Hey y’all!
As promised, here’s the BIG update about everything that has happened since the last proper update. Though since it’s been so long, it might be that I’ve forgotten things. My memory isn’t among the greatest.
Anyways.
Thursday 18/09 - Friday 19/09
On that Thursday, we - all the exchange students - went camping right after school. Well, we gathered in the cafeteria right after school. It then took a while till the bus arrived. Once we got to the camping site, we settled in two cabins (one per gender) which were a lot nicer than I had expected.
After that we kinda sat around the campfire until someone proposed to play hide ‘n seek in the massive forest that surrounded the camping. Everyone was like ‘sure’ and so we went off into the woods after having agreed that if we weren’t found within the hour, we’d just go back. Together with three others I stranded on a nice little bench that looked out over the river. We hung out there for a while, me collecting shells and the others just existing. Two of them decided to go back before the hour had gone by, me and my remaining friend did sit out the hour.
Once we were back at the site itself, everyone appeared to be gone. Turns out dinner had been set out a little while ago and most students had already finished, and were all over the place again. So, the two of us ate dinner kinda by ourselves. Which, honestly, wasn’t that terrible as it had already been a long (school)day so it was nice to have that rest.
Afterwards we went to the campfire and one by one the others came back. We made some smores, some accidentally made torches out of the marshmallows, and we just had fun. After a while they put out the power so the lights didn’t turn on anymore, and a little after that we all kinda went to sleep.
The next morning we went canoeing, which was pretty nice. We did leave already right before lunch, which was kinda sad because there were a lot of activities we would’ve done if we would’ve been there for longer. Unfortunately we didn’t, so hide ‘n seek and canoeing it remained.
Friday Evening 19/09
The evening on the same day as our return, most of us went to the barn dance. The barn dance was exactly what the word says it is, a dance in a barn. So it was basically a massive barn with a ground floor and a first floor where people danced. On the ground floor there was the entrance, some couches, air hockey and a place to get water. The first floor was one massive dance floor with benches along the walls. That dance floor was filled with people, some standing but most dancing. The dance that was danced the most that night was the 2-step. It’s basically a dance where you and a ‘partner’ stand in position for a waltz, and then take two steps to one side followed by one step to the other. And that for an entire song. Some people did complicated spins though, but most of us kept it to a little under-the-arm-piroutte-kinda-thingy (you know what I mean, I hope). During that night, my main impression of Canada - which is that it is open, both regarding space and people - was amplified as you could literally ask anyone for a dance and they would gladly accept.
What I also found out that night, is that they apparently know a popular Belgian folk dance; ‘t Smidje. The way I found out was because they were doing local folk dances from time to time, and I thought to myself, which Belgian folk dances do I know? ‘t Smidje quickly popped up in my head and I was like ‘it can’t be that hard to teach, I’m going to ask the lady who’s in charge of the music if that’s an option’. So, I went up to her and sure enough, when I mentioned the song she was like ‘O we know that one, I’ll put it on next’. Of course I was quite happy as it’s a dance I really like to do. However, for whatever reason, the sweet old lady decided to announce to the ENTIRE DANCE FLOOR that I was from Belgium and knew the dance. So yeah, everyone who was upstairs at the moment now knows that I’m called Liesa, that I’m from Belgium and that I know ‘t Smidje. Well to be fair, no one mentioned it afterwards so honestly I don’t really mind. It was fun dancing it though, they even played it 3 or 4 times that night.
Wednesday 24/09
As exchange students, we got asked if we wanted to help at a ‘career day’ in an elementary school. I, along with my host-kinda-sisters, had volunteered and so that day we went to the elementary school instead of the high school. Now I’m not entirely sure what the exact goal of that career day was, but I got to help kids fill bottles with water, charms, glitter and colouring agent so I was quite happy. Well, for the first part of the day. Because before lunch, the kids behaved well, did what they had to do, patiently waited… After lunch however… I don’t know what exactly happened but suddenly everything was chaos. My hands were stained with colouring agent and more oil than before, multiple kids had to redo their bottles several times, glitter was everywhere… We did get free pizza during lunch though. All by all it was a nice experience and apparently there’ll be more of these days. I’d be more than happy to help once again.
Saturday 27/09
On this day, we went to harvest potatoes. It was basically something that was organised by a farm where you could go to and harvest as many potatoes as you could carry in a few bags. Those bags filled quicker than expected and I did have a lot of fun digging up different-colored starch.
Afterwards we wandered through the shop that was next to the potato field and drove to some other stores because my host parents had to buy some things.
Tuesday 30/09
Today we went on a little road trip with the family. First we drove to a nice viewing point. When driving to the camping site over a week ago, the schoolbus had also stopped there. I however did prefer the view today, as autumn turned it into a beautiful colour palette and the absence of 30 others allowed a comforting silence. Well at least until a helicopter appeared.
After that we went to a rocky beach, a beach with a lot of driftwood, another beach with rocks and driftwood, and then the sun was suddenly setting so we drove back home. I did see a lot of beautiful views and an absolutely gorgeous sunset.
During the past two weeks we also met up with friends a few times which was really fun, but I honestly forgot on which days.
Anyways, that’s all folks. I’ll add the picture tomorrow because it’s already getting a bit late and since I’m kinda sick I think it’s the best I get all the sleep I can.
Sick regards, Cupcake