If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

     Often times, when people are asked where their dream home would be, they would usually describe a tree-house on an island where the sun gently warms their skin, where they can see dolphins swimming at sunset, and where there is unlimited Internet access. Of course, like any other child my age, I would love to live some place like that... but only for a few days. Honestly, I think that I would get bored of seeing the same sunset, and same dolphins every single day. Most of all, I would get tired of having nothing more to do then going on Facebook and swimming every day. Sure, it might be fun for a while, but I feel that life should be more than that. It should be learning lessons, making memories and experiencing different things until I grow old, and look back at the collection of my memories.

   

     When I say lessons, I don't mean trivial lessons like how to get a lot of followers on Twitter, I mean lessons like how it feels to give rather then to get, how to communicate with people that don't speak your language, or discover and appreciate other peoples cultures. I remember during the summer before grade five, my family and I traveled to Peru. We visited a tiny village, Cabanaconde, hidden deep in the Colca Canyon. It is nowhere near as fortunate as Toronto. It has one school, no larger than the houses that most of us live in. An elementary school with shattered windows and broken walls. I know that they are lucky to even have a school, but it just seems so unfair to me that I should be so much luckier then them. Next to the school was a girl about my age playing in the mud. She probably went to that school. I took a lollipop (the only thing that I could find in my backpack) that I'd brought from Canada, and walked up to her. She looked up at me curiously, as I handed her the lollipop. She took it from my hand and smiled a smile that reached up to her ears, and said "gracias".  I still remember her smile! Although it was just a small gesture, it was the only way that I could say "hello".  Getting that smile felt better then getting a DS for Christmas! This is just one of the lessons that cannot be learned on the internet.

     Ever since I was a very little girl, my parents had taught me to love traveling, learning about different people and accepting their differences. I have traveled so much, it has become a regular process for me. My family hits the road so often, that even our pets know exactly what it means when we start packing our suitcases. But while most of my friends go spend their vacations in Florida, my family and I go white water rafting in Slovenia. While many of my relatives spend their summers going to their cottages, I went for a stroll on a glacier covered volcano in Iceland. While almost everyone that I know was doing their homework in bed here in Canada during March Break, I was doing homework in steaming hot Death Valley California. While my classmates were going up the Behemoth in Wonderland, I was going 100m down in an elevator to see the Large Hadron Collider  in CERN, on the boarder of Switzerland and France. These things like eating alpaca meat and chasing wild guinea pigs in Peru may seem completely insane and ridiculous for most people but for me, they seem completely normal.

     Two of my most valuable experiences (so far) are the two months that I spent in Serbia as a guest student in a local elementary school, and the month and a half that I spent living in an Icelandic family in Reykjavik. The family that I stayed with taught me how to feel comfortable living a life totally different then my usual "North American" one.  I spent my days riding Icelandic Horses, whale watching, salmon fishing, learning how to pronounce Icelandic words, eating reindeer meat, camping on the Arctic Circle, and trying to fall asleep with twenty-four hour daylight. While some might say that Iceland can easily be compared to Canada, they definitely cannot say the same about Serbia. While spending one month for two years in a row, going to school in Serbia, that is one of the poorest countries in Europe, I experienced a different (much stricter!) school system. The kids there have the same teachers and classmates during all 8 years of elementary school. It was also different to learn in different languages (Serbian and Hungarian). While so very different, it is also very similar as it is a regular school, just like ours. I feel great and rich as I have made very good friends in both places.

     To go back to the question,  if I could live anywhere in the world, I would choose to live in a place where it is very easy to access an airport. Traveling has become an important part of my life, and I want to keep it that way. Up until now, it has helped shape who I am, and I want these experiences to continue to shape me for years to come. I do not want the internet forming my personality, I want my experiences to polish it. Living in Toronto has also helped me become who I am. With so many cultures and different people around me, it's difficult not to learn about our differences. After seeing how much less fortunate some places are compared to Canada, I realized how lucky we Canadians are. I have realized that if I lived anywhere else, I might not be so fortunate to be able to travel and and see the World as well as meet new people. So, to answer the question: strangely enough, my dream home would be right here where I am, in Toronto. I would not change anything about the way I live!

Somewhere on our way to Cabanaconde, Colca Canyon, Peru

Rooftops of Cabanaconde, Peru

The girl who gave me a smile in Cabanaconde

My family more then 100m under the ground in front of the
Large Hadron Collider, CERN 

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Me and the first salmon that I caught in Iceland