Hi Everybody!
I am sorry for the lapse in communication, it is summer over here, and I have been out and about a lot, saying goodbye to the Northern Hemisphere exchange students who have finished their year, catching up with school friends, and of course travelling across Canada on my month long trip!
So, while I do have a lot to talk about, I really wanted to tell you guys about the CCT (Cross Canada Tour) that I did last month – which really was one of the best months of my life. There were 3 Chaperones and 44 exchange students on the trip, from all around the world. About 15 of them were from my Rotary District over here, 7080, so it was great having some close friends on the trip with me, but there were also a lot of people I had never met, and I have definitely made some new friendships that will last a lifetime!
We started the tour in Moncton, New Brunswick, North East of where I am living. We spent about a week up in this area, and saw some amazing things. One of my favourites was the Hopewell Rocks, in the Bay of Fundy. This is where there are huge tides, up to 7m tall! I don’t know how much you know about this area, but because of the large tides, the rocks there have eroded away, and are left in some incredible formations – they are also known as the flowerpot rocks, as they look a bit like flowerpots, with a large bulbous part on top where the water hasn’t washed away the rock.
We spent a day on Prince Edward Island, which was a lot of fun – we swam in a river, went lobster fishing, and dressed up as Anne of Green Gables (as PEI is her hometown), yes, even the boys donned the green gown and plaited wigs!
From there we travelled to Quebec on the train, which was an overnight train ride… lets just say I don’t think much sleep was had, and when we arrived in Quebec City at 6am the next morning, we were a very tired bunch. But, we made the most of our time in the city and started off with a scavenger hunt around town (yes, at 6am!), which ended in us finding our way to the hostel. What none of us knew at the time, was that the day before had been St-Jean Baptiste Day, which is the provincial holiday of Quebec, and is basically an excuse for a large party. In Quebec we watched some of the FIFA football matches (there was great international rivalry!), and explored the city. I must say, it was definitely my favourite city on the Tour, and all the exchange students said it reminded them of Europe – looks like I will have to plan a trip there in the future!
We moved onto Montreal, which was another fun city, and we had another scavenger hunt to complete – I am now very familiar with the subway system in Montreal, this tour led us all over the place. We saw the Basilica, and some amazing cathedrals – Montreal really is a beautiful city.
By July 29th we were in Toronto, very close to home for me. We did all of the touristy things there, including a trip up the CN Tower, and a visit to the Niagara Falls, which really are spectacular. We did a jet boat ride up the Niagara River, which was awesome, and we visited the Hockey Hall of fame, and of course, there was some great shopping in Toronto.
We caught another early morning train on July 1st, this time Ottawa – Canada’s capital. This was an incredible experience, because July 1st is Canada day, and the major celebrations are held in Ottawa, even the queen was there – as you can see from my photos, everyone went overboard with the red and white decoration, but it was a lot of fun!
After that though, we had what has to have been the longest train ride of my life – 3 nights and days onboard without stopping. We didn’t have sleeper carriages or anything, so we slept in regular train seats, which only recline about 2 degrees, or so it felt like! Despite the lack off actual sleep and the cramped conditions, we all loved the train ride, as it gave us all a great chance to get to know each other even better, I think some of the best friendships were made during that time (and we learnt a lot of new card games).
Finally we stopped in Edmonton, and went straight to the West Edmonton Mall – the biggest mall in North America! And boy, it was big. Inside the mall there was a movie theatre, and theme park, and a water park! It was crazy how big it was. An Edmonton Rotary club had sponsored us all tickets into the water park, which was fantastic, especially since none of us had showered for three days! So we played in the water park, and looked around the mall and had a chance just to relax and hang our together.
We travelled to Jasper National park that evening and settled into our hostel there. We all kept our eyes peeled for bears and moose, but sadly none were to be found.
We travelled to the Columbia Ice fields, which are one of the largest glacier areas in the world, and we took a tour up to the actual ice fields themselves. We had a lot of travelling to get through, so we moved straight up to Banff where we stayed for the next few days.
Banff was an amazing area –
we visited hot springs, went white water rafting and explored the town, which was quaint, but lovely. We also visited Lake Louise, which was nearby, and was absolutely stunning. A few of us took a hike up a nearby mountain to get a better view of the lake, and I am so glad I did it, I was amazing. It took us a good 5 hours to get up though, and part of it was almost rock-climbing, we had to scramble up a steep hill covered in shale and gravel.
We moved on again, this time to Calgary, where we saw the Calgary Stampede! That was awesome, and we explored the fairgrounds and watched some of the shows, including the rodeo. That was awesome to see, I had never seen anything like it, and we got to watch all kinds of events, involving horses, bulls, calves, and the chuck wagons!
July 11th, we visited the dinosaur museum, and we also watched the FIFA final – by this point the trip had been divided into supporting sides, Netherlands vs. Spain. Let’s just say there were about 20 very happy people that day!
We spent a bit more time in Edmonton, where we were billeted by families, and we got to see some more of the city. We also got to have a home cooked meal, and get some laundry done, which was awesome. My family took me and Johanna (Swedish girl I was billeted with) out to a fondue place for dinner, which was so cool! I have never had a fondue meal, so that was very exciting, and the food was amazing.
Then of course we made it out all the way to British Columbia, first stop Vancouver.
That was another amazing city, there was so much to see and do there, and we barely scratched the surface. We explored Stanley Park, biked around the city, saw an outdoor theatre production, visited the Aquarium and saw Beluga whales, and I saw my first racoon and skunk!
Salt Spring Island was our next stop, and that was beautiful. Half of us were billeted, the other half stayed in a motel. I was part of the group in a motel, which was good fun. Salt Spring reminded me a lot of Waiheke Island actually. The beaches were amazing, and there were some very fancy houses on the island. There was also a market every Saturday, which we were lucky enough to see, and we all spent a fair bit of money there, on souvenirs and little trinkets.
Last but not least, we caught the ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. Victoria was another of my favourite cities. We went to China Town, had fish and chips on the water front and just spent time with our friends, getting our flags signed and preparing to say goodbye.
Sadly, the trip did end there, and there were many tears when we parted. I for one cried my eyes out at the airport; it was unbelievable how close we had all become spending just a month together.
When I started writing this, I intended to keep it short; I was aiming for just a summary, maybe a paragraph or two… apparently that didn’t happen! And this is only half of what we did, there are a lot more things that happened on our trip and places that we saw to tell you, but if I include everything, this will be about 5 pages longer! But I am sure you will hear all about it when I get back, and I have a lot of photographs to share with you all! I am sorry it has taken me this long to get this to you, and I will work on keeping you better informed on my adventures in the upcoming months. This year really has been absolutely fantastic for me so far – and believe it or not, I am past the halfway point! That certainly is daunting, though I am excited to return home and see everyone again!
Love Sarah
xox
P.S More CCT photos, and other news to come!! :)
Florida was a lot of fun. I went down there with my first home mom, Laurie, and we stayed in a house she has down there. We flew out of Buffalo on Wednesday morning, at about 7am and made it to Tampa for just after lunch. We had a very relaxing week, and spent our time at the beach or the shopping mall. I loved being at the beach, because this was the first time I had swum in the ocean since I came to Canada, while no big deal for Canadians, it's a pretty scary thought for me.
