The Huron Expositor, 1977-04-07, Page 25'7111 f 7171,,,1
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COLD BUT FRIENDLY — That's one of Paz Rivero's conclusions about. Canada after
her year here visiting from Mexico: Paz , right, attends S.TD:-H-.S-.--with-her-Canadian
"sister" Joanne Rimmer. (EkposItor, Photo)'
had been asked many times.
Ineyitably, there was 'the final
question "Paz, what is there
about Canada that you don't
like? There must be something. Is
it the cold?, the government?, the
size?, the prices?""'
She laughs, her dark eyes
shining. "Turnips and pickles"
she says. She hates turnips and
pickles.
And reporter's questions about
what she doesn't like, she might "
have added, but didn't.
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Mexican iri at S r H
(By Len Piney)
Paz' Rivero still laughs when
she remembers packing last
summer to leave her home in
Mexico City for a year of learning
English in Canada. It seems her
mother knew something about
our winters, and was afraid that
Paz .might freeze. But Paz' had
never been cold in all her 19
years, and could not quite believe
that the warm clothes and
vitamins her mother sent her off
with were necessary. Today, Paz
knows what its like td be cold, and •
she doesn't think there's much to
recommend the feeling.
Paz came to Canada throtigh
International Fellowship
Incorporated; an organization
based, in Buffalo that arranges
exchange visits for young people
who want to learn the language
and culture of another country.
She arrived in September, and
spent two „months in Oshawa
before coming to Seaforth
District High school in November.
She has' been living with the
Gordon Rimmer family on
Gederich Street and will finish the
school year here, leaving in June.
What 'did, she think about
Canada before she came,? "I
thought it would be like the
United States, and cold 'weather
all year" she says, "I didn't know
what I was coming to."
Grown-1k changed
Paz explainS that yotrean never
really, know what a place is like
until you've, lived there, and so
her -ideas about Canada have
grown and changed. At first, she
thought that Canadians and
americans were the same .thing.
NOW she knows differently.
Americans, she says. are
superficial, but Canadians are
very friendly.
Before Paz came to Canada,
she spoke almost no English. She-
says she knew- a few sentences
and a few really important
phrases, the most important of
which was "collect call". With
those words she could at least talk
to her parents, sister and two
younger brothers back home if
.homesickness set in . Today her
English• is excellent, with only a
charming accent showing that
Spanish is her, native tongue.
Paz thinks that coming to a
strange' country where you are
convened to speak another
language, is the best way .to
learn, "I think it's the best way
•because you have to communicate
with the people around you" she
says. "'You have to talk, so you
learn to talk". Paz says she still
learns two or three new words
every day, and is always asking
someone to explain whatever she
doesn't understand.
Paz says• she hasn't really been
homesick at all. "The first
month I missed things. You miss
it sometimes, 'but it's not bad.
Miss here
"I think I'm going to miss here
more, becau se I don't know
:when I'll be able to come back".
Pax says you don't really miss
home too mach because you know
that you'll be going back, but it's
not so when you leave a place you
have lived for awhile, and have
come to like.
And what does she think of
Seaforth?."I love•the people" she
says: "A, lot of people are 'really
friendly." 1.
•She finds living in a small town
very 'different from living in a
huge city like her home of Mexico
City. "If you live in a big city you
don't care too much about the
people around you" she says. "In
little places, ,the people care
more about the people."
Paz has been studying Grade
13 biology, and other grade 11
and -12 subjects, and says she
finds school here eaSiet 'than in
Mexico. She explains; ,that , her
school back home uses an
"active" system, .which means
that much of the responsibility for
learning rests with the 'students,
as it does in Canadian universi-
ties.
She feels the Mexican system
makes young people independent
and disciplined at an earlier age
than does our system. "Here, the
teachers give you everything"
she says. But she doesn't find
fault with the way ~schoolsare set
up in Canada, because she feels
that the needs of people here, are
different from those in -Mexico..
Canadian students "are prepared
for the way they live,,and we are
prepared for the way we live".
Dances
School is not the only thing in
Canada_that seems very different
to Paz. She says Canadian young .
people do different things for fun
than' Mexican teenagers do. "We'
usually go to discotheques at
home" she says. "We don't have
the kind af_ dances they have
here",
FOCA too_ takes some, getting
used to, especially if yOur tongue
is used, to the hot spiciness of
MexicaLfare. "When I came, I
hardly 'Thted anything" Paz
laughs, "but now I'm used to it". -
The tacos and tortillas you can
buy frozen In our grocery stores
aren't anything like the real •
Mexican fond.' "They taste like
wet newspaper" Paz says.
And for 'someone, who ' had
never seen snow,_ a Canadian
winter was something new and
different. Paz says she didn't
really believe What her Canadian
friends told her. about the_snow
before she had seen it. "I didn't
expect that much snow(' she
says, holding her arm up to show
how deep it was beside the
sidewalks. Though she tried cross
country skiing, snowshoeing,
tobogganing, and skidOoing, and
so "got used ter the winter, Paz
says she'll never forget what its
like to be really cold.
Though the time she has spent
here will not count in her
schooling in Mexico, Paz feels the
experiences she has had this year
are worthwhile . "I've made a lot
of friends" she says, "I'm glad I
came to Canada."
- Interesting
Joanne Rimmer has really
enjoyed having Paz stay with her
as well. "It's li ke having 'the
sister I've never had" she says.
"Its been fun and it's been
interesting." _
'One of the things • that any
traveller faces, especially one
who stays for a while in one place,
is the questions people ask.
People always want to know what
you think of, their country, how
you like the climate, and so on.
And the questions this reporter
asked were the same ones Paz
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