Jan Svoboda
Canadian Living –TEP
It is almost two years ago when I first heard about Transatlantic Exchange
Partnership. My friend told me that there is the chance to take a part in TEP and to fly
to Canada to study and work there. It was very interesting and exciting information for
me so I went to the office in our school and asked about TEP. They told me that there
are two places where to go and two students can go to every place. Two students
went to Calgary in Alberta and two to Waterloo in Ontario. Me and my buddy Tomas
filled the applications, but it was about one year before the exchange was supposed
to start so we were waiting for more information and of course for the most important
information for us whether our university will choose us.
In the end of January, 2011 university called us for a meeting in Liberec where
were teachers from all the universities which took a place in this project. After this two
days meeting they told us that me and my buddy will go to Calgary which we
preferred. It was the great news for us and also the start of the time when we had to
prepare for the life in Canada and manage visas, schedules, accommodation and
many other things. There was no problem with money because every student in TEP
program got 1,000 euro for every month in school and extra 1,000 euro for flight
ticket and other extra payments by Canadian government and European Union.
We had time till the end of summer holydays when we left Czech Republic and
it was enough for all things, visas were small problem because in Czech it is possible
to get only visas for visitors so we had to write to Canadian embassy in Austria for
study and work permit. To manage schedule was bit more complicated because we
tried to have a bit similar classes like in Czech and we had to find them in Canadian
school - SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technologies). The big advantage was
that in our school and in Canadian as well were people who helped us and did their
best for us and our comfort.
In the end of August we went to Prague and took the plane to London and
then next one to our new home – Calgary. On the airport in Calgary was already
waiting Pam for us and drove us to SAIT residence. Pam is wonderful women and I
am pretty sure that without her we would have had many more problems. She
showed us all the important places in university complex, where to eat, where to do
sports and where to find all useful people for us.
First few days in Canada was without school but we had to do a lot of
important thing to stay there like manage health insurance, buy some kitchen
equipment, find classes where we will have courses, find groceries stores, explore
new places and find some new friends of course. When I am writing about friends I
have to say that Canadian people are very friendly and everybody helped us with our
friends, I had great roommates and next exchange students Dean and Fabian from
Germany and Tim from Australia were my best friends in Canada. Also our school
mates were wonderful, they helped us with the specifics of Canada and invited us for
Halloween and so on. Simply Canada is full of good people.
The capital part of the exchange was school and my for me it was big
motivation to pass Canadian courses. I took five courses in MET and ASNT. My
courses were Fluid mechanics, Economics, Computer modeling, Electrics and
measurement and Technologies. All books which I needed I got for free in school so
it was nice. In the courses it was necessary to work during the semester and pass
some small test to complete the course. In the end of each course we did last big test
in the school gym and it was the main result for our grades. All my grades were A, so
I was really satisfied. Teachers are friendly like everybody there and often offered us
extra lessons if we needed them. My favorite lesson was practice in Fluid mechanics
because I think that it is important for students to see how all the explained thing
work.
Next very nice support by Pam was that she helped us to find English teacher
for free. Our teacher Joe was cool guy who answered a lot of questions mostly about
English grammar and explained plenty details which we couldn´t understand. He also
answered us few questions about normal life and was good friend for Me, Tom and
German guys.
I´d like to devote one paragraph to Cynthia. She is a teacher at SAIT. Not
mine but it is not a problem for her to invite mostly exchange students to visit her and
her husband Larry. Sometimes it was lunch in Highwood restaurant close to our
residence and once it was trip for 300 km distance to Edmonton to see Rodeo. For
me it was excited to see cowboys and their skills. It is something what you can never
see in Europe. The big surprise was when she invited us to spend Christmas dinner
with her. She is really wonderful cook and for all of us it was nice and it was bit more
like with our families.
I can´t forget to write about unbelievable Canadian nature and traveling.
Places like Banff or Lake Louis are probably the most beautiful places which I have
ever seen. We also visited Drumheller, Edmonton and few other places close to
Calgary. I will never forget feeling when I saw elk about fifty meters close from our
car. The best sport experience for me was when I visit NHL. Czech Republic is ice
hockey country and spending New Year’s Eve on Flames match was really great.
Unfortunately I didn´t find job which was helpful for me and i left Canada bit
earlier than was first plan but I am sure I will always remember the Canadian part of
my life.
In the end I´d like to thank to Marcela, Pam, Brad, Joe, Cynthia and all my new
friends because all of them helped me to have amazing time on the other side of the
world.