's when my bus passed so I could take it, I walk to the bus stop and wait for it but like in the website say that I need take the 23 I wait in one side of the bridge but I don’t know that my bus stop is in the other side of the bridge, so my correct bus is the 23 22

Millwoods and I take 23 West Edmonton Mall, after that I take the bus and I see that the bus stop in the mall but I never know ,because is my first day in the bus too, that the bus when stop in a Centre transit, this ones change the route, and after that the bus give me a big ride to the University of Alberta, after that that I explain to the driver that I After explaining to the driver that I was lost he left me in another central transit and told me to take another bus, this took me to the downtown and then I take another bus to Millwoods, and Millwoods finally take one a Leger Where he is my high school, in total were more than two and a half hours traveling in the city worried that it was late, because I had to be in the high school at 9am, and it was almost 11am and was just arriving at the Leger Transit Centre at 5 min of the school, finally I arrived to the school and explain to the office lady why I’m late, and then she take me to my first class. When I came to my first class I’m feeling I felt strange because I did not know anyone, everyone was watching me, some spoke to me but I did not understand anything and others just said “hola como estas" (hello, how are you) in Spanish which made me funny because this people try to talk with me but they only knew how to say hello how are you in my language. Also another challenge for me is understand the indications of my teachers because I don’t understand what my teachers mind, but I don’t have choice I had to accept the challenge and strive to speak and understand English quickly, because I feel helpless and frustrated when I can not express what it is that I feel or wants to imply. So this somethings that happen in my first day in the school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, a place so different in comparison with my country Mexico, where Spanish is spoken that is principal biggest difference between Canada. My first time that I play in the snow: I will now talk about one more of my experiences in Canada, which is the first time I play in the snow, is my first time because I live all my life in Mexico and the weather in there is tropical, so is not cold, most of the time is hot, the coldest thing that could be in Mexico is like at 15°c. So when I came to Canada in December and I’m feel the snow for first time I feel happy because is like in the movies and when I saw a movie in Mexico where the place in the movie has snow I dream with live in a place with the snow, and finally my dream became real and in the next day my uncle’s family took my family and me to a park with a huge mountain to slide in the snow like at 1 of the morning, slide in the snow is one of the most happiness experience in my life. The experience is so great for me and my familia, I feel the adrenaline when your come done of the mountain so fast, and you don’t have control about the slider, and also make a snow war or snow man is, I don’t know how I can describe my feelings in this moment I don’t, I’m feel like a kid with a new toy. I remember that this day I come back to the house with my family like at 8 of the morning, people maybe think that is crazy but for me that is my first time not is crazy is funny, like seeing how my uncle slips in the snow or watching how my mom and aunt scream like little girls as they walk down the mountain on the slippers. So this is a little experiences about me, is three of many more experiences that I have here in Canada, but for now is what I wanna share with you, because I think they are some of the most important experiences for me that I live here in Canada for the moment, but I know that more will come.

Adjusting to Differences Andrea Ni There are many different things between Canada and China, include language, traditions or even the way that taxi driver drive you to the place you want to arrive. There are examples that present the differences. When I take Uber or taxi, the driver always asks me: “Which way you would like to go?” I was really shocked and confused at the first time, so I said: “Umm, you can just follow the GPS so you can find the way.” I was not sure if I said this right because in China, the driver never ask you which way you would like to go, the only two things they said are “ Is it the place that on xxx road?” “Sorry I don’t know where the place is.” Sometimes the driver follows the GPS but they still lost their ways. I mean, Canada is bigger than China, and have less number of provinces and cities, so the area of every city is bigger, I think that’s why drivers are always lost their ways here. Another thing that made me surprise is my age. I still remember the time when I was on the way to the airport. I took a taxi and I had a great conversation with the driver. Suddenly, the driver asked: “Are you married or not?” “What?” I thought I heard wrong but the driver asked again: “Are you married or not ?” I was so shocked and felt a little angry when I heard this. Well, no one would be happy if somebody thinks you are older than your real age, especially for girls. So I asked back: “Well, I look like I am married？？？ I am a high school student.” The driver answered regrettably: “Oh! You are a student! I thought you are over 20. I mean you look mature and that is a good thing!” Well, I don’t think so, I thought, with no emotion. “Well,” the driver explained, “I cannot really understand your age. You Asians always look the same, and you stayed cool so I think you are over 20.” Well, actually I didn’t get cure. I am not mad at these things, I know there are a plenty of differences between China and Canada. What I need to do is to enjoy and adjust these differences.

“Hello to a New Adventure!” Wayne Seto I still have 20 days to decide whether or where am I going to study. This question keep lingering in my mind, is it my country or Canada? People say a watched pot never boils but this time, it boils. Time is fleeting and I don’t have much time to make my final decision. It was a rainy day as I walked along the path of the garden, thinking about my future and benefits that I can get from the foreign school. “Is this adventure worth it? Without parents, can I do it?” I asked myself. I know parents are one of the most important persons in my life. They help me when I am in trouble, they encourage me when I need help, and they guide me to the right direction when I am heading to a wrong direction. Basically, they did so many things for me. “Can I really “survive” this?” I asked myself again, annoyingly. “Wayne! Come here!” a monotone voice that came from my behind. When I turned around, I saw my father sitting on the bench opposite of an old as well as an enormous tree. My father is a respectable and strict man. He always set high expectations for me; however, I had not lived up to his expectations. I jogged to the bench and sit beside him. “Have you decided yet?” my father asked solemnly. “I don’t know, these choices are stressing me out!” I answered. His face remained solemn, but what he did caught my attention. He raised his hand and pointed at the opposite side. “Look at that tree, is quite a journey for him to become that tall and strong right? Don’t you think he had been through some rough times when he was a small little seedling?” I saw no point of the question, I answered immediately “Definitely” My father smiled and said, “The tree and I have quite the same journey, we don’t have any help or support, I remembered before I came to Canada, my father looked at me and said to me, “You will make mistakes but you have to learn from it, as long as you have courage, it will make you mentally and physically stronger…...”” I felt like I was awoken by the sentence he said. I looked at him confidently and said: “I know what you mean, thanks for the lesson.” In my deepest heart, I said to myself “ Let the adventure begin!” “The turbulence on the plane is killing me!” I told my brother who sat beside me. I found out that I have airsickness since I boarded the plane when I was 5 years old. It was a vacation to Australia. I sat on a narrow,

cozy seat, wondering about what Canada looks like. Visualizing about big cities and amazing wildlife, it definitely exhilarated me. However, I have to overcome my airsickness first. “This is your captain speaking, we will arrive at the Edmonton International Airport shortly after.” the captain spoke with his deep voice. I woke up and peeked through the window beside me immediately and all I see is an enormous land without any building. I started to worry about the decision I chose. “Where are all the buildings I saw on the Internet?” I asked myself nervously. Stepping on the Canada land for the first time, it gives me a feeling of uncertainty and excitement. Cold and harsh wind in the summer night, all buildings are built in western style. Those things that I have never seen before from my tropical Islamic country. “Here is your new home!” my uncle said in his exciting voice. We looked at the condo and compared it to our old home. It looks so different compared to our old home. The condo is made up of woods instead of concrete, there aren’t any furniture in the house. “New environment is a new life, make sure you value and tidy it properly ’’ my uncle said. He is right, this is a new life, indeed a new adventure for me…... After visiting the downtown, I found out that Edmonton is a lovely as well as beautiful city. There is countryside with a lot of magnificent sceneries; there is Downtown Edmonton with tall and huge buildings. Furthermore, most people in Edmonton are nice and friendly, they help you when you need their help. It has been 8 months since I arrived in Canada, adapting to a new environment and cultures, eating new kind of food every day, it is so different. However, those differences don’t matter to me at all because I chose to do this. As long as I have courage, I can overcome obstacles, fear, and difficulties. “It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure!” - Ernie Harwell.

Life in Canada for an International Student Yini Tian I cannot remember which day, but I still remember it’s a phone call from my mom. It’s a normal conversation. “Hello, mom. What’s up?” “I just want to tell you that your father and I decide to send you to Canada next year.” “For high school?” “Of course not. You need to finish your junior high in Canada first.” “Hmm…OK.” “This is your last year with your friends, cherish it. Bye.” “Bye mom.” This is only a matter of time, I know. Actually, before I went to junior high, my mom already told me her plan. I would be send to a foreign school and immigration to there. I have no problem with my mom’s decision. That’s the reason why we choose an international school. My mom thought it might be helpful for my English. A year has passed unknowingly. In this whole year my mom was busy for my study permit and visa. At the moment my mom told me my flight date, I had truly felt I need to leave. Suddenly, I felt afraid, I’m afraid of leaving, afraid of new environment, afraid of all the people which I don’t know. But there was no time to regret about leaving, so I ignore all of my native emotions. I thought every thing will be fine, but the truth is I am wrong. First year in Edmonton, I live with my homestay, I guess it was a mistake. My room is in the basement there was only a tiny window can let me see the outside. I cannot see lots of sunshine in that room. “ I don’t like here.” That’s my first impression of that room. There was a chance too let me change my homestay, but I gave up, I want to give that room a chance. I was too naive. I don’t know what’s the winter looks like in Edmonton. I came from Shanghai. I can’t see lots of snow in Shanghai. So how to live in a city with lots of snow became a big problem in my life. At that time, I don’t know I still haven’t met the biggest problem of live in Edmonton. I already told you that I had a chance to change my homestay, but why I can change it? That’s because the school I chose is too far from my house. How did I solve this problem? I changed my school. If I know that would be my biggest problem, I would rather change my homestay. The school I went to is a local school, I met the biggest problem at there, I cannot make any friends. I know there are too many difference between me and them. We have different culture so we will treat problems in different angles, we have different interests so we don’t have same topic to talk about, we have different language, no-one want to spent to many time on a person cannot perfectly express herself. There are too many 27

differences between me and them. I am alone. No one can help me. I learned how to stay with myself. Since than, I could not leave music, music is my friend, I love to spend my whole day on a book or movies. I could be alone now, I even think I will be more comfortable to stay with myself. Now I left that school, that homestay. I went to a new school with lots of friends from my country. But I still feel I am alone, but I like it. I donâ€™t want to be too close with someone. I think I find my way to live, thatâ€™s a good thing to know.

One year Later â€“ Life in Canada Marco Tse

Now I will write about how I develop my life in Canada after a year later. How I try different new things here. The things I did which I have never done or try before in my life including those meaningful events I did. Also talk about where I travel since I traveled to Canada. Planning my future, my career, what if I will stay here a long time, what should I do? However I do not think about leaving Canada in the future. I did so many things here in Canada for example, developing my English, my lifestyle, and I did so much outdoor activities especially in the last winter. First I will talk about how I developed my English skills, for example, I am active to chat with strangers, talk about something in my daily life. Also in the store, if I what to know something about that product, I will ask the employee about it since the conversation started. I tried to continue the chat as long as possible, this can improve my speaking and listening skills, which were really helpful for me. Now about my lifestyle, since I moved to Canada, I wanted to be a part of the local community. I did change something different, in my menu, I tried to get rid of the Chinese food, having western food isnâ€™t a bad choice of me, I like it better than Chinese food. Foods for example, beef stew, lamb with Brussel sprouts, poutine, beaver tails, and even more delicious food I have never taste in my life. Furthermore, I changed my dressing style to be more casual, this act is to change to be a part of them. Before the first winter I lived in Edmonton. My parent told me that if you are a Canadian, you must be skillful in at least a winter sport, after that we went to the winter sport store, I preferred to became snowboarder instead of skier, so I brought my board ,all the gears like helmet, impact and snow pants and goggles .All I want to say about is this sport could cause you spend lots of time ,and money in it. After the purchase, I spent more than thousand bugs, five hundred bugs were spent only for a snowboard among them. Then, I waited for the season started. I took around five lessons for beginner to develop my skills. All the process was done in the early season. Furthermore, I went to the ski resort every weekend, having a snowboard ride for at least three hours, and this last for a whole Winter season. Not even a half winter season ,I can even handle double black diamond easily, I found out that i was skillful and flexible in boards, tricks on the board is just a piece of cake for me. Then I started to think about being a snowboard patrol and an Instructor of snowboarding. Eventually a week later, I did registered the snowboard patroller class also the exam, and it continued two days and I passed ,the second exam will be in the next season, as well as I will apply for the snowboard instructor class and the exam too. In the middle of the winter season, I keep developing my skills, and I went to a much bigger ski resort till the end of the season, I went to the Rockies three times for snowboarding, including the Lake Louise and Sunshine Village ski resort, it took me

four hours from Edmonton to there. I stayed there overnight every time, and snowboarding was lots of fun, the quality of the snow are more better than the snow in city, I enjoyed it.

(Left: On my road to the Rockies) mountain)

(Right: This picture was taken by me in March the view on top of the

After the Winter, I am going to start think about what Iâ€™m going to do in the summer, that are my plans, have the summer school, a driving lesson and a part time job. In the summer school, I have chosen the English course, and I have research in the website for jobs for me in the whole Summer. Stay in Edmonton did gave me a lots of opportunities for me to do whatever things I have never touch in my life before, a lot of new interesting things to try, and the biggest benefit for me is I have improved English a lot.

Boxing – My new Canadian Adventure Jessy Zheng I am an international student who lived in Canada already almost two years ago. This is my second time to write a story about my new adventures in Canada during my duration of study abroad. When I knew we should write it, I was thinking what I could write from last year. Because I thought I had not any exciting adventure in the past one year. After my mulled, I decided to write a story about my new habit--- boxing and my experience when I first came to Canada. I fell in love with boxing when I came to Canada in last summer holiday. I sat on sofa watched my sister practiced her boxing skills. I thought it was so cool and interesting, so my sister taught me some easy actions, I had practiced these actions with my sister a whole afternoon. I felt so tired and my muscles were so sore, but I liked the feeling. As expected I fell in love with it. My sister and her friends helped me to learned boxing. They practiced boxing more than 3 years so they are very good teachers for me. After I reviewed all the actions that I learned before, I will learn some new actions in my boxing class. I think good boxing skills, nimble footwork, and defense can help me become a good boxer. I love it, so I will try my best to do it. Now boxing is one of the most special, important and meaningful things for me. So many friends asked me why I chose to learned boxing. This sport is inadequacy for girls. In my opinion, whatever you are girl or boy, if you have anything you really want to do, you can try it. I remember the last night I spent in my home country. I lay in bed, wondering what my new life would be like. I thought many things I want to do when I arrived in Canada. I had such a good dream at that night. Before I left I heard so many good wishes from my family and my friends in ChongQing’s airport. I wanted to cry because I knew I can’t see them for a long period of time. But I also yearn for my new life. When I arrived in Canada, I first saw such a blue sky. I felt so excited and desperately because I will live in here in the few years. When I walked out of the airport in Edmonton, I saw my aunt. I was so happy because I didn’t see them for a long time. They gave me a big long hug. I felt so nice I have families in Edmonton and I can live with them. I thought I won’t feel lonely in the new place. After one week, my aunt’s family brought me to Banff. There’s sky is more blue than Edmonton and Vancouver. I like there’s flesh air and white clouds. It is a good place for vacation. I thought that summer vacation is better and more meaningful than my others. I first went to Lillian Osborne was September 4. It was my birthday. I was so happy because I met my new classmates and my new teachers. I also made some new friends in that day. This was a special birthday for me. Now that I have lived in Canada, I feel that I have changed my some values and views of life. I have a good new life in Canada. I like this country and this city.

Life in Canada Dianna Kwon Age: 16 Home Country: Korea (S.K)

In the early autumn, I arrived at the Edmonton Airport at night. It was the second time I had been to Edmonton. In August, I had visited Edmonton and Calgary so that I could decide for myself which city I would live in and go to school. I saw some schools in both places and visited some famous tourist attractions. After visiting both cities, I thought Edmonton was the best. I decided to come to Edmonton. And then I went back to Korea with my mom. In Korea, I dropped out of high school after completing only one semester in year ten. And I had a lot of farewell parties. My friends gave me a lot of letters and gifts. So I was so sad because I would be leaving my friends and going back to Canada. The first time I came to Canada, it was really cold. The temperature of Canada was 25 degree I could not believe that. When I was in Korea, I never felt that much temperature. The people I met said “Canada is the coldest country in the world” and “You can see Canada covered with snow”. I was really worried. Everyone was correct. Even I was wearing a thick winter jacket, I still felt the cold wind and cold air. It was quite painful to me. In Korea, the winters are much warmer than in Canada. The second thing made me feel totally different is the people in Canada. People in Canada are so kind and friendly and much nicer than in Korea. When I first came here, I frequently heard “I’m sorry” and “Thank You” over hundred times. Even they did not make any mistakes, they would still say “ Sorry”. This had never happened in my country. Because of these polite people, I quickly adapted to the life in Canada. My third adventure is English. Actually, I’m experiencing this right now. Studying English is my biggest adventure. Learning a foreign language is difficult and hard. A lot of people are not trying to do it, but I’m trying to do my best at English now. In school, teachers are teaching English skills and I’m learning it. That’s why my English is getting better and better. I want to learn it completely. And also my friends who are Canadians are very good at English they teach me many things too. So I could do well. This is my third experience. These are my experiences in Canada. When I first faced them, I was so nervous and lonely. But I tried and practiced it. Therefore, they are not big deals anymore. These are important to me because weather is important to everyone who is living in life and studying is my challenge and my goal. And also I will achieve it.

Adventures in Canada Pursuing Dreams Author: Marina Tian I was born in Oct. 26 in Qingdao, China. I came to Canada in August, 2016. Now I am studying in Edmonton, Alberta. I like this city because there are many beautiful sceneries and people here is so nice. I am very glad to be here and I will pursue my dream here.

Holding my dreams in Canada, stories for me in Canada start from the beginning of the August in 2016. When I was back in my home country, China, I had read the information about going abroad to study, and I moved to Canada after I talked to my parents. So we chose Edmonton for me to continue my studies. The biggest lesson for me is that I need to do everything independently. Independence is a bridge for me to have real growth. When I moved to Canada, there were a lot of awkward things that I could not avoid. The first time I went to the mall in the city, I was so nervous about communicating with others. I was afraid to talk to sellers in the mall although I need to buy something from the store. Usually I prevented mistakes by responding someone using one word or speaking really fast. One day, in my English class, my local friend in Canada said I was pretty shy. I didnâ€™t cry or laugh because the only reason I was a shy girl is because of the language. After that, I started to talk more to others and tried my best to make longer sentences for daily speaking and it was also the first time for me to be independent in Canada. I needed to communicate to others by myself. Another one is when I moved out and changed where I lived, I had so much stuff to take, and I had never done that by myself before. However, this time I have to move by myself. I called the moving company and went upstairs and went downstairs again and again. I did not have any friends who can give me a hand. I knew I was alone. From now, it becomes much better. I realized that I can finish more things by myself than I thought. So this is a challenging adventure in my life. Independence is a good thing for my personality in Canada because I need to face everything alone. Now I can handle every struggle by myself. And of course, I will keep pursuing my dream in Canada and exploring more beautiful things for my life.

First in Canada Author: SHUO YANG Home country: CHINA

In 2015, December, I took a very long distance trip in order to reach another country for my studies. After 11 hours I got to the airport of the country. I was in Canada. This is my first time visiting Canada. As I got off the plane, my heart beated faster. I was so excited, but was also filled with worry. My worry began after I got a card on the plane. Well, this was my first time I went abroad alone in so long distance. So that was really hard for me at that time. It was a landing card. At first I even didn’t know what it was, because I didn’t remember someone told me before. I tried to fill that out, but I only knew several words, so I wanted to ask someone besides me. I saw the girl beside me was translating with her phone, that was Korean. However I knew how to ask questions in English and I also practised several times in my mind, but I still didn’t have the courage to start the conversation. I placed it on my table and tried to fill out everything I knew. By chance I heard a guy near by speak Mandarin, I was so happy, and then I asked him to help me. He was so kind and he told me how to write my information and I finished it with the help of that guy. He was a great guy. Canada, everything was new for me. After I got off the plane, I was lost, because I didn’t know where to go. I looked around. There were so many different people, some were in a different clothes, some wear different hats most were black and white. I had never seen that before. I followed the people and I went down stairs. I was afraid to ask the people who worked there. Luckily there were Chinese on board. I stood in line waiting for the border inspection for a long time and waiting for my first study permit. That’s exciting. I waited a long time at the airport. After I got on the airplane, and as soon as sat down, I fell asleep and even didn’t hear anything before taking off. After one hour and a half, I got to the airport in Edmonton. Before arriving, I could see the city above and it was really beautiful. After I came out, I could see my uncle and aunt waiting for me. They gave me a big hug. I hadn’t seen them for more than 3 years. It was so excited. We got my bags and finally were on our way home. We talked a lot in the car because we have lots of things we wanted to say to each other. They brought me downtown to see some beautiful buildings because it was Christmas Day. Everything was covered in snow, that was my first time I saw thick snow on the ground and it was really cold. There were lights everywhere, on the trees, buildings. That was my first time, I visited where my grandparents and aunt’s family lived in. It was a really good city. During that night I stayed in my aunt’s house and the next morning, we celebrated Christmas by giving presents and having a really substantial breakfast in my aunt’s friend home. The food tasted really good. I ate a lot. The pancake was so great and it was the first I ate it, I knew I loved it, and it became one of my favorite food already. Now I have lived in Edmonton for 16 months and I love this city. There is one more thing really surprised me: Edmonton has snow for about 6 months. And means we had winter for about half year. First

time, too I always compare the temperature in Edmonton with Beijing. That’s really different. However the weather became better and there were more sunny days here. That’s great.

My First Car Author: Yuhan Shi Home Country: China

About 5 years ago, I never knew that I would come to Canada to be an International student yet, I hoped one day I could come to Canada or U.S and do some things that I couldn’t do in China, particularly to buy a fantastic and speedy car. I knew North America is a mecca for car lovers because people always say cars in America are much cheaper than they are in China. I couldn’t wait to buy my first car in Canada. Getting a car has always been my dream, I am crazy about cars .I love watching videos about cars online and imagining if I could buy a car myself. And my dream came true,unbelievably. I got my own car which is also the first car I have ever had in my whole life. When I first came to Canada, I found it inconvenient to go anywhere by bus so I talked to my father and told him I want to buy a car.He agreed immediately .Maybe he knew I really wanted to own a car.Because it would be my first car my father wanted me buy a Japanese car.It’s easier to drive than German car and much cheaper than German car ,so a Japanese car would be the best choice for me.I told my uncle I wanted to buy a car and he said: ok which brand you want?” “Uh ,maybe, Toyota?” “ Okay If I have free time I will call you and we can go to some car dealers and see what you want.’’ One day after school I was going to go home and my phone rang “That’s so strange ’’ I thought “ Generally nobody calls me. Let’s see who called me. I took out my phone and saw that my uncle rad called me.‘‘ Hey, Yuhan. I have free time today. Do you want to go, to the Toyota car dealer with me?’’ ‘‘Sure can you pick me up \?’’ “ Sure’’ When we got there it was almost 5 o’clock .There was almost no customer and a dealer talked to us. He wanted to know which model we were looking for. I told him I wanted Corolla because I know Corolla is the bestselling car in North America. You know, buy a cheap car to improve your driving skills is the best choice, so the first car must be a cheap car. When I test drove it, I realized that was a rem easy car to drive. The engine is smooth and powerful, the steering wheel is just perfect and easy to control. I have to say it’s a friendly car for a new driver. It was a nice car but just a little bit expensive, so I needed to bargain. If I got a good price, I would buy it. If I wouldn’t get a good price I would go to the Honda dealer and maybe I buy Honda Civic. 35

‘That’s a good car, but just a little expensive.’’ I told him “Hey, I can talk to my boss and he maybe can give you a discount, I will be right back.” After a while he come back with a smiling face:‘‘ You are so lucky. He told me if you buy it now you can get a good price.’’ He thought he gave me a good price ,and he really did. But that price was still over my budget, so I have no idea and I was so frustrated. I talked to my uncle‘‘ Maybe we can go to the Honda dealer, Civic is a good choice as well.’’ I told the dealer I wanted to go to Honda dealer He put a surprised expression and said‘‘ Just 500 dollars over your budget.’’ I told him I couldn’t buy it because I had to pay other fees like insurance. He said, ‘‘I will talk to my boss Maybe he can give us more of a discount”. While I was waiting for him I was worried .Will that Corolla be my first car? Ten minutes after he come back with a smile ‘‘He said ok. Deal?’’ ‘Very good, this is my credit card, I will pay the deposit and I will buy it.’’ I cheered. Finally I got my car the next day after school. I couldn’t even wait for the last class bell ring because I was too excited .What a new experience!

First time I came to school in Canada Andy Kim

Chapter 1 prepare to go to school The night before I had to go back to school, I couldn’t sleep because I was so nervous and my heart was fluttering. So before I went to bed, I started prepared to go to school, I put my pencil case and dictionary into my new back pack. I tried to go back to bed but my cousin who graduated university in Canada came into my room and she gave me advice. I had my cousin’s advice on my mind and I exercised to try to go to bed. But eventually I fall asleep at 2AM. The next morning, I felt a butterflies in my stomach. Of course meeting new friends are good thing, but I was worried about my English skills, I ended up taking a shower thinking “what to say” and “how to act”. After took a shower, I went to downstairs to eat breakfast. My uncle and aunt were there to give me some advice. They said to me “you’ll be fine”, “Don’t be nervous and take care of yourself”. Because of those were good word, it made me relaxed. After eating breakfast I went to the bus stop to ride the bus to go to school. Chapter 2 Where is my classroom? When I got to school, I didn’t know where to go. There were so many foreign friends and it was loud. Because of the noise, I felt more nervous. I took a deep breath and I went to the office and I told the teacher “I’m international student but I don’t know where to go”. She told me “go to room number 129”. I struggled a little, but thanks to office teacher, I was able to get class. Chapter 3 meet a lot of global friends When I entered the room, I saw a lot of international students like me. I sat on a chair at the back of the class and then I tried to find a Korean student but nobody was there. In the classroom there were many ethnic friends like Chinese, Mexican, Syrian, Vietnamese etc. when we first met, our introduction was self introduction. I was too embarrassed but I said “I’m from South Korea, my hobby is playing baseball and soccer and nice to meet you”. After I introduction myself a Korean kid came in. He was Korean and he became my best friend. Chapter 4 give advice to you I want to give you some advice. The first time in school you will be shy and afraid but if you say “hello” you will get close to your new friends. You could make good friend. And in class, it can be difficult to understand English but if you try your best you’ll get a good mark in class.

My adventure in Canada Author: Yifan (Eva) Wu Author biography: Eva Wu ,a girl from China ,16 years old .

Snow cover the mountain, snowflakes fall from the sky, winter is coming. But in Shanghai, winter is boring .We don't get much snow, that means we don't have many winter activities. However, in Canada winter seems new to me .Last year was my first year in Canada and my first experience of real winter. I tried plenty of winter sports ,and my greatest harvest is learning skiing .As the world become white ,my winter adventure started. The first time I went to skiing was in Calgary. I was very excited when I knew we were going skiing .We went to the rental store and rented our skis , snowshoes and poles and walked outside. The snow was soft and slippery ,it took me a lot of work to put on the skiing gears. But then another problem came to me, how can I ski to the magic carpet? I quickly move my skis but I found out myself going backwards in the next moment I fell on to the round. â€œFailure is the mother of successâ€?, I said to myself. After some tries I finally grasped it ,alternated and moved my feet forward and used the snow poles to push my body. When I reached the foot of the hill, I felt like It lasted for 100 years. Then I started skiing, I stepped on to the magic carpet and it brought me onto the top of the hill. At first I was nervous because I could barely control my body. I pushed myself to the edge of the hill and carefully skied down the hill. Surprisingly I didn't fall and I thought it was pretty easy, I tried a couple of times and I also tried to turn and stop. When I was thinking I was a genius, I realized that's the smallest hill which is just for practicing . I wondered if I could use the skill that I just learned, so l decided to challenge myself. I asked a friend of my father if she could took me up to a bigger hill, which she agreed. So we sat on a cable chair and it brought us to an easy hill. It was my very first time to sit on a cable chair, and I didn't even know how to get off, but maybe the success at the first time gave me the courage, I was quite confident. But things didnâ€™t turn out the way I wanted. As I tried to jump off the cable car, I fell on the ground and rolled over to a big snow drift, my whole body hurt a lot .but the good new was that I got on the hill and I could start skiing. The first part was really easy, I thought the big hill was not that difficult ,but until I saw the steep hill I knew I was wrong. The hill was not very big and long, but in front of the hill was a cliff, I needed to turn left immediately after skiing down the hill .Although the cliff had a protecting net and I learned how to turn, I was still scared. I followed my father's friend ski down the hill, but I was too fast. I could only turn myself a little bit, but not enough to avoid, slipping towards the cliff. At that moment, my mind was blank, but I sat down quickly and stopped myself all of a sudden . I felt pain all over, but at least I was safe. After this thrilling moment, we continued skiing. Even though I was careful, I fell down most of the time .In the entire afternoon, I kept practicing and learning new skills. I improved my skills and I was doing better than I was at the beginning of the day. Nothing ventured nothing gained, The experience of skiing was incredible for me, I fell in love with the feeling of skiing down the hill .Although winter has ended, my adventure never ends. 38

My first time skiing Author: Puk Siu Chau Arrived in Canada: Feb 20th, 2016 Home country: China Age: 16

I came to Canada on Feb.20th last year. It was my first time in Canada. When I arrived, I thought that the weather in the city named Edmonton was pretty bad. It was snowing and cold, and the temperature was about -10C. I never feet that cold in my life doesn’t have, because in my city in China, named Shenzhen, is in the southern of China and that place doesn’t have snow in the winter. The temperature in the winter of my home city is the same as the summer temperature in Edmonton, so I hadn’t tried some winter sports such as skiing. When I watched some skiing on TV, I really wanted to try skiing because I thought the sport was very stimulating. One day last year on March, my uncle drove me to the ski hill. When I first got there, I saw a very high mountain, and at that moment, I thought that I would not try to ski from that high place this time, but in the end, my personal behavior totally went against the thought. My uncle called a coach to help me to learn some basic and easy skills of skiing. At the beginning, I started on a small snow mount that was the lowest one. A half hour later, I mastered the lowest level, and I could do some complex movements of skiing, and of course I didn’t fall, so I decided to challenge the higher one. When I got the second highest mount, I was shocked by the height and felt a little bit scared. I thought I would fall down while I skied from that high place and get hurt. The second highest mount is much higher than the low one and really sharp. But finally, I beat myself to challenge this level. I looked at the ground, I was afraid again, but this time I encouraged myself and did ski. The speed was fast, and I worked to keep my body balanced. I skied down to the bottom safely which I was successful. I could ski from the top without any accidents or get hurt. At that moment, I was so glad and excited and wanted to try it again because it was so stimulating. I practiced more and more times after that. Gradually, I skied expertly and began loving this sport. And then, I reached the highest mount, but this time my emotions and confidence are different than the last time. I was relaxed and confident unlike the first time I skied, because I wasn’t afraid of the height. In the end, I could ski from the top very safety and easily. Of course I did very well, and my uncle couldn’t even believe that, because this was my first time skiing. This experience is important to me. It let me know what courage is and when I’m in trouble, I need to keep calm and find a way to figure out the problems.

“The Day I Struggled On My Way Home.” Author: Loi Tieu Arrived in Canada: September 2016 Home country: Vietnam

Two months ago, it was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. My friend and I planned to do some volunteering. He said we would meet at the bus station tomorrow and that was a first time I struggled on my way home… As planned, both of us met at the bus station on Saturday morning. We took the bus from Leger Transit Centre to Southgate. Unfortunately, the plan started sooner than expected so he and I didn’t have time to finish our breakfast. Wayne and I have different personalities and habits. Unlike Wayne, I’m a lazy guy. I always wake up late even during weekdays. On the other hand, Wayne knows how to cook for himself. I don’t. Even though he didn’t finish his breakfast, he’d already prepared a lunch for himself. And I just brought along 20 bucks with me. I wish I could do better when it comes to saving money for something I really want or need. When we arrived at Southgate, Wayne and I went to the hawker center and had lunch together. I spent all my money I had on snacks, a hamburger and a can of Pepsi. Lunch took up about an hour of our time. After that, we went back to the bus station and took another bus to Reuse Centre. That’s when the journey began. Reuse Centre is located in an unpopular area where only a few buses arrive. Wayne and I selected bus number 8 but the funny thing is we got lost. I thought it would never happen me. But because of my considerably unlucky friend, it was expected. I don’t know why but every time Wayne and I got together, unfortunate things tend to happen and when they did, we’d say “The curse is real!” It had become something like our motto. But it wasn’t completely his fault because we both chose the wrong bus. Instead of volunteering, Wayne and I took a “field trip” to Millwoods. But alas, neither of us had money left for the bus ticket. At that time we were so annoyed by our own stupidity that I tried to contact Victor ( an international student that I met at school ). However, only Wayne had his phone and I forgot to bring mine. It would have been easier if Wayne’s phone had battery at the time. I didn’t know why would he bring a phone without any battery life remaining! I said “We probably have to walk to Victor’s house so we can ask him to lend us some money. That’s the only way we can do for now.” And Wayne agreed immediately. Canada is a huge country, second biggest after Russia, so we guessed that we’d have a long way to walk. Wayne and I walked from Mill Woods to somewhere near Southgate and it took over 30 minutes! We arrived at Victor’s house and we were exhausted, cold and hungry. We pressed the bell outside the door. “Coming!” someone yelled from inside. Victor opened the door for us and started talking. Without interrupting him, we told him about everything that happened to us. As we spoke, a strange sound emanated from our stomachs. We were really, really hungry. “You guys must be hungry! Come in” Victor said inviting us into his home. “Um..yes. Thanks” we replied awkwardly. Thanks to our mistake, Wayne and I learned a small lesson about carelessness. It always reminds us that we have to check the destination of the bus not only the number. People make mistakes but they can also learn from them. That’s the lesson I learned. 40

My First Job Author: Ethan Labonte

There are a lot of things that you have to do to be successful in life one is to find a job and settle down for a bit get a little bit of cash and have some job experiences. I'm just so lucky to say that I got a job at Tim Hortons and I have already worked 14 hours and I'm having such a good time. Here is the story about how I got the job it was a wednesday after school and I have just came home and then we had to go out again I went to 3 place to apply I went to Dq,Tims and mic d all of the went well as I just got the one call on Friday that week saying that I got the job and I was so happy I was in class and just waiting for class to start and then like 20 minutes go buy and then I got a call in class and it was from tims and at first my teacher said to get off the phone but I was to happy to hear what she said to me. About 2 days later and I'm still talking about and then I'll get a call saying that you have to come in and get your information and uniform she said to come on Sunday at 9 and I did and then I work the next day which was Monday and I was and nervous scared and happy at the same time. The job i have is a real fun experience.

Lost in Edmonton Author: Jackie Xu D.O.B: 16-year-old Home Country: China Favorite food: hamburger Future Dream: enter a good university

I finished junior high last year. As a special gift, my parents took me to Canada. I was so excited that I could study in Edmonton, and it has already been a year since I came to this beautiful city. During this period of time, I have made a lot of friends and tried to learn a lot of new things. Among these experiences, here is an interesting trip made a very forceful impression on me. Last October Roy and I planned to take a trip to West Edmonton Mall, but we didn’t know it would be an unlucky, but enjoyable day. In my memory, it was a warm and sunny Saturday, and our trip started from Leger Bus Station at 8:30 in the morning. After nearly an hour, we arrived at West Edmonton Mall. “Wow, I have never seen such huge shopping centers as this mall,” Roy shouted loudly. “Yes, you are right. This mall is the biggest mall in the world,” I replied. “Did you eat breakfast?” Roy asked me. “Not yet. Well I know you came from Vietnam so I want to try Vietnamese food here. OK?” I asked. “Oh yeah. Let’s eat together,”Roy agreed. I remembered we ate a big bowl of beef rice noodles and some spring rolls. They were really delicious. Then we visited Galaxyland, Ice Palace and Sea Life Caverns. I thought they were pretty interesting and wonderful. At about 1:00 p.m. we decided to go back to Roy’s home because Roy suddenly felt terrible. “Maybe I have a stomachache now,”Roy said. “Are you ok?” I asked. “Roy, I’m sure you will feel better soon, let’s go!” I felt very nervous at that time. Because I don’t know anything. Without asking the others, I carried Roy to the bus station. It was my first time hanging out with friends in Canada. Because of no experience, I just vaguely remembered we were supposed to take No.2 Bus to go back to Leger. When we got on the bus, we were both really exhausted. Roy and I just sat on the seat. Without thinking too much, we all felt asleep. At around 2:00 p.m. the bus arrived at the terminal. When I woke up, I realized that we took the wrong bus. I held Roy’s hand and we got off. “Oh my god!” I apologized to Roy. “I’m so sorry Roy, I chose the wrong bus and we’re in Downtown now!” “Don’t worry, my friend. You’re my best friend. It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you.”Roy answered. “Thank you so much Roy! Let us ask someone. And we will come back soon.”I said.

However, I had spent all my money that I brought that day. And to my surprised, Roy left his wallet in the restaurant, so he lost all his money! I felt desperate at that moment. Both Roy and I were hungry and thirsty. We were like two lambs that lost in the forest. “Jerry, what should we do?” Roy asked. “I don’t know.” …… As soon as we sat down on the side of the road, a beautiful girl came over. “Do you need any help?” she asked. After we told her what happened to us today, she gave us 100 dollars and led us to a restaurant. When I wanted to say thank you so much to the girl, but she disappeared. We don’t know why the girl gave us 100 dollars, but we were so moved by the girl who helped us. Finally, we finished our lunch and Roy felt better. His stomach didn’t hurt anymore. , “Let me ask the waiter,” Roy said. “Excuse me sir. Would you mind telling us how to take the bus from here to Leger?” “Sure. No problem!” He taught us how to use my cellphone to search the bus schedule on the map. We thanked him many times. In the end, at around 6:00 p.m., we all got home safely. It was a wonderful adventure. After this experience, I understood Canadians are friendly. I understood the importance of helping the people in need; I understood never fail to be thankful to the people around us. I’m glad to see there are many nice people around me. I felt happy that I got an educational lesson on that day. I had a good dream that night……

Study Abroad Author: Alex Huo

Education is the most important thing in the life for everyone. Nowdays, more and more students want to study abroad. They think studying abroad is better than studying in their own countries. I gonna useing my own experiences to show how did studying abroad go. From going out of the plane to telling the story about myself, it has been almost a year. There was a lot of new happiness and trouble happened and I also changed a lot. In different ways, I think studying abroad is both positive and negative. Firstly, studying abroad is the optimal way for me to learn a language. There is no better and more effective ways to learn a language than join in another culture that speaks the language you are learning. English is used to be my daily language. Every new friends speak English to me and I canâ€™t stop improving it. All my English is still awful, I felt it was improved a lot. Secondly, I think studying abroad helps me develop skills and give me experiences that a classroom setting will never provide. Because of living in a new city, the streets are very different and if you don't memorize the way you went, you may probably get lost. Thirdly, studying abroad helps me to learn about myself. My dad always told me about my ideas and perspective are different from I was. The experience abroad let me reconsider my own beliefs and values. Then I went to church every weekend to take me to a higher level. But all the things have the other side. As usual, international students live in home stay alone. They can only go back the hometown twice a year even once. Even if some of them may have argues with their parents, as the time past, they still miss them. Studying abroad is not an easy thing. I enjoy the life in other countries although there are still some little troubles. Studying abroad is still a good choice to get new knowledge.

The First Time Author: Sarah Chen There are many first times in my life. Such as the first time I walked and cooked. These are wonderful memories. Sometimes successfully, sometimes difficult, but we have to take it to the bright side, so that your life will be more colorful. The first time I came to this strange country, I felt so lonely because I would be living without my family and I wouldn’t have any friends. Honestly, when I first came here, I was helpless. I didn’t know what I would do when I left my family. At first I was very lonely. Every day when I when to school, I only thought of when I could go home. After a few months, I gradually adapted to my life. I learned how to take care of myself. And I started to hang out with my new friends. I’m so grateful that these friends have always been there for me. Another time I challenged myself, I did an amazing thing that is, skydiving. Many people say skydiving can release stress. I just didn’t understand why so many people are going to challenge the impossible. Then I realized that everyone needs to take that step. Everyone needs to do their own for the first time. I enjoyed the process when I went skydiving. The first time I cooked, I messed up the kitchen at the same time. So after that, my mother never let me go into the kitchen to cook again. But when I came here, my aunt taught me how to cook. She encouraged and gave me confidence. I began to like cooking. Now I know that if I try hard, I will succeed. In life, there are so many first times that may become memorable to you. Because you may learn from these first times and realize some of the truth of life. We should remember the first time, whether the experience is good or bad, it is still important for us. We have to believe in the memories of this wonderful world.

My first day in the school Author: Leen Maarouf I am 18 years old and I from Syria.

On January 28, 2016, I arrived to Edmonton with my family. The weather here was different from my country. It was very cold, and it was also snowing. My aunt and her family were waiting for us at the airport when we arrived in Edmonton. It was the most beautiful moment, seeing my aunt, because it had been a long time since I had seen her. A week later, she took me to many schools to choose which one I liked and felt most comfortable in. I was nervous and scared to face a new culture and study a new language. My first day in school was difficult because I was worried about not being able to communicate with other students and teachers. I was not confident with my English skills. In addition, I was shy and terrified to make mistakes while speaking English in front of others. After the end of the school day, I returned to my home and I was depressed thinking about how I would overcome all these challenges. However, my mom encouraged me all the time by telling me I can do it, despite all the difficulties that I faced every day. She reminds me to do my best and that I will succeed. Subsequently, my teachers helped me a lot to learn English and the have courage to speak the language, as well as to attend university one day. They gave me confidence and courage to face challenges in school and be more effective in facing them. In addition, I saw how the people in school like each other, and work together. Also, they were taking care of each other like family. Thatâ€™s why it makes me feel more comfortable and safe. Altogether, I have seen how my English has improved and I have gained the courage to speak English with others. I learned from my experience that it is possible to accomplish goals if I face challenges wisely, and work hard to reach the expectations I set for myself. I am happy and thankful for all the teachers who continue to inspire and motivate me to reach my goal and become successful.

My first time to came to Canada Author: Joseph Wu

My name is Joseph Wu. I am in Grade 10. Today I will tell you about my first experience to come to Canada. This was my first first time to go to Canada. Of course, it’s my first time to have the biggest experience in my life about going abroad. But this time I went so far that I spanned half of the Earth. When I was on route to Canada, I felt an unsettled state of mind. This obviously include excited and nervous, but most of all is a little bit bewildered for the biggest challenges of changing my country, language, and more. When I arrived in Canada, my English was not good and I didn’t know the customs and habits in this country, so challenges were everywhere around me. These challenges like language made me feel terrible. During this time many friends came into my life, Although they are from different countries, they helped me overcome many problems and I felt the warmth of friendship in these strange surroundings. Thank God for bringing them to me. However, I remembered the first day that I had school clearly. That day, I went to school alone,and I felt very excited. When I didn’t know what to do first, some of my friends who were in Grade 11 or 12 told me that I should go to Room 129 to see the teacher and some other international students. When first class began, I made some more friends and my English improved a lot. After the first class, I also didn’t know where to have another class until I asked my friends again and after that, I had a basic understanding of the school. For me, the most unforgettable lesson was Food lesson. When I first came to this classroom, I didn’t know anyone, even all of my friends didn’t have this class. I couldn’t speak to anyone and didn’t understand everyone’s talking because my English was so bad at that time, so I felt very lonely in this class. However, many of my classmates were very friendly to me. They encouraged me to speak English and they spoke to me more slowly than they spoke to each other. This could help me understand what they were saying easily. Also, this let me feel unprecedentedly warm. I think I am lucky to make many friends in this distant and unfamiliar country. They give me the warmth of friendship and I will continue passing it on.

The first time skiing Author: YuKun (Scott) Qian Age: 17 Home Country: China Why come to Canada: For study. Learn English and engineering.

I have been in Canada for almost one year. In this year, I have had a lot of nice experiences. For example, I learned how to play handball, football and baseball in PE. And I also learned how to cook Canadian traditional food in Foods class. They are all precious memories. But now, I want talk about the most important thing that I learned in Canada. That’s skiing. When I was still in China, I lived in a big city which called Nanjing. It is in the southeast of China, so it is really really hot the whole year. Naturally, I felt very excited when I knew I would see snow here from November to April. That was so awesome to me. I still remember the last year. That winter was really cold. And my homestay told me that we would be going skiing in Jasper to have fun. I knew Jasper was a beautiful place, and I could relax, but I worried about skiing for the first time . So i decided to learn to ski. That was in December and that day was Wednesday. I booked a lesson in Snow Vally. I came home after school quickly and then I took my stuff to “Snow Vally”. It wasn’t far. After I arrived there, I started to put my equipment on. I tried to lift my boots up. They were really heavy. Then I took my helmet and gloves and walked out carefully. I almost slipped in the first step. I breathed a sigh of relief, and I thought it seemed so hard to ski. After a while, my coach took me to the bunny hill. I saw it was not very high and it’s slope was fine. So I’m full of confidence. But unfortunately, at the first try. I couldn’t control my body or my skis. So I slipped in front of a lot of kids. It was so embarrassing. The coach pulled me up and told me: don’t worry about it. Just follow me and enjoy it.” About three or four times later, I realized that I could ski down the bunny hill. “I know I can do it !.” I told myself. The lesson finished without my noticing it. Maybe my skiing skill wasn’t good yet and maybe that several falls hurt, but I enjoyed it very much.

My adventure in Canada Author: Yutong Zou

First of all, I have many kinds of adventure in Canada. Since I was born and lived in the south China, therefore, I found it hard to adapt to this harsh and cold weather the first year. Still, I tried a lot of adventures which I have never done before. My first adventure is skiing. Although this sport is pretty common in Canada, skiing on the mountain was really the first time for me. When I skied on the mountain, I felt cold and scared. I tried to keep balanced and to control my legs for changing directions. This first time I tried to ski was a wonderful experience that I will never forget. Secondly, my another adventure was to ride a roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall. Although I rode a roller coaster before, but I also scared on it. Since I heard this roller coaster had an accident that killed two people two decades ago because of a machine malfunction. During this time, I imagined I would fall down from the tracks and die in here. In fact, the roller coaster speed that I even havenâ€™t any imagined. After that, I have confidence to ride it again. Thirdly, during the winter, I had an unfortunate experience. Since the sunset is sooner than in the summer, I usually back home sooner than during the summer. But I took off wrong bus station in the winter night. I walked around the neighbourhood, but no one was there. I spent 30 minutes trying to find my home, and I failed. I was scared and exhausted. I was struggling to find anyone to help me. Fortunately, I asked a kind woman, and she was willing to help me get back home. This was actually an adventure for me because I tried asking for help in the foreign country. In conclusion, the above events were some of my amazing adventures in Canada.

First time sick at school Author: Wells ZhangFrom China My name is Wells, I'm 17 years old. I'm taller than most my classmate I’m a bit fat but i’m healthy. I'm an international student from china, in my high school Lillian Osborne, I study math, ESL Science and music. I'm poor in english. Because of that. my other subjects are badly influenced I work very hard every day, but I still stay in level 4. I have a lot of hobbies, like/such as playing computer games an hour everyday usually, but I don’t play them before tests. My favorite computer game is League of Legends. I study music from my childhood. I very much, so When I’m bored, I make music for me or listen to music. I like swimming， but I donot often go swimming， because my classmates joke with me, by saying that I wouild fall into the better botter of a pool when I go in the pool.

One day I studied english, math, and science. In my first class, I had English at 9:15 am at school, The teacher said ,”Let's play computer games.” We opened our computer to play Words spelt. We played for half an hour. Next the teacher asked me to find new words and write some sentences. I used plant and one word I forgot. Then the class was over. In my second class, I had math exam. We had three pages test. The test questions were difficult but interesting. Then the class was over. In my third class teacher said, “ Today we study about new science words. Get a computer and study.” Then we studied, but it was so boring then I slept in class until the class was over. So , that day I studied lots of new words, but I can’t remember anything, I feel bored.

My first time at the Airport - Alone Author: Josefina Bayelle. I am 16 years old and I am from the south of Chili, I was born in a city called Osorno, where I’ve been living all my life with my family. I’d like to have a big family like mine since in my family we are seven. I love cooking sweet things. I don’t have a favourite food but I really miss Chilean food or any food from my house. Currently I am living in Edmonton, Canada since August 2016 until July 2017.

The first time when I had to travel by myself was when I left Chile to come to Canada. I was so nervous because it was the first time I was going to be so far from my family and friends for a long time, 10 months, and that seemed to me as a very long period of time. My first flight was from Santiago, Chile to Toronto, Canada. Everything was perfect until I suddenly realized that I couldn’t find my passport, and I remembered that I had left it in the plane. I didn’t want to call to my parents because I thought that it was not going to be necessary. I talked with airport workers to ask for help, but at the time I was afraid to miss my next flight to Edmonton, Canada. So I called to my parents while airport workers were looking for my passport. My parents were not mad at me because they knew that I was already stressed, so my dad told me to be calm and just wait what the airport workers had to tell me. Finally I got my passport back after they had looked in my seat of the airplane were it was the last time that I saw it, but I was running out of time to catch the plane to Edmonton. Fortunately, the people at the airport told me that the flight was late, and I had time to board on the plane. What I learned for this experience is that I need to be more careful about my personal things. I had a horrible moment when I lost my passport so I don’t want something like this to happen to me ever again.

Pursuing Dreams Author: Tianhao Hou

“What do you want to be in the future?” My teacher always asked me this question when I was a child. Some kids said “A scientist.” Some kids said “A police officer.” Some kids said “A teacher.” And what about my dream? What was it? I was thinking while my teacher asked me: “How about you? Tianhao,What’s your dream?” ”I...I don’t know” I sputtered .When I was 10 years old, I asked myself: What was my dream? And I had no idea until I got first guitar lesson. When I was 15 years old, I had a chance to learn guitar. At the beginning, it was so hard, my fingers were so sore, and the voice what I made was so awful. After a few classes I wanted to give it up and I asked my mum: Why I chose it?” It will be a weapon: This weapon will help you to survive in this society” she said very seriously. So I kept learning guitar about 2 years. Now, I want to build my skills stronger, watch some videos about guitar, and listen to some guitar solos. Actually not just guitar solo. Every nice song can make me move. Songs like a lover’s prattle, a fever story, or songs like a commandment. Someone (I can’t remember who) said, “Music is a language that everybody can understand.” At a moment, in my brain voice sound : This is my dream. If I can communicate by music, that will be amazing. If you ask me how to pursue a dream, I could just tell you to do what you believe, which is correct. This will ensure you will have fun. Remember the most important thing is whatever you chose, it must be legal.

My personal Narrative-Our Lady Queen of Peace Author: Harper Xu Birthday:Dec 4, 2000 Home Country: China Harper is a delightful girl, this is her first year came to Canada. In this year she made lots of friends and learned lots of new culture in this multicultural country. She also met lots of adventure this year, but change can make people to grow up. Her story in interesting, she talked about her first field trip.

Step out of your house and go explore. Outside there are many unexpected journeys waiting for you. A voice from my mind came up. I’m always passionate in travelling. Traveling does not only broadens expand my horizons but also opens my eyes to the world. What's more, it refreshes me. The first field trip in high school means a lot to me. My story begin on November 30, 2016. My classmates and I took a bus to Our Lady Queen of Peace. Rain was drizzling from the sky for the whole day. The wind was roaring and I was cold because I was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans. There was a lake, forest, and a tepee. After a short rest we went boating in a small lake first. Ms. Radcliffe said, “Three people in a group!” My friend and I rented a boat to row in the secret lake. Though there were lots of my classmates and rowers, the surface was calm and smooth, but when I looked down, it reminded me the mystical lake appeared in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. There were many scary aquatic plants and a few elusive fish in the lake. However, this didn’t stop the adventurous me from seeking out a great journey. Before we returned the boat back to the dock, I had a chance to have snacks on board when it was less windy . We also took a lot of photos on board. That was wonderful. The next activity we did was a game to decide which team would get lunch first. First everyone got a half of pipe, a ping-pong ball and a silk scarf to show your team's color. Then we have to put the pipe together from high to low. Whoever first came would be the winner. And the exciting thing was my team won the game, so we got lunch first and a yummy lollipop. There was a hot dog, juice, and a bag of chips! I love chips! In the afternoon, we went to the forest near the camp to play the game hide and seek. We were in the two teams red and blue, and we had to tie a ribbon of own team's color on the waist. The rules of this game are that one team stays in the central location be the catcher and counts from sixty to one, and at the same time, the other team members find a place to hide anywhere they want. And if someone from the other team finds them, and pull the ribbon off, you are out. If whole team dies the other team wins. At the beginning my friend and I was hiding in the bushes. It is a really concealed place. When we got bored, that’s when we saw the snake. That’s really scared me! We were screaming and rushed out. Someone found us screaming, because of our we were fighting each other. Suddenly, the whistle announced the game was over, and we won! After this field trip, I realized that I’m so much into Mother Nature. The fresh air, the sun, the rain, the wind and scary animals like snakes. All these living things made me feel alive. I believe that I can immerse myself into nature and I just need some time no matter what the circumstances . This field trip taught me that as long as humans don’t continue to destroy nature, nature will not hurt humans. The outside world will always be a friend to me.

Adventures In Canada Pursuing Dream Author: Connie Wang. I am 16 years old. I was born in TianJin, China and I came to Canada for study on August 20th 2016. I am a student from Lillian Osborne and I have made a lot of friends in this school. I like Lillian Osborne very much and I am glad to be here. Nowadays , more and more students study abroad. That makes me wonder what the is difference between studying abroad and studying locally. I have studied in Canada for one year now so I experienced them and there are many things that I need to change and do. In China, teachers always assign so much homework that students need do it until ten o’clock even midnight . We don’t have enough free time to do any of our own interests. Therefore, I didn’t know how to use my free time when I began studying in Canada. This is a big difference between Canada and China. I don’t have too much homework and finish school very early, so I need to learn how to enrich my spare time first. It’s half year, I can take full advantage of my days off. I go to the rec center to exercise with my friend after school.Then I also practise calligraphy and play piano when I get home.I think it’s very important for our international students to learn self-management. Another key to the success of studying abroad is good English. Back in China, I learnt English in Anglicism. It’s different from Canada, so it’s the biggest challenge for me.I try my best to listen to English music and watch English movies to improve my English. The best thing of studying abroad is that you can learn and use English daily, which would improve your speaking skill. And that means you would also need to speak English when you go out to buy food and other things. Another reason is that you could make friends from here, and it could also improve language skills. In Canadian schools, volunteering is a significant activity. That’s different from China as well. In China, students only need to study and get high score, especially on the graduation examination, and as a result, they have no time to try different volunteer activities. Nevertheless, happy that I have a chance to study abroad and experience volunteering. I can look after children, do scorekeeping, sell snacks and so on. They can make me more experienced and give my life variety. For some international students, they need to live in a homestay. In my opinion, a good homestay family is the base of studying abroad. So, a good relation with homestay is also important. Studying abroad is very different from studying locally. I will do my best to enjoy the life in Canada.

The time I went to the Muttart Author: Rebecca Wolfe A couple weeks ago I went to the Muttart Conservatory with my family, It was really pretty in there. I especially liked the smell of the feature pyramid It smelled like spring time. The first pyramid we saw was the Arid pyramid, it had a bunch of Cacti in it and had an animal skull. It was really humid in there, though, which wasn’t that much fun….but it was ok. We went to the Tropical pyramid next, It had a lot rainforest like plants, It feel like it just rained when you walk in there which is really cool, The plants made it look like you were some place tropical which is kinda the point. My personal favorite was the Temperate pyramid, it felt like you were in a lush rainforest, I really liked “the lady in the grass” which is a bush or shrub that looks like a lady sleeping in the grass, there is a fish pond with big fish that you can’t feed them but it’s still cool. I really liked the tree that had lights in it that made it look like stars. The last pyramid we saw was the feature the one that smelt like spring time, It had many different things in there like art and a windmill; they have many different themes throughout the year, The theme was spring when I went. The last thing we did was go to the gift shop I bought crystal for 50 cents a piece. I learned the names of the different plants like the golden barrel cactus that is found in North America, I can’t wait to go back again.

Canadian story, short but full. Arthur Li I came to Canada in August 22th, 2016. It was a very significant moment of my life. When I got off the plane, the sky was clear and the smell of the clean and fresh Canadian air felt amazing. Everything there increased my desire to stay in Canada. My uncle took me to his house, and while he was driving I started enjoying the beauty of the nature through the car window. That was the first time I happened to enjoy the harmony of people and nature. On the first weekend my uncle took me to buy groceries. That was my first time coming to West Edmonton Mall. I think that whoever comes there will be shocked by its huge size. It's so big that I wasnâ€™t able to go to all the stores and didnâ€™t finish shopping. When I came to school for the first time, a group of senior students welcomed me in front of the gym. It was surprising how despite of being in a foreign country I felt like I was home. However, at first it was hard for me to get used to the life in Canada. Maybe it's because Canadian education was so different from what I was used to... But after I made friends life became a lot easier as they could understand and support me. It was the biggest achievement of my first two months in Canada.

We cooked together, played together, together to make mistakes, now he is my best friend, although do meal unsatisfactory, but we all enjoyed the process. These have enriched my life.

Because I like painting, painting can be the most beautiful moment recorded on paper, like anime, of course, I also can't draw some reality of what, can only draw anime, this may be my only special skill.

This is my Canadian story, short but full.

Adventures in Canada Yunseo (Cathy) Cho

I arrived in Canada 2 months ago, March 14th, 2017. I was very excited about come to Canada to study. I had spent my middle school times to preparing for desired high school. Daejeon Foreign Language High School, this school selects competent and intelligent students every year. Students who wants to enter this school have to pass 3 steps of tests, so we needed high scores to pass. We also need to visit this high school and have an interview test. I passed these tests and entered as a Japanese major. In this school, high English skills are required because thereâ€™re lots of activities and classes which are proceeded in English. For example, we have an English debate class, or an English free talking class. So I wanted to come Canada and improve my English skills. There are lots of advantages for students who have studied in foreign country. On the last day of my high school in Korea, my classmates have prepared a surprise party for me. It was so impressive, and I was very moved. On the last weekend in Korea, I spent my time with my Korean friends. I had a great time. I arrived Canada at March 13th, 2017 , and April 7th was my first day at school in Canada. I was very surprised because Many things were so different from schools in Korea. School ends 7 hours earlier than Korea. There are unique subjects like drama class or food class. Students can choose their own subjects, and this was different from Korea too. I was little disappointed that there is no school cafeteria. So it was inconvenient when I forgot to bring my foods. On the other hand, I like school events and foods here. I could have time knowing culture and traditions of diverse countries. Undoubtedly I miss my friends and many things in Korea, but on the whole, I like my friends, school events, and unhackneyed classes here. I had a great time in Canada, and I hope my English skills be more improved.

Adventure in Canada Sarah Gramlich

This is an adventure, I climbed to challenged myself with fear, and stressed, but the time was 3:00.

This is an adventure, I tried something new today, So, I have climbed the steepest mountain ever.

This is an adventure, I had seen something new I saw the top of the mountain.

Living in another country Krystal Lam Five months ago, I came to Canada from Hong Kong with my family. I felt lonely and scary. When I got out of the airport, I felt very cold and uncomfortable, because I took the plane for a long time and Edmonton’s weather was colder than Hong Kong. We went home by my dad’s car. When we arrived home, I ate a lot of food, because I didn’t eat anything during the flight. During the first week, I stayed up late and got up late every day because of the jet lag. After one week, my dad took me to this school. And I was very scared that time, because I was afraid of strange place. That day, I talked with one teacher and had a test. That test relates to which level class I would get in. So I worked hard in that test. But in that test, I didn’t understand anything, because my English wasn’t good. When I finished the test, I met Ms. Radcliffe. That was the first time I met her. She is so kind to me. But I was afraid of talking to anyone in English, so she spoke much slower that I could understand what she say. And she had patience to hear what I said. After she understood my basic situation, she took me to walk around and introduce this school to me. And then I went home and prepared to go to school next day. The first day I went to school, I felt really shy and scared. I went to the office and ask the teacher for help. Then Ms. Radcliffe came to office and brought me to the classroom. When I came into the classroom, I felt very shy because all the classmates were look at me. Then Ms. Hartley introduced herself and all the classmates to me.

That day, I met many friends, and they are really kind to me, they helped me a lot. And now, I think my English improve a lot.

My study life Donna Wang I decided to come to Canada, at May, 21th, 2016. Now I have been stay there for three months. Because I thought study abroad was suitable for me.

And I have a big seriously problem which I don't need to think about in China. It's I must control my life by myself. Most of students in China they can't control themselves, me either. I like to play my cellphone. That was the most teenager's problems!

That is my school â?¤ď¸?

I really like my school. My teachers are very friendly. And my friends always help me a lot. This is a big family. I love Canada.