Exchange with Lakefield School, Canada

By Celia Arellano, Marta Armada, Lucas Burgos, Álvaro Diez & Leticia Galvín (4ºESO)

In March and April this year, five pupils from 4ºESO took part in our school's exchange programme with Lakefield School (Ontario, Canada). Five of their pupils came to stay in Spain with their exchange partners and their families for three weeks in March, including spending Easter here, and then all ten pupils went to Canada for the return leg in April. Here, our pupils tell us all about their experience.

Tell us about the school and your daily routine

When we arrived we realized the school was huge, in fact the average time to get from one room to another is 5 minutes. The facilities available were huge and amazing; they had tennis courts, soccer and rugby fields skiing slopes, and even a lake! There are a lot of big differences between the two schools. The first one is the location, Lakefield is surrounded by a lake, forest and nature. However Santa María is in the middle of the city. The only buildings that are close to Lakefield are the boarding houses: the village of Lakefield is 15 minutes' walk away. Therefore they have a shop inside school where everyone can buy whatever they need. More people were boarders than day students because this school was in the middle of nowhere.

In Lakefield we didn't really belong to a class, its not like in Spain when you are, for example, in 4ºA. Here every teacher has their own class, and depending on what subjects you've picked, you go to certain teachers' classes. The school is really multicultural, because you can meet lots of people from very different countries, such as India, Mexico, Bangladesh, Korea, etc. This makes LCS very enjoyable, and there is not really a big, important trend that everyone follows, but there are many different interests and points of view from people all around the world.

The typical day at school starts at 8:30am at the Chapel with announcements and grads usually give speeches every day. Classes started at 9:00am, and we only had 4 periods a day (but the classes were 75 minutes long) with an hour and 30 minutes break for lunchtime and rest. We finished school at 3:30pm, except on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which were half-days. On these days we had spare time in the afternoon, and we could go to Lakefield town. After school had finished, at 3:30pm, we had sport, and you could choose from things like football, tennis, hockey, rock climbing, fitness and windsurfing. At 5:30pm was dinner and then the boarders went to our boarding houses and had open houses (time when you can go to whichever house you want). At 8:30pm everyone had to be in their houses and start being ready for bed.

Their educational system is based in proving why what they have learned is that way so basically in classes they do more experiments and practice than in Spain. Personally I think that our knowledge is wider, however we do not know how to apply it in real situations. One of the main differences is that doing a sport is mandatory so everyone has to do a little bit of exercise, this exercise is compensated with the amount of fat that is in every meal.

How is domestic life similar or different to Spain?

Álvaro: My host family has been very kind to me, they have offered me everything I needed and they included me in the family just like another family member. The main difference is their food routine. They have breakfast just like us at 7am or so, then lunch is usually at 11am and dinner is at 5pm. Another interesting fact could be that here “heathy food” is actually very similar to the Mediterranean Diet.

Lucas: My host family were vegetarian. When I first heard this I thought that house was going to be hell for me, but actually, it showed me how to eat better. The first day the mom got me all sorts of winter clothes from this big closet that they had so I could be warm, and the second day she took me to the supermarket to let me choose snacks so I wouldn't be hungry. My host family couldn't have been better.

Marta & Leticia (boarders): The house in general was nice and tidy, and the bathrooms were much cleaner than we expected. On the first floor there was a common room where we all came together for meetings, birthdays or just movie time. We had to keep our rooms clean, of course, but there was a very funny cleaning lady too, called Jackie. Our Heads of House were two women taking care of all the girls in the house, and they were so nice to us.

What trips or other special events did you enjoy most during your visit?

Celia: We went to Toronto to the Roger’s Centre Stadium to watch the Blue Jays vs Boston Red Sox baseball match. Our seats were pretty good, we were behind the batter and we could see everything. Baseball matches are usually a bit slow or boring so the spectators started to sing and did a Mexican wave. It was great fun. In the 4th inning we went to buy some food and souvenirs from the team’s merchandising store. I practically bought the whole store for my little sister and I! At the end Blue Jays lost the match but no one minded or got angry and we had a lot of fun.

Álvaro: It took us 3 hours to get to Niagara Falls since we had to go through Toronto, famously known for its horrible traffic. When we arrived we had lunch on our own and then we walked to the falls. Although I had been there before, the falls amazed me again with their incredible power: 2,271,247 litres per second falling 50 metres and making a huge splash is a big deal! Firstly, we watched a movie that showed how the falls were formed. Then we went to the “Behind the Falls Journey” in which we could walk behind the falls. It was freezing cold there! The hallways were full of interesting facts and anecdotes about the falls: from the visit of Prince Harry to the intrepid lady who went down the falls inside a barrel and survived.

Leticia: The Walk Around the World event has been held in Lakefield School since their opening day due to all their international students, who had to cook a traditional dish from their country and display things from their countries on a table in the school. As Lakefield is an international school, the corridor was crowded with people and food. It was amazing to see such a variety of nationalities. The only thing you needed to do was to take a plate and walk around so you could taste the huge variety of dishes. This day was our opening act at this incredible school and I think we did really well. Everyone came to our table and was very enthusiastic about our display, asked for more food and wanted to learn some dance moves, but personally, the best thing about that day was meeting the other Lakefield students for the first time.

Marta: On Thursday April 14th, LCS participated in Earth Day. This event was all about nature and

activities that made us enjoy a day outdoors and help our environment. Leticia and I woke up very early in the morning so we could go canoeing while watching the sunrise, reflected on the massive lake beside the school. We put on some life jackets, got some paddles, took a red, shiny canoe and pushed it onto the lake. The water was extremely cold, but anyway it was very calm and the views were absolutely stunning. After paddling, we met with all the Grade 10's. The aim of this meeting was to create presentations about some charities. Then, we had to convince other grades which charity was the most suitable to receive the money that the school provided. Later on, Leticia and I signed up for an activity called Tough Mudder, in which we did some tasks that involved running around the school and into the forest, sliding, crawling and rolling on the ground... full of mud! After a charity lunch based on soups, we enjoyed a wonderful and moving drum circle performance. The two women in the show pretended to be native Canadians, and they performed some old songs and dances. Then all the students were divided into groups to pick up the garbage in the areas around the school. Our group, the exchange students, went along the road for 30 mins. When we came back we just went to the waterfront and relaxed mostly for the whole evening with some friends, watching the sun going down to finish our amazing Earth Day.

What did you learn about different nationalities?

Marta: When the pupils from the Southern Hemisphere thought about Christmas, they thought about summer, beach and sun, while we think of snow and cold. They celebrate the New Year in their bikinis and sunbathing! I also learnt a few things about Korean and Australian food and recipes that I could try to prepare now.

Celia: Asian students choose a new name when they are staying abroad.

Álvaro: I was surprised that there are a lot of Spanish students studying and boarding there. Spanish, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more. All cultures living together without racism of any type. That is what I liked the most.

Leticia: I think in Spain generally speaking we can be quite racist, however one of the problems that causes that is because most people don't have the chance to meet people from other countries all over the world. Meeting people from different backgrounds, nationalities, traditions and ways of living is one of the greatest things in life: learning how they live, and knowing that deep down everyone is the same. Your skin colour doesn't make you better or worse. I'm really picky about people's ways of eating, and the Chinese are very different from us in that aspect. The thing I've learnt is to control myself and not to say anything at the dinner table, because that's the way they do it. Maybe for them our way of eating is horrible too.

What did your exchange partners think of their stay in Spain?

Lucas: Rebecca got a really good impression of Madrid. She really liked how close everything was, and if something was a bit far you could take either the metro or the bus. She also really liked that the school required more work from the students, which made us smarter and more hard-working.

Marta: Sarah was a boarder in Lakefield, so I think what she enjoyed the most was the warm welcome she was given by my family. She also told me many times that she was so thankful for all the home-made and restaurant food she tried in Spain. She had some trouble with Spanish though, because she had been learning the language for only the last 5 months.

Álvaro: I think our exchange partners really enjoyed their stay here in Spain because they were very sad to go back to Canada. They loved the welcome they got both from our families and the school.

Leticia: It was a very engaging and memorable experience for them. They got to experience Spanish culture and they met some extremely nice people and had a very good time. They loved our food too, and thought our school was very nice.

Celia: My exchange partner was Anna Natsu and over the 6 weeks that the exchange lasted she became a really good friend. She always said that Spanish people are very friendly and

welcoming, and that our food was really good. I think she had a great time here because she didn't want to go back to Canada.

What were the best and worst aspects of your experience?

Lucas: Maybe something that I didn't enjoy was having to take a car every time you needed to go somewhere and not being independent. The best aspect I think could be my host family, who were always organizing plans for me and for the rest of the students, and they were always really sweet and kind.

Marta: The best thing I got from this exchange was the amazing people I met along the way. I learnt a lot from them, we had so much fun all together, and I know that someday we will meet each other again. Other than this, I also had the chance to improve my fluency in English. Unfortunately, I felt a bit homesick, and I missed my family and friends from Spain

Álvaro: Looking back at the experience I have came to the conclusion that in Europe education is way better than in North America. Although in North America education is focused more on personal development rather than academic knowledge.

Leticia: One of the best aspects is that I met a lot of people from a big variety of places and different back grounds. Also that I learned to appreciate my school in Spain, because in Lakefield teachers don't really care what their students learn, or how much attention they paid in class or how much they learnt; they treated them like in university. And for me that's not the type of education I want to get, therefore I've realized that how teachers care for us is really important.

Celia: The best aspects of this experience are the opportunity to improve our English and meet wonderful people. The worst ones are being that far from my family and the food that was too tasteless and fatty.