Earlier this month, Arts & Culture editor Hui Wen and I had the incredible opportunity to spend 10 days living in Denmark as part of a student exchange program. It was a transformative experience that I can’t recommend highly enough. Especially as a youth, travel can be such an eye-opening experience. There are so many reasons why an exchange program may be the best way to do so, but I’ll do my best to name a few.
1. Making new friends
I was more than a little bit apprehensive to how well the whole “homestay” portion of the trip would go. What if I didn’t get along well with the family I had been paired with? What if the food they served was terrible?
Honestly, all that worry was for nothing. The very fact that a family has agreed to host a student already shows that they are prepared to provide a caring and welcoming environment. Going through a daily routine with the same group of people and living in their home allows a truly unique bond to form, and I know that I have made friends for life.
2. Living like a local
This was probably the coolest part of the homestay. When you’re visiting somewhere as a tourist, there are so many things that you just don’t get to experience. I’m not sure exactly what it is about going to a real Danish grocery store or attending classes at a typical Danish high school, but it provided a much more intimate look at the culture. You learn all of the ins and outs of the life of the place you’re visiting – way more than any tour guide or museum could ever teach you. I consider it a much more authentic experience.
3. Cost-efficiency
I’m not going to try and convince you that international flights are anywhere near cheap, but once you actually arrive at your exchange destination and settle in with your host family, there aren’t many things you have to pay for. As anyone who has travelled for long periods can tell you, free accommodation is the key to keeping your trip budget low. The home-cooked meals really don’t hurt, either.
4. Gaining a better understanding of Canadian culture/society
Okay, I get that this one sounds a bit lame. Why should you travel across the world when you can appreciate Canada from your own backyard? The truth is that getting an inside look at another culture makes you reconsider aspects of your own. My homestay family was incredibly interested to know all about my home country; from the Canadian school system to the cost of Nike shoes. We spent many mealtime discussions comparing and contrasting Canada and Denmark and looking critically at both societies. For the first time, I felt like I had a deep enough understanding of another society to have a frame of reference to which I could compare my own.
If you’re interested in reading more about the trip and seeing some photos, be sure to check out my blog posts here or Hui Wen’s here