Meet Sebastien Hardy

A tip I would give to students applying to go on exchange is.

A tip I would give to students applying for exchange is to get out of your comfort zone and be talkative. I'm typically more of a quiet person, but I forced myself to talk a lot more often while I was abroad. I made a lot of close relationships while abroad and I feel like this is very important if you plan on living in a foreign country. It's much more fun if you meet a group of people and become close friends with them.

The coolest place I visited while going on exchange was...

The coolest place I visited while on exchange was easily Okinawa. Being in Japan, most of the place i visited were somewhat similar to each other as I was mainly traveling near Tokyo with some exceptions. I always wanted to go to Okinawa and being in Tokyo for four months gave me the perfect opportunity to go. It was very different from the rest of Japan with a very different culture, I kept forgetting I was still in Japan. I got to go scuba diving for the time which was one of the highlights of my whole exchange.

The biggest cultural shock I experienced was…

For me personally the biggest culture shock I experienced was how crowded Tokyo is. I've seen videos of the crowds but the videos don't prepare you for what its actually like. The biggest shock I had was when I was taking the train home during rush hour. Everyone in Tokyo is very used to the crowds and being squished on trains but I've never experienced anything close to that in Montreal or Toronto so it was a big shock.

I recommend going on exchange because...

I recommend going on exchange because it's a once in a life time experience. Studying abroad means you get to live in a foreign country for 4 months, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the culture and travel nearby areas. Additionally, you get to meet other exchange students from all around the world. One of my favorite parts of studying abroad was getting to know people from different countries and learning about their culture.