Outbound Orientation.

I'm back from one of the most epic trips of my entire life and I've been on a lot of trips this year so that's saying something. My goodness was it jammed packed full! In order to properly document (more so so I can remember everything later on when i read my blog, but also for your reading pleasure) I'm going to split it up into several blog posts. Essentially it was four different trips all smushed into one thus making it that much more intense and amazing.

First was the outbound orientation in Spissky Nova Ves, a small city in Slovakia which is famous for the national park, Slovensky Raj (aka Slovak Paradise). It was a gathering of some Rotarians and a whole lot of youth. All the inbounds were there and the outbounds (kids from slovakia going on exchange next year). We toured the spissky castle which was beautiful and guess what i found there? A snail!!!!! Now that may not sound that cool to you guys but to me it was. I realized I've only ever seen snails in the water before but this one was on land and he was so cute. Later on in an ice breaker we were asked what animal we would be if we had to choose and so I chose a snail.....I mean who wouldn't want to be that cute and relaxed. Haha but yeah. The other main event that weekend was a hike in the national park i mentioned earlier. It was SO beautiful there and we hiked to the top of this cliff and then got to stop and look down at where we came from it was such a cool feeling literally being able to hang over a cliff and look down that far. Getting up there was no walk in the park however. But I've become pretty accustomed to the whole Slovak 'hiking' which really means we're going full steam up a mountain so it all turned out to be ok.

The inbounds also put on a talent show for the outbounds and that was just....well....hilarious. Each country was asked to put together a little something in groups of three to five people. Myself and the other two Canadians got all decked out in everything canadian and sang/shouted O Canada while waving the flag about and dancing. Some of the american groups sang Yankee Doodle, take me out to the ball game, and Paul (oh how I wish you could meet him because he is such a character...) hula hooped while peeling an orange which was a big hit. The girls from Thailand and Japan got together and sang a song in their language and danced a typical dance while wearing beautiful traditional clothing. There's was a very beautiful presentation. And there were the mexicans and brazilians. And well, they danced because that's what they do best. And once they hit the stage there was no going back and the show turned into a disco.

It was really neat having the chance to meet with all the other kids going out on exchange, especially the ones going to Canada! I think there are 6 going from Slovakia alone. It was a bit difficult though because they are all going to the East (two are going to Quebec) and to be honest I don't know that much about Eastern canada, especially the french-canadian culture. But I think they still appreciated talkign to a Canadian and I loved being able to share a little bit about my home and country with them. It made me think about my outbound orientation last year and how Jakub (the guy from Slovakia I was talking to) was so proud of his country. MY parents and I thought that maybe that was just a Slovak thing but now I see it's what exchange does to you. Cause if you weren't proud of your nationality before, after completing exchange you certainly will be. I have never been so proud and so sure that I am Canadian and nothing else. And when we talk about it all the exchange students feel the same way, each about their own countries. It also made me homesick talking about Canada so much which I didn't really expect. I haven't felt that homesick for quite some time so that was a bit of a surprise but I think it's because they are asking you all these questions about your home and what you like and how the people are and it really gets you thinking about what you don't have here and all the things you miss but those feelings passed soon enough.

And that completed part one of four.