Hello all,
We're still in our orientation camp. We're all getting along famously, it's wonderful. There is also another group that is going to Nicaragua and Saskatchewan but they will be going to different cities. We've gotten a chance to get to know them and we had some workshops of our orientation with them. Last night I went out for drinks with some of the other group. We came back to our hotel and partied it up. Then we moved to the other group's hotel because they have bigger rooms (no fair!!) and kept the party going.
As you can imagine I had a rough morning haha. We got a visit today from our project manager, who is Shayne's boss. His name is Vlad and he has a lot of experience with Central America. He's also in charge of the Honduras\Alberta groups. He talked a lot about what to expect. It's making things sink in and really exciting.
Tonight we're going out again. I'm starting to miss home cooking... we've been eating out since we got here. We'll be leaving for Nicaragua early Thursday morning. Tomorrow night Lake's family has invited us over for pizza and beer, since Lake lives pretty close to our hotel. He told me he would be posting tomorrow night when we're at his house.
Now we're going to eat and then Lake and I will be going to the Eaton Centre (to get some more MAC of course! Haha!!!)
I'll try to make posts every other day. No promises though. I have no idea what the internet will be like down south.
xo
Ari
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
T DOT
Sooooo last night we all met for the very first time. Everyone is so friendly and interesting. The group so far has amazing chemistry. I think this is really going to be an amazing 6 months. We have been blessed with an amazing supervisor. Shayne is a very genuine and down to earth man who has lots of experience. We also met Liz who is a facilitator for CWY. She was with us today for the first day of our orientation, but more on that later.
So last night we were given our spending money for the week for food. We all went out for some vietnamese food. Pho fo sho. C: Everybody gets along great. Since myself and another girl who is from Ontario are the only two who are really bilingual, we often find ourselves playing translator. It's all good!
Last night I was so excited I really couldn't get to sleep, so Lake and I hung out until about 4 am. I hope we didn't disturbe any neighbours. Haha. I am a super light sleeper, and my hotel roommate snores REALLY loud, so I really hard slept at all last night. After this post I'll probably go back to my room and have a nice nap.
This morning we got up bright and early for our first day of orientation camp. Lake, myself and a few other people went to Timmy's for breakfast. Liz facilitated our workshop and will be with us again tomorrow and monday. We had a really intense day of bonding, in fact some of it was quite heavy and emotional.
Tonight we're hitting the town. We have pretty much all the freedom we want so yeah. It's not like a school outting where we have a curfiew and we can't drink. Tonight we're going to hit up the Busking Festival downtown I believe. I'm very excited, hoping to see some of my friends who do busking for a living. Tonight we're going out with the other group who is going to a different city in Nicaragua and Saskatchewan. Their group is older than we are. We're 17 to 21 and they are 22 to 24. They're all very nice as well.
Other than that, not much to report. I must say that the reality of this trip is really starting to sink in. So excited!!
Lake will be on soon....
Ari <3
So last night we were given our spending money for the week for food. We all went out for some vietnamese food. Pho fo sho. C: Everybody gets along great. Since myself and another girl who is from Ontario are the only two who are really bilingual, we often find ourselves playing translator. It's all good!
Last night I was so excited I really couldn't get to sleep, so Lake and I hung out until about 4 am. I hope we didn't disturbe any neighbours. Haha. I am a super light sleeper, and my hotel roommate snores REALLY loud, so I really hard slept at all last night. After this post I'll probably go back to my room and have a nice nap.
This morning we got up bright and early for our first day of orientation camp. Lake, myself and a few other people went to Timmy's for breakfast. Liz facilitated our workshop and will be with us again tomorrow and monday. We had a really intense day of bonding, in fact some of it was quite heavy and emotional.
Tonight we're hitting the town. We have pretty much all the freedom we want so yeah. It's not like a school outting where we have a curfiew and we can't drink. Tonight we're going to hit up the Busking Festival downtown I believe. I'm very excited, hoping to see some of my friends who do busking for a living. Tonight we're going out with the other group who is going to a different city in Nicaragua and Saskatchewan. Their group is older than we are. We're 17 to 21 and they are 22 to 24. They're all very nice as well.
Other than that, not much to report. I must say that the reality of this trip is really starting to sink in. So excited!!
Lake will be on soon....
Ari <3
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tomorrow = Toronto
Well, I still haven't been able to Lake on here. I hope he posts something by tomorrow.... urgh lol.
So tomorrow I will be taking a plane to Toronto for our orientation camp with Shayne, our supervisor. I'm really excited. I still haven't repacked all my stuff yet. I'm getting kinda nervous too. I'm sure we're going to have a pretty intense few days.
Shayne gave us some homework to do before our arrival in Toronto. We had to watch a debate online about aid work in Africa... even though we're going to Central America. He also gave us a couple of articles about AIDS in Africa and such.... interesting stuff. He also sent us a document called the "gut challenge". Basically giving us a reality check of sorts about what to expect. He also asked us a bunch of questions that we needed to reflect on.
The truth is, I signed up for this program before I finished high school. My plan was to do this program instead of starting university. However I got put on a "waiting list" and was told I would be going for sure the following year. Quite a few things have changed since I originally signed up in 2007. Now I have completed my first year of university, I've grown up a bit and I am now in a relationship. I do miss school, and I kinda wish I could be going back in a couple weeks with all my friends. I hate that I have to be a year behind them now. However I did take a lot of second year courses in my first year so I guess I got a head start... Kinda... And leaving my boyfriend for 6 months is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But doing something like this has been my dream for a long time. Nothing will stand in my way. It's so crazy how I've been waiting for so long for this to happen, and the day has finally come.
Talk to you soon,
Ari <3
So tomorrow I will be taking a plane to Toronto for our orientation camp with Shayne, our supervisor. I'm really excited. I still haven't repacked all my stuff yet. I'm getting kinda nervous too. I'm sure we're going to have a pretty intense few days.
Shayne gave us some homework to do before our arrival in Toronto. We had to watch a debate online about aid work in Africa... even though we're going to Central America. He also gave us a couple of articles about AIDS in Africa and such.... interesting stuff. He also sent us a document called the "gut challenge". Basically giving us a reality check of sorts about what to expect. He also asked us a bunch of questions that we needed to reflect on.
The truth is, I signed up for this program before I finished high school. My plan was to do this program instead of starting university. However I got put on a "waiting list" and was told I would be going for sure the following year. Quite a few things have changed since I originally signed up in 2007. Now I have completed my first year of university, I've grown up a bit and I am now in a relationship. I do miss school, and I kinda wish I could be going back in a couple weeks with all my friends. I hate that I have to be a year behind them now. However I did take a lot of second year courses in my first year so I guess I got a head start... Kinda... And leaving my boyfriend for 6 months is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But doing something like this has been my dream for a long time. Nothing will stand in my way. It's so crazy how I've been waiting for so long for this to happen, and the day has finally come.
Talk to you soon,
Ari <3
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
First Post
Hello to who ever you may be.
This will be our first entry to this blog. In a few days, I, Ariane, and my friend Lake will embark on a long and wonderful journey. We are participants of the program known as Canada World Youth (Jeunesse Canada Monde, pour les francophones!) This program is an exchange program of sorts that allows young canadian adults to work in a canadian community that is different from their home and a chance to work in a developping country abroad. There are 2 phases, one is 3 months in Canada and the second is 3 months in another country that is selected for you by the organisation itself. Our exchange country is Nicaragua and our city in Canada is Prince Albert, which is the third largest city in Saskatchewan. In Nicaragua, we will be living in Somoto, which is very close to the Honduras border. We have what is called an inverted program, so we will be going abroad first, (just in time for hurricane season in Nicaragua!) then coming back to Canada for the second phase.
In our group we are 9 canadians from all over the country. I'm from Ottawa and Lake is from Toronto. As soon as we all found out what our exchange was going to be, the whole group quickly found eachother via Facebook on a group that one of the guys created. Lake and I met while I was in Toronto one weekend for work. We talk pretty frequently and we've decided to create this blog for anyone who cares to read it. We don't know how often we can e-mail or call home, so we'll just try to get as many blog posts as often as we can so that everyone back home can stay updated (especially our caring and supportive parents).
During our exchange we will be living with host families in Somoto with Nicaraguan counterparts. I believe Canada World Youth affectionately calls them "life partners". They are young adults from Nicaragua who will be coming with us to Prince Albert. They are NOT from Somoto. They also have to be in a different environnement than they are used to. We each get a counterpart who will most likely be of the same sex (for obvious reasons). We will be living with them for the whole 6 months. We won't get to meet them until we arrive in Nicaragua.
To participate in this exchange we had to raise $2 500. We were all encouraged to do fundraising. I raised quite a bit of money, but I also worked alot to just pay the rest off myself. We cannot however use funraising for our "spending money". We were encouraged to bring about $500.
Each group in every exchange is assigned a project theme. (we're not there for a vacation after all!) Our group has been assigned "Community Development", which is extremely vague. We're suppose to work on social and educational services in the community. They haven't told us much beyond that for now... We have a supervisor who works for Canada World Youth and we have a Nicaraguan Supervisor. Our canadian supervisor's name is Shayne and our nicaraguan supervisor's name is Ruth. The whole group is trying to learn Spanish... but it's looking like everyone is still very much a beginner. And I left my Spanish for Dummies in Ottawa!!!! AHH!
This Friday, the group will meet eachother for the first time in Toronto for our "orientation camp" with Shayne. As I said before, I have already met Lake and I have also met 2 others who are from different parts of Québec. Right now I am in Vancouver visiting my mom, so I won't be coming from Ottawa. On my flight to Toronto I will be meeting 2 others from my group on the plane. I'm pretty lucky I think. Lake on the other hand, will only really have to walk a few blocks away to get to our orientation camp! Lucky!!!
I guess I should talk a bit about myself.... well... I'm 19 and I'm from Ottawa (as I said before). I study in Theatre at University of Ottawa. My first language is french and I have always studied in french. I have an extreme addiction to expensive makeup and cosmetics.
As of September 3rd we will be in Nicaragua. I will do my best to post as many pictures on Facebook as possible.
I'm sorry this post is so long, they won't all be like this surely. I just wanted to give everyone the basic knowledge about this program. I'll let Lake talk a bit about himself and maybe elaborate on what I have said in another post.
If you are interested in signing up for Canada World Youth, check out their website. It's for young adults between 17 and 24 and the exchange countries vary between Ukraine, Indonesia, Brasil, South Africa, and sooooo many more! Here is their website if you're interested on learning more!
http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/Splash.aspx
Talk to you soon!
Ari
This will be our first entry to this blog. In a few days, I, Ariane, and my friend Lake will embark on a long and wonderful journey. We are participants of the program known as Canada World Youth (Jeunesse Canada Monde, pour les francophones!) This program is an exchange program of sorts that allows young canadian adults to work in a canadian community that is different from their home and a chance to work in a developping country abroad. There are 2 phases, one is 3 months in Canada and the second is 3 months in another country that is selected for you by the organisation itself. Our exchange country is Nicaragua and our city in Canada is Prince Albert, which is the third largest city in Saskatchewan. In Nicaragua, we will be living in Somoto, which is very close to the Honduras border. We have what is called an inverted program, so we will be going abroad first, (just in time for hurricane season in Nicaragua!) then coming back to Canada for the second phase.
In our group we are 9 canadians from all over the country. I'm from Ottawa and Lake is from Toronto. As soon as we all found out what our exchange was going to be, the whole group quickly found eachother via Facebook on a group that one of the guys created. Lake and I met while I was in Toronto one weekend for work. We talk pretty frequently and we've decided to create this blog for anyone who cares to read it. We don't know how often we can e-mail or call home, so we'll just try to get as many blog posts as often as we can so that everyone back home can stay updated (especially our caring and supportive parents).
During our exchange we will be living with host families in Somoto with Nicaraguan counterparts. I believe Canada World Youth affectionately calls them "life partners". They are young adults from Nicaragua who will be coming with us to Prince Albert. They are NOT from Somoto. They also have to be in a different environnement than they are used to. We each get a counterpart who will most likely be of the same sex (for obvious reasons). We will be living with them for the whole 6 months. We won't get to meet them until we arrive in Nicaragua.
To participate in this exchange we had to raise $2 500. We were all encouraged to do fundraising. I raised quite a bit of money, but I also worked alot to just pay the rest off myself. We cannot however use funraising for our "spending money". We were encouraged to bring about $500.
Each group in every exchange is assigned a project theme. (we're not there for a vacation after all!) Our group has been assigned "Community Development", which is extremely vague. We're suppose to work on social and educational services in the community. They haven't told us much beyond that for now... We have a supervisor who works for Canada World Youth and we have a Nicaraguan Supervisor. Our canadian supervisor's name is Shayne and our nicaraguan supervisor's name is Ruth. The whole group is trying to learn Spanish... but it's looking like everyone is still very much a beginner. And I left my Spanish for Dummies in Ottawa!!!! AHH!
This Friday, the group will meet eachother for the first time in Toronto for our "orientation camp" with Shayne. As I said before, I have already met Lake and I have also met 2 others who are from different parts of Québec. Right now I am in Vancouver visiting my mom, so I won't be coming from Ottawa. On my flight to Toronto I will be meeting 2 others from my group on the plane. I'm pretty lucky I think. Lake on the other hand, will only really have to walk a few blocks away to get to our orientation camp! Lucky!!!
I guess I should talk a bit about myself.... well... I'm 19 and I'm from Ottawa (as I said before). I study in Theatre at University of Ottawa. My first language is french and I have always studied in french. I have an extreme addiction to expensive makeup and cosmetics.
As of September 3rd we will be in Nicaragua. I will do my best to post as many pictures on Facebook as possible.
I'm sorry this post is so long, they won't all be like this surely. I just wanted to give everyone the basic knowledge about this program. I'll let Lake talk a bit about himself and maybe elaborate on what I have said in another post.
If you are interested in signing up for Canada World Youth, check out their website. It's for young adults between 17 and 24 and the exchange countries vary between Ukraine, Indonesia, Brasil, South Africa, and sooooo many more! Here is their website if you're interested on learning more!
http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/Splash.aspx
Talk to you soon!
Ari
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