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By
site user Nicolle Weeks
The
gap year is an amazing concept to someone from a society where a
speedy shuffle through the educational process is sometimes valued
a little more than the education process itself.
In
Canada, where I come from, taking a year off can be seen as The
Death of a Young Mind - many people fear that you'll never go back
to school after experiencing the freedom of the "real world".
An exchange abroad is a little more acceptable, but most people
who want to take a semester in a different country don’t see
that dream come to fruition.
That
being said, I'm not your typical North American. I took a gap year
in Montreal and half a year in, what we have sarcastically dubbed,
Sunny Denmark.
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| Nicolle
in sunny Denmark |
I've
been in Europe for six months and I’ve learned a lot, including
that as North Americans, we really take peeing for granted. Never
have I paid so much to go to the WC. Or as we Canadians say, washroom.
Globalisation
Travelling
around Europe can be seen as a rite of passage to a continent whose
people are used to driving around the same city where ever we go
– WalMarts here, McDonalds’ there, and always a few Gaps
for good measure. Not that Europe doesn’t have her fair share
of big box chains, but the mentality here is different.
In
Denmark, especially, where the culture is impeccably guarded by
its Danish-language television and love for the Danish royals, as
we saw in May, crowded around our televisions to watch the royal
wedding (even if it was in Danish).
The
Danes don’t have the same problem as North Americans. Like
a lot of Britons, a Dane will take at least a year off to travel,
work, live abroad, or do whatever else suits her fancy.
I hear
many stories of Danes moving to France, England, the US, some even
venture off into that vast land I come from. At 23, I'm one of the
oldest people in my class in Toronto. In Denmark, I'm the same age
as everyone else in my year.
Best
bits
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| Nicolle
feels at home in the Place du Canada, Paris |
The
time I’ve spent abroad has been wonderful – I’ve
done all the cliché things: learned a lot about myself, met
some great people, and had a lot of fun.
But
the thing I’ll remember most after I land at Pearson Airport
in Toronto, is how much one learns from visiting a place she’s
read about in history books her whole life.
Visiting
places like London, Berlin, and Paris has put a face on the past
and let me understand my future a whole lot better.
Hopefully
my peers in North America will take a lesson from our counterparts
in Britain and Denmark and start their own gap year phenomenon in
Canada.
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