Arrival and other amazing stuff

THURSDAY 26^th: Hello and welcome to my first official blog entry when I’m actually in Canada. Thursday was the day of my arrival and the trip from Copenhagen to Toronto has been a mess. At 10:20 my flight to Canada started back in Copenhagen. It took around 2 hours to get from Copenhagen to Paris. It was a boring trip which actually ended pretty quick with some reading. After getting of the airplane in Paris I had to find my flight to Toronto. So I got help from a very handsome French man in Charles de Gaulle/Airport. There was no problem getting to the next airplane and when I was at the boarding place, I met 3 French exchange students travelling with Rotary to Canada. It was nice to talk with people in the exact same situation as me.

The trip from Paris to Toronto wasn’t that bad, though very long. I sat in the top of the very huge airplane; I think there was room for 347 people. Next to me was a lesbian Swedish couple (one of them was pregnant, aha!) It was pretty funny to talk with them. I watched some movies included Kick Ass, Shreck “Forever After” and I think it was an episode of Taggart, the Scottish criminal inspector. After the trip I arrived in the Toronto airport  - tired and totally exhausted. But before I could meet the YFU – alumni Brynn, I had to go through the immigration.  It went really well, there were no problems at all.  I got my ‘official’ Student Premit. After the immigration I drove to the introduction camp with 8 other exchange students.  When we arrived we quickly ate some pizza and went to sleep.

FRIDAY 27^th: Having fun with the YFU-friends. All very sweet, the French a little bit annoying, but it is funny, still. Playing card games and stuff like that.  We have been at the pool for swimming, relaxing and getting over our jetlag. It has been really nice to talk with other people from the YFU. They were all so kind and sweet and we had so much fun introducing our selves in our native language and speaking about our own countries. And since we were only about 14 YFU-students going to Canada from other countries, we could all speak very open to each other. We could talk about our expectations for the year, the dog sledding trip and other stuff. 

SATURDAY 28^th: This was the day we had the orientation. We were repeating the rules we learned back in Denmark, but the alumni who learned us were really nice and also came up with new things such as: The Epic Flowchart of awesomness! (Copyright to Brynn and Steven) A really complicated thing to talk about, but everyone who goes to Canada after us will learn about it. After the orientation I left with Richard, my area rep, to Oil Springs with a German who will be heading more south later, and a Japanese, who will be heading to the west of Canada. It was only me who will be staying here a little bit more, I will probably be staying in Petrolia where my school is, but I still do not really know yet. Janina (the German) and me walked for a while in Oil Springs, but we were soon home because of the heat.

SUNDAY 29^th: Today Janina (the german), Yuki (the Japanese) and I walked to the Oil Museum of Oil Springs. It is truly a fascinating story and everything was so western! You could imagine how a cowboy would come and shoot you behind the oil well or the post office. The landscape here is really amazing! Eventhough there is Corn Fields everywhere, they are just not the same as in Denmark! It is amazing!

The 'Goodbye-trouble'

There is now three days left before my departure the 26th of August. I think I'm almost ready, I've packed and everything looks just fine. I have said goodbye to my two best friends, Line and Camilla. Camilla already left us two weeks ago and Line is on some sort of boarding school. I have said goodbye to my grandparents - that was also not easy. It is weird to think of the fact that you will not be here in Denmark when it is Christmas, Easter etc. Here we have these family meetings, and I feel sad about not being with my family. 
Of course this wasn't a bad weekend. I've been on a canoe-trip with my mother, father, their friends, Line and her brother, and, of course, Genie - our exchangestudent. The first day we sailed 22 kilometres (if I'm not completely mistaken.) We slept in a cottage on a Camping site next to the river. The second day we only sailed 5 kilometres. The landscape was stunning. I think it is the first time I've been impressed about the danish nature. After this trip we drove to  'Himmelbjerget' or the 'Sky Mountain' as it is called in english. Of course it is nothing compared to a real mountain, but this is the landscape a person in Denmark can see that can be compared to the view in the Rocky Mountains. Cheers for now

Final travel information

Hi everyone! Nice to see that there's people from all over the world who has actually read my  little blog. I hope everyone has had a blast starting to school by now; my turn is first the 7th of September! 
So, two days ago I received a mail package from YFU Denmark. I got two t-shirts with the size Small and Medium, the time of my departure in Copenhagen the 26th, and my insurance card! So now I know that I can get as much hurt as I want to (Though not skiing more than two weeks :P )
The t-shirts are really not a colour that suits me. In fact, it is what we in Denmark call "Beige." I'm not sure what it is called in english, but it is a mix between brown and white, and it makes me look very pale! 
In the final travel information I got a map of the Copenhagen Airport and a map of Paris/d Gaulle Airport. As if I would ever find the way to the gate in Paris when everything is written in French. But, I've also received a note I can show the Frenchmen who will lead me to the gate where the Toronto-airplane makes it' s departure. Just the thought of me, alone in Paris/de Gaulle, makes me nervous. How in the world can I get to another 'terminalé' in only one hour? Anyways, let us hope the best for me. 
So! Now there is 10 days left to my departure. These ten days will be over very soon because of the thai exchange student and my mother's sense of humor. The departure date is getting closer and close, and gosh, I'm so excited! Cheers for now.

The thai exchangestudent

Hello! I wanted to make a blog entry about my wonderful 'sister' from Thailand before I leave  Denmark the 26th of August. Can you believe it? There is only 13 days left!
This Saturday we picked Genie up from the arrival camp in Odense. She was clearly very nervous, but very friendly and nice to talk to. We got some information at the camp and then drove home to Randers. The weather was very nice and we took a little trip to Gudenåen where we talked about what snails were called in Danish. The next day we spend riding bicycle and Genie learned how to use a danish bicycle. It was a lot of fun and she can already now say a lot danish words. 
It is very funny to try talking Thai. We talked about what a Toaster is called and she just came out with the longest word in the history, it was something like this: Ti Wingi Wa Ho Na (Something in that direction, aha!)
Cheers for now. 

Petrolia, Oil Springs, PLACEMENT

Hello everybody, time to make a blog entry. I've just been at a huge scout camp called SEE 20:10 with more than 22.000 participants. I've been very lucky and talked to people from Ireland, America, and Tunesia, even though it was a danish camp. 

Last night my mother and father came home from their holiday in Greece finding a letter from my exchange organization, YFU. So they texted me in the morning and I called them at once. They told me I that YFU have found a 'welcome-family' for me. It was really fantastic and a great relief for me. I've been waiting a long, long time to know something new about my exchange year.

I'm going to participate a school called 'Lambton Central Collegiate Vocational Institute' and I've seen a little bit about the school on internet. As far as I have seen, It is a huge school, the biggest in the Lambton District.  I think they have a knight as a mascot. Cheers for now. I'll soon let you all know more, but I am really tired after the camp, so I'm not able to write any more.

Celebrating the danish scouts 100 years anniversary at SEE 20:10