Where to start...Well, pretty much all of last week was kinda boring. I didn't really do much besides schoolwork/act prep after school. I have a feeling that the rest of winter is just going to slowly drag on....but, enough of my complaining. :D
Orientation was last weekend, and it went really well! A lot was packed into 2 days though, let me tell ya. I was practically dead on the ride home on Sunday. I shall start with Saturday morning:
I awoke before the crack of dawn at the dark and early time of 5 am, and left my house at about 6 with my dad pestering me to get out of the door because I was "running late." (I was on schedule though, mind you. He told me we'd leave at 6:15!) Then, we got to the Ambassador Bridge around 25 minutes later (we didn't end up taking the tunnel. Boo.) and drove in the cornfields of Canada for about 2 hours until we got to the place where my orientation was-I think it was called Blenheim District High School, but I can't remember for sure. And when I say we drove through the cornfields of Canada the whole way, I mean it. There was nothing there. Just fields, windmills, and a few trees here and there. But hey, on the bright side, no traffic ;) Anyways, we got to the high school, and we were pretty much the first ones there so we just sat in the parking lot waiting for someone to come so that we knew we were at the right place. Then, when they did, we got inside and registered and I started talking to some of the fellow outbounds there until the leaders of the district exchange program (I'm not sure what to call them. I know there's a name for them. Oh yeah, I'll call them the exchange committee!) started talking to us and giving us a run down of how the day would go. We started off doing an ice breaker, which was cool because it wasn't the kind of ice breaker where you have to stand up and "tell a little about yourself." For the ice breaker, we were each given a sheet of paper with a list of interests for each outbound on it, and we had to go up and meet everyone and match their name with their interest. That took about ten minutes, and then we got right to business. ;)
We were given a folder, a bag, and a big fancy binder, and inside the folder were a bajillion papers with information that someone from the "exchange committee" briefly went over. Then, the parents and students split up for separate sessions. All of the students went to the library, where some members of the committee talked to us about the upcoming events that we have to attend within the next few months, when we should be finding out other information about our exchange such as our host district and city, our "homework" assignments, and the new insurance policy. Then, we were given scenarios about problems that could occur in our host countries and had to discuss amongst ourselves how we would deal with them. I learned quite a bit during that part, which was good.
Then, everyone went to the cafeteria and we had lunch. I didn't really eat much because I wasn't a big fan of the options, but I had a good time talking to everyone. After that, the committee basically just talked about stuff that I mostly already knew so I kinda stopped paying attention. They gave us directions to go get our blazer fittings, and us Americans got to go first :P Haha. The girls got fitted at a store called Cleo Ricki's in a mall in Chatham, which I thought was pretty stylish. :) Our pants are black and I our blazers are supposed to be a mediumish blue instead of navy blue like I thought, which is nice. After we finished getting fitted for our blazers, the orientation was officially over and the swimming/bowling/skiing event started.
I got dropped off at a funky building, which is where everyone attending (outbounds, inbounds, rebounds-pretty much anyone who wanted to go) dropped their stuff off and ate dinner. For the first few hours, everyone just kinda hungout, talked, listened to music, played games, whatever they wanted. It was pretty fun, and I met a lot of new people. Then, we walked to a pool called Gable Ree's Rotary Pool (I think that's the name..once again, so horrible with names) and we went swimming for around 1 or 2 hours. I had a lot of fun, and that was probably my favorite part of the night. Then, we went to a bowling alley, which was pretty funky. Instead of having 12 pins at the end of the lane, there were 5, and the bowling ball was tiny and didn't have finger holes. I'm not really into bowling, so that was eh, but it was still pretty cool. We were there for around 2 more hours, and then we went to the ice skating rink. I didn't have skates, so I borrowed a pair from one of the other exchangers. Skating was fun, but I wasn't really good at it! I felt accomplished at the end, though, because I didn't fall like I thought I would. :D We got back to the main building at around midnight, and everyone just kinda hung around until lights out, which was at 1:30 am. We had to get up at around 7:30 am the next day, which was crazy! My dad picked me up at 10 am, and I was extremely exhausted the whole way home!
Overall, it was a fun weekend! I'm excited for the next orientation, which is on March 23. It's a multi district orientation, and I think we are combining with district 6600 for this one, but I'm not 100% sure. Anywho, I'll keep you guys posted if anything exciting happens between now and then! :)
Until next time,
Stephanie
