#3-1 A Broken Student Goes to Canada | Winter Break in Canada

kaedeinus
May 3
4 min read

Hello, there!

It's been about a month since my last blog, and almost two months since the Niagara trip one.

Suddenly it's May... Time seriously flies.

👉🏻Click here for the Niagara blog

So why haven't I updated the blog in two months?

Well... classes have been hectic.

I've been drowning in assignments from morning till night, then collapsing into bed like I'm entering eternal sleep 😪

Anyway, today I want to share a bit about my one-month trip to Canada over winter break.

I spent all of DecemberーChristmas and New Year'sーescaping the middle of nowhere in Ohio and heading up to somewhere near Vancouver!

This post is about how the trip came to be ☺️

Where Did I Stay For A Whole Month?

As a broke and clueless college student, staying in Canada for a month might sound impossible...

But I was lucky enough to have an amazing host family I stayed with during a short-term study abroad program back in high school.

It's been six years.

When I was in 10th grade, I did a 2-month homestay near Vancouver.

My host family was a lovely mixーa European-Canadian mom, a Filipino dad, and two younger kids (a girl 6 years younger and a boy 9 years younger).

Here's a miracle photo that survived from back then (6 years ago!!)

I Didn't Want To Stay At My Roommate's House

Originally, I was supposed to spend winter break at my roommate's place.

But a week before the break started, I strayed there for three days and quickly realizedー"There's absolutely nothing to do here for a whole month..."

Even though the house was technically in a more city-ish area, it was still Ohio.

No car = nowhere to go.

Spending a month stuck in a place I couldn't even leave on my own felt like such a waste of time.

So, one week before winter break started, I messaged my host family in Canada, not really expecting much.

(Thank goodness I kept in touch with them all these yearsーseriously!)

They said YES.

Even though I was asking super last minute, they kindly welcomed me to stay for the whole month 🥲

(And they didn't charge me a single dollar for rent or food!)

So I quickly booked my flight, packed like crazy, and made my escape from rural Ohio to wintertime Vancouver 🇨🇦✨

Going From East To West Is No Joke

It only takes around four hours to fly from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

But going from the eastern U.S. to western side of Canada?

That took 8 hours including layovers... it's a haul.

Even after landing, the trip was't over...

My host family lives near Vancouver, but it still look two buses and two trainsーover two hours totalーto get their town.

Still, compared to where I go to school in the U.S., it felt way more urban.

My host mom said she'd pick me up at the bus station after the train, so I dragged my giant 100L suitcase across the city and made my way there.

And honestlyーmy memory from six years ago was spot on.

I didn't even need Google Map to transfer between far-apart train lines.

I felt pretty proud of myself in that moment 😂

Reunited After Six Years

Even though we'd been keeping in touch online, it had been six years since we last saw each other.

The host siblings are now full-on teenagers...

So yeah, I was a little nervousーlike, is it oaky for 22-year-old me to suddenly show up in their lives again? (Mentally, I already feel like an auntie lol)

But when we finally saw each otherー

My host mom, of course, remembered me, but even my host brother recognized me right away and ran up to hug me 🥲

(My auntie heart melted.)

Even the dog remembered me 🐶

Back then, the family had two dogsーRosie and Rocky.

Sadly, Rosie passed away about two years ago, which they told me when I arrived.

But Rocky is still around, now an old but happy grandpa dog.

From the moment I walked in, he stuck to me like glue.

Whenever I sat on the couch, he'd squeeze into the tiniest space next to me and sit there with his butt squished in 😭

They also have a new dog now!

So that's the story of how I ended up spending my winter break in Canada, and all the travel it took to get there!

Thanks for reading this far 💖

It's been a while since I blogged, so sorry if the writing is a bit all over the place 🙇🏻‍♀️

Next time, I'll post a big recap of what I did during that one month in Canadaーstay tuned ✨

Bye:)

And if you're curious, I'm also on social mediaーfeel free to follow me! 🥺

🌱 Instagram (daily life) → @kaede.t___ (that’s 3 underscores!)

🌱 Instagram (Type 1 diabetes) → @maple.iddm

🍀 TikTok → @kaedemeetsworld