Millie in Wolfville

An abundance of events in Canada!

All exchange students were invited to attend the welcome week that was organized for new students (so mostly first year students). I cannot recommend this enough! They offered an abundance of events – campus tours, a student info fair, a street fair organized by the town of Wolfville, a welcome barbecue on the University lawn, a bus tour for international students… And then there were painting nights, game nights, movie nights, karaoke nights, bonfire nights… I often had to decide between two or more concurrent events! The university really went all the way to give us a great welcome.

I decided to take four classes instead of a full five-class-schedule: two classes for my Life Sciences Major (Introduction to Mycology and Anatomy & Physiology) as well as two Electives classes (Canadian Literature and Canadian History). These last two were a great way to learn more about my host country in a more formal way! Each of my classes had a lot more smaller assignments throughout the semester than what I know from Freiburg, where I often only have big assignments towards the end of the term. Instead, at Acadia we had numerous essays, presentations, midterms, quizzes, and tests throughout the semester. This meant that there was always something to work on, and so I was well equipped with four classes.

My semester abroad made me realize that starting “from scratch” in a different country and making new friends and implementing new routines is not as scary as I had thought. This experience gives me the confidence to think about maybe doing my master’s abroad, who knows!