Arrival Family and orientation day
25 februari 2016 - Listowel, Canada
Arrival Family and orientation day
We landed in Toronto I think at 8 o’clock. I had to find a man (Marc) where I should stay for 2 days before the dogsledding trip. He and his wife were also going to the dogsledding trip. When I got my suitcase I walked to the place where Marc was waiting for me. It was very nice to meet him and he told me that we had to wait for another girl from the Netherlands. I didn’t know that there was another girl from the Netherlands and that we stay together in the arrival host family for the first days. She had delay so we were waiting with orange juice haha. It was very nice to read the messages from friends in the Netherlands. After a while we found her and it was very funny, because she also didn’t know that I was from the Netherlands. So I said that I was from the Netherlands and she first talked English to me and then she realized that I was from the Netherlands. So it was like m m m haha and then there was a Dutch sentence that was like: It is so weird to talk Dutch now. I am not used to it anymore so I had to think first haha. We drove to Marc’s home, but first we went out to eat something. My first time in Tim Hortons! Tim Hortons is the famous fastfood place in Canada where you can get coffee, sandwiches and donuts etc. Then we drove to Marc’s home. The hole drive was 2 hours. I was very tired, because the flight and time difference. When we were in his home I think by 23:15 we met his wife (Heather). They were really nice! The another girl from the Netherlands (Marthe) and I shared a room and we talk very long about exchange and how it is for her now, because she was in Canada for 5 moths already. It was really nice to talk with her about it and to hear her exchange stories and how it is in Canada. She lives in Vancouver, because she is doing a dance academy there. Every exchange student that is in Canada lives in Ontario (close to Toronto) and 4 are living in Montreal.
The next morning we woke up at 10 o’clock or something. When I looked outside I saw very much snow. After breakfast we went outside and helped Marc to sweep the snow from the driveway, but he was almost finished. So that was my first experience with snow haha. In the afternoon I went with Marthe to the stores in the small city. I really like to see supermarkets in other country’s so it was very nice to see the Canadian supermarket. It was very funny, because we were walking in the supermarket and saw a lot of Dutch grocery’s. We found stroopwafels, hagelslag, drop and things like Friesche stroop. Marc and Heather told me that there are living very much Dutch people in this area and that they ask to shell Dutch things in the supermarket. Then we had diner and in the evening we didn’t do very much. I was very tired, because the time difference. In Canada it is 6 hours earlier.
The next morning we had to drive for 15 minutes. We went to an orientation day from YFU (the exchange organisation). After the orientation we went to the dog sledding place. There was an orientation for the exchange students that are for 5 months in Canada and a small exchange group for the exchange students that just arrived. There where 6 people that just arrived here. One boy from Belgium, one girl from New Zealand and 3 girls from Australia. We were sitting in a room and talking about how it is to do an exchange, rules, experience and about the Canadian culture. The woman that was talking with us about it was from the Netherlands. It was very nice to have had a kind of orientation, because I didn’t had any orientation before. After the orientation we had lunch and then we went to the dogsledding trip.
Geen pedomanen haha:(
Wat ontzettend gaaf en knap en super en geweldig. En goed dat je nog tijd hebt om te schrijven en in het Engels!!!
Laat snel weer wat van je horen
Dikke kus van mij en .....van Saar natuurlijk
En leuk dat je ons zo op de hoogte houd.
Het lijkt me een hele leuke belevenis
Ondanks dat ik je best wel erg mis hoop ik dat je het heel erg naar je zin hebt daar
xxxxx je eerste vriendinnetje en je beste :p
Silvia