This week came with many surprises! Some big, and some small. .. but mostly big.

The first piece of news came in the form of an e-mail from my host mom saying that my host sister was going to Paris to visit her relatives. Since my host mom will be working for a few weeks when I arrive they thought it would be best if I went to Paris with my host sister for a week. Hmm, seems like a pretty good deal to me, I'll take it!

Next up on the agenda was seeing the movie Eat Pray Love. This was an amazing movie that gave me a bit more information about how life in Rome is. After that was meeting Vince. I had the pleasure of meeting the exchange student from Belgium who will be living in my house for a few months while I'm gone. He's hosted by The Whitby Sunrise Rotary Club as well. It was really fun to talk with him and get to know him.

After meeting Vince I went to my cottage for a day with my family. I returned back to my house and the first thing I saw when I came back home was Vince and myself. Except this is not an actual physical meeting we're talking about here. No, No this is the front page of the newspaper, coloured picture and all. The little interview and photoshoot that we did was going to be put in the newspaper "whenever they found space to run it." So, turns out they found lots of space... the very next day... and on the front page!

This was a very nice surprise for me and my family who were not expecting it at all. And the grand finale of this week was my brothers 20th birthday party, combined with my going away party, which made for one very good party. I got to say goodbye to all of my friends and everyone ended the summer on a high note.

Vince came and was introduced to some new Whitby friends as well. He was a huge hit! I'm getting more and more excited every day and even when everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) asks me if i'm still sure I want to do this, I still answer with the exact same question as the start of this adventure. Absolutely 150% !