November was more of a relaxing month, and was the period to adapt to the changing climate; moving from the hot summers and mild autumns to the freezing and devastating long winters of Canada.
The weather here felt like it had suddenly changed. On the 18th of November and for 3 consecutive days after that, snow just kept on snowing the whole day. This accumulated to about 30 cm high and brought the start of the cold winter. Temperature ever since then has been cold, roaming at about -15 degrees Celsius during the day and -20 degrees Celsius during the night. The view of Strathmore has also instantly changed; from the bright-colored leaves and blue skies to the white grounds and grey skies. Since then snow has always stayed on the ground, as the temperature does not rise above 0 degrees Celsius anymore. Also, the lake near the dorm is now frozen, so we can get on it and walk on top of the thick ice.
On the 4th of November, I had a rather interesting assignment for my PE class, where I created a video of me explaining and going through the steps of the CPR procedure. I watched a few videos and documents about CPR and how it is supposed to be done in a real-life situation. As a result, I got a 100 mark for this assignment and ended my one-quarter PE class the next day with 84 as my final score.
November 11th marked the 93 year of remembrance day since 1931. Remembrance Day in Canada is a national holiday where we attend memorial services, wear poppies, and bow our heads, as it marks the signing of the end of World War 1. The school organized the remembrance day service on the 6th of November, and all students were required to go to the school theater once during the day to attend the memorial activity; the music band played music, we all stood in silence for a minute, and heard speeches from officials related to this event.
The 7th of November was free Slurpee day in Canada. A Slurpee is a popular cold drink served in many convenience stores including 7/11. To celebrate this, 7/11 gives out free Slurpees on the 7th of November to people around the store. I went to get some with my friends and I thought that convenience stores in Japan should also start something similar to this to increase customers and profits.
A trip to a Christmas market was organized by the dorm on the 16th of November in Calgary. It was a big area with farms, horses, big wooden buildings, and many tall Christmas trees. The Christmas trees would illuminate in the night and would look amazing in the darkness, as they were everywhere at the place and were very tall and big. Inside the wooden buildings were stored with clothes and items for the upcoming cold, toys and gifts, and food and beverages. I got to go through all of the stores and enjoyed the Christmas feeling. I got some dinner there but didn’t get anything to buy, as everything was very expensive.
On the 28th of November, I signed up with 3 other friends to work as the scorekeeper for the upcoming basketball tournaments being held at Strathmore High School. We would get paid 10$ per game and multiple games would be held during the whole basketball season. The teacher who organized this was very kind and would teach all of us how to score-keep, and all of the other details that we would need to know beforehand. I found this interesting because one, I wanted a source of income and thought that this was a good way to start with, and secondly because I want to work on my extra-curricular activities for applying to universities in the future.
The 29th of November was the basketball tournament in the dorm to determine which dorm was the best in the game of basketball. It was a competition between Dorms 1,2,3 versus Dorm 4. Dorms 1,2,3 consisted of many players who had a certain level of basketball experience and some who were even on the basketball team in high school. Dorm 4 consisted of players who also had certain play skills of basketball, ones who had just learned the sport this year, and exceptionally good players. The match was a close one, with Dorms 1,2,3 winning with just a few points ahead of Dorm 4.
Recently, I have started to have an interest in the game of volleyball, as it is a very popular sport in Canada, it is a team game and is very fun to play. Every weekend, I go to the George Freeman school – a junior high school on the east side of Strathmore with a huge indoor multi-activity gymnasium – to practice and play volleyball with my other friends. These friends of mine are good volleyball players and somewhat are like my personal coach! I am very lucky to be friends with them and able to go together with them to play the sport.
Christmas is becoming a big deal during this time of season; starting November 1st, the day right after Halloween. Houses and streets would start to look and decorate like Christmas, restaurants and food stores would start selling Christmas edition goods, and merch stores would start selling those decorations. Major stores like Walmart and Canadian Tire would have huge sections of the store taken up by Christmas decoration isles, with lots of varieties and quantities.
It is my third month here since I first came to Canada, and as I spend most of my time in school, I start to think about academics, universities, and our futures. I talk with my friends about their plans, go to teachers to ask questions and to find answers, and also go on the internet to gather information about applications and grades.
In this first semester, I take Math 10C, English 10-1, Aboriginal studies, PE, and Fitness. My grades at this point average at 88, which is a great start at grade 10. Next semester, I will be taking Social 10-2, Science 10, Marketing and Management, French, and Industrial Design.
Although I do work hard to maintain and keep my grades from falling every single day in school, most universities, including prestigious ones, don’t look at nor require academic scores from grade 10. Therefore, teachers and students only focus on school studies during grades 11 and 12. Grade 10 is more of a period for students to get used to high school life, as there is a big difference between junior high studies and high school studies.
There are multiple universities in the province of Alberta, and some others that international students from the dorms tend to aim for. The University of Alberta and the University of Calgary are popular choices for many from the area and from international countries that many teachers from the school also recommend for the graduates. The University of Alberta and the University of Calgary both are public universities, where U of A is located in the city of Edmonton, and U of C is in Calgary. U of A is ranked 111th in the world, and 4th in Canada, making it a prestigious university in Canada. U of A is ranked 242nd in the world, and 9th in Canada. Both universities have many faculties and have big campuses in and outside of the city areas. I am personally and more interested in the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. Both of these universities are top Canadian prestigious universities. UBC ranks 34th in the world, and 2nd place in Canada, while U of T ranks 21st globally, and is the most prestigious in Canada. They are both very highly competitive universities and well-reputed. Not many graduates from Strathmore High School go to UBC or U of T, however, a few dorm students do get accepted to them every year.
Whether a student has the potential to get accepted into a certain university is mostly determined by a student’s grade and his or her extra-curricular participation. 80+ for grades 11 and 12 grades are considered acceptable for U of A, with sufficient extra-curricular activities, while 86+ for UBC with great extra-curricular activities, and 93+ for U of T with perfect extra-curricular activity participation. As my grade is currently averaging 88, I believe that UBC would be a great aim for me.
The school has an interesting grading system that separates students from different levels of classes. Every core subject – English LA, Mathematics, Social, and Science – has 3 levels of difficulty in one grade and each has slightly different names. I will use Social 10 as an example. Social has 3 levels in every grade; Social 10-2, Social 10-1, and Social Honors at the highest. These classes are based on a student’s academic level, their interest in the subject, and their future. A final grade of 0-50 is considered a fail and the student would have to re-take the same class in the next semester (for example, Social 10-2 in S1, and again in S2), 50-64 is a pass, and would keep the student in the same level class in the next grade level (Social 10-2 in G10, Social 20-2 in G11), 65-90 would take the student to the next grade class and to the next level (Social 10-2 in G10, Social 20-1 is G11), and a 90+ would take the student to the highest class in the next grade class (Social 10-2 in G10, Social 20 Honors). 0-50 is a fail, 50-69 is sufficient, 70-89 is high, and 90+ is excellent. Not all of this information is correct but it is about right.
Apart from the exams that are taken multiple times during a semester in every subject class, there is a final exam that every core-subject class has for every student to take at the end of the semester. In my case, I would have a final exam for my Math 10C class and English LA 10-1 class during the end of January.
