WE, the SUIS USHS exchange students have been in Mulgrave School Vancouver, Canada, for more than one month. Now please follow me to learn about what’s happened!

Mulgrave School schedule

Mulgrave School is one of the best IB private schools in Vancouver, Canada. There are around 850 students here, with three classes in Grade 8, and about 20 students in each class. From Grade 6, all students can select different subjects, and have his or her own schedule.

The schedule at Mulgrave School is very different. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, school starts at 8:30am and finishes at 3:25pm. On Tuesdays, school begins at 9:10am; on Fridays, the school is over on 1:15pm. Usually there are four periods in the morning, with 65 minutes for each one. The break is only five minutes, but the recess between every two periods is 15 minutes which is long enough for us to have refreshments in the cafeteria. The most different thing from Shanghai is that the lunch begins at 1:15pm, so it is advisable to eat some food in the morning. Then in the afternoon, there are all elective classes.

Every Tuesday, there are three periods and the homeroom time (45 minutes) in the morning. While every Friday, after the four periods in the morning, students can leave the school after lunch or even eat outside school.

Study life

Because Mulgrave School is an IB curriculum school, we need to write essays for every subject including PE lesson, which is a concern even for the local students as well as us — non-native English speakers. However, the teachers at Mulgrave School have different methods to stimulate our thinking. For example, once a math teacher assigned a project — making a cereal box. We could design different shaped boxes, but the volume had to be the same. I was into the project very much. I had fun making the cereal boxes and gaining a better understanding of the math formula as well!

Spirit Week

Mulgrave School offers us a diverse elective curriculum, which includes basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, badminton and rugby. Soon after we arrived at Mulgrave School, there was a five-day Spirit Week, which is popular in North America. There were different topics on each day in the Spirit Week and activities that needed team spirit.

It was Crazy Socks & Shoes Day for the first day. Everyone could wear special shoes or socks. What gave me great impression is that a girl wore a pair of super large shoes, kinda of like big slippers at home — very fun!

On Tuesday it was Crazy Hair Day. You could design your hair style however you wanted. My buddy had a sky soaring plait. Because she asked me not to show her photo here, I won’t let you guys see! How nice I am!

On Wednesday, we had a game called Gotcha, which was like a game during PE lesson at Shanghai United International School. Everyone had a card with a name on it. Then you needed to find the person and tag him/her and get his/her card. In the end, whoever wasn’t tagged was the winner.

The topic on Thursday was Spirit Week Lunch. We bought Spirit Week lunch boxes. Actually, it was a donation. All the money was sent to people who need help.

On Friday, it was Blue & Green Civvies Day. Everyone wore blue or green clothes. It was gorgeous that everyone wore the same color! But I didn’t take the photo.

Homestay

Most international students’ parents cannot go abroad with their kids. So homestay is a common choice. However, in recent years, there has been some bad news about homestay, which caused much concern for parents. Luckily, my homestay life is a little strict but also great! Let me tell you the truth.

The father in our homestay is from Germany (I’ll call him Home Pa in this article) and the mother is from Canada (Home Ma). People have a stereotype that Germans are rigorous. After I actually lived with a German Home Pa, I would agree.

Before I moved into their house, Home Pa and Home Ma had already listed the rules, such as: arranging you bed after getting up, opening the windows and turning on the fan after shower. In the first month, Home Ma had stuck more than 10 notes in the bathroom and our bedrooms, because we forget the rules sometimes. For me some habits are hard to break, due to the culture difference between Canada and my hometown.

Let me tell you a story about culture difference. Once I was in the bathroom washing my hair. After I switched off the tap, I heard Home Ma knocking on the door. She told me I had to finish wash my hair in three minutes, at most in five minutes. It’s a true story. At first I couldn’t understand it. I suppose most girls need 10 minutes to wash hair. How can we finish it in five minutes? So I found Home Ma to tell her my idea. After Home Ma heard what I said, she told me she understand. But the water in Canada is very expensive, so we had better not waste it.

Actually my homestay parents are very nice. But the culture difference sometimes brings us some problems. The most important thing is to communicate with each other. If we don’t know each other’s ideas, it will cause much bigger problems.

On weekends, we usually get up late and arrange our own afternoons. So Home Pa usually asks up what our plan is. Sometimes we go shopping together. There is a shopping mall nearby called Park Royal with an Osaka Supermarket inside. We call the supermarket “Da Tong Hua” because we can buy instant noodle, zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) even latiao (a Chinese snack) there. Haha! There are many Chinese foods in it. Once we bought Chinese noodles and made a Chinese meal for our homestay parents. They liked it and really enjoyed the meal. Chinese food is popular in Canada. We have planned to take Home Pa and Home Ma to a Sichuan food restaurant next time.

Spring break

Now let’s talk about the spring break, which most Chinese students are jealous about. This spring break, my parents came from Shanghai to Vancouver and spent two weeks with me. The holiday was great! No homework, just enjoyed it! (Actually I did my homework until midnight before the holiday! Let’s forget that!)

We went to Capilano Suspension Park in North Vancouver. Well, I won’t recommend it to the friends who have acrophobia. Haha!

Then we went skiing at Whistler. We could borrow hats, gloves, jackets, pant, boots and skis there. I was bumped from the back many times. Suddenly, I realized that skating is much more suitable for me.

We took the ferry to Butchart Garden in Victoria. So beautiful!

We also had many Chinese meals in Richmond. Sichuan Food, Korean food, hotpot … Eating Chinese food made me feel I was at home. So sweet. By the way, in Canada we need to pay tips, the same in America. The tip is usually 10 percent.

Easter egg

There are many cherry blossoms around the intersection of Lillooet and Graveley streets in West Vancouver. Very romantic in spring!

Anyway, the first month in Canada was very happy. At the beginning we felt a little nervous, but we got used to the life here with the help of teachers, classmates and homestay parents. Now we like the school life and homestay life here and know how to get along with people with different cultural backgrounds. There are still two months left. We will keep going!