Kennedy-Houston AWESOME Trip

It was November 2008, as I remember it vividly, a teacher walked into our classroom during math and said, "Who will be 12 by June?" I raised my hand, not knowing what that was for. "Well you people are lucky, because we're going to have an EXCHANGE TRIP!" I gasped, and questions started flying out of mine and everyone else's mouth. "To where?" "For how long?""How much will it cost?" Then, the teacher told us that it was a mix of grade 6 and 7 students, and they could only choose 25 people.

It took a lot of persuading to let my parents give me permission to try to get on the exchange. We had to write an essay saying why we should be chosen, and to make a long story just a bit shorter, I was chosen, and we wrote letters to our penpal somewhere called Houston, BC. It was a small town, and nothing like Toronto. It was mostly nature and trees.

May was here, and the Houston people finally came! Most of them have never been to such a big city with so many cars, people, and buildings. The week they were here, we brought them to The Ontario Science Centre, CN Tower, The ROM, Niagara Falls, The Toronto Zoo, the beach, and a mall. My partner's name was Breanna, and she had SO many things in common with me. Other than the places our school brought us too, we (me, Breanna, Phoebe, and her partner) went to places like Pacific Mall and Scarborough Town Centre. The week was AWESOME, and then sadly, they had to leave. (They were here for a week) Then we had 2 weeks of EQAO, and then, OUR TURN TO VISIT THEIR TOWN!!


To get to Houston, we had to take a 5 hour flight to Vancouver, then a 1 hour flight to Prince George, and then a 5 hour drive to Houston! When we arrived, we jumped in joy to be reunited with our friends, and another week of fun started. The first 2 days, we went to a horseback riding camp, and I can't tell someone about the exchange trip without telling them this: We we playing our version bordenball, and as I was diving at the ball, I wasn't aware that the field had horses roaming around. So I jumped at the ball, and hugged it so no one would take it. Then I noticed a HORRIBLE gut-wrentching stink, and I looked at the ball. It had HORSE POOP on it. I jumped up and wiped my hand on the grass. Then it took me a split second for my mind to process the fact that I jumped onto the ball and had rolled on the grass. I slowly, very slowly, looked down , and saw horse poop on my shirt and pants!!!! I screamed in horror and disgust, and sprinted back to our cabin to change. Anyways, at the camp, other than diving into horse poop, we rode horses and went on a trail ride, and went on 1 and a half hour hike up a mountain, I gotta say, it was more tiring than the laps that Mr.Busby made us do today ;D.

We also went into one of the world's biggest sawmill (Houston was full of trees, so it makes sense, right?) Went swimming in a lake (picture below), a native american site called "K'san" and on the last day, a small version of The Amazing Race. Although we came in last (not my fault! Breanna couldn't run in flip-flops!) that was really really really fun too. We got to run around Houston, but it wouldn't sound surprising once you see how small it is. (They only have 1 traffic light, their population is about 1,000 people, and 1 mall with 4 stores!)

On our last day, we had to say goodbye to all the close friends we made in 2 weeks. There we many tears coming out of our eyes, as we know that we'll never see each other again. We left Houston, with many good memories to cherish, and an unforgettable experience to stay in our minds.

PICTURES!

<-- Phoebe (left) and me (right) first time on canoes! (our canoe was called the "Titanic". It wasn't very reassuring)
<-- The lake (beautiful, eh?)
<-- Houston's FANTASTIC view

^--- me and my horse, Minny!