Basically, this will be my blog to reminisce about my day(s), all the good and bad points, the memories worth retelling, and posting pictures (hopefully! I have to figure that out on my laptop!). I am taking cues from my band teacher who runs the music trip blogs at my school. It seems like a fun thing to do and I will definitely be updating as much as possible to let you see things on my end.
So what exactly am I doing this summer, and how did I get this opportunity?
In exactly one week from today, I will be leaving with other students from my community and joining 1200 other students from all over Canada and going on a summer work exchange in Quebec in hopes to come back with better French than "Bonjour" and "Comment ca va".This exchange is organized by the YMCA.
For me personally, I will be spending 6 weeks in a community called Terrebonne, which is a suburb 30 minutes away from Montreal. It is actually Montreal's third largest suburb with a population of just over 106,000 people as of 2011. I will be in Terrebonne with 6 other students from the Surrey area and we will be working as well as doing various sightseeing activities while we are here. As for where I will be staying, I will be living with a host family. It will be interesting as I will be living with young boys! (I've never done that before!)
I was introduced to the Summer Work Student Exchange by my French 9 teacher, and it had always been sitting in the back of my mind. When I was eligible to apply, I jumped right on top of it. I had a friend that went last summer and she told me that it was a blast. The waiting period was long because it turned out that I had applied extremely early! (total keener, I know!)
In about April I had begun getting emails from the YMCA and we had started the process of doing interviews, filling out paper work, even practicing my French with a real Quebecois girl! The wait was the most difficult part but in May I had been granted conditional acceptance, and by the last week of May into June, I was officially accepted into the program.
Earlier this week, on Monday June 25, I had met all the other students that I am going to spend this summer with in a pre-departure meeting. This was where we went over all the expectations of the program, what we will be doing, getting our job descriptions... it was such an exciting time!
This will be the longest I've spent away from home on my own, which is really exciting but also really scary at the same time. It's going to be a brand new place with new people, culture, and of course, a new language that I haven't mastered yet.
I am so thankful first of all to the YMCA for putting on such an incredible experience year after year and for choosing me as one of their participants this year. I am also extremely grateful to my family who not only supported me through this entire endeavour but will be having an exchange of their own: in my place, a girl from Quebec will be coming to stay with my family.
So that's it for now! I hope that you will continue to follow my journey. Leave a comment in the section below :)
Also, I think that every time, as I sign out, I will be leaving a song and a new French phrase/word that I learned that day.
A plus tard (see you later),
Rachel
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