Thanksgiving and Autumn

Firstly...

It's Autumn here, and it is absolutely beautiful. The trees here, are truly magnificent. Everywhere you look, the radient greens, yellows, oranges and reds almost seem to glow - these are colours that would make Mrs Irwin proud. I have taken these photographs over the last weekend, but they really don't do the beauty justice, because no matter how hard I try, a camera just can't capture this...

 Secondly...

It was thanksgiving this weekend!

A quintessential North American holiday, it is somewhat reminiscent of our christmas (only minus the presents), an excuse to see the family, get a few days off work/school, and to eat a lot. And, it seems that Canadians take advantage of all three.

Thanksgiving is a very big deal here, and while it is very commercialised, I know it gave me a chance to think about what I'm thankful for, by no means is this a short list!

(This is only a tiny part of the massive pile of pumpkins in the supermarket car park - it took up about 8 parks!)

The school board gave us Friday off as well as the statutory Monday, so all the kids got a four day weekend! On Sunday we drove about 1 and a half hours north, to visit Julie's sister and their family. It was a lovely day, and we had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner - Turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and Pumpkin Pie, which is a new favourite of mine!!!

I went for a walk with Monica ( my host sister, in one of the pictures), Fab (my host dad), Brian ('Host Uncle) and Kobe, the thirteen week old puppy! Most of the pictures above were taken on the walk, and it was amazing. Only a 5 minute walk from their house, in a developed area, there was a forest, which was filled with tree's., the evidence is, evident. But, trees aren't all we saw...

Thirdly...

BEAVERS! At the start of the walk we heard some rustling in the bushes, and turned to see the trees moving. Brian said they had a bit of a bear problem over the last few weeks, so he was rather worried, until we realised the trees weren't just moving, one huge branch was being dragged down to the river... Beavers!

We snuck down to the edge of the creek, and sure enough, floating around in the water were two beavers. A lot bigger than I expected, they were swimming up and down, and didn't seem particularly phased by us. About 40minutes later when we headed back we had another look, and they were still there, so I managed to get a few good photos.

They certainly made my day, and now I can cross another iconic Canadian animal off my list! 

Beaver teeth marks...

See him there?

Tadaah!

So, I have had a fantastic weekend, and eaten my fair share of pumpkin pie and pumpkin loaf! Surprisingly, no-one here has heard of Pumpkin Soup! Nicole's brother told me that it doesn't even exist, I must be lying. But seriously, not a single person has been able to confirm the existence of one of the most amazing foods ever.

So, what am I thankful for?

Amongst other things, I am so, so lucky to have..

- My wonderful family in New Zealand.

- My amazing families here in Canada.

- The friends I have, in Canada and New Zealand.

-Exchange Students! They are friends, but quite unlike any one else I know.

-Rotary, for the experience of a lifetime.

Newbies!

So, this weekend after much anticipation, we met the new inbound students!
On saturday morning we drove about 40minutes north to a town called Brampton, where we were set to meet everyone for the first time.
I know for me  it was very peculiar, going on a rotary weekend without the others - I think in the back of my mind I was still expecting to see them there.
This year there are only 9 new kids! So including me, Mark and Riley, there are 12 of us, which makes for a lot smaller group than last year. (19)

Mark - Australia
Riley - Australia
Sabrina - Denmark
Javier - Ecuador
Bruna - Brazil
Philipp - Austria
Isabella - Switzerland
Nann - Thailand
Jose - Chile
Kyohei - Japan
Heloise - France
and Me!

We did some group activities, and a whole lot of presentations about what to expect from our year (in my case, only 3 months...), the rules, and the itinerary for this year.
After all the formal stuff was over we went into the gym, and just mucked around playing basketball and frisbee. There are some pretty good basketballers in the group, and we all had fun playing. Sadly my team lost...
Riley also picked up some sweet frisbee skills - he figured out how to skim it like a stone!

The rotarians keep saying that this group is already a lot better behaved than us last year, and I can definitely see that. I am sure we weren't easy to handle, but we did have a lot of fun. Dinner time was scarily quiet, but I am sure as everyone gets more comfortable around each other and their English improves, we will get louder. Haha, the only people talking were us Oceanians, which is peculiar considering I am normally the quiet one...

We were billeted saturday night - please tell me you know what that means! Everyone I talk to has to interupt me, as they don't know what I mean by 'billeted'. I stayed at Mari-Ann Tate's house, a rotarian who has been with us all year. I was there with Nann and Sabrina, so we stayed up talking and watching movies.

Sunday morning - It was a fairly early start, and we all met at Cora's for breakfast at 8.30. There is fantastic food there, but the portions are huge. I had a Ham and Cheese Omlette, and I struggled to even eat half. Mark got the 'Banana Beast' - I have had that before with Emi, and it sure is beastly!!

So, summer is defnintely over now...
It was down to about 3 degrees this morning, and yesterday I wished that I had had gloves on! The leaves are starting to change colour, and it looks absolutely stunnning. I will have to get out and take some pictures before it is too late.

Au Reviour!
Sarah
xoxox