United Nations Pilgrimage for Youth Trip - PART 1

PART 1
(Brief Overview)  The United Nations Pilgrimage for Youth Trip is an educational program that was established by The Sovereign Grand Lodge Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1949 when the United Nations was just four years old. Every summer the UN Pilgrimage brings together high school students from around the world to study and learn about the United Nations, world affairs, international relations and economics. After I completed a written application and was sent to have an interview with 2 teachers and the Principal of my high school, I was selected to be one of the students on the tour.  The trip was 12 days long, starting on July 2nd and ending July 14th.
           On Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 I arrived at Humber College in Toronto for the trip of a lifetime.  I was greeted by 52 other smiling high school students from Ontario, Michigan, the Netherlands and Switzerland upon my arrival, and I couldn’t wait to meet my new family for the next 12 days!  We were a very diverse group, and though we all spoke English fluently, there were 15 other languages present in our group as well including French, Spanish, German, Farsi, Arabic, Greek, Japanese and many more.  That night we all got to know each other over pizza, card games and the movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”.  
          The next day we got up bright and early at 6 o’clock, since we needed to be down in the cafeteria at 7 with our luggage for breakfast.  We drove in a motor coach bus from Toronto to Ottawa that morning, and on the way we stopped by the Vimy Rebekah Lodge in Kemptville, Ontario, one of our trip’s sponsors.  The Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Lodges can be found all over the world, and each student on the trip is sponsored by a Lodge.  The volunteers cooked a delicious home-cooked meal of lasagne, Caesar salad and ice cream to top it off.  We showed our appreciation by saying thank you in the 15 different languages that were spoken on our bus; I personally did the French thank you.  The volunteers were so touched!
          Once we arrived in Ottawa we checked into our hotel, and then got dropped off in downtown Ottawa for a while.  Even though it was cold and raining, we all warmed up our bellies with a Beaver Tail (fried dough pastry covered in cinnamon sugar, yummy!) and a brisk walk around the shops.  The next day in Ottawa we went visited the Parliament buildings and observed the changing of the guards which was really special.  We then visited Rideau Hall, the home of Canada’s governor general Michaëlle Jean.  We had fun taking pictures with the guards in uniform; since they wouldn’t react to anything we said or did!  The rest of the afternoon was spent driving to Plattsburg, New York, and since it was the fourth of July we went to the local beach to watch the fireworks that night.  It was truly beautiful, and a new experience for all us non-Americans.  Once we returned to the hotel, we went for a quick swim then went to bed.
          The next day was mostly spent on the bus as we headed down to New York City.  I sat with my friends from Switzerland, the Netherlands and my home Ontario on the bus and learned some Dutch.  “I love you” is “Ik houd van jou” (it sounds like ik-how-fun-yao), and “How are you?” is “Hou gaat het?” (this one’s a bit more difficult to sound out).  The only problem I had with Dutch was that you need a make a throaty sound in some words that made my throat dry, but other than that I had lots of fun!  We arrived in New York City late that afternoon before the other 2 buses arrived.  Out hotel was located directly across the street from Madison Square Garden, it was awesome!  We decided to play “charades” while we waited and made our own fun in the magnificent ballroom.  Once the other 2 buses arrived, we met other delegates from Iceland, Hawaii, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Sweden and Denmark.  The diversity in our group was truly remarkable!  Once we all became acquainted with one another over dinner, we played some ice breaker games.  The game I enjoyed the most was when we had to find an object at our table that represented every letter in “United Nations Pilgrimage”.  Everyone was searching through their bags and my group found a toothbrush, flip flop, lip gloss, health card, and many other miscellaneous, and we ended up winning!!  That night we all went to sleep right away since the next 3 days were going to be jam packed with excitement and no breaks.