New life, new habits

Hi, I’m Fanny. Canada is really interesting and time passes so quickly that I didn’t really take the time to write for this blog during this first month and a half. But I’m going to fix it. I have to talk all about my new Canadian life for you, readers of the blog, and as a memories for me.

My House for three months

So first of all, I will introduce everybody. My exchange partner is Gillian and I’m living in her super nice family with Jakub, Michelle and her little brother Thor. My host family has welcomed me really well since the first day and now I’m a part of the Mamos family! Their house is situated in Sherwood Park, a city just next to Edmonton, the capital of Alberta.

For this first post I’m gonna talk about my daily new life.

Since the beginning, I got used to living in the house. During my free time at home with Gillian, we watch the series Friends or Gilmore Girls. Before I came she had already started Friends and I was watching Gilmore Girls. We showed each other our series and really liked it, so now we watch and laugh at each episodes together. One day Jakub even told us we were watching too much Friends and it will be the only thing I will remember of my travel (it’s thankfully not true you'll see).

I also care about doing sports so we like going to juggle at the park or in the garden. We both do soccer so every day we try to get a new best score and progress. We keep playing until the snow comes. Here it might snow in September and for sure in October!

Sometimes I also go for a run in the neighborhood to appreciate the streets and parks of the typical Canadian city.

My street with big cars, houses and road

There is a lot of pounds and parks in Sherwood Park

I was really surprised to see rabbits all the time in the streets like cats in France !

We can see fall is already here along the main road

Saturday mornings, I go work out at Millennium place. There is a pool, ice skating, a lot of workout machines and we can do any sports we want at this place: basketball, badminton, fitness or ping-pong. But the best part is the brunch after the early work out. We get bacon, scrumbles eggs, rasberries and french toast for our hard work;

I learned also about the food habits in Canada. The food is not so different from France but it’s more the way we eat that changes. I had to get used to the fact that we can eat and cook at the time we want, or when ever we are hungry. In France we must wait until it’s the hour for meals and can not snack between meals. But here, snacks are usual and I really love that.

So, often I take a basic breakfast in the morning : milk, cereals and sometimes bagels or cinnamon bread with peanut butter or Nutella. For the evening we eat snacks or dinner sometimes at 4 or 6 pm but other time at 8 pm, it really depends. Jakub makes me also frequently healthy and good smoothies after school. During the beginning of my travel I rediscovered a lot of food that is better than in France : corn, bacon, steaks, yogurts with blueberries, ice cream sandwiches and even brussels sprouts. I hope I could find the same products when I'll come back they are so good.

I had the opportunity to go with Michelle to buy food at Costco. It’s like a warehouse where there is only food in a big quantity but less expensive. Most Canadians go there before they go to Superstore, a supermarket where they go to find what there is not at Costco like groceries, fruits… In general, during the shopping they ask me if I want or need something, so one time I ask them “herbes de provence” to make them try the oven potatoes from France and they liked it !

You might think during this three months I’m in complete holidays but I have in fact a pretty normal life (except I’m in Canada which is super cool). I’m doing my homeworks and the task like everyone : dishwasher, laundries, cleaning, straightening my room…

I also learnt to know better my family and be comfortable with us. Sometimes Jakub and Gillian are fighting and teasing gently about different little things like he accusing her to be lazy while she just did intensive work out. So Michelle asked me if my family in France was like them, fighting each others all the time. I respond her yes totally and I think doesn’t matter the country, every families are like that between siblings and parents-child. Anyway from all the person outside it’s really funny.

Thanks for reading !

Fanny Joubert :)