Irene Garmendia is enjoying her time so far in North Bay.
The grade 11 student at Chippewa came over from Spain last month is living in North Bay as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
Irene says father has been involved with Rotary in Spain for along time, and he encouraged her to take part in the exchange program.
“We always saw this opportunity as a really positive one,” said Irene.
“I feel going away at a young age to another country all by yourself you just learn the culture and the language and how to deal with people from other countries that is different than yours.”
While taking in the new Canadian culture, Irene has been having some fun too.
“When I first came the first weekend we did a canoe trip with all the other exchange students from around the world and I had a really good time, I had never been canoeing before and it was really fun and getting to know everyone was really cool,” she said.
Irene was introduced to the community at Monday’s Rotary Club luncheon at the Grande Event Centre in downtown North Bay.
Irene also got a chance to meet North Bay’s Hannah Bywater, who took part in the Rotary Exchange Program two years ago when she traveled overseas to Switzerland for a year.
During that year, Bywater, who was already bilingual in French and English, took on the challenge learning German.
“I had never been to Europe before so it was a completely new experience for me and it was not only a year in my life but it was a life in a year,” recalled Bywater.
“I learned so much, I grew so much as a person and developed skills that I will use for the rest of my life and I will definitely carry my exchange experience with me forever.”
And Irene is hoping to have similar stories to tell back home.
“I think it opens your mind a lot, you go back and you see things differently,” Irene said.
“You want to go back and encourage others to go on the exchange and learn as I am now.”
