I have a pin board back home. On it, I try to put one item from the most crucial events in my life, the things that really shaped me: my time at the old school newspaper, the annual holiday Sint Beekman that my friends and I celebrate, etc. As of yet there are only 5 of these events on this board and it stands to reason to wonder if my time here in Halifax is worthy of having its own place on this board. Of course only time will be able to tell how much impact this experience will have had on me but as I look back on these 4 months I cannot help but feel both sad to leave and a bit underwhelmed by the whole affair. That might make it seem like I am unsatisfied with my time here but that is anything but the case. I truly had a blast here, from the classes to the people and the city. In fact, my time here can best be summarised into 4 categories: Studying at the Mount, Living in Halifax, Spending time with the people here, and Living in Shelburne. Let’s go through them in that order.

Studying at the Mount.

I took 4 classes this semester: Writing, Detective Fiction, Classical Traditions, and Drama. I took the Writing course because I have always had an affinity towards writing stories (just ask the good people of Sint Beekman) and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to improve my writing skills. We focused a lot on writing narratives and essays and I was able to directly implement some techniques learned in this class to various posts in this blog. I had a really easy time during these classes but they were fun nonetheless as we had a loads of opportunities to show of our creativity and our professor praised us for doing so. As a future teacher myself I can safely say that my Writing professor is a great role model for me. As I handed in my exam and she returned my, now graded, portfolio she pulled my aside and softly, as to not interrupt the other students said to me, ‘’Have a good summer, and please do us all a favour and don’t stop writing.’’ These were the kindest, most inspiring words I have heard in a long time. I finished this course with an A grade

My Detective Fiction class was not nearly as pleasant however. Despite being able to share this course with Anna and Tom along with the rest of the study group, this class ranged from slightly entertaining to less interesting than those Hobbit films. The novels that we had to read weren’t too bad but the classes themselves were the weak point. Classes consistent almost entirely of Teacher-Talking-Time and when a student tried to voice their own opinion the professor made sure to pay no mind to it. Just as my writing class served as a great inspiration for what I want my own classes to look like this Detective Fiction class reminded me of how not to do my classes. I finished this course with a B grade

Classical Traditions is probably the course I have spoken most of on this blog, it is the course in Greek poetry for which we did the giant Sappho project. Although the subject matter wasn’t always the most interesting, it was ancient Greek poetry after all, these classes were a blast. There was a ton of room for student participation and our professor always managed to give an interesting spin to the classes. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I got to share these classes with the members of the study group as well. The project that we did for this course was a ton of fun as well, my position in documenting meant I got to spend time with everyone as they did their part. However, my own product, that being the short video on the whole process, is nothing special and is, in fact, even a bit disappointing. This is partly because I haven’t edited a video in years but also because trying working with an entirely new program ensures that the end product will be nothing more than rudimentary. Despite my own disappointment in my part of the project I finished this course with a B+ grade.

Last, but certainly not least, is my drama course; a course that I took because I have also always liked acting and I loved the Drama course that we had at the HAN. However, my dreams were shattered as soon as the first lesson when our professor ensured us that this course wouldn’t be acting but rather looking at the historical importance of certain plays. About half the students dropped the course the very next week. I, however, did not and soon found this to be my favourite course of all. Taking a closer look at the scripts to plays such as Shakespeare’s Henry V or Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen is not unlike analysing a film or two and as such my interest in films helped me greatly with this course but the course also helped me with my interest in films. Many of these plays are filled to the brim with symbolism and I fondly remember staying awake deep into the night, researching how atoms look and work so that I might better compare the aforementioned Copenhagen to it, so that I could present an interesting new theory to the professor the day after. In the end I thanked my professor thoroughly and finished the course with an A- Grade.

It was very interesting to see how these courses differ from courses in the Netherlands. Although the classes aren’t very different, the way of testing is. For every course we had multiple gradings, various essays we had to write and, in some cases, even multiple tests. However, none of these are resit-able. Instead, all of the grades we got for these things culminated in that one last grade of ours, in that sense it feels more like how middle school works than how college works in the Netherlands.

Living in Halifax

For someone who still lives with his parents, such as myself, living on my own in a foreign country was quite the step. Luckily, Mount Saint Vincent University made this step fairly easy. I was placed in one of five Birch buildings. Although it had a kitchen area, in it there was nothing but a microwave to prepare meals. The lounge was big enough to host quite a few people in to watch a film but I have enjoyed a few afternoons here on my own as well. My room was nothing to scoff at but nothing special either although it did take me some time getting used to sleeping on the single bed while I am used to having my big, soft, two-person bed. Another thing I had to get used to was not having a single Wonder Woman poster on my walls, however, this was quickly fixed with a poster so fantastic that having to throw it away as I left hurt me a fair bit.

Aside from the bed and the poster, that I had grown fond of, other important aspects of my room included  the board that I had there (although it was in no way as profound as the board I have back home) and my desk. On my board I put all the short pieces that I wrote for my writing class and a few maps of the area. Meanwhile I used my desk mainly as a vessel to carry my laptop which I used both for work and leisure. Leisure was well provided by the Mount and yet simultaneously limited. Of course, studying at the Mount gave me access to two different movie streaming services on which I watched a large quantity of excellent films, from Double Indemnity to Get Out, and from Do the Right Thing to Hunt for the Wilder People. However, the internet wasn’t always as excellent as the movies provided so often watching those became as tedious as waiting for a fish to grow legs. This wasn’t the worst aspect of the poor internet as it also wasn’t compatible with my Switch. Therefor it was impossible to truly enjoy a game of Splatoon 2 or Arms. I still had plenty of games to play without being able to connect to the internet but it still bothered me that I wasn’t able to play everything that I wanted.

Limited as it may have been I really did like my room. I loved how easy it was to go to classes from my residence and I have many a fond memory of our times in the lounge. The same cannot be said of the dining hall, Rosaria, however. While the atmosphere was quite alright there, there were a lot of friendly people working there and the people eating there were also lovely (more on that later) but the food was not nearly of the same quality. The food ranged from being terrible to being nothing special. On the flip side, I was able to go here whenever I wanted to eat as much as I wanted thanks to my meal plan therefore the quantity of food made up for the quality somewhat.

Whenever I got bored from eating or staying in my room I could either visit my friends living in the bigger residence, Westwood, or go downtown. It was easy enough to get there, if I wasn’t up for the full 2,5 hour walk downtown the busses left every 15 minutes or so from right outside the school so getting downtown was never an issue. Once there there were enough things for me to do but not an abundance of them. There was a movie theatre that I did not visit often enough (only going twice, I’ll have to make up for lost time when I get back) and a few tourist spots such as the Wave or the public park. But, of course, the thing we all care most about in any city is the quality and quantity of the comic book shops. There were two in Halifax: Monster Comic Lounge and Strange Adventures. MCL was bigger and focussed more on merchandise, statuettes in particular, but bringing these back would be a hassle so I would have to content myself with the many comic that they had. Their collection certainly wasn’t anything near that of Forbidden Planet or even Henk and therefore I wasn’t always able to find what I wanted. This is without mentioning that they didn’t even sell any manga whatsoever, for that I had to go to Strange Adventures. SA only had a very small selection of manga and way fewer graphic novels than even MCL. What manga they did have only consisted of the most popular, nothing as obscure as Real Account or even Akame ga Kill. However, I was able to find myself the latest volume of One Punch Man but even One Piece eluded me.

Other highlights of the Canadian experience included the lovely Board Room Café, the easy access to both Walmart and Sobeys, and the ocean view. One of the most notable things is how much wider spaced everything here seems to be, the streets take longer to cross and the stores are farther apart. I would say that Halifax falls somewhere in between Winterswijk and Arnhem in size so walking around was always a pleasant experience.

Spending time with the people here

I feel that I have already spent a lot of time on this blog speaking of all the people who I’ve met here, I even dedicated a whole section of the blog to them. And yet it cannot be understated how much they have influenced my time here, more so than even the very location and according to the pieces many of them so graciously wrote for me I have had some kind of impact on them as well.

When first getting ready to leave I reminded myself that I would only be staying here for a few months and that I should not get too attached to anything or anyone here. So with every new friend that I made I kept this in the back of my mind and for the most part I have managed to stay unattached. Although I enjoyed the time I spent with both the French and the Spanish I always knew that they weren’t the type of people I would fill my time with back home, therefor saying goodbye wasn’t that hard. The same can be said for other people who I have spoken of such as Fanny, Michelle, Eddie, and Chris although my farewell to Fanny does deserve some extra mention. Fanny and me had been having tea together every now and again during those months so we decided to have one final cup, during which we both said to each other that we will probably never see each other ever again but that that is fine. After all Fanny has inspired me in her own ways and so have I her. These were the roles we were able to portray and we fulfilled them splendidly.

Tom, I will see again back in the Netherlands so no reason for any distraught there but there were two people who were able to make me break my promise to myself of not getting emotionally invested. I am, of course, speaking of the gracious Emily and the impeccable Anna. I first knew Anna as one of the few people I have ever known paler than myself but I soon found in her a trusted friend with whom I could spend many an hour talking about various anime or other aspects of life. It wasn’t long before I found myself spending more time with her than with anyone else, despite her living in the other residence: Westwood. Whenever I would spend time at the apartment she shared with three other girls (including the French Emma) I got to know one of Anna’s other roommates: Emily. Before I knew it the three of us spend most our free time together despite Emily only once joining us for our weekly badminton night.

That’s right, I haven’t spoken of badminton yet. At first this seemed like something we, exchange students, could do for fun one Tuesday evening but we quickly found that the level of the other participants far exceeded our own. The only one that could prove somewhat of a challenge to all the others was the aforementioned Anna and because none of the other foreigners stood a change many of them left quickly enough. First Tom stopped coming those Tuesdays evenings, then the French girls did the same, and although Fanny hung in there for quite a while even she eventually gave up on coming, leaving only Anna and me with all these (almost) professional badminton players. Now the only matches of badminton that I had ever played before coming here were the kinds you play when you go out camping with your grandparents as a child so I had much to learn. And learn I did according to Anna, although even by the end I proved no match for anyone present. This doesn’t mean playing wasn’t a terrific experience, however. Every week I would look forward to these Tuesday evenings and now that they’re over I have come to miss them quite a bit.

Anyhow, back to the girls. The three of us steadily grew closer by playing Mario Kart, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and even introducing Emily to her very first anime: Mob Psycho 100 (although it shouldn’t matter that it happens to be an animated show from Japan as we just introduced her to a fantastic new tv-show) after One Punch Man weirdly enough wasn’t able to peak their interest. And I have come to realise that I really will miss both of them when I return home. I truly feel as if Anna would be able to get along with many of my friends back home greatly, Emily perhaps not as much but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could come visit her every now and again.

Speaking of visiting Emily… that is exactly what I’m doing as of writing this blog, which leads me nicely into…

Living in Shelburne

I am really, really, really happy that I misbooked my flight home. If I hadn’t I would have left Canada along with Tom and the French when our time in Halifax ended. But this, along with me befriending both Emily and Anna led me to being invited to live with the both of them at Emily and her grandfather’s house in Shelburne.

The three of us were picked up by her grandfather, Charles, last Saturday and after a 2.5-hour drive (with a stop to enjoy some lovely calamari) we arrived in the quaint little town of Shelburne. Shelburne seems to me to be about as dense as Meddo, I haven’t done the research to confirm that in any way but this can still give most of you an idea of how big it is here. We all have our own bedroom here and after sleeping in that MSVU bed for so long this big soft bed here seems a gift by the gods themselves. Unfortunately Shelburne suffers all the same from their tab water being undrinkable but I have almost (Almost!) gotten used to getting my water somewhere else now anyway. Most our time inside is spend in the living room where Charles watches tv while we either watch along with him or work / play on our own devices (a blog this size doesn’t write itself, you know). And most evenings are spend watching films. Scott Pilgrim vs the World remains a decisive film and even in this company I was the only one who enjoyed it. But their taste in films isn’t entirely foreign as Charles managed to introduce me to In Bruges, a fantastic British film by the director of Seven Psychopaths, ever since seeing it I have been rewatching various moments of the film on YouTube, giggling every time, and I think the girls have since grown tired of me exclaiming ‘’A bottle!’’ every time I see one.

After working on the garden on Sunday we were visited by Emily’s nephew and niece the day after. We had great fun playing with the young children and we promised them to hang out some more the next day. That evening Anna showed off her skills as a Dane by making some karbonader med persillesovs for us all to eat, it really was a lovely meal and if it hadn’t included meat I might have been motivated to create it back home for family to eat. Not to be outdone by Anna’s kitchen skills I decided to create my (in)famous chocolate cake that Wednesday as a dessert for the family dinner that was planned. The dinner itself consisted of lovely cream lobster (for both Anna and myself our first real exposure to this sea creature) which amazed us all and my dessert managed to elicit many a compliment from those present. However, a few days later Anna decided to outdo me once more when she made a Danish cake of her own 2-1 for her.

When not spending our time indoors Emily takes us out to see the beautiful sights around town. On most days the weather was perfect for us exploring the many beaches in the surrounding area. Shelburne’s very own lighthouse and the small village of Lockeport were in particular sights to behold. But what really mattered to me was that I got to spend more time with those that I had grown so close to in these past few months. Never would I have expected to live in a right-winged Christian household for over a week and to think that I would enjoy my time there would have been even more unexpected and yet that is exactly what happened. But all things must come to an end and as I’m sitting in my bed finishing my blog because we will leave early in the morning to catch my flight the reality of it all hits me.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will come to miss both Anna and Emily, Anna lets out a little hiccup every now and again every single day that has been a weird, cute, little consistency and my daily routine will be different without it. Meanwhile I will also have to miss discussing the meaning of life (or lack there of) or smaller, less important things, with Emily.

But, much like Fanny or anyone else here, they both have left an impression of me. Thanks to them I am not the same person that left 4 months ago, not exactly. I loved every moment I spent with both Anna and Emily but it is time to move on now, to look ahead. The encounter that I have had with these 2 girls in this frozen country is one that I will carry with me and one that I will treasure but it is also one that has run its course.

The future.

I am ready to leave this country now and, despite how much it might sadden me, I am also ready to leave these wonderful new friends behind me. As I’m leaving Shelburne in just a few hours I cannot help but also be excited about coming back home. When I left, last year (jeez ,that makes it sound like so long ago…), I wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind but coming here has really served as a refreshment. I am ready to be home again, I am ready to tackle the world again. Of course, this will all start with me making up for lost time. I cannot wait to play another game of Dungeons and Dragons with my friends again, I cannot wait to finally see Infinity War (Both Anna and Emily didn’t care enough to go see it with me), I cannot wait to take a day to just travel the land by train again in search for comic books or figurines, and so, so much more. I want to eat a proper Kapsalon again, that has been too long. A lot of interesting developments have happened to people I care about: relationships have been started, books have been published, some have gotten engaged, and I wish I could have been there for all of it.

I also wish I could have been there when people went through less pleasant experiences, I’m really glad people still felt like they could talk to me even though I was so far away but that doesn’t change I wish I could have physically been there for you those rare times that something was serious enough for me to switch the Dutch in private conversations.

But before I leave you all with some nice pictures of my time here while I go to catch a few short hours of sleep the question remains: does this experience in Canada warrant a place on my pin board?

I think I can safely say that the country itself has done nothing for me to deserve a spot on the board. It really has been a pleasant time here and although the tab water is terrible the locals are friendly enough, the sights are pretty enough, and the weather is cold enough to make someone such as myself have a terrific time. But nothing life changing. The same can be said for studying here, it has been fun, some of the courses have been eye-opening or inspiring, but nothing that will send my life on a different trajectory.

Rather, it was both the timing of this exchange in my life and the people who I have met here that solidify the placement on the board. I have learned a lot about myself in these past few months and that is mainly thanks to people such as Anna, Emily, and Fanny. I hope to be a different man when I get back, not just different form how I was before leaving but also different from I how I expected to be before leaving. I am really, really glad that I got to experience this, and I can’t express how thankful I am that you all followed me on this journey through this blog even if you have only read this once or twice.

I will see you all soon.

-Anne