BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
Brice Cameron is not homesick. He doesn?t have time to miss the folks in New Zealand.
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Brice Cameron from New Zealand is attending Lockerby Composite School this year. He will travel extensively in Canada this summer. |
The 17-year-old Rotary Club exchange student from Napier, New Zealand, arrived in January and will be in Sudbury for a year. He will have a chance to learn about our country and our culture.
?I haven?t had any time to just sit around and be depressed about home because I am always doing something,? he said.
Needless to say, the past several months have been a unique experience for the kid who enjoys warm coastal temperatures and plays a phenomenal amount of rugby.
Stepping out of a plane into the heart of another bitter Canadian winter didn?t faze the young student at all.
Even when he missed his connecting flight to Sudbury, Cameron didn?t panic. He listened to the rumblings in his belly and did what he had to do. He
walked around downtown Toronto looking for a McDonald?s.
?I was walking around downtown Toronto and it was -40 C out with the wind chill, and all I had on was a blazer and shorts,? said Cameron, who had never travelled from New Zealand before. ?It was funny and different.?
Taking his first steps on the Sudbury landscape was a completely new experience.
?I come from a warm, coastal area and we hardly get any snow at all,? said Cameron. ?All the snow here was like a novelty to me because I am not used to it. I got to go snowboarding and it was cool.?
Since he has been in Canada, Cameron has had the opportunity to travel in Ontario with his host family, going to places such as North Bay, Ottawa and, especially, Toronto. Cameron got to watch a hockey game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes.
?I wasn?t a hockey fan before the game, but I am a fan now,? said Cameron.
?The players are not soft and it?s a rough sport. Where I come from, the main sport is rugby. In my school, there?s 100 rugby players.?
While here attending Lockerby Composite School, Cameron will help out with the rowing team. He has four years of rowing experience from back home.
?Rowing is a good and physically demanding sport,? said Cameron. ?It keeps you fit.?
Cameron hopes to play football as well.
This July, Cameron will travel throughout Canada with 90 other exchange students.
Cameron is a triplet. He and his two brothers are all on exchange programs this year. His brothers went to Sweden and Austria.
Sudbury has been good to Cameron.
?This program has made me more independent and I have learned life skills. The people here have been nice and friendly.?
Cameron plans to study commerce when he goes to university.