Hello, long time no see. Sorry for the delay in writing, I truly have been more than busy over the past three or four months, but don't think I didn't forget about you! 

Where to start... Well to begin off from my last report to the club, I have successfully ran through my last two host family's with no issues. The NGOs and Pieter Kool have been amazing host families/ parents for me and I am truly grateful. Throughout my time with Pieter Kool, we ventured many places including Niagara Falls, The art gallery of Ontario and to his family's yacht for a day on Lake Ontario (lake that Toronto sits on). I also played soccer throughout my time with Pieter, which he was kind enough to take me too every week and to watch a few games here and there. I also got to know his grandkids and his daughters families very well as he is a very family orientated man, which helped open up more connections and relationships were therefore developed. 

On June 28th, I finally left on my much anticipated eastern Canada tour, in which myself and 44 other exchange students from all districts of eastern Canada. The tour started in Toronto, and the first day involved getting to know everyone, when we walked to dundas square Toronto, and had dinner, where I met a lot of new friends for life! The next few days in Toronto, we saw a blue jays game (unfortunately they lost) but we have that experience for life. We visited Ottawa for Canada which was incredible. We saw a live concert consisting of Canadian artists which was amazing, even though it poured rain all night, it could not have been a better night which ended with fireworks over the parliament hill area. We then Trekked to Montreal to discover the city and the blues and jazz festival, which is the biggest in all of Canada! The city was very European in structure and look, which some of the French people took a liking too. Once our time in Montreal was up, we drove to Quebec City, where we again had a huge day tour of the city in which we explored all major aspects of the city and some of the history behind it! We had dinner at a sugar maple farm, where they make maple syrup! It was cute because they had a group of German travellers from elsewhere there as well and some of the Belgium, Germans and Austrians were having a chat too them which was quite interesting!

We also went zip lining in Moncton, New Brunswick which was one of the best things on this trip. We then travelled to the maritimes of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, where the weather wasn't great but we made the most of our time there. We went on a geo caching adventure around Charlottetown, the capital of PEI. We were there for 2 days and myself along with around 8 others went paint balling which is something I had never done before! So much fun! When we finally went to Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia we were all exhausted from the rest of the trip and the lack of sleep, surviving off coffee and fast food had done no good for us. We visited the Halifax maritime museum which gave us a good insight of the local economy, history of the fishing + boating industry and development of the city. On the second day we were in Halifax, we travelled to a must see place, Peggy's Cove. Even though the weather was terrible ( 15 degrees and raining), that didn't stop us from going on a 3 hour long geocaching activity around this tiny community that sat on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually, the good times and freedom had to come to an end and the next day we were at Halifax international airport saying our goodbyes to the kids that weren't from Ontario and were either driving or flying separately. It was a hard day, saying goodbye to so many new friends and even a new family, that's how close we all were. After I arrived back in Mississauga, I was back into the swing of things, volunteering for the biggest rotary event of the year, the Mississauga rib fest. Over 100000 people over 4 days, over 30 rib trucks and over $150,000 raised for the rotary club of Mississauga west (my club) and the Mississauga city club. 

On the 2nd of August, I moved host family from Pieter Kool to the Charles'. So far the family are my favourite as I can talk abit almost anything with them and they are so loving and just all around amazing. Their daughter is currently in Peru on youth exchange through rotary, so the have loved the opportunity of hosting a fellow student. Throughout August, I had a bit of a flat patch, where I was alone in the district and therefore found opportunity scarce, especially since most of my school friends were travelling and overseas and what not. I had applied for a canoe trip for the last week of summer but that was still weeks away so luckily the mum of an exchange student, Lynn Mcallister, who I had met after my end of year tour had offered to take me camping with her daughter ginny, an exchange student who had just returned from a year abroad in Poland. It was a perfect opportunity to meet another fellow exchanger and too bond with this new family who had taken me under their wing for the week. This turned out to be one of the best parts of the summer as ginny and I were like two peas in a pot, we got along so well and exchanged experiences about our own years abroad. Lynn has become my second mum I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet her and her family. After his camping trip, I had my Adventure in understanding canoe trip. The trip was developed by a rotary club 2 hours north of Mississauga, in Peterborough. It combines Native Canadians and non natives kids, but in my case there were a lot of refugees and immigrants who had just moved to Canada from the Middle East, Africa and south east Asia, which made for some awesome experiences and conversations. We paddled in 8 seater Indian war canoes for 5 days straight, the longer days being over 25 kms in 30 degree weather. Jesus were they some tough days. But was it it ever worth it, of course! Probably my favourite thing this summer, just meeting all these new people and creating so many new connections, it's what exchange is all about.

Since the summer holidays have ended, I have just been plugging away at school, finally doing some subjects that I enjoy, and coming to class positively.

My parents have since visited from the 10th of September til the 20th. It was so awesome seeing them, meeting them at the airport and Kelly just balling her eyes out, it shows a mothers loves and how much her and my dad and sister missed me, and vice versa. We visited Niagara Falls after a big nights sleep from travelling Hawaii to Toronto. We have some amazing photos I can link as well so Yu can see the beauty of this place. We also went to the CN tower in Toronto, one of the tallest building in the world! The Toronto blue jays baseball team were playing so we booked some tickets and watch them clutch a game at the bottom of the 8th innings with a home run for a 3-2 win over Tampa Bay. We also went and saw Lynn and her family for a nice dinner, and my rotary club hosted them for a nice dinner, along with another rotary club who were visiting that evening.

Again, I'm really sorry for the lack of updates. I need to really get into that. I am so thankful for the opportunity of sponsoring me whilst in Canada. I look forward to hearing from you in less around 4 months time. 

From Liam