First of many 'enroute' entries...

Trip Start Aug 24, 2004
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Trip End Mar 08, 2005


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Flag of Canada  , Alberta,
Saturday, August 28, 2004

"I am on a bus. I have been for three hours or so, and we have another two to go-- Grande Prairie is quite north of Edmonton.

Yesterday, we had a very busy day. We learnt who would be our counterparts as well as who the family is that we will be staying with."

A big portion of these programs success are the families that volunteer to take us into their homes. I have forever grateful to my homestay, who took me in as one of the their own, and whose children I loved and think of often.

"We were asked to rank the four girls we had the possibility of staying with, but I didn't feel I had met them enough to really decide-- having only been with the group for a couple days. Instinctively though, I was drawn to one, but I didn't want to get my hopes up and I looked at them all optimistically.
When it came down to finding out who it was, I was pleasantly surprised.
My partner, Yulia, had been the one I was drawn to without any concrete reason, and she has become my six month partner in crime. I look forward to getting to know her better, and to know more details about her beyond being a 19-year old economics student from Ukraine.
After dinner we also learned about our host family. A family of four, the father is of Ukrainian decent, and the mom is First Nations, they have two small children and a cat. This should provide for many cultural discussions."

At the time, I had no idea there are such strong Ukrainian and Polish communities in Alberta, to be a decendant form one of these cultures is very common, and doesn't guarantee 'cultural discussions.'

"We still haven't been told where we will be working yet, I am guessing we will learn about it in the next couple of days.

I finally got a hold of Ben today-- he sounded a little groggy, I forgot that it is an hour earlier in BC. We have decided to wait out the six months, I think he has a countdown for March 5th already."

Ben and I are highschool sweethearts, this trip was a major turning point for us-- to ruin the suspense, he one and the same as the one in the Egypt blog.
 
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