{"id":3674,"date":"2013-08-29T17:00:46","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T21:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2013-09-04T16:35:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T20:35:20","slug":"students-perform-cultural-exchange-on-quiet-crescent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/students-perform-cultural-exchange-on-quiet-crescent\/","title":{"rendered":"Students perform cultural exchange on quiet crescent"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Culture in Aurora is not limited to a few places in and around Church Street \u2013 a clear, tangible exchange has spanned from Switzerland all the way to a quiet Aurora crescent. <\/p>\n

14 year old Laura Dubais recently left Aurora bound for her home in Geneva, after experiencing a cross-cultural exchange with 13 year old Alice Sandiford, a Grade 8 student at Devins Drive Public School. <\/p>\n

The exchange between the girls began several months ago when they applied to learn more about each other\u2019s countries and languages through learning \u201con the scene.\u201d When The Auroran last visited Alice, she was anxiously awaiting word on whether she had made it through to the next round in her application. <\/p>\n

She needn\u2019t have worried and this summer, she and a host of Canadian students made their way across the Atlantic to their destinations via Paris.
\n\u201cIt was amazing and I loved it,\u201d said Alice of her 24 day experience in Europe. \u201cThe trip was really long \u2013 bad airplane food! \u2013 but on the first night we went to Paris, and then we were on a flight to Geneva.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitzerland isn\u2019t the biggest country, but it is really nice. It\u2019s just really pretty and there are mountains everywhere. It felt like I was in a hometown. Laura\u2019s family was really nice. Her sister was really funny; she\u2019s a year younger than me and she is absolutely crazy!\u201d <\/p>\n

Sitting around their dining room table, when Laura was asked if she agreed her sister was crazy, she gave a resounding \u201cyes!\u201d and whipped out an iPhone to produce some convincing photographic evidence! <\/p>\n

All kidding aside, Alice said it was \u201creally interesting\u201d to meet Laura\u2019s family and Laura herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is nice and awesome,\u201d said Alice. \u201cAs the weeks went by, we got to know each other way better and became friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

They certainly had a lot of time and adventures to get acquainted as they took trips into Italy and Liechtenstein before coming back to Aurora together for the second leg of their cultural exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really nice,\u201d said Laura of the Sandifords. \u201cWe talk about everything, we laugh together and it is very nice. The program is very cool an interesting and it is cool to learn another language and to be with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Alice said the program did indeed help her hone her French, it was a bit of a challenge at first as Laura\u2019s family lived in a very Germanic part of Switzerland. Nevertheless, still in awe of her experience, she said it is something she would encourage any student to try. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a once in a lifetime thing and you want to make the most of it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is an amazing experience. If you have a real interest in it, go for it. It is just a really nice way to learn about a new culture, enrich your language, and give you a whole different perspective on home.\u201d
\nAs for Alice\u2019s parents, Judy and Dave, who previously hosted a student from Beijing, they are equally enthusiastic about the exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t do it!\u201d she joked with a laugh when asked what advice she would give to parents who might hesitate at the idea of an exchange. \u201cNo, it is fantastic. [Alice and Laura] work great together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Dave: \u201cIt also helps you get to know your child better, and through the eyes of another child as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Culture in Aurora is not limited to a few places in and around Church Street \u2013 a clear, tangible exchange has spanned from Switzerland all the way to a quiet Aurora crescent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/2013-08-28-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Xg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 01:34:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}