Hi, everyone. I am privileged to write about my experience in Canada and give you some information about Canadian culture. My name is Kim Seong-eun, and I study English as a major. I was chosen as an exchange student in 2004 and I studied at King's University College in London, Canada, for about eight months. It's been already a year since I came back to Korea. But it seems like yesterday. How fast time flies! I hope you'll enjoy my story.
  Before I went to Canada, I expected to have a Canadian roommate because all exchange students had to live in the school residence, dormitory. However, I found out that all exchange students from Korea and China at King's University College had to live with Korean and Chinese exchange students. The school authorities worried about culture shock we might encounter and homesickness, and they thought it would be good for us to live together. And though I was disappointed because I wanted to improve my English with my roommate's help, I actually took advantage of living with other Asians. So we could eat roasted pork, Korean noodles, Kimchi and so on.
  At this point, you may wonder how I practiced my English. For the most part of my stay, Indeed, I spoke Korean to Korean students in the residence and watched TV and movies without subtitles.  For me, however, the best way to learn English was talking with my R.A. (Residence Assistant). The R.A. arranges many things in the residence and helps students living in the residence. One of my R.A.s was Dimitri, and he was  a caring person. Not like other R.A.s who were busy with their studying and who didn't pay much attention to exchange students, Dimitri always opened his door for exchange students to give us a chance to talk to him in English. Of course, there were many Korean students who did not try to talk to him. I felt sorry for them because they were missing their precious opportunity of speaking English.
  Actually, I had so much fun there, as many of my friends have seen the tons of pictures on my home page. I can hardly name all the events I participated in, so I am just going to tell you the major events. There is an "Orientation Week" which is called 'O-week' or 'Frosh-week'. All the freshmen - Canadian students call freshman "frosh"! - can participate in this event if they want. There are three colleges affiliated with The University of Western Ontario (UWO) including King's University College. The UWO is really big like YU. It is kind of a privileged school in Canada, especially Business School IVY, and it's very beautiful. During the O-week, all freshmen from three colleges and UWO gather together, prepare a cheer for their school, make friends with other freshmen, have fun together with a barbecue party and a dance party. I enjoyed the frosh-week a lot.
  Unlike in Korean , I found there were many parties in Canada. I was excited to go to so many parties. My best party ever was a formal party. Have you seen party scenes in the movies? I wore a dress like an actress. King's University College holds a formal party every year. It is called "King's Ball"- usually a formal party is called a 'ball'. Interesting, isn't it? Literally, King's ball was a blast. I danced with many friends, but soon my feet were killing me because of high heels. Another of my favorite parties was a Halloween Party. It is held on the 31st of October every year. You can enjoy various costumes. I was invited to the Halloween party at my friend's house, and I saw people wearing Star Wars costumes, Samurais, and other movie stars. I did not prepare a costume. But thanks to my friend, I could dress up as a 'doll' on that day. The best thing about a party is that you can meet many people and make friends with them.        
 

As time goes by, I just remember good things in Canada. However, I can never forget winter which was not good. From early November to late March, London had snow for the most part of the time. I was sick and tired of snow.  I missed sunny days a lot. In addition, when it comes to studying, I got a lot of stress. Compared to studying in Korea, it was so frustrating to study there. I found it so hard to keep up with the classes at first. Writing essays was especially the biggest burden on me. Fortunately, there was a writing center from which students could get some help. 
  Right after I came back to Korea, I had a hard time again. I missed my friends in Canada and the beautiful scenery of Canada - clean air, beautiful sky, and green grass. Still I hope I can go back to Canada sometime. As a whole, living in Canada was bliss to me. I am happy whenever I recall my memories in Canada.

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