The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, December 14, 2012 · 16 From Russia with Love -- two students' Canadian experience By Alina Gavrilenko and Irina Sukhova Grade 12, T.A. Blakelock H.S. O n one sunny morning, a huge Boeing landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Two girls full of dreams and expectations stepped on the ramp of the airplane. The girls came from two incredible cities, historically rich and about 7,280 kilometers from each other. Irina is from Yekaterinburg, the capital of Ural, located in central Russia, while Alina is from Vladivostok, the land of the Siberian Amur tigers. Not knowing what to expect they plunged into a new life, filled with surprises and new possibilities. Our first impressions of Canada were very positive. At the airport, we experienced a huge variety of languages, friendly and smiling faces of people from all over the world -- this swept us off our feet. And that's how our adventures and discoveries began. Every single day brought some- thing new and unexpected. From the first day we entered Canadian society, we were exposed to many Canadian customs and traditions. Canada has its own culture, which is absolutely unique and amazing. Nobody is in a rush. People are extremely friendly and they always smile and say "hello" as you pass by. And what a great tradition to get together at Tim Horton's for a cup of hot coffee and to chat. Everything here in Canada is based on comfort. Everything is extremely convenient, especially the hand sanitizers -- we absolutely adore all the hand sanitizers appearing almost everywhere you go and in all the public places. Holidays in Canada are celebrated with so much fun and dedication. Halloween quickly became our favorite holiday -- it's not very common in Russia. All the houses are incredibly decorated with webs, spiders, ghosts and pumpkins. Kids get dressed into scary costumes and walk around houses trick-or-treating. It's amazing. But then, those decorations change at Christmas time. Garlands, candles, Christmas trees, wreaths and stockings -- it's all so spellbinding and mesmerizing. The climate certainly surprised us the most. While listening to stories about Canada back home, we had been picturing a country with its lands covered in snow. How shocked we were when we felt the 30 C heat. Hopefully, this winter in Oakville will present to all of us with at least 50 inches of snow. Difficulties with speaking the North American English slang happened to us right away. We found the phrase, "What's up?" especially odd -- it confused us immediately. What is that suppose to mean, we thought. At our Russian school, the version of English we are mostly taught by our teachers is the British dialect. We used to study a lot of grammar, but nothing such as "North American speech" ever came up. Unlike with English, when you speak Russian, it is absolutely impossible to tell what town or region you are from. There is no difference in the pronunciation of words or the sounds of accents when we speak, whether you are from Sochi or Kamchatka. We have experienced much fun while we have been here mostly because of the language. Our accent, we're not sure if its either the Russian or the BritishRussian we learn, makes people confused sometimes. This happens a lot especially when they need the last name of one of us, which could be at least 10 letters long sometimes. Even with all our love of the English language, we like to keep our accent for some situations and see what more fun is waiting to happen to us. Finally, almost a year and a half has passed since we arrived. It was a year full of events and wonderful emotions. Many people ask us if we plan to stay in Canada for the rest of our lives. We answer without a shadow of doubt, "Yes, we do. We'll stay here to move the mountains and change this place forever." If you are a teacher or student interested in participating in an upcoming Kids Speak Out - School News column featured in the Beaver, please e-mail Tom Dykes at ellergreen58@gmail.com. Follow Oakville Beaver staff on Twitter @OakvilleBeaver or @NewsHooked @DavidLea6 @DominikKurek @BeaverSports @Halton_Photog 1011 Upper Middle Rd. East Oakville, Ontario 905-815-9632 CALIFORNIA BURRITOS DIAMOND AWARD RECIPIENT FOR BEST BURRITO RESTAURANT! Hip North American Gossip: Featuring: Champagne at Midnight Midnight Snack Buffet, Live Music, & the chance to win some Great Prizes. (in TD plaza, at Rosegate Way) 2335 Trafalgar Rd. californiaburritos.ca Full Menu & Bar will be available; please call for booking or details. Certificates HAVE 905-257-1044 ARRIVED! Gift