Saturday April, 7th

Our day started with our destination imagination provincial tournament, which you can hear more about on the blog post I wrote all about it. After our tournament we a had a couple of hours of free time to get food, I rushed away from the tournament in order to tend to a family event. 

In the evening we regrouped at the jade canoe in the Vancouver airport, to start our journey.

The plane ride was normal besides the fact that we could sit with our friends, but it was still long and tiring. We arrived in Ottawa at 3am, and the a lady from encounters greeted us and brought us to a school bus, where we loaded on our luggage and drove to the Encounters with Canada building. 

 When we entered the building we were given our name tag, informing us on our group number, I was very disappointed that none of my close friends were in my group but I got over it quickly. Then we managed to find our rooms in the pitch dark and went straight to sleep.  

Sunday April, 8th

Our first day at encounters was very relaxed because there were still more people arriving from all over Canada so there was nothing planned. We hung out in the cafeteria, napped and settled into our dorms. 

We also met with our groups and discussed how the week was going to go and learnt the rules to follow during the week as well. 

 

Monday April 9th

Our first day of Vimy Week began with visiting the Vimy memorial     in the centre of town, this day just happened to be on the 101 anniversary of the Vimy Ridge battle. So we all had the chance to watch the changing of the guard, a bagpipe performance and to see veterans in uniform. 

 

Since this was the first event of the week I had the chance to meet some of the other people that I would be spending the rest of the week.

In the evening we all split into four different groups to do our evening activities, I chose to go travel over the bridge into Quebec to bowl. 

 

Tuesday April, 10th

This day we woke up early to visit the Canadian Royal War Museum and I think that this was the most educational part of this trip, I remember everything I saw so clearly. I believe that we were there for 3 hours and we had a short tour of the beginning of the WW1 exibit,then we had the chance to walk around the museum on our own which was really fun, I really like museums and it was nice to walk around without a huge group of loud kids. 

 

Wednesday April, 11th

 Today we visited the parliament building, the architecture throughout the building is beautiful and everything has a meaning and a purpose. As you walk towards the library there is a small hallway all made of lime stone and the windows are extremely small so there’s hardly any light entering causing the hallway to be quite dark, this represents the dark times of the war. There’s also a hallway with paintings of all of the past Prime Ministers.

We also had the amazing opportunity to take the elavator to the top of the peace tower, where we saw all of Ottawa.

 

The second group activity that I did in the evening was the Brockville soldier study, we looked through artifacts like newspapers and maps to find out as much as we could about Brockville.

 

Thursday April, 12th

This day we visited the Diëfenbunker, which is something I didn’t know existed. The bunker in a 4 level underground building, meant to hide the primeminister if there was a nuclear bombing from the Soviet Union, so the bunker ended up being used as a base for soldiers during the Cold War, to map out suspected artillery locations and store Canada’s gold.

In the evening we once again split into our different group activities and I had the opportunity to go in a Hunted Walk to The Ottawa Jail Hostel. When I was first put in this group I was disappointed because it wasn’t what I originally wanted to do, but it ended up being very interesting and educational. The jail operated in 1800’s and was finally closed in 1972 due to the bad conditions. The cells in this jail were just big enough to fit a twin bed, the windows in front of the cells had no glass so when it snowed it would come straight into the cells and when it was hot there was no shade and to top it all off, the place is hunted.

 

Friday April, 13th

On our last day of the vimy week we all loaded into the school bus and drove to downtown Ottawa to go and shop at the BayWard Market. We got some great coffee, found some cool shops and I overall ended up having a great day.

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, we had a banquet, talking circle and a dance.

Saturday April, 14th

On our last day in Ottawa, Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hews took our class to The Canadian Museum of History, where we saw the beginning of time to present day.

There weren’t any corners in the whole museum because the First Nations belevied that corners trappped spirits.

 

We arrived back at the encounters building after lunch and finished up packing and hung out with our new friends for the last time.

My Thoughts Afterwards:

I was definitely unhappy with the trip at the beginning but now after I’ve experienced the entire week, I’m so thankful that my teachers brought us to Ottawa. My head is overflowing with information and I met some amazing people, but the reason that I will forever remember this trip is the fact that it was a once in a lifetime experience.