7A Anny Yiu British Columbia: Awesome Days 2008 / Aloha! Vancouver!
The last summer holiday I have during my secondary school life was not meant to be an ordinary one. Instead, it was the most exciting and meaningful holiday I’ve ever been before.
It first started with a Hong Kong student ambassador program which jointly organized by Hantec Group, Education Bureau and Ming Pao. Since this is the first time for the Education Bureau to involve in contest as such, it is thus more widely recognized in HK.
Thanks to teacher’s recommendation, I was able to participate into this competition. To make the ambassadors fully equipped for spreading the spirit of Hong Kong, one of the awards would be a two-week cultural exchange to Vancouver in Canada. So after three interviews, I was notified to be chosen as one of the HK ambassadors and could be sponsored for half of the traveling expenses. The other half was paid by the school in supporting students to be taken part in exchange program.
The whole trip was fantastic. Every ambassador would be allocated in different host families. Hence, we were virtually exposed to an English-speaking environment. In the morning we would take lessons about the history of Canada such as the Golden Rush and the Winter Olympics in 2010 hosted by Whistler (one of the snow mountains near Vancouver). Afterwards we would visit places which were related to the knowledge we had just acquired during lessons.
The most memorable experience I’ve ever encountered was the trip to the British Columbia Museum in Victoria, one of the islands near the Greater Vancouver. We had taken a close look on the poles made by the Canadian aboriginals which commemorate special occasions the family just came across, such as wedding or giving birth to a child. Each pole tells a story. This raised my interest on the pole history which even now I still find the irresistible charm about it.
Another point I would like to mention was the visit to two elderly houses: one to the Simon K. Y. Lee Senior Care Home, another to the Hawthorne Senior Care Home. Due to the most distinctive feature of both is the nationality of the residents in the care house, when I compared them together, I found the local elderly more cheerful than the Chinese. This might have something to do with the cultural and family background - Chinese elderly living in the West will feel like aliens and they would feel abandoned by their children if the latter send them to the elderly centre. Yet the Westerners found it extremely normal for their kids to leave the house and start living by themselves.
I had a great time with my host family. They got three kids. I went picnic with them, visited the zoo and the Whistler Mountain during the weekends. During my stay in Vancouver, one was my host mom’s birthday - we held a surprise party for her which was really a lot of fun. The idea of spending time with the host family was essential for a successful cultural exchange because you will know the life of the locals first handed instead of merely being a visitor to a foreign country.
Finally, I would like to thank my school, as well as the organizers who gave me the opportunity to participate into such a wonderful program. Being a HK student ambassador, I will continue to upgrade myself and seize every chance to learn. If there’s a chance for you to participate into this program, trust me, you are going to regret it --- once the application date is already due.
