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This morning I had to get up early. We were going on a tour to Chantry Island. The Island is located less than two kilometers outside of Southampton (a 10 minute bike-ride from Port Elgin) and the only way to get to it (legally) is if you buy the 35 dollar ticket and go on a tour. Kate and I got a ticket each from Rotary and this morning we went.
 
Chantry Island is famous for the history behind it's lighthouse, the shipwrecks around it and for the different bird species that now live on the island.
 
Yep, that's Chantry.
 
The boat ride to get to the island took about 15 minutes.
 
And that would be the lighthouse.
 
You could say that we walked (or hiked) all the way up to the top just to get this picture taken.
 
After the two hour tour we went to the beach to have our lunch.
 
And if you ever wonder why people are fat in the US/Canada that would be because this meal is considered a "small" portion.
 
After lunch we biked from my house to Southampton to swim there and then we biked back. (I do know how to turn a picture 90°, i just don't have the time for that right now).
 
The highlight of the day (heheheh just kidding Kate) was meeting Jade! A smaller and blacker (more black??) version of Essie!!!! Omg I miss my dog.
 
And with this picture I'm trying to show off my photography skills.
 

Chantry Island

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Today I was invited out for lunch by the local police chief in town and his wife. After that I had a few hours to go biking and stuff and then I got to meet Kate. Well, her real name is Kačka and the pronunciation is not easy so she told us that we can call her Kate. She is from the Czech Republic. FIrst we were taken to a party for food and some introductions. After that we went to a car show where the only car I recognized was the one from the Back to the Future movies.
 
For everyones information: the car is an 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 (and no, I did not google that, I promise)
 
When we got enough of the old cars we went and sat by the beach, waiting for the sun to set.
 
This flag is by the beach and it is 12x4 meters!!
 
The clouds kind of covered the sun...
 
We really tried to take a nice picture, this is what my phone had to offer.
 
After the whole sunset episode we got pretty cold so we ran to Tim Hortons. Kate has only been in Canada for two days so we decided that it was time for her first real canadian experience. Donuts at Tim Hortons!!!!
 
 
 
 

Today I met Kate

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I will be staying with my first family, Sara and Ken for about four more months. After that I'm moving in with the Marriott's. Today they invited me for some lunch (I met them at the President's BBQ) and so I was driven there. They live on a farm a few kilometers from Port Elgin. On the farm they have a donkey, a dog, goats (that love people and want to be pet all the time), sheep, a cow (and soon a calf I believe) and a lot of chicken. The farm is located on a hill and beneath the hill the is a river. There is three kids in the family, but two of them will be going off to university and my only sibling will be Emily, 16. 
 
The Marriott's house.
 
Emily took me canoeing down the river. I had the choice to go by canoe or by SUP, but I decided to go with the easy alternative the first time. It was believed that the ride would take about 45 minutes, but since the wind was against us (and we got stuck in some rocks) it took about one and a half hours. It was a very nice ride though, and I promised to go SUPing next time.
 
This is Emily. And that is my face.
 
The scenery was beautiful and I can't wait to do it again.
 
After the canoeing we decided that we would bike to Port Elgin and Emily would take me to some of the places where she usually hangs out. That took about 45 minutes.
 
So this is my new sister! Sorry Becca.
 
So we went to Coffee Culture and we shared a Maple Muffin which was like the best thing I've ever had!
 
Then she took me to the beach and introduced me to a friend.
 
After that she took me to another cafe, the Rabbit Dash. I had an espresso and I've been hyper since!
 
 

Canoeing down the riv...

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This morning I was taken to the Keady Market. It's a big farmers market where they sell EVERYTHING. There were at least 100 market stalls and you could buy anything from live cattle to the latest season of The Walking Dead. Farmers and other people come there every Tuesday (during the summer) to sell their vegetables, fruits and anything else they can think of. There was music playing, lemonade to drink, popcorn popping and clothes to look at. I only bought grapes though. It was very enjoyable and I hope to go again. 
 
Some on the cattle they were auctioning off.
 
After lunch I went to the High School which I'm going to when school starts next Wednesday. I got to meet with the Vice Principal and we got my schedule all set. I got to decide my classes and I'm very happy with how it worked out. For the first semester I'll have the same 4 classes every day and for the second semester I'll have 4 other classes every day. During my first semester I'll be having Physics, Chemistry, Math and Musical Theatre. For the second semester I'll have Triathlon, History, Math and Eng/Media. But I'm thinking about changing History to Music if I can.
 
After school there will be sports and clubs which I can join. I got to know a girl (Hanna) in the basketball team and she said she'd get me in, hopefully before tryouts. I'm thinking about trying out for the volleyball and rygby team as well. Other than that I know I'll be in the Rotary Interact club and I'll be going to something called Youth Group where they mainly discuss things and have fun.
 
My schedule.
 

School starts next we...

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Yesterday I went to a BBQ where I met six girls my age. So we made plans for today as well. I won't write a lot today, I'll just show you pictures.
 
First I had breakfast while watching a kids show in french.
 
Stephenie, Ella and I did the Ice Bucket Challenge and we had an ice-cube-fight afterwards.
 
 
When Hanna arrived we went to Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons is like a pretty cheap coffee shop which is very popular in Canada. There is four of them just in Port Elgin.
 
I had an iced coffee which was nice.
 
And we shared an Oreo donut which was very good as well.
 
Since I've never been to Walmart they took me on an expedition there. I was probably a lot more excited than they were.
 
This picture is dedicated to Erika Amundsson.
 
This is milk in a bag. This is just so weird.
 
Fun at Walmart.
 
This I always do.
 
Why would you even buy this? Princess pillows with arms? WHY?
 
I guess it was a very successful expedition to Walmart. Most of the things there were the same as in Sweden, but some of them were new and even a little bizarre.

Expedition to Walmart

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I should start getting used to seeing the Canadian flag on boats, not the Swedish.
 
We went with a group of maybe 10 boats, and we were last in the beginning. But we caught up!
 
Have you ever seen a rear-view mirror on a boat before?
 
When the wind died some of the boats used their spinnaker.
 
We just kind of cheated by starting the motor. Our excuse is that we were down to 1.3 knots, too slow to even fish.
 
And we made it back to the marina!
 
I'm sorry about me ruining all the photos in the upper-left corner. It's not my finger, it's just my phone-case.
 

Not loosing the race

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As you might know, I am currently out of the country. And while in another country it is common to be referred to as a tourist. Yes, I will live here in Canada for a year. And yes, I am technically not a tourist. But I still intend to do all the tourist-y things here.

I got to choose what I was going to do today. Either I could go to Canada's Wonderland (a bigger version of Liseberg), go on a boat beneath the Niagra falls, go to CN tower in Toronto, to a museum or go to Scenic Caves. I intend to do them all before I come home, but today I choose to go to Scenic Caves.

Scenic Caves is an nature adventure park where you come and explore the caves they've got. The main reason I chose caves over roller coasters is probably because of the zipline. The caves were cool to, but I was WAY more excited for the zipline. I've never gone on a zipline before so I'm not sure if one km long and with a max speed of 70 km/h is a good one. But I had a lot of fun. In the end of the zipline the two men who would detach me from the zipline made a hand-signal which I interpreted as "stop". The hind-signal actually meant "don't stop", but I learnt that a bit too late. So I stopped and was still on the zipline, just out of reach for them to pull me in with a pole.

And that is why I'm posting a blog while stuck on a zipline.

Joking! They got me off, luckily.

Me in my ziplining gear, just before the ride.

 
If you would have asked me a year ago what I'm afraid off, I would without hesitation have said heights and small spaces. I knew that my fear of heights had been worked away a bit from going on Atmosphere at Liseberg and from being sent up to the top of the mast on our boat. But my fear of small spaces seems to just have vanished without a reason!
 
Today, while faced with the first cave I suddenly felt claustrophobic. But when I went inside the excitement of the situation just kind of covered all fear I had and I really enjoyed myself. At Scenic Caves there is one cave named Fatmans Misery which is 36 cm wide. You go in the cave with your right shoulder first and then just squeeze trough until you see light again. When (and if) you get out you find yourself on the other side of the rock. After going trough that cave I knew that I was no longer afraid of small spaces.
 
If you read my blog you better just get used to blurry pictures.
 
 

My two fears, in one ...

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Today was an exciting day! Mostly in the sense that I got to meet people closer to my age. But also because I got to spend the whole day in nature.
 
MacGregor Provincial Park is basically a big protected forest. The area is 12 km² and is very close to where I live. I got a ride there and first got to meet Kathleen. Today together with Kate and Alicia, Kathleen was working according to the summer program. See, the park offers hiking, camping, biking, canoeing, fishing, swimming and all kinds of animal-watching. During the winter there is even skating.
 
During the summer the park offers a program with many different activities to all the campers at the park. Today I got to go on a hike, hold a snake, go for another hike, see the dead animals in the freezer (the same freezer which contained popsicles and food), do ALOT of knots and other things. There was also a volunteer, Shaun. He was very funny and was pranking people and making jokes the whole day. He showed me even more dead animals. Yay.
 
I was preparing to cycle home and all the employees told me that I would probaly get lost. Which I did of course. Even though they marked the map carefully I still managed to get lost. 
 
Here is a map of the park. No wonder I got lost right?
 
 
 

"Would you like a fro...

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Yesterday was my second day here in Canada and I am starting to really enjoy it. It was a really busy day and since I'm still jetlagged, staying awake all the time was difficult.

 

The day started when the alarm clock did its thing.

 

I opened my eyes and noticed that Sam, one of the cats had slept in my bed again (Sam loves me, but the other cat, Simon is super scared and runs every time he sees me). I had coffee for breakfast and at 10 am I was taken to the bank to get a bank card that I can use here. Of course I forgot my passport at the house so we had to go back to get it, but eventually we got it all sorted.

 

After that I was shown my new school and the weekly farmers-market. When we were done with all sorts of little things, off we went to the neighboring town where I got to see everything of interest.

 

I was made a very Canadian lunch (surprisingly not with maple syrup) and it was really good. Like really good. It was two slices of white bread with butter and cheddar (I think) fried in a frying pan. This resulted in the bread being very crispy and in the cheese being very melted-cheesy(?). You might argue that this is an American meal, and maybe you would be right. EXCEPT here in Canada you have your grilled cheese sandwiches and you dip them in ketchup. Yeah, the sandwiches just weren't unhealthy enough.

 

A grilled cheese sandwich with ketchup.

 
 
If you've read this much then you're probably wondering; "what on earth does grilled cheese sandwiches have to do with scuba diving in Mexico?"
 

Well isn't it obvious? No? Okay here it goes.

 

I was allowed to join in the local scuba diving class today at my high school'spool. All the others had been going to classes each week for a long period and they had their final session today. Since it was my first time I had an instructor who started to teach me the basics (the others were pros). First it was learning to breath under water with the oxygen tube (just so that you get the hang of it). Then it was learning to use and respond to the hand signals which are used underwater (it's not like we can make whale sounds to communicate). I had to learn how to get water out from my mask when it got in and what to do if I drop the oxygen tube while under water. Scuba diving becomes trickier the deeper you get. You have to be aware of the pressure and make sure not to get up from deeper waters to quick or you might risk getting decompression sickness (dykarsjukan). I learnt how to swim around without using my arms (because that's how you do scuba diving) and how to breath from another persons oxygen tube incase my tank emptied.

 

First I got to stay in the shallower end of the pool but it turns out I'm a quick learner and dideverything almost perfectly so I got to go to the deeper end and do more things. In the beginning it was almost a bit panicking to feel that if I messed up, or forgot anything, it would be me who would have to live with the consequences. This was just practice at a pool so nothing worse than ear pain and maybe a headache would have happened, but still, there was a lot of water.

 

But when I started to relax and my breathing became automatic I had more time to focus on everything else and I became quite good at it actually.

 

It was so fun and I had such a good time! I loved it! I would definitively recommend everyone to try it at least once.

 

As it turns out, some of the people who own the diving store (the same people who have the scuba diving classes) go with a group of people to Mexico each February to scuba dive. They stay there for two or three weeks, successfully avoiding the Canadian winter. I was told, if I want, can (financially) and if I'm allowed (by my parents) I can come to Mexico.

 

So now all I have to do is ask my parents and that will be fun. #tagga

 

A picture of me with my instructor. I definitively felt cooler than I looked.

 

Scuba diving in Mexic...

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Long before I got to Canada I decided to blog. I reasoned that that way friends and family could easily feel up to date with what I was up to and I wouldn't have to repeatedly tell everyone about the same event.

 

But on my way to Stockholm I came up with an even better idea. A diary! (because all my previous failed attempts at writing every day managed to slip my mind). Anyway I decided that I'd just write a diary and then let anyone who wanted to read it read it when I got back to Sweden. My hopes and dreams of avoiding hours in front of a computer trying to figure out how to manage a blog were born and they died on the way to Chicago.

 

After three minutes of writing by hand I had cramps in my whole right arm. I started writing with my left hand and while appreciating my work afterwards not even I could read my text. By the next day I was already behind. I had forgotten to write some things from the previous day so I started there. After being finished with the first day I started writing about the second day but I was way to tired (lazy) and let myself take a pause. And of course I forgot about it.

 

This led to me finding myself sitting in front of the computer, starting a blog about my exchange year in Canada.

 

I sincerely hope you will enjoy it.

 

The red circle on the map shows you where I live now.

 

 

 

First entry- A failed...