Thursday, 26 July 2012

Fourth assignment


Looking back on my 4 weeks in Niagara College I hardly can find something during my stay that i didn't like. The one thing I couldn't understand is bus schedule, but it's not a serious issue. Canadians are friendly and open-minded people (I mentioned this in my second post) and this helped me a lot to adapt to the culture of another country.

Summer program gave me a good opportunity to improve my speaking and listening skills. My stumbling block is speaking but in my opinion, I have overcome language barrier, despite this I  still need to practice more. Moreover, it’s a perfect chance to meet foreign students, so that communication in English becomes usual.

Most of the classes were fun and teachers were great. The best thing is that nobody forces you to do anything, you have natural enthusiasm, so this fact makes studying easier. Every day you learn new daily vocabulary, which, as for me, is necessary to know.   

             Of course, I should mention exciting afternoon activities and weekend trips, which make your stay in Canada bright and memorable. The excursions I enjoyed the most are trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto and Canada Wonderland. I can’t imagine a better addition to our lessons.
              To my mind Niagara College summer program has the best combination of  pleasant activities and lessons.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Third assignment

This is an incredible blog I have found on the list of top 100 blogs. The blog itself contains thousands of unique art and design works. I find this blog amazing because of numerous unusual posts connected to art. The author and editor of Colossal is Christopher Jobson from Chicago. Though all posts on Colossal are unbelievably interesting I managed to pick one video that deeply amazed me. In this video is filmed the process of making Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ from dominoes. I have already seen a few similar videos, but this one is the most impressive. Probably I will read Colossal even after my return from Canada.

Thursday, 12 July 2012

First impressions (Second assignment)

In my new post I'm going to write about first impressions of Canada. As I have already mentioned some of them in my previous post, so today I will only add a few things to that.
I have never been to Canada before, almost everything here differs from my country and even small thing sometimes surprise me, but still I can't call it a culture shock.
I want to begin with food. I didn't expect such a great variety of burgers, pizza and other unhealthy food in home-cooked diner. I'm not used to eat burgers or pizza for dinner at home ever. 
One delightful event that took place on 6th of July I would like to mention is IlluminAqua. It's a monthly show on Welland Canal with good music and fire. It's wondrous how water, blues music and fire combine with each other.
This show was the first memorable event that deeply touched me.
My most absorbing excursion was Niagara Falls and Maid of the Mist. In general, we were there for approximatly 3 hours, that's why I would like to come back in this city on my future weekends. The most remarkable sight surely were Niagara Falls. It was a breathtaking view, espesially from boat that took us extemely close to the Falls. The part I liked the most in our trip was the splashes of water covering people standing too close ( I was one of them) to the edge of the boat. After visiting the Falls I went to the Skylon - a tall tower from which you can overview the city and it's suburbs. On the top of it landscape was incredible. Although a ticket to the tower was a bit expensive, it worth it. The feeling you have on the top is amazing.
The next awesome excursion was a trip to Toronto. At the first glance it looks like New York . I can say so only because of hundreds movies that show main streets of New York. I think the best word to describe this Canadian New York is urban jungle. The only sight I was able to see was Cn tower. It's much higher than Skylon and sometimes it was scary to look down on the streets, even though it was a spectacular view. I don't regret waiting nearly an hour in queues because for many foreigners Cn tower is the main attraction of Toronto (like Big Ben in London). More than that, while I was walking to the CN Tower I noticed two brightly-coloured pianos and I couldn't pass by them. Despite I'm not a professional pianist, I was completely astonished and played a few songs. I wish I had more free time to look around this huge city .
I look forward to have more exacting experience such as sailing and kayak boating. Moreover, I eagerly want to go to Canada Wonderland and try some crazy slides there! 





Tuesday, 10 July 2012

First assignment

Hi to everyone who is reading this. I'm Anastasia Beryl from Ukraine. I'm a high-school student now and in my future I would like to study and live here, in Canada. So I've come to Niagara to improve my English and get acquainted with Canadian culture and people. My hometown is Kiev, which is capital of my country.It's beautiful green city, but I wish I would live in more quiet place like Welland. I have been in Welland for one week and two days recently ( I came here on the Canada day) and in my opinion it's quite friendly, nice town, but sometimes it can be boring here. I really enjoy the fact that it's not very big, comparing to Kiev. You can go almost everywhere on foot. As for me, it's pretty convenient.
I was surprised to see squirrels and wild rabbits peacefully living near people here. I have been already on two excursions (Niagara on the lake and car show in St. Catherines) Although both excursions were amazing, I didn't like the weather. It was too hot and humid.
During my study in Niagara College I will live with homestay family. Their house is lying in 25 minutes walking from college. They are open-hearted people and are ready to help me in any time. As I understood later, Canadians are all like that. Probably, it's the most friendly nation in the world. Also I live with student from China, whose name is Tian Li. She's really sweet too.
In concussion to my one week studying I can say that I'm glad that I have chosen this college for my summer education this year.
P.s. Sorry Steve it's not 500 hundred words here :)