Kathleen Mahamad

International Experience Canada

Why did I want to travel?

I grew up in a very English side of Canada and speaking French in school. I always wanted to move or travel somewhere that was utterly french, where I could order food, get groceries, and everything in french. Initially, I participated in IEC without knowing when I went to do an exchange while I was at school. So I applied for a student visa at first when I was in university.  

I did about six months studying at a school in France. I wanted to stay a little bit longer, so I got a working holiday visa. It was only after that I found out it was IEC! And.. that they have partnerships with so many countries! I felt so lucky to be Canadian! To have such secure connections with so many countries, I was so excited to find out that if I wanted to do something like this again, it can be so easy. It is so refreshing to know that youth can travel and experience so much. I guess I found out about IEC the hard way, haha. 

I feel like so many young people could be taking advantage of IEC, and I guess that's why they have created the ambassador program. I know many Australians and New Zealanders that do know about it. Still, for Canadians, it’s not embedded in our culture to go travel, so people don't really know about programs that will allow you to do that. Even though it is much easier for us compared to how it is for people in other countries. We're just not aware that there are all these awesome resources for us to travel. 

For those of you reading that don’t know, in Canada, there's a lot of bilingual schools. My parents, they put me in a French school, but going to a French school doesn't mean you're very good at conversational French. So I wanted to learn the ‘hang out with your friends in a bar’ everyday kind of language rather than the professional French we are mostly taught in school.

Some places in Canada speak French as well because it’s all of the slang that makes up the conversational aspect and that differs from each country. Speaking french in one area doesn’t necessarily mean you speak the same way someone does in French in another country - there are many different expressions and slang!

Why I'd recommend IEC...

Choosing IEC means choosing the 30 to 40 countries that we have partnerships with. 

So it also means that it's going to be cheaper for you to apply, for example, the Ireland visa is over a thousand euros. If you're not Canadian, if you're not doing it through IEC, but through IEC it’s $150 Canadian. So it's about 10% of the cost!

The time that you'll have to wait is shortened because there's a quota for people that are applying through IEC. So if you go through them, you're part of the small pool and you'll have to wait less time.

 Everything's already laid out for you, so you'll have way fewer application papers.

And it depends on country to country, but essentially this has been a lot of negotiation, a lot of government work to say that for youth, it'll be easier for you to apply. So I think you should definitely take advantage of that. It'll save you time. It will save you money. And it's simply just easier in the long run.

That brings me to another point that I should have mentioned earlier, not only the fact that it's cheaper, but one of the highlights of IEC is that you don't need to have a job set up in the country that you're already going to!

Travel Mishaps? 

On my first trip I only planned to go to school,  I didn't know that I was going to be working afterwards. So I ended up having to fly back to Canada, fly from France to Vancouver, which is the opposite end of Canada to apply for a new visa, and then go back to France. Which was fun. The flight, I was going to Vancouver...

I missed that flight.

My train broke down five kilometres outside of Paris airport. I could have walked to the airport. We were stranded for three hours on the train, outside the airport. I was so late that I ended up missing my flight.

There are so many other stories like that!

In Italy, I was heading to Nice in the South of France to meet some of my friends.I arrived at the train station and I was looking for my train number, I couldn't find it. I don't speak Italian, but I thought ‘that's fine, I can read numbers’, but the issue was I couldn't find my train number! I then realised two minutes before my train was supposed to leave that I was at the wrong train station! I ended up having to just book a new ticket. 

Other mishaps there were so many times where the French that I learned in Canada, wouldn’t mean the same thing in France! For instance, I would say something that means one thing in Canada but ended up being a big sexual reference or a big misunderstanding in France!  This mishap happened all the time, all the time!!! The French is SO different from what I have learned, so that anything you say, could just be taken a completely different way. 

What are some of the lessons you've learned through travelling?

I really valued my travel. I think I've learned to just be, and go with the flow!

I would try and plan things out a lot in my life back home. I want to be here by then. I want to do this by then. And traveling kind of takes that all away from you because most of that's out of your hands as you cannot plan exactly when you're going to be somewhere. You don't even know where you're going half the time!

So you learn to be a lot more open with what you're doing and open to new experiences for sure. Independence as well, for me, it was the first time where I had fully moved out on my own, so it was a very big move for me! You know the first time doing life stuff, like all my groceries on my own in a foreign country. lol

It’s a fast way to grow up very quickly and to get all of those skills you need. Being social, making new friends can be tricky in itself but it’s another thing, making friends with people who don't speak the same language as you, or as people who have different cultures. And I think that's very valuable nowadays in being very open-minded and able to understand other people's cultures.

That'll give you kind of invaluable skills to be able to connect with people that didn't have the same upbringing as you. And it makes you learn a lot about the world. I think I've become much more of an open-minded person about that. And you become much more open to realizing other people's situations as well.

Traveling also kind of gives a fresh slate, when you're traveling, be whoever you want to be! You connect with people on a different level. So it's very easy to make friends because you're out of your comfort zone and jumping into new experiences. Even though you guys could have nothing in common from your home life, you're all somewhere foreign, and you're all looking to make friends. So it's kind of easier now.

What advice or tips or you have for someone looking to travel?

In Canada, people are so used to staying home (in Canada). We don't have this mentality of going out to travel, so it can be a really big step for some people. The first thing I would say if you're thinking about travel always just does some research, whether that's like following some travel influencer or going and reading blogs, for me that was a big thing. I'd watch vlogs of the little cities in France or Germany or wherever I wanted to go. That gives you a really good idea of the life there, the social life so that you're able to go in more than just reading like a lonely planet book. And start early. And just start. Now (with COVID) it could take a long time to get there. So do your research now, even, day by day, if it's just a couple of minutes looking on Instagram, whatever it is that sticks out for you.

A big thing I would always say is that it's so uncertain. There's always a lot of anxiety, thinking about it. It's a big change in life, but when I look back to most of my experiences in life, most of those times of uncertainty is where the greatest happiness and the greatest success has come after.

Some people say the sun shines after the rain. It's very cheesy, but truly that big uncertainty brings a lot of greatness after. So you need to step out of your comfort zone a little bit. 

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