Ottawa was a journey of a lifetime, filled with ups and downs, friends I’ll never forget, and memories that will be with me forever. This trip was organized by Encounters With Canada. Encounters is a program that provides a forum for youth around Canada from ages 14-17. It took place at a building called the Terry Fox Youth Centre. Our trip revolved around the topic of Canadians in the First World War, specifically The battle of Vimy Ridge.

Vimy Ridge was a battle that took place during the First World War in Vimy France. It is remembered by Canadians as the battle where Canada gained recognition for being the only country that was able captured the Ridge from the grasp of the opposing German forces. We learned about this battle in detail, hearing from many different veterans, historians, and museum staff.

There was quite a bit of learning that took place on this trip, but there were also a ton of other activities that took place at Encounters. Some were small fun activities like making poppies out of felt and creating cute little animations, but there were also a series of bigger more informational trips and activities that we got to partake in. The most memorable, in my opinion, was when we got to visit the Parliament Building. Not many people can say that they have had the chance to go inside of the parliament building. It was quite a site to see. The architecture on the inside is simply gorgeous, down to the finest detail.

We had the privilege of getting to take a look at the gorgeous library that remains inside of the Parliament Building. It is filled with a glow of light that falls beautifully against the orange tinted wooden bookshelves. It is these bookshelves that stand tall and hold what look to be thousands of books of all different of colours and sizes. The copious amount of big beautiful windows that line the ceilings provide the room with natural light that add to the grand artistry of the whole room.

Coming back to the topic of Encounters and all the activities it entailed, a big part of why we were made to participate in these activities was to meet new people from across Canada and potentially make life long friendships. I met a group of great people from Prince Edward Island that I will never forget, I made a close friend that lives in Tisdale Saskatchewan, and even met some pretty amazing people from Nunavut. These are the kinds of friendships that Encounters helps create.

While this experience helped me create joy in these friendships, it also brought on the pain of having to say goodbye. I never thought that I could feel this way about friends that I had only knows for seven days, but that didn’t effect the amount I cared and cherished them as people and the pain I felt when I was forced to say goodbye. Although many of these people live across the country, I strongly do believe that there will come a time where we will meet again and it’ll all be because of Encounters With Canada.

The PLP program went on a trip to Calgary this year for one week, filled with everything you could possibly imagine. We saw wolfs, went to beautiful lakes, and visited some major historical sights. This is just the beginning. Below is a copy of the whole itinerary for the trip.

Since there is quite a lot on that list, I have chosen three of my favourite places from the trip to talk about. The first being the northern lights wolf centre. Located in Golden, Rocky Mountains B.C, the northern lights wolf centre is the place to go if you want to learn all about wolves. They promote a state of mind where the wolf isn’t always a scary, human eating beast like they show in movies such as the big bad wolf and little red riding hood. They are beautiful animals with a huge role to play in the environment. When me and my class visited the wolf centre, we had the great opportunity to learn about these amazing creatures, and even got to meet one of the wolves. It was all very exciting. I even got licked by a wolf, which was a once in a life time experience that I will never forget.

Next on the list is beaker head, a cool event which features interactive pieces of art that contain elements of science and engineering. These pieces of art are displayed throughout the city, each different and unique. My class walked around all of downtown Calgary looking at them. My personal favourite was the serpent mother, a huge metal snake skeleton that shoots fire out of its back. It was made by a group of ladies called the flaming lotus girls. They had a vision to make the big fire shooting metal snake using hydraulics, but not everyone thought that they had it in them or could actually go through with the task. Just looking at it, I think that it’s safe to say that they proved them wrong. The finished product was a true work of art. The tail of the serpent was wrapped around a big metal egg that opened up at the end of the night, revealing a liquid fuel effect that shoots coloured flames 50 feet up into the air.

For the very last example, I chose the enchanted forest. My class visited the forest at the end of our trip, and were asked to make a movie using the magical setting of the place. The story could be anything we wanted, it just has to take place in the enchanted forest. My group members were Lauren, Maggie, and Robin. Together we came up with a story about two girls who broke into the park after hours and were being too loud. They ended up getting trapped inside the characters that were on display, by a witch that inhabited the park. Now, they can come out after hours but are only able to stay in the park. They end up teaming up with a guy that was wondering around the park, and all decide to trap the witch and finally escape. It was a very fun movie to make and edit, and it brought me closer with friends that I wouldn’t normally hang out with all they much before. Although the movie wasn’t perfect, I liked creating it and had a fun time filming and putting it all together. But, If I were to redo this project, I would’ve definitely fixed the transitions and audio a bit more.

Although those three things were my favourite, they were just the tip of the iceberg. We saw and did so much more. With that being said, these three were things that were, in my opinion, the most memorable, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about them.