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Video on Exchanges & Weekends
We are sorry, we didn't had the video for the meeting but here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17nrn8hI--I
Canadian pen-friend and families
Every French student was really happy within their host families! Most of us used to say that Canadian people are such nice people! They are both friendly and really kind. We were very comfortable in our houses just like in our own houses, thanks to the host families!
Our pen-friends also were nice with us, fortunately! They were all so exited to see us, which made me think of the first day when we arrived in Canada and both Canadian and French students were looking for their pen-friends. It was so nice to spend time with them and every single time I questioned my friends about their pen-friends I could see a smile on their faces when they talk about them and it was really cute!
We were most of the time with them (at school, during the weekends and we waited for them when they had sport …) and nobody complained about that because we all loved our pen-friends and we always do!
During the exchange, we noticed some differences between Canadian families and French families’ customs. Indeed some of them didn’t take their breakfast in the morning because they don’t have enough time and they had to hurry up! So instead of taking a breakfast they eat something else late in the morning.
For lunch, Canadians, especially teenagers are used to eating sandwiches, bagels, donuts …
And the don’t eat at the canteen (some of them) because they buy their lunch at school or out side.
Finally, they didn’t eat every much because they are used to eating all a long the day and for diner they are not really hungry but after diner, they elated something else!
I knew that Canadians or Americans eat more than us but I was so amazed to notice how much they eat!
Which makes me think of my family because they gave me a nickname which was « robot » because I was never hungry and I don’t eat a lot ,it was so funny…
We also noticed some differences between Canadians and French houses.
Indeed, first of all, the houses were much bigger with basement, speed out! Besides their furniture’s were special enough such as couches, tables, beds…. And there were carpet every where in the houses!
Then, the kitchen was really big and modern with news appliances (the big fridge, for example). More over, the kitchen was opened, that is to say there was not a door in the kitchen and we could see the living room through the kitchen!
Finally , lots families owned huge garden with trees and without fences (for most of Canadians)in which they are used to organizing barbecues , parties and spending good time during summer !
This photo is a basement and several Canadians have it in tar house and they put furniture’s there and they are used to watching movies there just like in cinema!
It was really hard for us to say goodbye when the trip came to the end because we were so attached and so close with our families, especially with our pen-friends than some of us cried! Because we wanted to stay again there but they say that all good things come to an end and it true but it hurts so much! Besides, lemonade every one is still in touch with their pen-friends / families.
This exchange was really awesome and joyful. Although we didn’t do some activities that we were supposed to do because they were cancelled because of the weather, we had lots of fun both at school and at activities! According to me, this trip also was so good thanks to the host families, including pen-friends because they were so nice and lovely with us and I think I’ll never forget this wonderful journey.
French students |
Canadian exchanges |
BARABAS Fanny |
HOWARD Robert |
BEGUELIN Wanda |
CHIRIS Tanya |
BERNARD Lauranne |
MARSHALL Kylie |
BERTHELARD Romain |
still unfound |
BLATTES Timothé |
TEPERA Chris |
BOGIK Chris |
still unfound |
BURNICHON Meryl |
SMITH Alanna |
CADE Sara |
AUSTIN Chris |
CERONI Loïc |
OSBORNE Benoit |
CHAMBON Laurie |
BROWN Rebecka |
CHAROSSE Johanne |
still unfound |
CHAVANELLE Maud |
TALASKA Holly + MADDEN Holly |
CHEVASSUS Hugo |
SMITH Jake + PROVENCHER Stephen |
DURAND-CHAPUIS Sophia |
HENDERSON Taylor |
FERANDJI Marie |
ROUBOS Brant |
FLEURY Lauranne |
NUGENT Kattern |
GERARD Laura |
still unfound |
GRAND Margaux |
MICHENER Melanie |
GUYOT Joris |
BODNARUK Jordan |
LEGROS Pierre-Yves |
still unfound |
LOUISE Orane |
HIRON Ceresa |
MIGNO Oumanie |
CARR Jesse |
M'PEMBA Mireille |
DAVIDSON Lindsay |
PERRON Chloé |
HIGGINSON Danica |
PLOIX Cédric |
PUTCHINGER Marcus |
POMMATEAU Alex |
BULL Taylor |
REBOULEAU Guillaume |
MALLARD Sean |
RIVIER Charlotte |
Price -Jones Heather + Price-Jones Alex |
SAUCOURT Lisa |
GALBRAITH Amber |
SEGUI Guillaume |
still unfound |
SOCCHI Floriane |
MERCIER Haiey |
SOUCHERE Adrien |
still unfound |
SOURTY Marjolaine |
SEYMOUR Courtney |
SUC Ariane |
STODDART Elissa |
TAMBOU Alicia |
PERRYMAN Kimberly |
TAVIOT Florent |
DECOLE Andrew |
TELLIER Benoît |
still unfound |
TISSRAND Benjamin |
still unfound |
VALENDRU Fanny |
ROLSTON Hannah + MADDEN Sierah |
Weekends
We had two week end during this trip =) and wee all spent diffently this time with our canadian families! Let’s see what french students did during those week ends !
Different activities :
-Trip to Toronto : Meryl BURNICHON, Laurie CHAMBON, Sophia DURAND-CHAPUIS, Alex POMMATEAU, Maud CHAVANELLE, Charlotte RIVIER
Scientific center of Toronto: Marie FRANDJI, Floriane SOCCHI
Eiter center (shopping): Laurie CHAMBON
-Shopping to Barrie : Sara CADE, Wanda BEGUELIN, Sophia DURAND-CHAPUIS, Ariane SUC, Alicia TAMBOU, Chloé PERRON, Margaux GRAND, Mireille M’PEMBA, Maud CHAVANELLE, Lauranne FLEURY
-Orillia sightseeing: Mireille M’PEMBA, Sophia DURAND-CHAPUIS, Maud CHAVANELLE
-Pancakes House (Shaws’) + Maple sugar and syrup Bush: Mireille M’PEMBA, Laurie CHAMBON, Sara CADE, Lauranne FLEURY, Wanda BEGUELIN, Charlotte RIVIER, Marie FRANDJI, Fanny VALENDRU,
-Restaurants: Mireille M’PEMBA, Alicia TAMBOU
-Parties: Mireille M’PEMBA, Laurie CHAMBON, Alex POMMATEAU, Maud CHAVANELLE, Chloé PERRON, Wanda BEGUELIN, Floriane SOCCHI, Joris GUYOT, Margaux GRAND,Fanny VALENDRU, Hugo CHEVASSUS Charlotte RIVIER
-Prom (in an other high school): Joris GUYOT,
-Wathcing movies in theater: Mireille M’PEMBA, Floriane SOCCHI, Sara CADE, Margaux GRAND,Loïc CERONI
-Watching plays: Alicia TAMBOU
-Watching Hockey Games: Floriane SOCCHI
-Church: Mireille M’PEMBA, Meryl BURNICHON, Hugo CHEVASSUS
-Bowling: Lauranne FLEURY, Sara CADE, Alicia TAMBOU, Ariane SUC, Marie FRANDJI, Chloé PERRON
-Mini Golf: Alex POMMATEAU, Sara CADE, Floriane SOCCHI
-Paintball: Hugo CHEVASSUS
-Lazergame: Floriane SOCCHI, Fanny VALENDRU
-Bow and Arrow: Fanny VALENDRU
-Playing Hockey: Fanny VALENDRU
-Horse Back Riding: Mireille M’PEMBA
-Dance competition in Kitchener “All Out Dance” : Alicia TAMBOU, Chloé PERRON
-Skating Competition: Ariane SUC
-Casino Rama Hotel : Sophia DURAND-CHAPUIS
-Carving galery: Laurie CHAMBON
-Royal Ontario Museum: Sophia DURAND-CHAPUIS
French and Canadian Exhange
From March 26 to April 9, a trip full of emotions and adventures!
On the 26th of March
2009, our dream was to fly over the rainbow.. and so high.
‘The plane leaves at 7
pm, The plane leaves at 7 pm…’ It was in all our heads. Oh ! What about
our faces that morning ? Hum… Everybody looked very tired, but excited
too !
Parents and friends looked sad and worried for some of
them ^_^ ‘Mum, Dad, I’m going to check
in one bag, and then we have to go through security.’ We saw tears on
their face when we said those sentences.
After a moment, we entered the first plane to go
to London Heathrow. Some of us slept during this one hour flight. When we
arrived in London, we were crazy about the shops at the airport !
Everybody thought ‘Wow, let’s go now ! And let speak English ! Right
Mrs Michaux ? =) ‘
We spent 3 hours in
Heathrow, and we took the 8 hour plane
for Toronto ! We listened to music, we watched movies and we talked to
each other !
‘Oh please ! Where
is number one ? And number five ? Please !
- One, two…’
Toronto… I love You !
‘That’s an American
school bus!’ that girl said. Yeah, really. In fact, that bus was really
more than a normal bus. Every day, we could see our French friends, and talk
and laugh and cry, and complain ! Really good moments in this yellow bus.
Okay… ‘Hum please Mrs. ? What's today ?
- The 8th of April you know…’
Oh no =’( That day
was so sad ! Oh, a lot of people cried. We had a free hug party next to
Park Street Collegiate. ‘I will miss you’ , we heard that sentence a lot, on
the 8th of April 2009.
We entered our favorite
school bus for the last time, and, with tears on our faces, we said ‘Bye’ to
our Canadian friends.
We took the plane in Toronto in
the evening… Nobody talked. Some of us were sleeping, or just
thinking about that original trip.
‘Hi Mum, Hi Dad.’
Canada… I miss you so
much …
It was not the same architecture as in France, the high school looked like a rectangle, it had no real shape. This high school had three floors, and it seemed that each floor was devoted to a grade because most of the time our exchange students stayed on the same floor.
Many of the class doors had a small window so we could see inside the class.
In the corridor they were lockers. The lockers are very important in Canada, students put everything in their lockers : jackets, food, pictures, mirror, books, bags . . .
Inside the building of the school there were 3 sports rooms where they could practise badminton, soccer …
Schedules :
Canadians have 2 classes from 8:05 am till 11:30 a.m then they eat from 11:30 am to 12:30 and they have classes again from then till 2:30 pm. This schedule is repeated from Monday till Friday. They thus, have relatively short schedules. After school, they are free to do whatever they want. They can stay in the hallway or go back home.
Professors :
Canadian professors are relatively cool, they supervise less the pupils than in France they are less strict . As opposed to France, a teacher can teach one or 2 subjects.
Subjects :
The pupils choose part of their subjects each quarter, they are free to change those subjects, if they pass, from one quarter to the next. They have some subjects very different from ours such as cooking or teaser (drama) but they also have history geography, mathematics, English, French and of course sports, what is very known in Canada.
School Bus
Every morning we took the school bus to go to school.
The school Bus was a yellow bus like in the old american movies.
It was very funny to take these yellow buses.
Indeed the roads were not really flat so the bus made us jump on our sites. There was not really security in theses buses.
There was a specific stop for each student , the bus stopped in front of our house.
The school buses are useful for people who live far from the high school (like in Moonstone or Coldwater).
Lunch
The students eat between 11:30 and 12:30.
They have many options for their lunch:
they can buy their lunch at the cafeteria , they can live school to eat at a fast food place (like Mr.Sub) or they can bring their own lunch at school. (so they have to cook the day before).
There is no system like us with cards for the self in the high school , but only a cafeteria to buy their lunch.
If they eat at the cafeteria they have to bring their money everyday.
School trip
A few months ago, 10th grade students went to Europe , for a "Europe trip" , they visited Nice , Cannes , Italy ...
According to a few people we interwied , they loved Europe and especially Italy.
After school:
School finishes at 2.30 pm so they have a lot of time to work or have fun.
And we found out that they spend much more time having fun than working!
Indeed after school, some of them have some activities like Football, Hockey, Rugby... until 4pm
and the others have fun with their friends , they go to the cinema , hang out with their friends and sometimes they do their homework.
Sports
Many sports are offered by the school. You can play football, rugby , hockey, you can dance....
They have 2 gymnasiums, 2 outside grounds and many sports equipments.
Sometimes we can see students in the hall who are running up and down the stairs.
The girls and the boys are separated when they play sports in class.
We can see a few girls running in the hallway and 5 minutes later a few boys running as well.
They are very concentrated, it's very important for them, they like sports more than French students.
What we were most looking forward to : the dance that every French has seen in famous American series.
In fact in Canada they organized many bals not only one for the end of the year.
When we were in Canada we were supposed to go to a dance, finally it was cancelled and postponed to the day after our departure. This dance was organized by the school president like all the other dances, it was a black and white dance.
Contrary to France those dances are very important and people who go to those dances wear dresses or suits : they can buy their outfits or simply rent them .
But there are no bands, just a DJ.
The dances are quite expensive, around $10, so not everybody can go and sometimes the price dissuades the teenagers.
Prom, the bal of the end of the year is reserved for the people who are in grade 12.
The nursery was the thing which shocked us the most. In fact in the high school there was a nursery where teenagers can leave their babies during their classes and take them back when their day is over. It’s a service for those young girls, to help them keeping an usual life. This nursery is free, because girls have already lots of money to spend because of their babies.
In Park Street Collegiate there were almost 20 babies in the nursery.
TABLE OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
THE CANADIAN AND THE FRENCH SCHOOL SYSTEM:
======>>>>>> gy_gyo_fgyo_vfot_k<<<<<<<<=======
Cities:
Toronto is the biggest city of Canada and the capital
of the state of Ontario. It is situated in the south of this state. There are
2.5 millon inhabitants for an area of 642 km2. The main building in Toronto is
the CN Tower which is very famous because it is the 2nd highest
tower in the world.
In Toronto there is a
museum called Black Creek Pioneer Village in which people can explore an authentically re-created 1860's Ontario country
village.
Barrie is a very attractive city, situated 65km from
Toronto. There are 128 430 inhabitants and an area of 77 km2.
The motto of the city
is “The People are the City”.
The tourists can explore
the region as it was long time ago thanks to the Museum of Simcoe County and
Victoria Village Street make you travel in time. Barrie is a good place to
fish; people can fish all the time because in winter there are special fishing
shacks.
Orillia is also called the Sunshine city. It is lined
with two lakes: Couchiching and Simcoe. Orilla originates in the Spanish
“Orilla” which means the shore of either a lake or a river. There are 30 000
inhabitants, the city is as big as Oullins but more spreaded out. The main
monuments are Champlain’s statue who is the man who discovered Quebec and the
miniature train
There is also a
museum called Orillia Museum Art and History.
Thanks to this building people can discover the past of Orillia through
photographies and artifacts
Attending a girl-hockey game!
The Hockey match in Orillia
The match we wateched was part of the 2009 OFSAA Girls' Hockey tournament. The teams played for the third place in this tournament. The first team was the Holy Names HS from Windsor. Their team name was KNIGHTS. The second one was Paul Dwyer CHS from Oshawa. Their name was SAINTS. The Canadian audience was very enthousiastic to support their favourite team, people cheered the players with slogans or litlle songs. Three of them had even written the initial of their favourite team on their tomy !
Before the real match, the two teams tried the skating rink and warmed up. They sent the puck as strong as they could in their own goal.
Then the match began. During the first interval, the Paul Dwyer team managed to score a point. The players didn't play very long because it is very tiring so they often exchanged parts with the other players who were waiting to play.
During the second interval, the other team scored as well. One of the girls of the Holly Names team fell down on the ice and crashed her knee so she could not play anymore but she stayed with her team and supported it. The match was almost finished and none of the two teams had managed to score another point. The audience was very tense but people cheered even more. One minute before the end, the Holly Names finally succeeded in scoring an ultimate goal.
At the end of the match, the team which lost received a friendly handshake from the girls of the opposite team. The winners put their equipement off whereas the others kept it until the end of the prizegiving. A camerawoman interviewed the captain of the winner team.
This hockey match was a nice experience for all of us, it was funny because their was a good atmosphere. Nevertheless, we won't go to see a hockey game every day. =)
Hockey Rules
Offsides:
A player may not skate into the offensive zone ahead of the puck. If that happens, a whistle is blown, and a face-off is held just outside the zone where the breach-offside- occurred. What matters in an offside is the position of the skates: Both skates must be all the way over the blue line for a player to be potentially off-side. The location of the stick does not matter. Offside is also called if a player does what is called a two-line pass.
Offside is called to keep players from hanging around the red line at center ice, or all the way down in their offensive zone, and waiting for a pass that will give them a breakaway (skating toward the goal with no defenders around except for the goalie) and an easy chance to score.
Icing:
Icing is called when a player behind the red line in his end of the rink shoots a puck past the goal line in his offensive zone when both teams are playing at even strength. The game is stopped when an opponent other than the goalie touches the puck. Icing is considered an infraction because it can be used by teams to take away legitimate scoring chances from skaters on the offensive.
Two-Line Pass:
An offside pass is also called a two-line pass. A defenseman with the puck in front of his own net, for example, cannot snap it to a teammate beyond the red line at center ice because it would have to go over two lines, first the blue and then the red, to get there. For that play to work, the player at center ice would have to skate inside the red line, closer to his own net, to receive the pass. See also Offsides.
Tripping:
Using a stick, arm, or leg to cause an opponent to trip or fall. No matter how you trip your opponent- with your stick, knee, foot, arm, or hand-it still adds up to tripping.
Hooking:
If a player impedes the progress of another by "hooking" him with his stick and keeping him from making a play, then he is called for hooking. Generally that happens when a skater has scooted by the person in charge of guarding him, and the defenseman has no other recourse but to hold the player up by "hooking" him with his stick. Not only does that break up a play illegally, but it can also injure a player, especially if the stick used in the hooking comes up high and hits the opposing player in his face. Hooking is also known as water skiing - which gives you a good idea of what is involved.
Cross Checking:
If a player picks their stick up off of the ice and holds it in two hands to check an opponent (using the shaft of the stick), they may be called for cross checking.
Holding:
Using your hands on an opponent or the opponent's equipment to impede their progress is not permitted. Holding can prevent a player from being able to exhibit their full range of talent...and can reduce their ability to score a goal.
Boarding:
The officials whistle for this infraction when a player hits an opponent who is not aware of the impending contact and therefore cannot defend himself from behind. It is a very dangerous infraction that can lead to serious injury to the person who has been hit. It may even lead to a major penalty being given.
Charging:
This penalty occurs when a player takes more than three strides before deliberately checking an opponent. A minor or major penalty may be imposed upon a person who skates or jumps into, or charges, an opponent in any way. Whether its determined to be a major or minor penalty depends upon the seriousness of the infraction; the more dangerous the hit, the more likely it will be a major.
High Sticking:
Any contact made by a stick on an opponent above the shoulders is not allowed, and a minor penalty will be assessed. This rule is supposed to protect the players from being hit in the face, eyes, or head. Also, players cannot bat the puck above the normal height of the shoulders; play is stopped if that happens. In addition, any apparent goal scored as a result of a player striking the puck with his stick above his shoulder is not allowed.
A one-day activity!
Eaglecrest Aerial Park
During this trip, we went to Eaglecrest Aerial Park which is a zip line, instead of Algonquin park.
First, we had to wear some equipements in order not to fall. We had two roops with a hook at the end and a helmet so as to protect our head.
Second, we learnt security rules:
One person maximum by scale
Two people maximum by games
Three people maximum by platforms
It was very cold, because under the trees, the sun could not shine and we were completly frozen ! But fortunatly, the park was beautiful and tree climbing very entertaining.