Franzi's Canada Blog: Week 1: How it started

The past five weeks had been the most exciting weeks in my life. So lets start.

Over a year ago, I decided to do an Exchange in an foreign country, after my brother had left to live in Taiwan for a year. At that time, I wanted to improve my french, which made me think about living a year in France. France would have been perfect to learn french, but I wanted to see a new continent and explore the world outside of Europe for the first time in my life. So I decided to sign up for the french part of Canada. My choice was Montréal, which is over 6 hours away from Niagara Falls. After a few months, Rotary told me that there was no spot for me in the french part, so my next choice was district 7090, which included the United States (New York State) and Ontario. A few weeks before the summer holidays, I finally knew that my journey will take me to Niagara Falls, Ontario.

On the 23rd of august, I took a plane to Toronto, Canada. The flight took 9 hours and I was squished between two women after I had to change seats with the parents of a baby, who wanted to sit next to their daughter.
When I arrived in Toronto, I was brought to Niagara Falls by a member of my Rotary club in Niagara-on-the-lake. The drive took 2 hours, until I finally arrived and met my counsellor, who I stayed with for the whole weekend. We visited the Great Falls and I met some new people. The weekend was great and I think I coudn't imagine having a better counsellor.

On Sunday I met my host family, a very experienced family who had been hosting many exchange students over the past ten years. I quickly felt welcomed and comfortable with them. My first Rotary meeting was on Tuesday in Niagara-on-the-lake. I met an exchange stundent from France and all the members from my club. The other exchange student and I went to the Falls and visited Niagara-on-the-Lake. The town is so beautiful, shops are everywhere (downtown). There is also a very nice park and you can see the US on the other side of the lake!

Over the weekend my new family took me to their cottage in Kingston, which is a four hour drive from Niagara Falls. I had so much fun with my exchange friend from France, who came with us. I also met my host-brothers and their friends at the cottage. They are just awesome! For the first time in my life, I went waterskiing, drove the Jetski with my hostdad, went canooing and tubing.