Up North

International Student of the year

A while ago I received this newsletter from McGill which announced a competition for the International Student of the Year award. Sure, I thought, that's me, where do I have to sign? Turns out it wasn't that easy. I actually have to convince a jury of what you and me have known ever since I stepped off the plane in September. Since I am young and need the money (500! bucks) I decided to comply with their wishes and write the letter they're asking for, describing my time here, what a blast I'm having and how my personality has been influenced profoundly by my time as an exchange student. The letter is addressed to the one-and-only (I don't know about you, but he's my one-and-only) Joseph T. Farquharson and it goes like this:

Dear Joseph,

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I arrived in Montréal. I felt so wretched at first, torn between the excitement of studying at a top Canadian university and the desire to fly back into your arms. Today I am proud and grateful that we have survived the long distance and are closer than ever. I wish you were here with me so I could show you around this vibrant city.

Montréalers are a contradictory yet lovable lot. They’re fitness and fashion addicts yet come to school in what look suspiciously like pyjamas. They have a dozen winter festivals to celebrate the grimmest season of the year. They eat Beavertails. They study at Starbucks for company yet plug in their I(‘m-isolating-myself)-Pods as soon as they leave the house.

I love Montréal’s multicultural make-up and its embrace of diversity. You and I could walk the streets untroubled by the staring and sometimes hostile looks which follow black-and-white couples in Germany.

I feel at home here and am positively surprised how many people are fluent in at least two languages and eager to learn more. It’s the perfect environment for an aspiring linguist like me!

And yet, I have learnt so much more than formal linguistics this year. I have explored Canada’s cultural diversity through its cuisine, learned a sign language and mingled with other international students into one spicy salsa at ballroom lessons. I am actually competing in the next salsa dance-off - somehow the McGill students’ eagerness to challenge themselves has rubbed off on me. Never have I seen so much student-organised activism in one place, it’s contagious. Now I’m helping to organise a linguistics undergraduate conference and am determined to use my newly-acquired organisational skills in our undergraduate society back home.

The support I experience here is inspiring: the chair of the linguistics department has told me more than once that she wants me to do my PhD at McGill! I am definitely considering coming back after finishing up my degree in Germany. Et comment disent les Québecois: “Je me souviendrai”,

Your Canadian Cosmopolitan

posted by Conni @ 8:54 PM