MERIVALE HIGH SCHOOL

Hi Charlie,

Today I'll be telling you about the school I stayed at during those two Canadian weeks which already seem so faraway (NEARLY TWO MONTHS). In a limited committee, the OIB was represented by Mara, Rebecca and I, while Colonel By saw an invasion of french people (more than 15 :/ ).

MHS (an acronym the students LOVE to use in their instagram description as it looks very classy) is located south-west of the city of Ottawa. It is located at the intersection of Merivale Road and Viewmount Drive, two big busy american avenues where you know you'll always find all sorts of fast-foods, including Harvey's, MacDonalds, Metro, only to mention a few... As it is, Merivale's cafetaria crashed down one year ago as the students simply stopped coming! Ever since, from 10:45 to 11:30, half of the students sit everywhere and eat their cute little prepared lunch (when will french parents?), when the other half rushes to cross the road and buys an incredible amount of burgers, fries, bagels, and other delicious american stuff.

According to many people, MHS used to have a really bad reputation a handfull of years ago, but now it shines bright thanks to its original choices of classes (French Immersion, visual art, music, and co-operative education programms). As it is in Canada, students get to choose their classes twice a year, and build their own time-table based on the four period happening throughout the day;

In MHS, here is how it goes:

-First period: 8:05-9:20 (exceptionnally early start for a high school!)

-Second period: 9:30-10:45

-Third period: 11:35-12:50

-Fourth period: 1(pm):00-2:15

And this is how it goes every day of the 5-days week (dreamland, right?)

The school organises so much activites outside of the classes that it's impossible to handle them all: in one year, they probably organise as much as our dear Lycée Saint-Charles has organised since its existence; but let's not lie to ourselves: students get way less work then we get and their timetable is particularly light!

That's why a student life in Canada has nothing to do with ours...

I'll add a few photos when I arrive home (and hopefully pick from Mara's and Rebecca's).

I'd like to add that we got to eat lunch with the principal of the school and she was absolutely adorable!