{"id":2299,"date":"2023-01-09T14:22:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T13:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/?page_id=2299"},"modified":"2023-01-10T14:52:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:52:50","slug":"student-exhange-sivertsen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/news-and-events\/student-exhange-sivertsen\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Exchange to Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Students<\/p>\n

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Nord University student, Haakon Frostad Sivertsen, shared his experience with semester exchange to Queen’s University. Read his story below!<\/b><\/p>\n

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My experiences as an exchange student at Queen’s University<\/p>\n

By Haakon Frostad Sivertsen<\/p>\n

I decided\nto go on exchange after several shutdowns over the last two years. Covid-19\nmade the world even smaller and thus I had to go out into the world as soon as\nit opened up again. The reason I chose Canada was primarily because I\u2019ve heard\na lot of good things about the country and because I will be teaching English\nin grades 5-10 in Norway when I complete my degree and are a certified teacher.\nWhat started as a hesitant idea turned into the best choice I’ve made in my\nlife. Canada has become my second home and the second best country in the world\nto live in.<\/span><\/p>

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The\nprocess<\/b><\/p>

The process\nfrom when I applied until I was on my way to Queen\u2019s was pretty simple and\nstraight forward. I got approval from Nord to go on exchange. I then sent this\napproval to Queen\u2019s University and got an approval document from them a few weeks\nlater. I received the approval from Queen\u2019s a bit too late regarding applying\nfor on campus housing, as the deadline had past. If I\u2019d received the documents\na bit earlier, I might have been able to live on campus. The next step was then\nto look for accommodation. My best tip is to join a Facebook group where you\ncan look for accommodation and where the members consist of other exchange\nstudents. I found some Dutch people to live with after a few days of searching.\nThe rental prices in Kingston are just like in Bod\u00f8, so it\u2019s important not to\nbe picky, but exercise critical thinking to avoid getting scammed. Never accept\nanything until you\u2019ve had a Zoom meeting or similar with the landlord. Once I\u2019d\nrented a place to stay, I chose my subjects. The coordinator at Queen\u2019s if very\nhelpful and nice, so don\u2019t hesitate to ask her for help. After I had chosen my\nsubjects, all I had to do was book my flights and do the count down. <\/span><\/p>

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My\nmeeting with Queen\u2019s University<\/b><\/p>

I arrived\nin Toronto at 2pm in late August. I recommend taking the bus to Kingston, as\nthe train fares are very high. School started a week after I arrived, so I\nexplored Kingston for a week before school started and before my roommates\narrived. The first week of school was mainly getting to know fellow students,\nthe Campus and the subjects. I met two exchange students from Switzerland on\nthe first day and they were in the same classes as me. We were given a tour of\nthe Campus and a number of activities were organized during this week. I did\nnot attend these activities because I wanted to explore the city and the Campus\nwith the people I lived with. If, however, you do not know anyone, I would\nrecommend participating in as many activities as possible. Canadians are very\nwelcoming and are always open to meeting new people.<\/span><\/p>

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Every\nday life as a student and for your free time<\/b><\/p>

I spent a\nlot of time with my room mates. They have become some of my best friends and we\ndid a lot of social things after school. We went to the Pub, watched football\nmatches (World Cup), went to parties, went to FOCO and HOCO and met other\nexchange students who we hung out with for the rest of our stay. If you enjoyed\n\u201crussetiden\u201d, FOCO and HOCO are a kind of Canadian \u201crussetid\u201d at the\nuniversity. Those days were amongst the most fun days I had and is definitely\nsomething you just have to experience. If you do strength training or other\nsports, Queen\u2019s has fantastic facilities for working out, basketball, football,\nvolleyball, swimming and more. I do CrossFit in my spare time and joined Queen\nStreet Fitness located Downtown. The price for the membership is extremely\nexpensive, but I think it was worth it as it was only for four months and I\nwanted to experience Canadian CrossFit as well as making new friends. Through\nthe Crossfit community, we had several social gatherings that were worth every\npenny. In my spare time I also traveled quite a bit to other cities, such as\nMontreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. If you have the time, I highly recommend\nexploring as much as possible if the opportunity presents itself. Try to travel\nalong with someone else, as it makes the trips even better. I traveled alone quite\na bit and noticed that I missed a friend or two to travel with. <\/span><\/p>

Everyday\nlife as a student was roughly the same as at Nord. I had English, pedagogy and\nspecial education pedagogy. The school days were however longer, where some of\nthe days could last until 8PM. It might feel strange at first, but you get used\nto it. My classmates were absolutely fantastic and I found the learning\nenvironment very motivating. Everyone was interested in each other\u2019s thoughts\nand we had great discussions every class. The subjects mostly consisted of\nassignments and group projects, and the classes had lots of discussions and\ncollaborative tasks. As for practicum, I wasn\u2019t able to practicum in Canada,\nwhich is a shame. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t know the reason for this. When my\nclassmates where doing their practicum, I worked with online assignments. The\ntasks were relevant for teacher education students and I got an insights into\nthe Canadian school system.<\/span><\/p>

As for\nfood, there are canteens on Campus, but you have to get food vouchers every\nmonth. I wasn\u2019t able to wrap my head around this system, but the coordination\ncan be asked about this. There are several libraries on Campus. The Campus\nitself is incredibly beautiful \u2013 it looks a bit like Hogwarts because of its\nold buildings and great art. All Queen\u2019s students can take the bus for free, so\nit\u2019s easy to travel around the city of Kingston. <\/span><\/p>

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My\nadvice to future exchange students<\/b><\/p>

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My advice\nto future exchange students is to be open to participating in everything you\nhave the chance to do while abroad. Don’t be afraid to talk to Canadians \u2013 they\nare the world’s nicest and most welcoming people. If you have the opportunity,\nyou should travel to the big cities in Canada. Try new dishes, activities and what\nthe Canadian culture has to offer. If you have the opportunity, you should live\nin a collective with other exchange students. You\u2019ll be able to cook together,\nexplore the city together and it might be easier to get in touch with other\nexchange students. Remember to save money for the exchange, to be able to experience\nother cities while you’re there. The last tip is to have an open mind, to the\nnew country you\u2019re in and the culture which will leave you with several\nexperiences and impression. Canada is an amazing country that I will definitely\nreturn to. I might even move over there on a permanent basis. That\u2019s how great\nmy exchange was.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nord University student, Haakon Frostad Sivertsen, went abroad to Canada and Queen’s University for his semester exchange through CANOPY and came home with new impressions and experiences. Read his story below! Being an exchange student at Queen’s University By Haakon Frostad Sivertsen I decided to do the semester exchange after several shutdowns over the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"parent":1215,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[7],"class_list":["post-2299","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2347,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2299\/revisions\/2347"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/canopy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}