My arrival in Ottawa

On July 1st, it was Canada's day like every year. But it wasn't like every year. For 2012, I was doing something really special. On that Sunday, I was travelling from my home town to Ottawa. Everyone knows that Ottawa is the best place to celebrate Canada's day, but I wasn't going for this reason. I was leaving Mirabel for five long weeks, the longest time I have ever left home. That day, I was beginning the Explore programm in Ottawa. My parents and my boyfriend were driving me up there. When I arrived at school, I was surprised that we were in a French school. The sign was saying ''École secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers''.It was weird for me because I went here to learn English! Altought, when I came in, there were signs every where in English. You couldn't make a step without seeing one. One week later, there is even more signs now! It is almost driving me crazy! Someone might have a lot of imagination to do that much signs!


After I saw all those signs, I got a package with my name on it. My homestay family wasn't there yet so I went to make the tour of the school with Alex which looks a lot like Goldilocks! She is a pretty sweet girl! I really like that monitor. On my package, I saw the name of my homestay family's mother. I was pretty worried as it looked like a weird name from another country and I was wishing to be in a normal family with great food. When I met the mother, I was no longer afraid. Her parents come from Africa but she was born in Montréal. She moved to Ottawa when she got married. She speaks French! She is a musulman, but she is not annoying me with it as I'm not interested.  I like her. I don't really enjoy my homestay family because they are never home. The mother, Nimet, is working 7 days a week and go 3 times per week to make her prayers at  the Mosque and to volunteer so she isn't home a lot. She also lives with her son which I have barely seen since the beginning of Explore.  I find my homestay family boring. I'm alone most of the times so I have lots of times for myself.

After meeting my homestay family, my parents and my boyfriend left. Afterwards, I had supper and I got set. That was all about my 2012 Canada's day!

So, that's about my first day in Ottawa!