A Day in the Life—Family Boarding Homestay Student Henri

The GNS Family Boarding homestay program is incredibly unique, with international students hosted by current school families or staff. As boarding students, they are able to immerse themselves in English, learn about different cultures directly and have an excellent experience attending GNS and living in Canada. While living in Canada, students experience new traditions and are supported by a welcoming homestay host family.

Henri is a GNS student in Grade 10 from Germany. Here, he walks us through a day in his life, explaining what being a family boarding student is like.

Mornings

“I wake up at 7:00 a.m., my host brother Sean and I share a bathroom so I usually try to be the first one in the bathroom. We leave for school at around 7:40 a.m. and Ms. Dallin, my host mom (also the GNS Coordinator of Academic Programming and IB Chemistry Teacher) drives us to school, both Sean and Ethan are GNS students too.”

School Day

“My favourite subjects that I’m taking are Art and Individuals and Societies.”

Lunchtime

“I want to pack my lunch in the morning, but I’m too lazy to do it most of the time. So I get lunch at the Dining Hall or I go to Red Barn if I don’t like what’s at the Dining Hall.”

Co-Curriculars

“I used to do soccer, now I’m doing rugby and I want to join the tennis team too. I went on an outdoor ed trip too, we went camping and canoeing and hiking.”

After School

“When I don’t have sports practice I go home after school and sometimes I hang out with friends too. Then we have dinner, I just do my homework, watch TV and go to bed. In the summer I used to play tennis with some friends and now it’s starting again. I really think that Victoria is great because it’s a 5 minute bus ride from Oak Bay where I live to downtown. I really like Victoria and I really like that it’s close to the sea.” 

Outside of School

“When I arrived in August I was definitely excited. I went to the Head Start week and I stayed at Gryphon House. That was really nice, hanging out with some friends and getting to know the people from other countries. I was really excited to do that and to get to know a new environment. And then I went to my host family and we went to Mt Washington.”

“I get along with my two host brothers really well and we go skiing many weekends. In my application I said that I really like skiing and so I got matched with them as a result, which is a really great fit. They give me the feeling of a real family.”

Thank you for sharing your experience with us Henri! You can learn more about this unique boarding school model at GNS here: The Family Boarding Homestay Program.