For almost six months now the Rotary Club of Williams Lake has helped facilitate the stay of a teenage exchange student all the way from Madrid, Spain.
Every year thousands of students from across Canada go on exchange to various countries and in return receive exchange students back. This year Williams Lake’s resident exchange is Alejandra Madrid.
Madrid, who is attending Grade 10 studies at Lake City Secondary School, Williams Lake campus, sat down with The Tribune to discuss her exchange and the experiences she’s had since coming to Williams Lake. One of the biggest adjustments, for her, was the physical size of Williams Lake in both area and population.
She lives near the downtown of Madrid, a city of almost 3.3 million people with an estimated 6.5 million in its metropolitan area, with ready access to public transportation, restaurants and shops. Comparatively, Williams Lake has a population of around 11,000 people, with maybe 30,000 in the surrounding area, and a limited number of goods and services, compared to a bigger city.
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“So coming here was a shock, because it’s a little town with not much to offer (in public transit). You need a ride everywhere and everything is far away from each other, it’s so weird,” Madrid said.
However, chances to head up to Prince George to visit fellow exchange students has helped scratch her itch for shopping and the big city. Besides, part of the point of an exchange is to expose students to different lifestyles and environments, not just give them the same environment as their homes.
Madrid wished to become an exchange student in part due to her love of travel fostered by her father, who is an airline pilot. She’d often, as a child, get to tag along with him on flights and would explore the various countries for a day during his layovers.
“I’ve always loved to travel and discover new things so going on an exchange is something I always wanted to do,” Madrid said. “I wanted to go to Taiwan and the Philippines but I finally chose Canada and I’m happy for that.”
Upon arriving in Williams Lake on Aug. 9, one of the first things she got to do was visit a nearby lake, something she has never done in Spain. In her home city space is limited due to the population density so the chance to just go out into the middle of a lake for breakfast was “awesome” to her.
Cold is something that Madrid has also found both delighting and hard to adapt to. On the one hand, she’s been able to try out winter sports like cross country skiing in Whistler, on the other hand she’s dealing with temperatures approaching -28C when she normally would be experiencing 15C back home.
“The downhill skiing (in Smithers) is different (than) in Madrid because it’s icy, the snow, really icy and you slip sometimes. Here though, the snow is perfect,” Madrid said.
English was something Madrid knew before coming to Canada but she has markedly improved since her exchange began. While she still dislikes the fact she has an accent, her ability to communicate and understand spoken English is far better and only continues to improve.
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“School is also really different, in Spain we have groups (cliques) but here everyone hangs out with everyone,” Madrid said.
In Spain, she said, they use more of a cohort-based education system where you stay with the same people for years and attended all the same classes. In Canada and the lakecity specifically, students attend different classes at different times leading to a less cliquey environment.
The quality of B.C. education was one of the reasons Madrid chose Canada over other possible host nations. Both she and her family wished her to remain relatively challenged during her time abroad, to make the transition back into Spanish education easier.
As a whole, the exchange has left a big impression on Madrid on many fronts. While her prior travel experience had given her taste of what it would be like, she said living on her own in another country for an entire year has already changed and challenged her world-view.
“It’s life-changing. When you’re in your home country you’re with your family and with your friends and always in the same place,” Madrid said. “You create a reality, then you come to another country and you realize there’s nothing about this (reality) that is true. You have to rethink everything.”
Madrid wanted to thank the Rotary Club of Williams Lake for caring for her and housing her with various awesome host families. She said all have been attentive to her needs and have all volunteered to open their homes to her, with none of them receiving payment.
“You feel really in the family, you feel part of them, they include you in a lot of stuff so that helps you when you’re here,” Madrid said.
She’ll continue her stay in Williams Lake until July when she will return home. In the meantime she looks forward to enjoying all the lakecity and B.C. have to offer.
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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