Finally arrived
On the morning of the 27th of august after just three hours of sleep I had to jump under the shower again at 04.00 am. Then, after a very pleasant coffee, my long journey allready started. Victoria, BC, Canada was the name of the destination, which should prove to be harder to reach as assumed. I took just one short look of our house over the shoulder before I sat into our car to Zurich. At this point I would like to thank my parents for getting up that early =) .
As we arrived on the Airport of Zurich we met my godmother and her husband who wanted to say goodbye to me, which I appreciated very much. Also thank you very much to you guys. I found a perfect use for the provision, but to this topic we will come later on…
After the Boarding of the Air Canada AC 879 direction Toronto, the plane just didn’t want to take off. I knew allready on this point that this couldn’t mean anything good, but I kept calm and plugged in my Ipod.
With a delay of nearly one hour the plane finally took off from swiss ground. I had the best seat in the plane which you could wish: Middle of the corridor, middle of the plane – THX Kuoni!
Anyways, I „enjoyed“ the 9-hour flight in between two amazingly quite old ladies with view – besides of two ears and a bald head – on at least the half screen on which a few cartoons were on.
Afther I listend the first half of the Metallica discography, the AC879 finally brought down her nose and we headed to the Airport of Toronto – with a delay of 40 minutes.
On solid floor again I had to go through the custom office as fast as I could. Well, unfortunately it wasn’t that easy. I had to queue for at least 10 minutes.
After a almost olympic sprint I found myself on the „Immigration Office“ between two bearded guys with sombreros and two japanese guys who were in the middle of a wild discussion. My time ran out, but anyways I had to wait for another quarter of an hour. As soon as the friendly, quite aged idian finally let me through, I rushed to get my two huge red bags which were allready counting their laps on the baggage claim area.
With 50kg extra I hurried to reregistrate my luggage. As I arrived totally exhausted a nice 200-kg Canadian told me that I just missed my plane and that I could queue right there to rebook my flight. I was forced to wait for seven hours on the Airport of Toronto *yay* but at least Air Canada paid for a burger as dinner for me – merci!
So I plugged in my Ipod again and listend to the second half of the Metallica Discography.
keep on smiling
At 09.00 pm local time I finally boarded into the small AC 109 which should take me to Victoria. It just got dark as I found myself under a of the full moon lighted sky, sitting next to a 150-kg beast of a man, which plays in the national rugby team of canada by the way. This guy described me in between the breaks of his rugby games, which he watched on his little laptop, the whole beauty of Victoria. Besides of that I also met three exchange students from germany during that flight.
Anyways, also this five hour flight passed by and we landed lastly at half past elven local time in Victoria, BC, Canada. Here I found a rotary welcoming commission of ten people, what I appreciated very much, even though I was almost dead of tiredness at that time. After a short drive through the clear night, I could finally let drop myself on a bed at 01.00 am after over 32 hours of traveling. I missed the total lunar eclipse at 04.00 am but the picture on the tv screen on the next morning satisfied me totally =).
_______________________________________________________________
Update, 01.09.2007
home, sweet home
I’m in Victoria for six days allready and I start to get truely used to it bit by bit. In my welcoming comission there were among others Allan and Janet Neale, who welcomed me in their beautiful house. Thank you very much to you guys!
I will probably stay here for my whole year!
The house is both from the outside and the inside just gorgeous. My room is a little bit smaller than my room in Switzerland, but in return the bed is about double size than mine at home, and I even have my own bathroom with shower! ^^
oooooooooh yeeeeeaaaaaah!!!!
With my hostparents I lucked out as well. They are both in their late fiftys and therefore still working. Because they definetly remained young they enjoy their lives whenever they can. They are originally from Winnipeg in the province Manitoba where the temperature can reach 35 degrees in the sommer and -4o degrees in the Winter! They moved to Victoria with their children 18 years ago and they seem to like the city like on their first day.
After all the administrative stuff like opening a bank account or chose my subjects for school, which are by the way pretty „nice“, Stu – an ex-militair and my councellor – showed me the city. Of course the tour began with the NAVY-Base, but there were also plenty other things to see. Something that jumped on my from the begining of my stay in Victoria is the fact that each building looks diffrent from its neighbour. Every single house has its own charme, what appeals to me very much. Another unique thing in Victoria are the flowers and the gardens. Wherever you look you see flowers in every colour you can imagine and on each second street you can find at least one park.
beacon hill, one of numerous parks in and around Victoria
Beside of several Parks, the legislature, the famous Empress hotel and the wax museum Stu also showed me the whole inner Harbour and several Quarters of Victoria. Here I noticed that the city has much going on in case of culture. Every now and then you walk by a street artist , see some musicians and see flyers for one of the numerous concerts or plays in the city. Another thing that defines Victoria as a city is of the ocean and its inhabitants. So you can see many seagulls and also seals are no rarity .
Just one of several beautiful spots
_______________________________________________________________
update, 16.09.2007
From travels and meetings back to the routine
After a lengthy radio silence I greet you for another time from Victoria where it rained today for the first time since my arrival. There happend a whole bunch of things in the last two weeks and so I will just get to the point and tell you about it:
After my first two and a-half days on the Esquimalt High School I had to pack my bag again allready. This time my destination was the Rotary Youth Exchange Orientation in Seabeck, Washington State, USA. As soon as I arrived I found myself again on a chair sitting next to other fellow sufferer, who tried to look as if the friendly rotarian in front of the crowd would tell us something we didn’t hear allready for at least ten times. Anyways, fortunately the weekend wasn’t made up of just informative speeches but gave us also the opportunity to get to know the 56 other exchange students from all over the world. We all realized pretty fast that we are in the same situation and so after just two hours everybody talked to anybody as if one would know his oppontent for ever. We all had two brilliant days and can almost not wait until we see eachother again.
RYE5020!!!
After two long nights and a waking-up action by a Dane and myself in the form of a jump into the lake at 06.20 am, the guys who stay in canada had to board the bus heading to Port Angeles again, where we took the Coho-Ferry to Victoria.
Somewhere beyond the sea…
Here the journey found its end allready. At least for three of us exchange students and myself. Others had to take another bus and drive for up to eight other hours before they were finally home again.
from the left to the right are Switzerland, Chile, Brasil and Poland represented in Victoria
Now the time had come and my first real school week started. The Esquimalt High School, to which I take the bus every morning, is a pretty typical high school like in all those teenie movies. Sports stands on the top and education is secondary. Because I won’t get any credit for this year I’ve just chosen subjects which I like to do. So my schoolday is made up every day of the same four subjects: English, Athletic Leadership, Social Studies and Graphic Arts. In the next semester it will be French, Work-Out/Strenght, Free Writing and Media Arts. In case of sports I will probalby lead the high school curling team as a skip. Beside of that I am on the sparelist four several leagues, which will hopefully give me the opportunity to play in several matches on a high level. Concerning sailing I just met the commodor of the Royal Victoria Yacht Squadron and he assured me that I will sail a lot during my year. There is even a rumeour that rotary tries to get me on a ship in a race to Hawaii, which would be absolutly bombastic.
Furthermore I joined the interact club on my highschool which tries to realize several projects to fundraise money for different problemzones in the whole world. Besides of that I’m a part of the editorial staff of the school newspaper in which I will work as both a journalist and a cartoonist.
and another day ends…
_______________________________________________________________
update, 10.26.2007
To be put on ice…
After one or two not quite so stress-free weeks I am back again with some news from Canada. Now, after thanksgiving, the fall has definitly arrived and so the colours of the trees are just beautiful. By now I am used to all the squirrels, seagulls and deers, which you can see here nearly every day and my every day life is as normal as it has been ever since. But the thing that makes me really happy is the fact that I am back on the ice.
Yes, curling is on my scedule for the week and this even for four to five times! As I play in three different teams I stand on the ice nearly every day. So I am playing in the high school team (which I even coach at the same time), in a competative junior team and in a junior team for a wednesday evening mens league. Additionally to that I inscribed myself for the spare list for an extra Mensleague.
My first two junior bonspiels are allready behind me. My first one took place on thanksgivning weekend in Maple Ridge, a suburb of Vancouver.
Traveling to Vancouver with the ferry is just beautiful
„Bring it on“ was our slogan for the Golden Ears Junior Cash Bospiel. We played our first match against the giant Wakefield. An expierienced team, which has been playing for over twelve years together and counts as one of the top teams of Canada. After a mistake-free first half of a really exciting and close game, the turning point came in the fith end with a little bit too light rock. We lost the game but were proud of our effort.
14.5 – 15 seconds from one hog line to the other!!!
The tournament had its ups and downs and in the end we got kicked out by the winner of the provincial championship 2006. Anyway we remained happy and ordered some pizzas to our gorgeous teddy-bear room in the hotel, which was by the way 25 bucks cheaper then any other room.
high five ted!
I catched up with the thanksgiving dinner with just one day of delay. The meal at my councellor’s place was absolutly terrific! Turkey, mashed patatoes, cranberry sauce and pumkin pie. I loved it!
But, of course, curling is just on the second place of ice sports here in Canada. So the hockey season finally begun and I realized pretty fast that hockey has a higher position here than Allah in Mekka. As soon as somebody just says the word hockey in tv everything immediatly stands still and the whole live focus itself on the puck spinning on the ice. The fact that my host dad was a sucessful junior hockey couch and my host brother even was a player in the NHL makes it of course impossible to miss a game. Well, I don’t mind that at all. No, the hockey fever has allready jumped on me as well!“Let’s get reaaady toooo ruuuuuummmmbleeeee!!!
My second junior curling tournament took place last weekend. So I had to pack my things again and off we go! And that even at 7.30 am on a saturday morning! Our destination was Seattle, Washington State, USA. Instead of taking the direct way with the COHO-Ferry to Port Angeles (US), we took the ferry to Vancouver for another time. Because of a motor problem it took us three and a half long hours to get on the mainland. At least we could buy some coffee on the ferry!
When we finally arrived we took the fastest way to the US-border on which we had to explain to a officer that Switzerland is a different country than Sweden. Just one hour after we got on US-american ground we stopped for the first stopover. A huuuge shopping mall where you could buy weapons of every kind beside of cheap clothes. Welcome to the United States of America!
As we finally arrived on our destination, the only curling rink in the state Washington, it was allready pitchblack night and so we went to bed pretty fast. On the next morning the tournament finally begun. After a dominating sucess in the first game the bonspiel developed itself into a huge disaster for our team. In this spirit I won’t explain any more details of this catastrophe…
however we had (or at least I had) our fun in the states. I enjoyed my first real american donuts and came home with one or two new pieces of clothes. 
On last monday the deadline for the newspaper had arrived. So I handed in my article and my cartoon for the final control before the release. Besides of that I heard some great news from the school principal. My yearbook design won the competition and so I have the honour to design the yearbook cover and the frontpage of each chapter. That means that over 400 yearbooks with my design on it will be published!!! *yeeeehaaaaaa*
On thursday evening we could finally delete the first big event of the school year from the calendar, the halloweeen dance. The night was absolutly superb. The atmosphere couldn’t be better, the setting was perfect so that it is hard to top this party!
Who do you call?! GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!
That was everything for the moment from the great white north. In the following weeks are several highlights such as a three day sailing trip with the commodore of the royal yacht squadron and the california trip coming up. So stay tuned! Cheers!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
update, 24.12.2007
How the wind blows
probably the first CCS pendant which has been hoisted on a canadian shp.^^
On November the 11th, the Rememberence Day weekend, the time for my sailing trip had finally come. It was planned that we – Patrick & Deborah Hunt and I – sail with our Catamaran to Saltspring Island and meet up with 5 other ships. So we sailed with a nice breeze of four beaufort out of the Inner Harbour towards the blue ocean on saturday morning. The weather was perfect and everything seemed like it’s gonna be a beautiful sailing day. However after just half of an hour the wind turned down almost completly and the first rainclouds blew over the sky over from the amarican cost towards Vancouver Island.
beautiful after noon ambience in front of the Victorian coast.
Because of the anounced storm one ship after the other called to cancel their trip to Saltspring. So it took not too long until we realized that we will be the only one attending on this trip. That’s why we changed our plans and anchored at Sidney’s Spit, a beautiful beach on Sidney Island. At this point I just want to say that I was the one who sat for the whole maneuver on the helm. *beingproud*
dusk at Sidney’s Spit
As soon as we arrived we already put our shoes back on and went on a little land walk with our dinghy. After the 6 hour sail it was nice to walk again a bit more than just a few steps. On this little landtrip we saw, besides of beautiful landscapes, a whole pride of deer!
aren’t they cuuuuuuuuuuuuteee?!!^^
After a delicious dinner on board of the Abundance the whole crew went already to bed. We were all exhausted from the long sailing day and were happy to lie in a comfortable bed. I slept as good as I haven’t been sleeping in quite a while, even though I thought a couple of times sadly about our own ship HOBO…
graceful the Abundence rocks on the sea…
On the next morning a dicision had to be made. The weather reports announced a storm coming over the pacific with over 50 knots of wind and 9 meter waves. So the sails were hoisted again at 11.05 am after we held the Rememberence Day ceremony on the frontdeck. Our goal was for anonther time sweet home Victoria. Like on the day before the pretty strong wind turned down after one or two hours which is what forced us to come under motor back to the harbour during „the calm before the storm“. Just one hour after we arrived the wind allready blew trough the shrouds. According to reports the wind reached 65 knots at Sidney’s Spit in that night.
So my sailing trip ended unfortunately a little bit earlier than expected. Still I hade a great time with the Hunts and want to use this occasion to thank them very much! We sailed 43 nautical seamiles and so I just have to sail 657 more miles to get my offshore sailing license!^^
The calm before the storm…
update, 24.12.2007
typical weather conditions in Seattle…
a cowboy and his flag
).
yaaaaaaaay Dinseylaaaaand!!!!!
Universal Studios, Hollywood, CA
„X-treme“, a rollercoaster whice drives with an average speed of 76 mpH backwards.
just one of the many stars on Walk of Fame
a Swiss having a daydream…
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
christmas time, a stressful time
Yes, you’ve seen right. I am indeed updating my blog! O.o
The reason why I didn’t write anything for a long time is the fact that soooo many things happened. So I don’t want to waste any more of my rare free time and just write down some of my latest exchange expieriences.
The whole stress begun with the first weekend in early december when my curling team and I packed our bags to take for another time the ferry to Vancouver. The junior men coastal playdowns for the qualification for the Provincial Championchips were our goal. With the expectation of winning maybe one or two games we went into the tournament without any pressure and therefore won our first game. In our second game we played agains Chris Baier, who allready represented British Columbia in the National Championchips, and lost the game after a close competition. Our next opponent was our rival from the Victoria Curling Club, Cave. We played the closest game I’ve ever played in and won in the second extra end. Kitchen was the name of our next opposition team. We let ourselves affect to much and lost therefore relatively clear. With our second loss we stood with the back to the wall. In order to qualify for the Provincials we had to win our next three games. An impossibility? Not for us! So we stood after two brilliantly played games again on the ice against Kitchen, who defeated us on the evening before. The game was as exciting and close as possible until we could take the lead in the 9th end with a score of five rocks and finally won. Even after a week we almost couldn’t believe it. We actually qualified ourselves for the 2008 Junior Men Provincial Championchip!
It’s a winter wonderland in Vancouver
After this event we increased our training as much as we possibly could. So we stood every day for some hours on the ice to get prepared for the Provincials in January. It was because of that, that there wasn’t too much time for anything else in December. It was in the middle of this stressful time that I got surprised by a packet with mom’s best christmas cookies from home. Truely a great surprise – Thank you very much!
That’s how I got slowly into a christmas-mood, which is what reminded me of the fact that I hadn’t have done any of my christmas shopping. Well, after I solved that problem I was finally ready for my christmas abroad. Unlike back in Switzerland the presents are not opened on Christmas Eve, but on Christmas Morning (December 25th). First of all you get your „stocking“, which you hung up the night before so that Santa Clause could fill them up during his visit in the night. I got all kinds of stuff in my stocking from sweets even to two cans of red bull for my „early morning trips with rotary“. After this treat the main presents were opened. Besides of presents from Switzerland, which made me very happy by the way (Thanks a lot!), I got my first Canadian hockey jersey from my team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, with my lucky number 13 and my name on the back. Truely the best present one can get! ^^
In the evening we ate the traditional turkey dinner. The meal was absolutely delicious and I almost couldn’t get enough! Even though nothing can top granny’s turkey. ^^
After this feast we went on a beautiful walk through the world fameous Buchart Gardens, which were on these days very pretty lighted.
the beauties of buchart gardens
Then after all those fabulous dinner parties ( both on the 25th and the 26th we were invited at friends’s places and had again delicious dinners ) I saw my opportunity to score. My plan was it to cook a nice Swiss meal for my hostparents. Because we all lived on turkey trough the last few days my meal just couldn’t taste bad no matter what I would do with it.^^
So I went one morning to buy all the ingrediants and captured the kitchen to cook „Zürcher Geschnetzelts mit Rösti“, a traditional Swiss meal with veal meat with a mushroom-crème sauce and traditional fried patatoes swiss-style, and a caramel crème as dessert. Everything came out perfect except of the dessert. For this one I had apparantly used skim milk… hehe… my bad 
Daniel in action!
almost like home, just flater…
Therefore I can actually say that I fell in fact down a waterfall. 
let’s hit the woods!!!
A beautiful day!
). We hope that you’ve enjoyed the flight as much as we did and would like to inform you about our soon arriving at the destination. For the passengers who might have been sleeping during the flight, we would like to tell once again what has happened since our last announcement. Thank you for choosing Air Canadani. were dominating the mountain,
Noch keine Kommentare
Noch keine Kommentare.
Kommentarfeed TrackBack-Indentifikations-URI
Kommentieren
