Tadoussac

We are now back from our three day camping adventure in Saguenay National Park. We camped in a rainstorm, it rained the last two days we were there, but we still managed to have a wonderful time. We stayed in beautiful Hutopia tents which were spacious and contained comfortable beds.

Our Rabaska Boat activity was cancelled because of the bad weather so we had a guided hiking tour instead where we learned the history of the landscape in the park. The last ice age moulded the park into the tall cliffs and fjords we see today. The cliffs were so steep that even the most professional mountain climbers take up to three days to climb the cliffs.

On our last day in Tadoussac, we went whale watching where we saw a humpback whale and three minky whales. We tried to see some beluga whales but they were busy hunting for food under the water.

We are now just about to leave Quebec City for Montreal, our final destination.

See you soon!

The EOTR Crew

Quebec City

Quebec City has been described as "the most beautiful city" by the students. Here we have been surrounded by many different art forms. Everywhere we turn we see galleries, sculptures, monuments and street performances.

Yesterday we took a tour of the city and ended up staying in the Holy Trinity Church to watch an English Change Ringing demonstration where we learned about the ringing of cathedral bells. It is a very hard form of ringing as the ringers have to work together to ring for sometimes longer than three hours.

In the afternoon we visited an art expo where there were hundreds of artisans from all over quebec selling their handcrafted creations. In the evening we caught a Cirque de Soleil acrobatic performance.

Last night we were awoken to a fire two buildings down from our hostel. Fire engines, fire fighters and police were outside our hostel as they hooked up their hoses to the fire hydrant in order to put out the fire. The streets surrounding our hostel was caution taped off as well. The fire was finally put out at 2am.

We all lived to tell the tale but there is never a dull moment here with English on the Road.

We will be camping for the next couple of days in Saguenay Provincial Park so there will be no updates for a while! See you when we return.

Katherine and the crew

Ottawa 2

I am happy to report that the students have thoroughly enjoyed Ottawa. On the second day we went white water rafting in Beachburg, Ontario where the students learned to work together in the rapids of the river. They also received a lesson on kayaking and practiced on their own in the water after their return from the river.

Yesterday was spent touring Ottawa. We started off our day by watching the changing of the guard on Parliment Hill and proceeded to take a tour of the Parliment buildings with a tour guide named Julie. We spent lunch in the Byward Market and saw the site of Obama's official visit to Ottawa and had some free time to shop around.

We then crossed the river on foot to Hull, Quebec to visit the Museum of Civilization where the students were amazed by the exhibit of the Horse. We visited Gatineau for a buffet dinner and came back for an evening of lights and sounds on Parliment Hill with the Mosaika lightshow.

We are now heading to Quebec City!

Katherine

Ottawa

Alas, there was a sunny day in Algonquin Park! Yesterday morning was spent on the beach where all the students engaged in swimming and tipping eachother off of the canoes in the lake. Some even went cliff jumping off of the rocks.

Now we have finally reached Ottawa! We are all glad to have a shower and wash our clothes. We are staying at the University of Ottawa Residence and so the boys marched into the showers merrily singing "rub a dub, dub, three men in a tub!". They could be heard singing throughout the entire floor.

Now the 8th floor smells like cologne and laundry soap, but the students say it's better than smelling like a campfire.

We plan on having pizza for dinner and possibly going to a drive in movie theatre tonight. The next days include Parliment Hill, A light show, Changing of the Guard, the Museum of Civilization and White Water Rafting.

See you back soon.

Katherine, Fraser and the Crew

Algonquin Park

We are currently camping in Algonquin Park and weathering through a rainstorm. The students went canoeing in the rain this morning with the wonderful park ranger Kevin. Although the students were sopping wet, they still decided to go swimming in the lake.

We have constructed a small tarped area to cook under so we will have some shelter tonight. We also found some relief from the rain while visiting the Algonquin Art Centre. Luckily, we found internet along the way to write this post so you could enjoy it.

See you in another city!

Katherine, Fraser & The Crew

Welcome August Students!

The August 2010 students have now joined us for our next adventure through Ontario and Quebec. Joining us is Julia, Alex, and Lisa from Germany, Theo from France and Fredrico from Italy.

The students have now adjusted to the new time zone and are enjoying Ontario so far. We have visited the CN Tower, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

We will try to update the blog as often as our schedule allows providing that we are in areas where there is internet access.

We are now in Niagara Falls and we are looking forward to going on the Maid of the Mist boat tour by the waterfall.

Katherine and Fraser

Ottawa

We arrived at the University of Ottawa residence on Tuesday afternoon and kicked off the start of our visit with a haunted walking tour of the city. Our tour guide Marie-Pier gave us an eerie historical tour of the city. We learned that much of Ottawa was built on top of a cemetary which was mostly comprised of Cholera victims which they often piled in pits. Apparently, when building many of the modern buildings in the downtown region, workers discovered human skulls and various bones when they were digging the foundations.

On Wednesday, over half the group went white-water rafting in Beachburg, Ontario, while the rest of us toured the Byward Market, the Rideau Canal and the surrounding region. For some of us it was a fast-paced, exhillerating day in the rapids and for others the day was spent relaxing and strolling around the city.

Thursday was an educational day as we learned all about Canada's Parliment. We started off in the morning watching the "Changing of the Guard", which the student's thought closley resembled the ceremony in London, England, and took a tour through the Parliment Buildings. Our tour took us through the House of Commons, the Senate,the Reading Room, the Francophone Heiritage room and the Library. We went back to the residence for dinner which was a plate of Spanish Rice courtesy of Stephanie and headed out to the Museum of Civilization.

After walking across the provincial line into Hull, Quebec, we arrived at the museum to find that it closed at 8pm on Thursdays! Luckily there was a free show called "Mosiaika: Sights and Sounds of Canada" that took place at 10pm. We quickly got back to the Parliment Buildings and witnessed a phenomenal, creative display of the history of Canada. We all sat on the lawn infront of the parliment buildings and were awestruck by the beautiful artwork projected onto the face of the Parliment Building. Check it out - http://www.mosaika-sl.ca/mosaika.asp?lang=en

We are now excited to reach Quebec City! Stay tuned.

Katherine, Stephanie and Fraser

Day 3 and on

We last left our audience in Toronto. Since then, we have travelled to Niagara Falls and are currently residing in the Algonquin Vicinity (Maynooth, Ontario).

Aside from our questionable hostel in Niagara Falls, the group thoroughly enjoyed the sights and beauty of the region. We had the opportunity to ride the Maid of the Mist and see a fireworks display over the falls at night. The group also described Clifton Hill as a "Baby Las Vegas". We have pictures posted on our "Photos Page".

We then left Niagara Falls to start our camping adventure in Algonquin Park. We arrived late in the evening to find an uneven amount of buns, hotdogs and hamburgers and no grill. The idioms we've been teaching the students would have deemed us to be "up the creek without a paddle". We quickly made friends with a church group of campers who kindly lent us their barbeques to cook our dinner.

The following morning we started a canoeing trip with a very knowledgeable park ranger named "Kevin". We all learned 6 different canoe strokes and practiced them on a day long excursion up to Pog Lake, Whitefish Lake and Two Rivers. We also portaged across a bank to stop for lunch, many of us were exhausted. Somehow, we managed to get back all in one piece and we ventured out to find showers. We all made it back to our base camp and played a game of "Chubby Bunny" where we shoved as many marsh mellows that we could fit into our mouths. The highest number anyone of us could fit was a total of 7.

Today we had planned on having free time filled with canoeing and kayaking. This plan was rudely interrupted by a swarm of rain clouds and storms. Once we realized that our tents were soaked with rain, we checked the weather forcast to see how long the rain would last. The forcast called for rain all day and into the night. We quickly diverted our plan to include a dry hostel. At this moment, half of us are staying at the South Algonquin HI and the other half are residing at the Mad Musher. The students seem to be relieved to leave the wet campground and seek shelter in a warm dry place with a shower.

Tomorrow we plan to launch off to Ottawa. Stay tuned for more posts!

Katherine, Fraser, Cathie and Stephanie

Day 2

July has finally arrived and we have started our journey! With us are Carlos and Laura from Spain, Felix, Freya, Antonia, Oskar and Marc from Germany, Guilia, Rebecca, Paolo and Giancomo from Italy, and finally Adrien from France.

Last night we walked through China Town and enjoyed a refreshing Bubble Tea, today we did some orientation and the Germans were let down when they lost to the Spanyards in the World Cup game. This evening we also had a chance to go up the CN Tower and enjoyed it immensely.

On the way back from the CN Tower, the students got treated like royalty as they walked through the Royal York Hotel and were spectators as we passed by the Air Canada Centre. After a long walk through the Yonge-Dundas Square, the students were glad to return to the hostel and rest their sore feet.

Stay tuned for more updates and pictures!

Katherine, Cathie, Fraser and Stephanie

Welcome

Welcome to the English on the Road Program!

Your teachers for the July session are Stephanie, Katherine and Fraser. Also joining us is Cathie, our counselor. We hope to make this trip as much fun as possible, so we have started this blog to keep track of our progress.

Each student will be assigned a colour group and a teacher. Katherine will be leading the Red Leaf Group, Stephanie will be leading the Blue Leaf Group and Fraser will be leading the Green Leaf Group.

Parents and friends are also invited to check the blog for pictures and updates. We are sure there will be many adventures. Check the itinerary page to see where we are each day and check the group pages to read posts from students.

We will see you soon!

Katherine, Stephanie and Fraser