Durham Region students Return to Vimy

Special Publication Hits The Streets

Watch for it May 11 and 13. The Return to Vimy Ridge special section will be distributed along with the weekend copies of the Port Perry Star, Oshawa This Week, Clarington This Week, Whitby This Week and the Ajax & Pickering News Advertiser.

AND...the Metroland Durham Region Media Group is offering for sale a special Vimy Ridge CD which contains nearly 300 photos from the Return to Vimy trip, video clips from the trip and a PDF of the 24-page Return to Vimy special section.  For information on purchasing the CD email Paul Futhey.

H-O-M-E... what does that spell? TOO EARLY!

Hey everyone!

We tuched down yesterday, an hour late coming out of switz! but we didn't mind... most of us wanted to stay there! hahaha! it's great to be back and using a keyboard that's in the right order... although I'm sure the people in Europe say the same thing when they come here! hahaha! Sorry we didn't have time to write much over there, we were swamped and busy as ever! The trip all in all was awesome! and is something I'm sure none of us will forget... some more than others! By far I'm sure Belgium and Switzerland were the two tops  for most of the henry people, although I did hear the random handful say they liked London... which is pretty kewl! London was an awesome city as well! France sadly enough was a bit of a let down to good amount of us; there were too many pick pocketers ---->

This picture was taken in the Efile tour lift... hahaha! Also the food wasn't all that great, which was quite the let down for me (wanting to go into cullinary and all). We actually went to one place and those that ordered the burger there know what I'm talking about it was RED, and I mean RED! I had the ham though so I was pretty safe ^_^, although that same night I got a tea from the hotel tea/coffee machine... the milk in it was bad... next day Ashley and I were sick majorly (she had some tea and ate the burger...) Let me put it simply, I left my mark in Paris the way no one wants to... and all of Paris too, bleh!

As for our over night train ride to Switzerland, that was kewl... and the sad factor to it, the little cubby hole with the six bunkers felt more spacious than the hotel in Paris -_-... that's upsetting, but then again  I slept the whole train ride cause I was sicky still! HUZAH!

Now hitting Switerland was probably the best thing on the planet! No lies! I enjoyed that place a lot, and in Lucern they have 200 some odd fountains around the city and they are all FRESH DRINKING water from the mountain! Like honestly! Their TAP water is our BOTTLED spring water! it was the only place I went safely for 2 days without a bottle of Evian! I LOVED there to the max! and the Bridge :

<-- yep that one! I want to get married on it, that's how in love with it I am! and when I say get married on it... I more than likely mean to it! hahaha! I LOVE THAT BRIDGE! Anywayz! once I get  a hold of some pictures from a top the mountain I'll upload... there's a pretty sweet one of some people suntanning on some beach chairs with snow in front and behind them!

Newayz! Ciao for now loves!

Pauline

THE SUCCESSFUL RETURN TO CANADA

Well AjaxHS, we are officially back in Canada!! The churches and castles we have become accustomed to have been replaced with Tim Hortons everywhere you look, but I cannot decide which I'd rather see:D

Overall, the trip was amazing to say the least. Favourite sights include: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, BigEye, and basically anywhere in Belgium! Shopping of course, was always a welcomed break:D

APRIL 9TH- Vimy Ridge day itself. Obviously needs some special attention as it was the key reason for going at all. Started the day off with a ceremony at the gravesite, laying wreaths, playing bagpipes, giving speeches, burying the time capsule and remembering those who fell there so long ago. We then had a short intermission to eat and sit and see various sights like the fields with shell holes and the trenches( I, myself got lost). We then headed over to the Vimy memorial and got prepared for the parade and second ceremony. After spending a good deal amount of time trying to organize ourselves(LINES OF TEN EVERYONE, LINES OF TEN!!!! :D), we marched down to the memorial site, waving and singing and being in overly good Canadian spirits. From there we stood in pride as people flew in, drove in, marched in and just gathered with pride and remembrance. Hearing speeches from Stephen Harper, the French PM(name?!) and my personal favourite, The Queen of England herself. The surprise ending of the jet planes flying over was definetely a highlight to be remembered. This ended the day well, and the bus ride back to the hotel was definetely one most won't remember as everyone in my bus fell asleep almost immediately. FANTASTIC DAY, made the trip so amazing, pictures and videos and stories cannot describe.

Special thanks to all chaperones, LIONEL!(for those who don't know, he is bus1's driver/"the jolly little bus man"), Expedia tour giude(Christian), "Alliance 72" and everyone else who made this trip awesome!!!

Please leave your favourite parts of this trip or any special thanks you'd like to add. Picture links will hopefully be added later.

HOME!

YES!! we are finally home! this trip has been amazing!! I have met some awesome people from Courtice and i have gotten to know more Sinclair people! Yesterday was a really long day. We had a later wake up call...8:30, because on Friday night we had a pizza party in the Lobby of our hotel. It was sooo fun!  :):)
We got up right away and packed our bags. It was really hard to pack because we bought so many clothes, adn gifts from Europe...i was afraid everything wouldnt fit!!  Anyways, we were on the road to the airport by 11. We got to the airport and just hung out. Then we finally got to board the plane and then we were off!!  The flight was about 7 hours, but it felt like forever! We flew Air Canada...they were really good! We finally landed in Toronto at about 5:45ish Toronto time and that means i was about 10:45 London time!!! I actually wasnt as tired as i thought i would be. The trip was awesome....we had no mojor problems at all!!  I think everone else enjoyed themselves too!!  I cant believe its over already!!  It was an amazing experience and i hope that all of you guys have checked out the blogs and have enjoyed hearing all about it! Thanks!!
~Michelle~

Last day!!

Hello everyone.
wow...i cant believe how fast this trip has gone by. We are now in London. We arrived here on Wednesday evening. We took the Eurostar from Brussels to London. It was sooo cool!!  We still have GREAT weather here. It has no rained once. It has been sunny and hot all 11 days. Vimy ridge was awesome and so was Paris and London. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 11 from the hotel. Our flight leaves from here at 3:15ish. We should be back in Toronto at around 6:30ish p.m. I cannot wait to get home but i am really sad that we have leave. It has been a great experience and everyone here has been so awesome. Everyone has had a fantastic time and we have had no major problems. We are all ready to get home and sleep in our own beds. Everyone here is slowly getting tired and exhausted. The plane ride is going to nice, we can all relax and hopefully sleep. Hope to see you all soon!! Thanks for reading all of my blogs!!  :):)

~Michelle~

Zurich... then HOME

Okay guyz, well we're at our last stop and we'll be at the Airport in TO tomorrow at noon!!! Zurich is by far one of the greatest places we've stopped off in.... not sure if everyone feels the same... but yeah. Yours truly left her mark in Paris yesterday.... and on a fellow student... yep i was sick beyond belief. Anywayz, I heard the mountain climb was awesome... but I went back to the room and KO'd like a bad sumo wrestler. Anywayz, food here is great... and the view from our massive hotel room is fantabnulous (as Mrs Stevens would so strategically put it!)... yep so there isn,t really much to say other than the keyboards are really messed up and none of us really want to leave this place. We're actually in Lucern right now, and they have really pretty fountains all over the place (BTW, these fountains are fresh water from the mountain, you can drink from them! how cooliousus is that????) Anywayz I,m gunna throw you over to Michelle cause she luvssssssssssssssssssssss you all soooo much ^_^, oh right and dad... I bought you a new wallet.

Hey Guyz!

It's Friday the 13th and we didn't die on the mountain! It was amazing! The view from 7000 ft was pretty great and I have to say it was worth sticking it out on an overnight train which was quite an experience for anyone who had to bunk under someone with smelly feet.....( all of us stunk) It is completely ridiculous how much I spent on chocolate.....over maybe 60 euros ( I have a chocolate Switzerland ..it's ginormous! Anyways, I am pretty sad to leave but I do miss sleep..we have to leave by six ..see ya- michelle

Our final day. We spent the day in Switzerland which I love. The view was magnificent. We took a gondala ride up which was amazing. At the top we could climb through caves and go up another set of stairs. Lunch was up there too, at a fancy restaurant. After we came down from the mountain we had time to explore the city. The water in the river was cool and clear. Four bank machines and two bank cards later I was finally able to get money and go shopping. It was a great last day. - Emily

Paris!

Alright guys!

we're in paris right now, the key boards are pretty weird so if i type funny it isn't my fault!!!!!

Okay so we've already passed through Belgium, the chocolate was apparently good!!! but yours truly has an allergy! :(  Vimy was awesome (and as Nick just so proffessionally quoted our british tour guide "Viminy Bridge") We saw the queen it was pretty sweet... Brugge (in Belgium) was kinda like Venis so it was sweet. We wen't to the Louvre which was awesome  we saw the Mona Lisa... Michelle says it was kinda small... I bought a poster copy of one!!!! Efile Tour was another we stopped for.... I ran... yes RAN down the steps from the second level... Jo I bought you some chocolate and something else...

Emily:

Vimy Ridge was absolutely amazing, although people were passing out and we had to stand for over five hours it was definitely worth it. Henry was luckily right up at the front of the students, near the guests of honour. The veterans gave us Canadian flags and pins. I got on TV which was exciting. Then the prime minister of Canada and of France, and of course the Queen came. It was so exciting! The entire event was absolutely moving and fantastic.

3-Day Catch-Up!

We have been extremely busy these last couple of days! On our fourth day in

France we visited Dieppe and we also went to a Canadian Cemetery.  At Dieppe , we saw a tour, and we got to see all of the monuments.

The next day was our big Vimy Ridge Ceremony that everyone had been anticipating for, for about a year now. The ceremony really turned history into life. Seeing the number of gravestones and the number of participants behind them made it seem so much more real. Every student was in uniform, which consisted of a replica soldier shirt and black pants. From there, we stood behind a gravestone, representing a soldier who fought in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Speeches, stories and other pieces of literature were spoken, giving thanks to all the men who gave their life for us and our country.

After the morning ceremony, we gathered around in the ridge, surrounding the newly restored  Vimy Ridge Monument and awaited VIP guests such as Stephen Harper, and the Queen Elizabeth II. We then heard blessings and the national anthems of France and Canada . The day was a great success and to top it off, we had beautiful weather to go along with it!

Today (April 10th), we traveled to Belgium where we got to see various cemeteries, including the German WW1 Cemetery and The Tyne Cot National Cemetery.  In addition, we visited the Passchendale Memorial Park and Hill 62 where we got to explore the trenches and see what life was like for the soldiers during the war. During our free time in

Belgium , inevitably we got to go to all the many chocolate shops, and made sure we stocked up. As a bonus, since we ARE Canadian, certain stores gave us discounts on our purchases, to make sure we didn’t run out! (haha!)

Day 5 -7

Day 5 – Happy Easter!!

Today we went to Dieppe . We also went to the Canadian War Cemetery. It was very beautiful.

Jessica and I wrote a poem for the ceremony that we put on. It was a perfect ceremony to commemorate the soldiers’ victory in all of the wars. It was a really long ride all the way to Dieppe. It was about 3 hours to get there by bus. Once we got there we met up with another tour guide. We walked around Dieppe for a while and we also got to walk along the beach. We didn’t stay there for very long and we didn’t see much but it was still a cool experience. Then we had another 3 1⁄2 hour drive back to a new hotel. We didn’t get to eat dinner until around 10:00 that night. We all fell asleep very quickly.

Day 6 – Vimy Day!!

Today we had to get really early to go to Vimy Ridge. It was a only a 30 minute drive to Vimy, so it wasn’t really that bad. Once we got to the Vimy site, we went into our tent and we got some instructions on what we were doing that day. Next, we headed down to the Canadian Cemetery #2.

We all got to try and find our soldier that we were representing. I unfortunately didn’t find my soldier. After that we stayed at the Cemetery for a ceremony where Taylor and I got to carry and lay the Sinclair wreath. It was a neat experience. It was such a warm day yesterday and we were out there just standing for 1 1⁄2 hours, some people were passing out and getting dehydrated. It was kind of scary. Every one from Sinclair was okay, but one girl from Courtice wasn’t feeling well. After that ceremony we went back to our tent for lunch.

After lunch, we headed over to the back of the actual monument. We had to stand there for about 1 1⁄2 hours. It was really hot and really tiring. Then we had to start getting ready for the parade. We all had to get into our school groups and we had to walk to the front of the monument. That walk took about 3 hours in total. Once we got to our spots, it was getting really hot and we were all really tired. Finally the ceremony actually started. It was really exciting because the Prime Minister of France was there, The Prime Minister of Canada was there (Stephen Harper) and The Queen was there!! It was soo cool!! The ceremony was pretty long but it was a really cool experience just seeing that huge monument in front of us and just taking it all in. We also got to see some shell holes that were around the site. That was pretty crazy. After the ceremony was over we headed back to the bus. It only took about 1⁄2 an hour to get back to the hotel. First we went to our rooms and just relaxed. Then at 8:45 we went over to the restaurant. We had another late dinner! Our hotel it right beside a bowling alley so we got the chance to go bowling after dinner. Jessica and I chose not to go bowling because we were so tires. Curfew was at 11:30 but we were so tired tat we fell asleep at 10:30!!

Day 7 –

Belgium!!!

Today we went across the boarder to Belgium . We went to the battle site of Passchendale and Ypres. Passchendale was really cool. The Passchendale museum was really neat. There was a lot of interesting information about it. Another thing that they had there was a really life-like replica of a trench dug out. It was really dark down there, but it was really cool. After Passchendale we went to the Tyne Cot cemetery. This cemetery is the biggest common wealth cemetery in the world. It was a pretty cool place. We went over to Ypres after that. We got to have free time to walk around Ypres.

Jessica and I bought LOTS of Belgian chocolate. The Belgians LOVE Canadians! They gave us cool discounts and they were really friendly with us. After lunch, we went over to the St. Julien Canadian War Memorial. That was amazing too. If you guys have been have been checking out the Explorica website, you would have seen all of our group pictures that Elena (our awesome tour guide has been taking. We took another picture in front of the Canadian memorial. Next we went over to the German War Cemetery
and the John McCrae Memorial.

They were both really interesting to see. If you don’t know who John McCrae is that’s okay, but you defiantly know his famous poem In Flanders Field. He wrote the poem just after his best friend died in the war. John was actually a doctor in the war…..Dr. John McCrae. Next, we went over to Hill 62. We got to go in the actual trenches and look at all of the artifacts that they had. They had many pictures that we really cool but some of them were pretty graphic. It was really cool to see the trenches because it really hit me just how bad the conditions were. It was crazy!!

I know when I send my blogs that they are sent with lots of spaces. Sorry about that. It’s really not my fault it just happens when I send it over to the site. I hope you all can read it.  I will try to do 1 or two more blogs before we come back home. Only 4 days left!!!  L We arrive back in Toronto on Saturday evening. Tomorrow we are going to Brussels and then we are off to London in the afternoon!!  JJ I will also send a few more blogs once I get back just to put a conclusion to all of these blogs throughout the trip.

~Michelle~

Vimy Ridge pictures

Jenn Sunnerton has posted lots of pictures from Vimy Ridge . Check' em out.

See our complete gallery of trip pictures.

Video from Ypres, Belgium

More to come Tuesday...keep watching this space