From Around the World 2010
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VOICES FROM AROUND THE WORLD 2010 Stories of Vanier Students Voices From Around The world 2010 Stories of Vanier Students Edited and Designed by Marya Grant Sara Tawil All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission from the authors. Vanier College, 821 Ste. Croix Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4L 3X9 www.vaniercollege.qc.ca Vanier College Press, 2010 ISBN 978-2-921024-96-9 Table of Contents Aldhi Wijaya Farewell ……………………………………….. 1 Alessia Clemente Peru 2008 ……………………………………… 2 Alexei Byelov Two Is Better Than One ………………………. 3 Alizada Shahiaq My First Day at Vanier College ………………. 4 Brenda Barrera What’s Your Favorite Scary Story? ................... 5 Damla Ozkaya That Moment of the Year ……………………... 6 Edouard Moïse Plantin My First Real Experience ……………………... 7 Emmanuel Pacifique Nsengiyaremye Playing in front of Hundreds of People ……….. 8 Ingrid Rosales Rodas My First Job Experience ………………………. 9 Jonah Xu Sleepy Games …………………………………. 10 Khan Hammad The Moment of Glory ………………………… 11 Lio Junwei New City ……………………………………… 13 Lu Lu Memories at the End of the Road …………….. 14 Mariam Jabri Going to a New Life ………………………….. 16 Salomon Ederhy The Worst Possible Ending Ever! ...................... 18 Sarah-Michelle Leger 8count Dance Complex ……………………….. 19 Sergine Philosca The Right Field ……………………………….. 20 Shiela Mae Rafal Sky Pub Club …………………………………. 21 Shirley Lee Pay Attention …………………………………. 23 Sun He Li Just for Laughs Festival ………………………. 24 Vanessa Angelone My First Time Home Alone ………………….. 25 Vincent Milette On board for a foreign country ……………….. 26 Voices From Around The World 2010 Walid Chenine The Sacrifice ………………………………….. 27 Cai Xue Si My Passion for Music ………………………… 28 Xue Yang The Day I Left for Canada ……………………. 30 Ying-Di Liu My First Dissection …………………………… 31 Voices From Around The World 2010 Preface Over the years, Vanier College has welcomed students from all over the world. With over forty languages spoken and eighty countries represented, one would only have to walk down Vanier’s hallways to become aware of its diversity. This very diversity is a treasure that The Learning Centre wishes to share through Voices From Around the World. This is a collection of stories written by Vanier students, most of who either come from immigrant families or are newly arrived immigrants themselves. Their voices portray the multicultural diversity at Vanier College. This year, like every other, the authors of Voices From Around the World 2010 have written quite frankly about their feelings and their past experiences. We thank them for sharing their life stories with us. While this publication couldn’t have taken place without the invaluable contributions of the students, it is the teachers of the summer intensive English course, Vanessa Vandergrift and Jessica Murphy, who did a wonderful job at integrating the writing of these narratives into their classes. They guided their students through the writing process and encouraged them to submit their work for publication. This project is sponsored by the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS) du Québec as well as L’intégration des communautés culturelles et à l’éducation interculturelle au collégial. Many thanks to Judy Macdonald (Coordinator of the Learning Enrichment & Support Services for Programs) for her support. Thanks as well to the staff members who contributed to the publication of this book: Marya Grant, Kim Muncey, Carrie Clough, Joanne Ellis, Melanie Tam, and Didier Brûlé-Champagne. We hope that you enjoy reading this publication and that you learn from our authors’ life experiences as much as we have learned in putting this book together. Sara Tawil The Learning Centre Vanier College Voices From Around The World 2010 Farewell By Aldhi Wijaya Unexpected things come at unexpected moments. I had just arrived home from a long day of school when my mom received a call from my dad saying that we were going to move to Canada. It really caught me off guard because it was my last semester of middle school. I felt sad that I had to leave all of my friends behind but also ecstatic to live in a new country. The next morning, I went to school to tell the principal that I was going to leave the country. I left right after without telling my friends because I didn‟t know what to say to them. I went home to try to figure it out, but nothing came to my mind. At about 3:30 P.M. that day, I went back to school. The second I stepped on the school ground, my friends jumped on me, so to speak, and they asked me if it was true. I knew what they were talking about, but I had no idea how they found out about it. Apparently, the principal had been talking to the teachers, and they told their students about it, so the whole school already knew by the time I got there. I told them the whole story, and some of them actually cried. I did not know that they cared that much. I was really touched. For the rest of the days I had left in Indonesia, I just went out and hung out with my best friends. It was a lot of fun, but time passed really quickly. It was already time for my departure. My friends and family went to the airport with me. Every one of them had been a big part of my life, and I was going to leave them just like that. I never really realized it until it was actually happening. It was a very emotional moment. Tears were shed, and there were a lot of hugs. Nevertheless, I was so thrilled to get on that airplane, and start a whole new journey. My friends handed me this black box filled with stuff that each of them gave personally. Inside the box, there was an album of the pictures that we took in a studio just a few days before. My friends also wrote a couple of last words in that album, which was really moving. I had no clue that I made such an impact on their lives. However, the one person I cared for the most couldn‟t make it, so the whole time I was in the airport, I spent it on the phone with her. My other friends also texted and tried to call me, but I couldn‟t hang up the phone until the last minute, when I was already sitting on the plane with my seat belt buckled up. She was the one person who made it really hard for me to leave, and when she started crying, I felt crushed. I did not know that she cared that much for me. I really wanted to tell her the three words I have always wanted to say, but I couldn‟t. She was already hurting, and I didn‟t want to make it worse. After the flight attendant told me, for the third time, to hang up and turn off my cell phone, I finally did. It was tough, but I had to do it. A couple of minutes later, the plane took off. I was looking down from the window, hoping to see my friends again, but I couldn‟t. That was definitely the most memorable and unforgettable moment of my life. Who would have thought that I would find out how my best friend really felt about me right before I had to leave the country? Aldhi Wijaya is going into Exploration 6 to get his prerequisites for Health Science. He hopes to be a surgeon in the future. 1 | Voices From Around The World 2010 Peru 2008 By Alessia Clemente On the 23rd of June 2008, fifteen school friends and I packed our bag packs and left for a three- week humanitarian trip to Peru. I was so excited to go on my first real trip on my own. I did not know what to expect nor did I know how the Peruvians would accept us. After one entire day of traveling, we finally arrived to Peru. We were all extremely tired. We then took a taxi to a little town called Tacna. Eight people were crammed in the car. I remember thinking the cab driver was crazy because he was driving extremely fast and was not following the road signs. We then arrived to the parish in Tacna. The parishioners welcomed us with open arms. They made us a poster with „‟Bienvenido Canada‟‟ handwritten on it. At this point, I wasn‟t tired anymore; all I wanted to do was to immediately befriend everyone who was awaiting our arrival. The next day, we got to meet the families we would be staying with during our trip. My Peruvian family was very nice. It was a little complicated to communicate with them because I was definitely not very good at Spanish. I sometimes felt as if we would mostly talk in sign language rather than in actual words. I loved helping out in the church. One of my favorite parts of this trip was definitely playing with the less fortunate kids who would come to the parish after school. We would mostly play soccer. I must admit, the little 7 year olds were much better than us. It was quite embarrassing, however I sill enjoyed myself. During this humanitarian trip, I did many new things that some people never get to experience in their lives. I am very thankful and appreciative of all the good and bad situations that we had to go through. I have learned and grown as a person because of this adventure. I will never forget it. I would go back to Tacna any day.