During that first month and a half, I was able to discover things that seemed weird to me in Canada, things very different from France.
First, the responsibility of young people.
They all have a job from the age of 15, (to pay for their studies, their outings with friends, their clothes...) so they enter very quickly into the adult life. On the contrary, we, in France, are more pampered by our parents. Moreover, from the age of 15, young people can also drive, things that at first glande very strange to me too.
Then being in high school, I could meet other things even more unusual for me.
For example in my parenting class, (the concept of this class is to learn the parent's role and the child rearing by the physical development and the intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood), we may have a baby (not real but reacting as such, meaning that he cries etc...) for 3 days. The person who keep the baby has a bracelet around the arm to stop the crying. The baby wakes up at night, cries in class etc... The baby sleeps at the house of his guardian, is bring to school and must stay with the person who takes care of it during all his movements. At school if the baby cries, the person leaves the class to take care of it. Personally, I do not think it is very good because
it projects young girls too much into a mother’s life.
Similarly in my English class, all the students left the class (if they wanted to) to go to the gym to watch the high school basketball game opposing an other high school during school hours. They asked the teacher who accepted (something impossible in France), the whole class went to the gym to settle in the stands and watch the game. It was a very great experience to see everyone promoting the basketball team of their high school.
Tim Hortons
In my Canadian family, like most other Canadian, they often go to Tim Hortons. It is a large restaurant chain very popular. In my family, we go there a lot to take some drinks (I recommend you a lot French Vanilla it's delicious, that is one things that I will miss in France.) During the week from 16th of September to the 22nd, I was able to discover the famous "smile cookie". It is a cookie that Canadian people love (I was really impressed that everybody waited for the arrival of these cookies impatiently.) All Smile Cookie proceeds go to support local charities and organizations including local breakfast clubs, food banks, and hospitals across Canada.
Then, a day, being in the family car and waiting for their drive order, Shelly (the mother) told me that sometime, people pay the order of the person next to them ( in the drive thru ) as an act of kindness. The person who did not pay his order must then, as his turn, do an act of kindness. This is called "paying it forward"
Finally, during my visits, I found that we can see a lot of Canadian flags. Almost everywhere, that is to say every house, near the shops, in the streets... When I saw that for the first time I was really amazed.
Thanks for reading about this part of my trip,
Louise DOCHE