Unforgettable Days in Toronto, Canada
Park, Chanhoo

   I got on a plane, Air Canada 065 which departed 2:40 p.m. on 21 July, worrying about what would happen during my stay in Canada. The other teachers who took part in the teachers' training program before went to Vancouver, so I was the first one who chose Toronto as a place for teachers' program abroad. I could get only a little information about school and home-stay house through internet before I left and that's why I was somewhat nervous on the plane to Canada.

   After 14 hours' flight, I got off at Toronto Pearson Airport, where I met my home-stay parents who came to pick me up. They were kind and tried to make me feel relaxed in the car all the way to home-stay house. I was embarrassed at first because I expected blue-eyed, blond Canadians as my home-stay host but they were Asians. Later I came to know that they immigrated from the Philippines 15 years ago. Blue sky without clouds, various people with different skin color, hot weather... these were my first impression of Canada.
   I felt very tired after I reached Toronto due to the jet lag and I had to take a rest for 3 days. On 25 of July, I went to Omnicom School of Languages where I was scheduled to take ESL courses. They divided the new students into classes according to the result of written and oral test. There were 4 students in my class : Luiz (Brazilian, engineer), Misako (Japanese, office worker), Shinya (Japanese, university student) and myself. I had 5 classes a day from Monday to Friday, 3 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Morning classes were mainly speaking, grammar, writing, and vocabulary and in the afternoon, I studied listening and conversation. Fortunately, as there were only 4 students in my class, I could get many chances to speak. At first, it was difficult for me to understand them because they spoke so fast, but as time went by I got accustomed to my class. My teacher, whose name was Andy, tried to give fair chance to speak to all students and cheer me up whenever I was in a difficulty. I think I was lucky to meet such a reasonable, kind and patient teacher. I really appreciate my teacher and classmates.
   I could also meet various kinds of people from different countries in school. Usually we had lunch together, and after school we went to famous tourists' attractions or a pub in downtown. There were also some English teachers from other countries in school. As we had something in common, we enjoyed conversation one another and it was such a good experience!
   Now I want to introduce my home-stay family and friends. Before leaving for Canada, some people who had been in Canada before worried that it's very difficult to meet good host family. Fortunately, my home-stay parents were kind and warm-hearted people. Home-stay father, Danilo, worked as a hospital staff and her wife, Virginia was a housewife. They tried to help boarders in every respect. Virginia had a serious respiration problem. In spite of the fact that Virginia  had to use a medical instrument at night to help her breathing, she always tried to help us in details. There were four boarders in my house including myself : Akiko (Japanese, student who majors in dental hygiene), Luca (Italian, salesperson of Italian chemical company), Joseph (Taiwanese, university student). Although we all were in different ages and nationalities, we tried to understand one another and respect own cultures. After one month, we felt we were real family members. As Luca was outgoing and humorous person, he made us laugh every dinner table. We often went out to downtown to enjoy our time and talked a lot until late at night. Especially, I appreciate Akiko who helped me in many ways. As we attended the same school, we spent most of our time together in school and house.
   I visited Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City as a weekend trip. Quebec is the province where French is spoken as their primary language. People in Quebec were very proud of being descendants of French people. Their culture was quite different from that of Toronto, Ontario. In Montreal, I visited cathedral Notre-Dame which imitated Notre-Dame in Paris. The cathedral was beautiful and it reminded me of my stay in Paris in 1996.  Sophisticated carving and holy atmosphere were very impressive for me because I'm a catholic. Old town of Quebec city was one of my favorite places. I could find traces of war between England and France everywhere. As we know, the France lost in the war against England. As a result, Quebec became a part of Canada like today but that's a sad history for the people in Quebec. I could feel something strong when I saw the number plate of the car in the street. It said, "Je me souviens"(I remember). Tour guide explained that at first this sentence was written on the soldiers' uniforms in the past but now it is accepted as a slogan of Quebec Province. I think that means they still remember their sad history and the discrimination they experienced from English people in the past. Another interesting thing was a house without windows. It is said many years ago, government charged taxes according to the number of windows. At that time, the rich must have lived in a large house with many windows. In order not to pay taxes, people began to build houses without windows. Isn't it surprising? I cannot imagine the dark inside of the house without windows but these houses have existed from the past until now. I could see another side of the lives of the ordinary people in Quebec in the past.
  
   How time flies! I had to ride a plane again. On the returning flight, on 21 Aug, I felt relaxed but a little blue. I had to say goodbye to my new friends and Toronto which gave me good memories. All the thing I went through sprang up in my mind like pictures. In Canada, I experienced many things for one month. Evidently the main purpose to visit Canada was to improve my English but in addition to that, I could make friends with various people and experience different cultures. It will be a great help while I teach in the classroom to my students. I feel deeply grateful to school for giving me such a great chance. I also want to appreciate co-teacher Tae, YouJeong who gave me much help to prepare the program.