High school student Kira Panta, an international exchange student living in Ottawa, is learning the pleasures and differences of being a visitor in a new country. Kira is being hosted by the Rotary Club of Ottawa. 

 
Three postcards covered in an array of Ottawa images lay on the counter at a post office on Rideau Street. Kira Panta, a Rotary Exchange Student, is ready to send them back home to her family in Hungary. “Your total comes to $11.30,” the post office employee says. Panta quickly digs through her change trying to decipher one Canadian coin from the next.
 
In September, 17-year-old Panta, stepped onto a plane for the first time and left her family, in Hungary, behind for one year. Since then Panta has learned that living in another country entails a lot more than just packing a suitcase. Even as the initial cultural differences wear off, this young traveller continues to deal with culture shock every day.
 
Culture shock is the overwhelming feeling of being abruptly subjected to a foreign culture or way of life. Such differences for Panta include the stereotyped politeness and cold weather in Canada.
 
“This year is all about change…[and] I got prepared in my mind,” she said.
 
Panta is settling in with her host family and enjoys the company of a younger sister, which differs from her older sister back home. “Now I am not afraid to open the fridge,” she said, recognizing one of the transition points in becoming part of her new family in Ottawa.
Now, two months into her exchange, Panta is preparing to overcome culture shock but is beginning to miss the people she cares about in Hungary. She communicates with her friends, family, even previous teachers via Facebook, email or Skype. “I don’t feel that homesick yet, I am just trying to focus on what is going on here and not what is going on back home,” she said. 
 
At Gloucester High School, Panta studies a mix of Grade 11 and 12 classes and is waiting anxiously for volleyball season to start. “I’ve made way more friends and now when I go in the hallway there is always someone I can talk to so I don’t feel like an outsider anymore,” she said.
With Halloween just around the corner, Panta has even more to look forward to this month. Other than a few carved pumpkins, Hungarian’s don’t celebrate Halloween explained Panta.
 
“I’ve always wanted to go to the doors [and say] ‘trick or treat’ and wear costumes,” she said.
 
With so many new opportunities to experience this young traveller will have lots of stories to tell when she returns to Hungary next September.
 
Danielle Clarke is a journalism student at Carleton University, in Ottawa.