The Niagara Falls

I feel very good about this: When I come home, and people are gonna ask me if i evere saw the Niagara Falls ('cause mainly that's all people know about Canada) I'm gonna answer them by saying 'Yes, I saw the Niagara Falls on my 10th day in Canada'. You couldn't use your time better, it was totally amazing! I will never again do anything that'll be anywhere near the experience in standing on a boat, dressed in a plastic rain coat in the middle of the horse shoe falls (the Canadian falls).

There are two falls, the american one and the canadian one. The canadian one's of course about ten times more amazing then the american one. That is actually the truth, it's not only because I'm living in Canada and have a good eye to this country, as you might think. I'll tell you why; First of all the canadian fall is formed like a horse shoe (therefore the name), the american fall is just flat. Second is that in the american fall there are plenty of very big rocks, browsing and stopping the water so that the height of the water falling is divided into two. Third of all, I mean come on, american or canadian, what do you choose, not a very hard question ;) Okay, so maybe I am a bit partic.

We left after breakfast and three of those magic yellow schoolbuses took us first to Niagara on the lake, a lovely little town, though very touristic, then to the flower clock, where we didn't stay for long since it was raining and finally we arrived at Niagara Falls city to see one of the worlds greatest wonders, the Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist, a tour boat which took us right into the falls. Fantastic! I costed twelve bucks but it was worth every single penny of it.

The time between Maid of The Mist and dinner at Plannet Hollywood we spent in the city. Me, Gabbi, Wiebke and Annika. Wonderful girls, I love them! Unfortunatly I can't say the same about the sourroundings arond the falls. It was like a tivoli street, with theatres, museums, wax cabinetts, ghost houses, souvenier shops, fast food resturants and flashes and lights and noise everywhere. I didn't buy anything, although it would be nice to have a sweater which says 'Canadaian' or something like that, but I'm going to stay here for a year, so there's no hurry.

After an very entertaining dinner we went to see the falls by night. They light them up with flashes and lights in different colours, it looked quite spectacular. But personally I prefer the falls by day; natural glory.

The end of the camp is getting nearer. It feels a little bit sad, I've been getting used to the routins here and all the nice people. But of course I can't wait to meet my host family, I'm so excited about it :D And the farm... wow. Today was our last day in the normal classes, on thursday we're going to do something different I think. We wrote our name on a post card and passed it around the class for everybody to write a little comment on it. It was nice, Hilda collected them and she's going to send them to us in a month, 'when the honey moon with our host families is over'.

Tonight we're going to see a musical, it's called 'We will rock you'. Ring any bells? Moha, I thought so, music by Queen. It costs 40 dollars and is not compulsory, but I think I'll never have this opportunity again, it isn't very expensive for being a musical. Or, at least i like to tell myself so ;)

Toronto: The largest city in Canada

Yesterday was a Toronto day. It was assume, I've never been to such a big city before. It wasn't the most beautiful city I've ever seen ('cause I'm so cool and have been to so many cities, or not), but it sure was something special about it. Very north american with all the high buildings on each side of the road and with all the skyscrapers. First we went to the CN Tower which is almost a compulsory thing to do when visiting Toronto. It was cool to see the city from above, although we didn't see all of it, it's too big for that.

After the CN Tower we had the whole afternoon off to do whatever we wanted. I myself went to the harbour with Gabbie to catch the farry for visit on Centre Island. I liked it out there, it was like a big park with big green areas, idyllic little bridges, carousels and animals for the children, unbelievably expensive ice cream, and so on. All the things you need for a perfect picnic day.

After Centre Island we intended to visit China Town, since noone of has had ever been to such thing before. Unfortunatly, and although I was an excellent map reader (hrm), we didn't have the time to go there. That'll have to be for another time. Nevertheless on our way there, we found some very cool shops in Queen St, for example one were you could find a least a hundred different buttons.

After we'd catched up with the other EF people and eaten our dinner at the Hardrock Cafe all of us went to a baseboll game. I just have to say this, I'm sorry but: Baseball is quite a boring game to watch. At least if you're watching it for too long. It felt like they almost didn't do anything, the catcher and the pitcher and whatever their names are. It's not at all as cool and dramatic as it looks like on TV. So we sat down for two and a half hour, taking pictures, talking, clapping when everybody else was clapping, booing when everybody else was booing, you know. But now I've been to a baseball game, I'm proud of that and I'm very glad we went there. Just wish I would have getting to know the rules before the game, instead of afterwards.

I've been taking a lot of pictures, with my digital camera, so now you know all you people who were wondering why a brought the analog camera. You'll be very pleased to know that now I'm wondering too.

The camp

Okay, now it's my third day here on camp in Toronto. It really doesn't happen that much around here, or, not as much as I would want to. Now is our free time and I come straightly from a soccer tournament between the four homerooms. Unfortunatly our homeroom didn't win, but we made a good third.

Today and yesterday we had our first classes; English, Canadian Geography, Life in Canada and something wierd that's called Administration. The main purpose of that class is to collect money from the students for different events. Yesterday afternoon we went to the second biggest mall in Canada. It wasn't as big as I'd thought it'd be, but yet big enough to get lost in three times. Thanks heaven for information desks!

It's amazing, I would guess probably 50 % of all the students here are germans. They are everywhere, I'm living with three of them myself. And they all speak german to each other, great! Or not. No, now I'm being a little bit unfair, they were much worse in the beginning, now they actually speak mostly english.

So, there isn't very much more to tell you at the moment. People are very nice here, open minded. Sometimes the conversations fade out and it gets all quiet. That is sad, but that too is getting better as the camp goes on and there are more things to talk about. And oh, the japanese girls are so funny, they're like a big choir.

During these two weeks I won't be able to show you any pictures since I can't get them into the computer, but once I'm with my host family I will. I'm so tired, now I'm gonna go and read.

Arrival in Toronto

This is unbelievable! Here I sit, in the library of the university of campus in Toronto. Two chairs away sits Gabriella from Stockholm. She is really nice, we sat next to each other on the plane from Paris. By the way, the trip went just fine. It wasn't difficult at all finding the terminal and the gate in Paris, Charles de Gaulle. The signing was very clear and there weren't that much people. Not at all as chaotic as I'd thought it'd be.

On the airport I ran into a whole group of EF students from Germany and Switzerland. I spoke a little with some of them, but of course they talked in german with each other so it wasn't easy for me to take part of the conversations. I was very happy to pop into the Swedish girl, Gabriella. She told me that out of those 6-800 students that go to Canada every year 400 of them are germans. Not really hard to believe.

So, now it's half past four in the afternoon, and my guess is we got here by two a clock. We have this afternoon off because they know we're tired and would like some time to unpack our luggage and two move into our rooms. We live four students in each "apartment", and in each apartment are four rooms, so we've got one each. That's great, some privacy (I know, but come on, I'm swedish).

Apart from Gabriella I've been talking to some asian girls, some from Germany and Switzerland and I've also spoken to an australian girl, who has been here in Canada for half a year by now. She and her friend are like, leaders here. They know were everything is and I think they are going to talk to us about what it's like living in a canadian host family.

Since we've spent the afternoon here on campus I havn't seen that much of Toronto yet, except for the 40 minutes by bus it took us to get here. But one of the differences I've been noticing the most is the different colour of the traffic lines and lights.

Departure

Finelly, it's time to go people! Tomorrow at 3 pm a train will leave Kalmar for Malmö and me and my mom will hopefully be on it. In Malmö we'll sleep for a couple of hours before we catch the train to Kastrup at 4,20 am.

In my recent report I wrote that this week would be most about packing. Well, it certenly has: For four days I've been collecting all my stuff at my brother's bed, I needed to have it under control. Today we started to put everything in my suitcase and my backpack, all together the weight of the two check-in luggages is 30 kg. You are aloud to bring 46, so it's okay.

We've also been packing my hand luggage, the EF bag, with all the papers and dokuments needed for the travel. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, are a lot of papers. Like my mother said; Are you able to manage this, from now on administration won't be a problem.

So, after this my last evening in Kalmar I wish to say good night. I'll come back when I've been able to install myself in my host family's house. That will be in two weeks or so.

Goodnight and bye bye sweden!

The travelling blog

I've finally created my travelling blog for my exchange year: My year in Canada. My ambition is to give you a picture of my stay the coming school year, with some reports and some pictures along the way. I will be spending the year with my host family in Boundary Creek, New Brunswick and attending high school in a nearby town.

On saturday I'll be departing for Toronto at 07,10 am. On friday me and my mother will go by train to Malmö, to sleep a few hours in a hotel before we take the train to the Copenhagen Airport. There we're going to meet a representative of EF at half past five in the morning. If you want to, you're welcome to say a little prayer for me between nine a 'clock and half past ten, because then I'll be changing flight all by myself on the huge airport Charles de Gaulle, outside Paris.

The first two weeks in Canada I'll be staying in Toronto, participating in the EF Language & Culture camp. At the arrival in Toronto it will, on the count of the time difference of five hours, still be morning. So the first night I suppose I won't exactly have any sleeping trouble.

This week is, as understandable, mostly about packing and getting ready to leave the country for a year. When I'm coming home my personality will have been changed, in one way or another. Right now I can't really say that I'm nervous or so, it's useless worrying about accidents that maybe won't even happen. But the departure is almost a week away, sooner or later the nervousness will come.