Last fall, I transferred from my local college in Asia to the University of Windsor. Thanks to the pandemic, I never got to go there since classes were online and the borders were closed. Up until now, I’ve been waiting to see when classes would be in-person again and for me to have the opportunity to actually stay in the country I’m studying at. And that time is finally here! I was pretty bummed to be put in such a transitory part of my life for more than a year, but now I finally get to go to Canada and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll be starting my winter semester in Canada and here’s just some things that I’ve been dying to experience when I get there:
- Snow
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I live in a tropical and humid country, so the idea of watching frozen particles of water falling out of the sky seems so magical to me. I’ve gone to countries with winter before, but it has never been a place where it snowed. Even if it was, it never snowed when I was there. Every time I’ve had the chance to see snow, that opportunity has always been robbed from me and I’ve never gotten to see it. So now that I’ll be in a country where snow is common during the winter, I’m just so pumped to see it for the first time in my 20 years of life.
- Changing Seasons in General
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Like I said, I live in a tropical country and the only changing seasons we have are haze and monsoon. I’ve never lived in a country where there’s seasons, so I’m really excited to see first-hand how the weather and environment changes as the days go by. It’s just so crazy to me how so many people live in a country where the temperature changes depending on the time of the year since all I’ve ever known is just hot summers. It’ll be so cool for me to see the place where I’ll be living have different seasons, as I’ve never been to a place long enough to see it happen. I’ve heard people talk about how beautiful it is when it changes to their favourite season and I can’t wait for that to happen to me.
- Meeting People
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I’ve gotten to meet (more like text) some people in my university, but I never got to talk to them much because a) the time zone difference and b) I suck at online communication. Now that I get to actually be in the same time zone and region as the people I’ve met here, I imagine it’ll be easier to talk to and hopefully get to meet some of them! A lot of the people I met in the university are actually members of Her Campus, and I can’t wait to meet them! I always miss out on social events, so I’m glad it won’t be that way soon.
There are also some friends that I’ve known in my previous schools that have moved to Canada or the US, and I’m really excited to see some of them when I get here. As for the friends in the US, I’m just happy that it’ll be easier to talk to them since the time difference won’t be as big.
- Wearing Long Sleeves / Layered Clothes
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Where I live, it’s impossible to wear long sleeved clothing and not be sweating. Since I heat up really easily and hate sweating, being fully covered, especially when I’m outdoors, would give me heatstroke. That really sucks because I’m a huge fan of layered fashion and I never got to wear that type of style back at home. But I know that Canada is so freaking cold, which means that I get the chance to try out this style without dying of heat or getting questionable looks when I’m in public.
I’m intrigued by the whole seasonal clothes thing too, because I’ve never needed to do that. There are no changing seasons in my country; it’s just always been hot and humid with the occasional (well, not really) rain. So, having to change your wardrobe periodically just isn’t a thing here. I’m just hyped to see what this is all about, but I do hope I don’t get sucked into clothing brands’ fantastic marketing skills.
- Having a Fresh Start
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I’m really lucky that I get to study abroad and that my family supports my decisions. I’m really grateful for the opportunities that I’ve gotten, and the future ones I’ll get for studying in Windsor as opposed to studying locally. I’m fully anticipating using this chance to start fresh since I’m in a completely new country all on my own. It’s definitely terrifying that I’ll have to travel all across the globe on my own, but I’m more excited about the new things I get to do and see.
There are absolutely more things in this list, but these were just the ones I always thought about when I started hesitating on whether I should’ve transferred. Because of COVID and everything, I was left doubting if I would even get to leave the country. It was a pretty sh*tty mindset to be in and the unpredictability of it all made it worse, but I’m glad I stuck it out because now all the things I was looking forward to can be a reality.