Moira Catry is a Grade 10 international student at St. Joe’s. Moira is from Brussels, Belgium and came to Canada just two months ago. From what she says, she is loving it here! Moira will be here for semester one only. Luckily, Laser News had the chance to interview her and hear about her life back home in Belgium.
When asked what she likes best about Canada so far, she explained that she loves all of the nature and space we have here. In her city, it is very busy and quite popular with tourists. It is also limited in open space and nature, which is something that she enjoys in Windsor.
She does, however, find the food drastically different. Moira says that here, there are far more fast food restaurants than there are in Brussels. She enjoys the home cooked meals back home and fresh foods cooked in restaurants and cafes just along the roadside. What she likes most about her city is that transportation is very easy. “You can take a bicycle and everything is 20 minutes from you. And I always feel safe getting around the city."
When Moira spoke about her home city, it was very interesting and there were definite differences from Canada. In Belgium, the majority of the population is Catholic, but praying is not something they practice. Holidays are also not celebrated as much like they are here in North America. They do not celebrate Thanksgiving or Halloween; however, they do celebrate Christmas very simply. A Christmas tree is put up and a few lights outside would suffice.
In school, Moira’s favorite subject this semester is drama, and she is also on the school’s dance team. “It’s fine, it’s just a very different educational system than back home. But everyone here at St. Joe’s has been really nice to me.” Back in Belgium, the school day consists of many subjects that are different everyday. Instead of having four classes a day, she has more and prefers it that way. Also, she surely prefers the less homework she gets back home.
You could definitely say Moira has caught some wanderlust over the years. She has a heart for travel. In fact, after graduating high school, Moira says she wants to take a gap year and explore the world. Moira has had the opportunity to go to some pretty incredible places over the years such as Paris, France (which is only a three hour drive from her city! Lucky, right?!), as well as Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece and Vietnam, which has been her favourite adventure so far. She says Vietnam is her favorite because “The culture is so different, the food is so good, and the communication is harder but very interesting.”
When asked what she would recommend people from Canada to go see during their visit to Belgium is to see Brussels, but to also go check out Brugge, another amazing city in Belgium that has a chocolate and French fry museum. She also recommends trying the delicious Belgian chocolate.
It was a great pleasure getting to meet and interview Moira and hopefully you got to know more about her as an amazing international student from Brussels, Belgium.