SUMMER ENGLISH PROGRAM

CLASS LEVEL C

Amalia Hevia Delgado

Fermin Lopez Rodriguez

Minerva Centeno Peña

Alberto Rodriguez Alvarez

Laura De Alvaro Garcia

Marta Ongay Ibàñez

Aida Fernandez Lara

Sara Benito Garcia

Bruno Rodríguez Meana

Hello!

Firstly, we are going to introduce ourselves to you. We are Marta

Ongay and Sara Benito, two Spanish students which are staying in

Welland for a month thanks to a scholarship. Our objective is to learn as

much English as possible and to discover this new culture we found in

Canada. We are going to talk about the place we are staying now. It’s

called Welland.

Of all the cities in the Niagara Peninsula perhaps Welland best represents

the cultural mosaic that truly is Canada. Welland has a high

French-Canadian population. The city is also home to a significant

Italian community and over the past 10 years has become the port of call

for immigrants from South America, Africa, Asia and Russia. Welland

offers immigration assistance, computer training, daycare and help

finding a job. As students which are visiting this country for the first

time, it’s surprising to find so many cultural differences between Canada

and Spain.

.

Welland: A Town for Everyone

What we first found significant about Canada was the way people talk to

us without even knowing us. Their friendliness and kindness made us felt

more comfortable even though we were in a foreign country. Before

coming to Canada, we thought we would miss our country because we

wouldn’t feel part of this society, but immediately, people made us feel

like we were at home. We found this kindness in shops and also in the

streets of Welland, where everybody said hello to us as if they knew us

and tried to help us with any problem or doubt we had. We are grateful

about that because being in such a big country isn’t easy.

We also found very interesting that there is a big variety of ethnic groups

and there are no prejudices. We had the pleasure to know many Japanese

and Chinese people. Some of our Spanish classmates were their

roommates and told us many funny stories about their experience with

them. We knew them at class and shared a lot of activities and great

moments with them.

Regarding to the food, we were worried about this issue since we didn’t

know what we would find in Canada due to the multicultural society. We

had some little problems with food timetable (In Spain we use to have

lunch at two or three p.m. and dinner at nine or ten p.m.) Even though

these differences we could carry on with them and have fun which was

the main objective. We must say Tim Horton’s has helped us a lot to solve

it.

Now we only have two days left until we leave Welland and we are pretty

sure we will miss this a lot, but we know we have taken advantage of

time and we have learnt a lot of new things. For us,

the best part was meeting new friends and having

the chance to discover a country full of nice

people.

All Political parties in Canada are organized in the same way. They used be very hierarchical.

There is always a leader in the party, who is like “the boss”, and formulates the policy and the

basic lines that every member of the party must follow. In federal elections, the leader of the

party runs as a candidate for prime minister.

Being a party member in this country refers to somebody who holds an active, fee-paying and

card-carrying membership in a political party. These are the people who choose the internal

leader of the party and vote or discuss other internal matters, like amendments to the party

constitution. But, the percentage of people who are members of one political party is only 2%.

The Party System actually. Canada has what is known as a “two-parties-plus” system. The meaning of this word is that the country is usu-

ally dominated by two large parties (one of the left and one of the right). Historically, the Canadian two-party

plus system has been controlled by the centre-left Liberal Party and the centre-right Conservative Party. But, it

has existed more ideological political parties on the further left or the further right. Here, is a picture that can

serve as a guide to know the spectrum of the political parties in Canada:

I ‘m going to describe to you some of the main political parties in Canada.

The Liberals. When liberals want to feel proud about themselves, they like to be called “Canada’s Natural Governing Party”

in recognition of the fact they’ve held power for long periods of Canada history.

The future of the Liberal Party is a bit uncertain at the moment. The popularity of the party started to decline

during the 2000s, culminating in the 2011 federal elections, when they got only 34 seats in the parliament, and

slipped to third-place of votes. But in 2013, Pierre Trudeau’s charismatic son, Justin Trudeau, took the power

of the party and become in the leader of the same. So maybe he can be the

person who be able to lead the Liberals back to their former glories. Today,

the Liberal Party defines himself as a party that is fiscally conservative, but

socially progressive. They are strongly supportive of abortion rights, gay

marriage and immigration, but also favour a largely unregulated free market.

Political Parties in Canada Written by Fermin Lopez Rodriguez

Here, in this picture, we can see the Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his

finance minister, Paul Martin. They are credited for helping move the Liberal

Party to the center with balanced budgets and low taxes.

The New Democratic Party. Founded during the middle of the Great Depression, Canada’s New Democratic Party was

originally a hardline socialist party dedicated to the downfall of the capitalist system. Since

some decades, the NDP has moved in a more moderate direction, from a doctrinaire Marxism

and towards a modern spirit of social democracy and a “mixed economy,” where the Govern-

ment exists but not regulates everything.

The Conservatives. The Conservative Party of Canada is the party that is in the Canada Government presently. It’s

a new party, founded in 2003. Previously, what is now the CPC used to be two different par-

ties: the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance. The Progressive Conservative

Party was, until 2006, the only party (without count Liberal party) had ever governed Canada.

About his composition, they were simply an alliance of people who were not Liberals (in the

same way the Liberals were often an alliance of people who weren’t Conservatives). Histori-

cally, it defined itself as the party of loyalty to England, English-Canadians and English cul-

ture in general, imperialism, and Protestant traditionalism.

The coexistence of Progressive Conservative Party and Canadian Alliance was causing a con-

tinuing division of the right vote and keeping the Liberals in the power due to a divided oppo-

sition. In 2003, the new leader of the Alliance, Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay, the leader

of the Progressive Conservative Party, agreed to mix their parties into a new: the Conservative

Party of Canada. They took a strategically wise decision, and Harper, the first leader of the

united party, was elected prime minister three years later.

The Green Party. Another one of the great controversial topics of modern Canadian politics is how seriously to

take the Green Party of Canada. Only electing his first member in the Parliament in 2011, not

is very clear if they are going to be a main party in the future or only have had good luck for

that time.

Written by Aida Fernandez Lara

Between 1867 and 1931, Canada was

becoming a nation. In 1867, the British

North America Act (BNAA) was signed

and Canada became a Dominion in the

British Commonwealth. John A.

McDonald was called the first Prime

Minister.

With this arrangement, Canada was

divided in three big provinces. Those

provinces were:

The Province of Canada (later it was

divided into Ontario and Quebec)

Nova Scotia

New Brunswick

There were three elements that were the basis to the building of this state. There were:

The Governor General Council had the power to disallow any provincial law.

There was a division of power between the federal and the provinces.

The Parliament could assume any powers that were not specifically allocated. They could

govern for peace, order and good government.

Furthermore, the provinces had some powers, like the power to law the education.

But not all the provinces agreed with the Confederation. Some of the made a resistance against

it. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland opted out and did not join until 1871 and 1949

respectively. However, maybe the most important resistance happened in 1868, when a strong

repeal transgression movement gained force in Nova Scotia. The British Government give

them two options to fix the problem. The first was go to the war, rebellion against British

Authority. The second was the submission and this was the one that Nova Scotia chose.

The things were changing quickly because in 1905 British didn’t intervene when Canada

negotiated a treaty with the USA. Another important step happened in 1926. At that time the

Imperial Conference laid the groundwork for a new arrangement that was based on equal

status between the dominions and Great Britain.

Besides, the national identity and the independence conscience had to be building. An

important point for this was the Tragedy of the World War I. The heroism and sacrifice that the

men had in the war became arguments for the independence and gave moral and strength for

all the Canadian people.

Becoming a Nation

Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls situate in the border between Canada and Unites

States, more exactly between the province of Ontario and the state of New York. The three

waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American

Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls.

The first one lies mostly in the Canadian zone, and

the Americans Falls entirely on de America side.

Also, the small Bridal Veil Falls is located in the

American zone. The three falls form the highest

flow rate of any waterfall in the world.

The falls are located 27 km north-northwest of

Buffalo, New York and 121 km south-southeast of

Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls,

Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.

Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, water

from the Great Lake, which carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the

Atlantic Ocean.

Our experience

We went to Niagara Falls the first Wednesday we spend in Canada; it was a rainy

day so we couldn’t take great pictures of the falls. We were wet before be close to

the falls, that it was a fun fact. The Falls were amazing and we couldn’t believe the

lack of water that falls over.

We put red raincoats and went to

the ship, everybody was so

impressed and so excited. We take

lots of video and pictures. It was a

fun day with the entire group

together sharing one of the most

grateful experiences of our lives.

Written by Amalia Hevia Delgado

1. HISTORY AND FOUNDATION:

In the amazing Ontario province, we have some special and unique

places such as Niagara on the Lake. This small town, has almost 16,ooo

people. But this number is higher because of the tourists.

In 1781, the Niagara region was a British military base and British people

who wanted to flee from the United States during the American

Revolution went here.

Also, Niagara was an important place in the 1812 war. Because of that, it

was burned and time after, it had to be rebuilt. Its name was adopted in

1880 to distinguish it from the other town (Niagara Falls).

Because of it military historical past, Niagara on the Lake has a lot of

military places such as Fort George. Laura Secord was a Canadian

heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked 20 miles out

of American-occupied territory. The Americans invaded the Niagara re-

gion while the occupation, and she acquired information about a planned

American attack.

2. THINGS TO VISIT:

The Shaw Festival is a great Canadian theatre festival and is the second

largest repertory theatre company in North America. It was founded in

1962.

The main street is King St, in which we have amazing shops and

awesome houses and buildings such as Prince of Wales Hotel. This hotel

was founded in 1864 and is so famous because of its royal guests.

King Street, as I had said, is so beautiful and you always will find it

crawled and full of snow in the winter or of powerful flowers in spring

and summer. Also you have Lake Ontario with brilliant views.

3. EXPERIENCE, PERSONAL OPINION

We have been one sunny day, perfect for riding a bike as we did. We rode Niagara streets seeing the beautiful “suburban” houses and the relaxing views of the lake. Then we went walking to the other part of

the lake and to King street; where we had to dodge lots of people. There’s a typical jam shop with all kinds of jam that you could

imagine.

Written by Minerva Centeno Peña

CANADA’S WONDERLAND

Canada’s Wonderland is a theme park in Vaughan, Ontario. It is said to be the biggest

amusement park in Canada. It has 69 rides, 17 of them are roller coasters and 2 are water rides.

There are many types of rides such as Merry-go-round (also known as carousel), tea cups ride,

haunted house, ferris wheel, free fall ride, swinging-ship ride and others. The most famous

thrill rides are Leviathan (shown above) and Behemoth. Besides the rides, Canada’s

Wonderland is also known for its Funnel cakes. This dessert is original from Pennsylvania

(USA). It is made by pouring batter into hot cooking oil in a circular pattern and deep

frying the overlapping mass until golden-brown.

The theme park is divided in different areas such as family rides, thrill rides, areas for the kidz,

splash works, live entertainment, dinosaurs alive, dinning and shopping.

The splash works 20 acre area has over 7 million litres of heated water fun. The most little

children have fun in the splash island sprayground and the splash island kiddie pool that have

very low thrill. If you want more thrill in this area, although not as much as in roller coasters

as the Leviathan, there are other rides as the plunge, the black hole, the super soaker, the

riptide car and the barracuda blaster.

The Barracuda Blaster is the last but not the least, in fact it was my favourite. The barracuda

blaster consists in a high slope followed by a twist around the vertical banks of a giant

whirling bowl of water and ended flashing out into the lazy river. In the lazy river you can

relax gently floating down stream or in individual tubes.

Written by

Laura De Alvaro Garcia

&

Alberto Rodriguez Alvarez

Apart from the water rides there are other ‘better’ ones, the park call them the thrill rides.

These rides are faster, higher, bigger, and more entertain for some people that like the feel of

adrenaline. The two biggest thrill rides are the Leviathan and the Behemoth. I tried both and

they were amazing, I would not be able to say which one is the best because both are

awesome.

The Leviathan:

The first thing I did when I enter Canada’s

Wonderland was going to the well-known

Leviathan with some of my trip mates. We had to

wait in line for about 15 minutes, but it was

worth it. When you sit in your place you can feel

your heart beating hard, then the ride start going

up slowly until it reaches the summit, after that

the ride is so powerful that the only thing you can do is enjoy. I ride the leviathan three times,

and I can say without a doubt each time was better than the one before.

The Behemoth:

I only ride it one time, but I would have liked to do it many more times for sure. At first it is

very similar to the Leviathan, but when it starts you realize that it is even faster, and also

longer. It is a great ride, and I would recommend it to everybody

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada with 2.6 million of habitants and the capital of

Ontario. The history of this big city started in 1793 when the British Crown bought its land

and found a settlement called York. Eventually this settlement became a city and was renamed

as Toronto. Toronto remain increasing and expand every year.

Toronto is known for its diversity, actually is the city with the highest percent of people who

haven’t born in Canada, about 49%. Moreover is one of the safest city

in the world and it have been chosen as one of the best cities in which

life is more comfortable.

Our group went to Toronto on Saturday but regrettably it was raining

all day. We can’t enjoy the city so much because also the haze covered

the top of buildings so we couldn’t see as much as we wanted.

It was a bad day but fortunately we came back 2 weeks later and we had a sunny day. We

could do everything we wanted: Rode in the CN Tower, go to the Toronto Island and see the

skyline from the boat, made some shopping in china town, Eaton Center (where some people

spent all their savings), but specially in Kensington where we found a lot of beautiful markets,

cloths and graffiti’s.

Moreover we had enough

time to just walking between

high buildings that surround

us. At the end of the day we

were exhausted a lot of

people fall asleep in the bus

to Welland.

Written by Bruno Rodríguez Meana