Jana Kroumanova is a long way from home.
The high school student from the Czech Republic is spending a year in Squamish on a Rotary student exchange program. The sixteen year old arrived in August.
"I wanted to go to an English-speaking country like Great Britain," Kroumanova said. But students who want to participate in the exchange have to leave the continent and cross an ocean, so she had to decide on a location a little further away.
"I decided to go to Canada," she said. "I didn't want to go to the United States."
So not only is she on a different continent, she's in a whole different life.
"Nature is really different," she said. "There are a lot of mountains."
City layouts are different too.
"In my country there a lot of towns closer together," she said. "Everything is so close you can walk everywhere,"
Although she likes Squamish, it is not like her town.
"It's very different from my town. There is like a split. It's far from Valleycliffe to Garibaldi Highlands."
Kroumanova is from Kromeriz, which has a population of around 30,000. The closest major city to her town is Prague.
"Prague is very historic," she said. "Vancouver is very much like a new city with glass buildings. They don't have any in Czech.
"I like Vancouver. It's a big city, but when you are on the street, it doesn't seem like a big city."
Another thing she has had to get used to is the casual atmosphere in Howe Sound Secondary school.
"At school there are a lot of girls who wear pajamas to school. In Czech, no one wears pajamas to school.
"It's like the whole system is different. Our school is more difficult. Here you get to choose the classes and the teachers that you want."
She also sees a difference in the relationships between students and teachers in Canada.
"Students are friends to teachers."
Kroumanova is taking social studies, math and ESL this semester. Social studies have proven to be a challenge.
"When teachers ask us about political events, I don't know anything about them," she said.
When's she's not studying, she hangs out with her friends, watches movies, plays the piano and attends Rotary and Interact meetings.
"A lot of the time I watch a movie because it's good for my English."
To be accepted as a Rotary exchange student, Kroumanova had to fill out a 26-question application entirely in English. She has to follow the rules laid out for her. For example, she can't go home for Christmas, and she can't drive.
But she has participated in some of Canada's outdoor activities like river rafting, and she likes First Nations art, like the totem poles in Stanley Park.
