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It has been nearly one week since I returned from Canada. The jet lag still perplexes me a lot. However, I’m trying to get used to the fast-paced life in China again. 15 days is really short and now I miss the fantastic and meaningful experiences in Canada from time to time. It was really a spiritual journey, so I think it’s necessary to write down the unforgettable journey and my own feelings.
The first impression Canada gave me was its beautiful environment. The sky is clean and blue. Roads are all wide and tidy. And what’s more, I could see green trees almost everywhere. The great ecotype attracts many wild animals to settle down there. Every morning at the place where I lived, just outside the dormitory, I could see little squirrels on the green grass. They looked just like they were enjoying the nice sunshine and fresh air. Sometimes, I with my friends gave them some biscuits to eat and we were glad to see that they enjoyed the nice breakfast. That’s what life is like in Canada. Humans and animals live in great harmony. They together share the place of paradise.
In this exotic country, we visited many places of interest, such as Thousand-island Lake, Saint Joseph Oratorio, CN Tower, Niagara Falls, Canadian Museum of Civilization, etc. These tourist attractions broadened my horizons and made my trip full of discovery. We travelled to many cities in this mystical country. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. The Parliament Building in Ottawa is magnificent and grand, which makes this city truly royal. Toronto is one of the most prosperous cities in the world. However, its prosperity does not mean fast and crowd. The developed city isn’t bristled with skyscrapers, instead, it has wide tidy streets and beautiful environment, and that makes the city an attractive cosmopolitan city. Montreal is a quiet city. People live a slow pace life. Montreal is the city I love the most, maybe it’s because I spent most of the two weeks there, so I considered this city as my hometown in Canada. People there are all kind and warm. I could see beatific smile from everyone’s face. It is a French-speaking city, but as long as I expressed that I could only understand English, people would use English to explain everything for me again. That’s why I felt I received warmth and love from this peaceful city.
I enjoyed the trip to Niagara Falls the most. It is located in the border of Canada and America. Niagara Falls is marveled at for its great width rather than height, the largest crest stretching 2,600 feet wide. The cascading water is really deafening. What made me excited was that we had an adventure tour there. We took the Maid of the Mist Cruise to get close to the great fall. The water was fanatical and my clothes and hair all got wet, but actually, I enjoyed this kind of feeling.
We all know that Canada is famous for the ice wine. When I was in Niagara Falls city, I tried some ice wine. The wine smelt like beer, but when I drank a little, I felt it was sweet and mellow. I think this kind of wine has irresistible charm which makes it well known.
Well, when it comes to food and drink in Canada, I can even use a whole page to talk about them. The milk produced in Canada impressed me the most. Different from that in China, the milk has very short shelf life. Every morning in the dining hall in the dormitory, we could find a large bottle of fresh milk on the table. It was pure and tasty. A glass of milk could make my day full of energy.
I’m not very used to Western-style food. We went to a western restaurant one evening. I was served a large piece of beef. It looked nice and yummy, but when I tasted some, I found it was too greasy for me and the beef was too huge for me to eat up the whole. However, the service and facilities in that restaurant was really good, so I still enjoyed the meal very much.
Poutine is very popular in Quebec. It was Dorothy who introduced this palatable snack to me. Since the word is very similar to ‘pudding’, I assumed falsely that poutine was something made of milk, flour and sugar. Later I got to know that poutine is a messy, rich version of gravy fries in Canada.
During the 15 days. I got acquainted to many people, including the supervisors, teachers and some students from other regions in China. I really enjoyed the fun time spent with them. We lived together like a big family. The supervisors gave us a lot of love as if we were their children. Dorothy is one of them. She is a lovely old lady. She did the laundry for us everyday and often chatted with us and from whom we learnt much about Canadian culture. She was so amiable that we considered her as our grandmother. In the English classes we also learnt a lot. The local teacher taught us something about Canadian history and the aboriginal people once lived in Canada. Classes are really different from that in China. We had many chances to talk, which, in my opinion, was a great opportunity to improve my oral English.
Our after-school activities were very colorful. In the dormitory there is a game room, where we can play ping-pong and billiards. Outside the dormitory, there’s a small basketball court, people who lives nearby often come to play basketball. Sometimes we joined them in playing.
After school, we also went to the local cinema to watch movies. There were all kinds of movies for us to choose. Of course, movies are all presented in English. It was really a challenge for us. Maybe it was a good chance for me to improve my English listening comprehension. By the end of the summer camp, we went to an amusement park. It is a huge theme park. We could find a lot of roller coasters, drop towers and bungee towers in it. At first, I was afraid of taking the roller coaster, but all my friends encouraged me to challenge myself. And finally, everyone could hear me screaming throughout the whole trip. It was so cool because I felt that I was like a bird flying in the sky.
After exploring this glamorous country, I found that I had fallen in love with Canada. I hope that I can have chances to go to Canada again. I would appreciate it if I can go to one of the famous universities in Canada for further study. During the journey, we visited three famous universities, McGill University, Toronto University and Concordia University. They are all in the list of top 100 universities in the world. When I entered in these schools, I could feel the good studying atmosphere. The schools are quiet and beautiful, with colorful flowers planted almost everywhere, which made me think that it’s really a good choice to study in Canada.
Well, I’ve talked quite much about my summer camp. This spiritual journey benefits me a lot. I made many friends during the trip, Anthony, May, Ivy, Vicky, Ella... We are still in contact with each other now, and I hope our friendship will last forever. What’s more, it was my first time to visit a western country. Everything seemed fresh to me. And it was a great chance for me to learn about western culture. I’m sure it will be of great significance to my life in the future.
Finally, my life returned to the normal track. 15 days in Canada is a great value to my life. The only thing I can do is to write down the essay, just in memory of the memorable trip and in memory of my spiritual journey.
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