Li Shuo (Rebecca)

There were two nice courses in Lakehead, I recommend them to all students who will exchange to LU, they are "Land Relations" (OUTD-1150-FB) and "Outdoor Skills & Theory I (OUTD-1310-FA)".

"Land Relations" is a perfect course that allows students to getting to know more about the city of Thunder Bay and Canada as a country - from culture, geography, First Nation Peoples, animals to plants. We spend most of our time visiting great places in the city with the school bus, and every time we have a new topic such as "bird watching"  or "plants". Before the start of our trip, we need to complete the reading list of the topic of the trip. This makes the trip meaningful, easy to understand and memorize the topic.

Furthermore, I noticed that they always separated students in different teamd during the Lab Classes (like the trip of the course "Land Relations" (OUTD-1150-FB) and "Outdoor Skills & Theory I (OUTD-1310-FA)"), and when we finished our part, we would swap teams. That made the Lab Class very efficient.

The course "Outdoor Skills & Theory I" is actually composed of two courses: "Outdoor Skills II & "Theory I", in addition to "Lab for Outdoor  1310". "Outdoor Skills II" is in turn divided into two parts: 1- Navigation: (Map & compass, UTM) & 2- Camp Craft (Clothing systems, Knots, Shelters & Stoves). The picture below illustrates my experience during the lab course "navigation and skills assessments". All my gears were wet, but that did not stop me from fully immersing myself in the exciting experience. During this course, we were asked to apply our navigation skills by using a compass to navigate the forest. Each group was composed of two persons. And when we finished this part, we were expected to use the stove and build a shelter independently.

One of the amazing parts of the course "Outdoor Skills & Theory" is the three-days trip ("Lab Class"). We could choose between a backpack trip or canoe trip. I chose the canoe trip and the picture shows it. :)

Thunder Bay is a beautiful city with a great tourism potential, and my exchange study experience took place at the department for Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism at Lakehead University. This experience is now  part of my most precious memory in my life. I’m really grateful that our university let me have this opportunity to experience it. I recommend every student who is planning to exchange to consider Lakehead University as a destination for study abroad, especially for tourism students. Finally, it is my pleasure to share more my experience to someone who interest about LU, please feel free to contact and ask me.