New culture, new life, new challenges. These are the things a person will experience when they move from a country to another. I come from Vancouver, B.C, a city brimming with diversity, and I moved to Winchester, a harmonious town in England where everyone seemed ominously similar. It is a burden to start all over again when my life exists elsewhere, what I once called home is no longer home but a faraway place where all my treasured memories and friends are.
The city of Vancouver is a world of its own, it consists of many racial and cultural backgrounds, as well as communities. Anyone who chooses to immigrate or refuge there can easily identify their “little country” in the world of Vancouver. Because Vancouver is so diverse, one can easily open their eyes and obtain a broader understanding of cultures. People who grew up in Vancouver usually are more acceptant of other races and more familiar with multiple cultures.
English: Vancouver City Hall
English: Winchester Guildhall 1871
English: Broadway, Winchester, Hampshire, from St ...From my prospective Winchester is a peaceful little town. It’s relatively small and mostly quiet. Winchester has always been the place that I’d looked forward to live when I have acquired my false teeth and wheelchair. I’m sure Winchester would make a great retirement home for not just me but others as well. As for now, Winchester is far from what I’m used to.
From what I’ve experienced in the past three months, I can identify the following things about Winchester’s city that holds a significant difference from Vancouver’s. Firstly, the traffic flows from the left hand side, so I always have to double take before crossing the road. This might not seem like a big deal, but I’ve always been used to looking at the “wrong” side of the street, thus putting me in jeopardy whenever I walk to school. Secondly, the building are all cramped and antique looking, although they are beautiful on the outside, it’s troublesome to have to maneuver within it. The makeup of the town is also alien to me. And when I walk on one of the many winding streets, it’s almost as if I’m in the weird painting that used to hang on my living room wall. And lastly and most importantly are the people. The people of Winchester are mostly polite well mannered and follows every single rule in the book, I almost dare say that some people are programmed to obey. Although this may sound positive, it also has its downsides. Let me give you an example. On the first week of my stay in Winchester, I got lost somewhere in town. I needed help so I walked in to a community center, I told them my situation and asked if there were any payphones around, hinting to them to let me use the phone they had in their office. Instead they gave me a very detailed and exceptionally hard direction to where I needed to go. I’m not saying that everyone here is a narrow minded robots that don’t take hints, but I m a bit frustrated whenever I need direction because every time the same thing happens, people would tell me things like “when you past the big tree turn left, you will see a red mail box, then you have to go down to the yellow house…etc.” in the end, I mean no offense, and if I angered the nice and patriot people of England, I sincerely apologize.
The most tremendous and problematic change in my life would have to be the school. I believe that no one, except for people who are in same shoes as me, can understand how I feel. Aside from having to leave all my long established childhood friends and many sport teams behind, there’s also a whole new system that I’m far from used to. When I say new, I really meant completely irritating and absurd. The powers given to teachers are overwhelming. It feels if I’m in a communist school dictated by strict and mostly heartless creatures. (Excluding you sir, you have been kind*) To understand my point of view, you must first hear what I’m used to. In Canada, the rules in school is very relaxed, one can chew gum, listen to their iPods, drink or eat, talk quietly, sleep, or any of the things that you may have seen on T.V regarding North American schools. The teachers are still to be respected, in theory, but the students can usually “overthrow” inexperienced ones. Teachers rarely give out detentions, and if one was issued it usually means the student has committed something that is punishable by law. (Such as dealing firecrackers*) The utmost annoyance I have to deal with in my new mandatory hell is the uniform. You’d understand my dislike –no extreme hatred—if you never ever had to wear something that made you look like a business man and feel like an awkward robot. To make matter worst, the overpowered teachers seeks pleasure in catching kids with their sleeves up or shirts untucked, so they can misuse this power and send us in to detention. Aside from the magic and humor, the British schools are, from my prospective, similar to Hogwarts.
The change from city to town, from Vancouver to Winchester, has been dramatic and restless. I know that over time, I will eventually be brainwashed into the ideal, tea drinking, English citizen, but till then, I will try my best to follow the rules that the school boards has especially made to make student life more miserable.
English: Winchester College War Cloister, Winchest...
English: Vancouver, BC viewed from the south with ...
English: Winchester, England, United-Kingdom FranÃ...