“O Canada, our home and native land”

I heard in several times at many different occasions, including the rodeo, ceremony at the beginning of the school year or home games of the UBCO volleyball team. But let’s start from the beginning of my Canadian adventure, because there is a lot of things that happened in the past two months.

My journey started at 5 AM at the Prague airport where I said goodbye to my family for the longest time ever. My first flight that day was Prague - Frankfurt at 7AM, which was a very nice flight since the plane was only half-full and I could enjoy the whole row of seats just by myself. After landing in Frankfurt it hit me for the first time - I am going 10 000 km away and I am not coming home any time soon. Although I planned to visit the city centre during my 6-hour layover, I decided to stay at the airport and watch all the huge planes landing and taking off because I love big planes - especially Airbus A380 (double-decker plane) and Boing 747 (Jumbo).

After watching the planes for 6 hours, I finally boarded Air Canada AC 845 to fly my first transatlantic flight, which was 9 hours long and, except for the time when we got food, very boring. In Calgary, I had to get my visa. When I was applying back in May, I only got a paper stating that I fulfilled all the requirements to get the visa but it is up to the officer at the Canadian border if he or she actually issues the visa - I could have end up like Tom Hanks in the movie “The Terminal”. Fortunately, I got the fancy paper and a special stamp in my passport and was allowed to enter Canada. I awaited another 2 hours to fly the last portion of my journey to Kelowna. When we started to line up for the boarding of a very small propeller plane, I was approached by a flight attendant who told me that the flight is overbooked and I had to take flight to Vancouver and then to Kelowna instead. Although I wasn’t very happy because it meant I would get to Kelowna 3 hours later than planned, flight Calgary - Vancouver ended up being the nicest flight I ever took. We were flying over the Rocky Mountains and the sky was clear so I could see everything and it was amazing. In addition, when we arrived at Vancouver, I asked the pilot if I can take a picture of the pilot’s cabin and he instead allowed me to sit in the first officer’s seat and took the picture for me. After spending almost 30 hours travelling, I was very happy that there were students waiting at the airport to get us on campus. After filling few papers, which was very challenging since I was constantly falling asleep, they took us and our huge suitcases to our new rooms.

The first week in Kelowna was “Jumpstart” - orientation program for international students, which I enjoyed very much. I met international students from all around the world, with the help of our Jumpstart assistants, we set up phone numbers and bank accounts and we also explored Kelowna and the nearby beaches. To my big surprise, Kelowna is situated in a desert next to a huge lake and therefore temperatures during the summer can be as high as 40°C. Fortunately, the last week of August wasn’t that hot but still very sunny and therefore perfect for exploring downtown and eating Canadian “small” ice cream.

While my English friends, and most OG friends, were still enjoying holidays, I started school at the very beginning of September. I carefully picked all my courses with my supervisor from York so they would meet York requirements and finally I ended up with, what my Canadian friends call a “Killing mix of economics” - in Canada they usually take some subjects outside of the major programme whereas I only have economic subjects.  Teaching system in Canada is very different from England because your final grade is made up from several parts - assignments, midterms and final exam which takes always 3 hours. I enjoy it, even though the system is different, I managed to maintain my high standard of grades and I believe I might be able to bring another “first” back to York.

During weekends, I attended several trips with the UBCO outdoors club, for example, we went rock climbing or saw a salmon run - salmons coming back from the ocean to give birth. Overall, I am very busy and the time is flying by much quicker that I would imagine. I got used to the fact that there is a nine-hour difference between Kelowna and Prague and an eight hour difference between Kelowna and York so calls home or to my friends has to be made in the mornings or late at night.

Many people are asking me which university is better - UBCO or UoY. The answer is not straightforward because I enjoy different aspects of both unis. The weather is definitely better in Kelowna but when it comes to the city, I like York more because it has significantly more history and the walls around the city are just amazing. The school system at UBCO is more demanding during the year but it I think you are able to learn more because your knowledge is tested more often and therefore more in depth. I love Canada but I am also looking forward to study back in York in my third, and final, year.