5 months of preparing, writing mails, studying hard. It was finally time. Time to leave on an adventure I’d never forget!

That day I woke up at 5 in the morning for my first flight to Montreal. The weirdest thing was that up to Sunday all I was feeling were nerves, but then I was only excited.

After eating and fitting everything in the car, we made our way to the airport. in front of the check-in, I saw the other 3 students I’d be flying with. They’re all from the French speaking part of Belgium, I’m from the Dutch speaking side, which means there was a slight language barrier. We all went to the exchange through WEP.

After security, border control and an hour of waiting around, we finally boarded the plane. We managed to change seats with a couple of people so not all 4 of us were seated alone. After that long flight, we had to wait just as much for the next one, from Montreal to Vancouver.

In the planes, we heard a lot of french. Not our french, but Quebecois. It was the weirdest thing I had ever heard, from the parts that I actually understood. Everyone was also so kind to each other on the plane, helping put the bags up, switch seats so families could sit together, …

Around 21.00 Vancouver time, my Belgian friends and I arrived at the airport. We got lost when searching for baggage claim, but we found it eventually :). That is also where our host families welcomed us and brought us to what would soon be home.

My first day away from home was already the most exciting thing I had ever done. I can hardly wait to see what the next five months have in store for me.