It’s day 3 and our second full day in UBC Okanagan. Strangely, it feels like we have been here for ages and are very comfortable in our quite luxurious accommodation – it seems far too good to be university residence. Lucky for us we had some free time this morning which most of us took the opportunity to have a very much needed lie in after the jet lag finally hit last night. Our first activity began at 10.30am with the Aboriginal Coordinator here where he gave us an insight to life as an aboriginal resident of Canada and the harsh realities that came with it particularly a few decades ago. We were all very intrigued about this workshop because most of us had only heard the term “aboriginal” used in an Australian context. Coordinator Dan’s stories of growing up were very moving and extremely thought provoking and it was very interesting to be able to learn about a completely new and unique culture with first hand experience. It really helped put things into perspective and his general life advice was gladly accepted. Towards the end he let us participate in a traditional aboriginal ritual where we “cleansed” ourselves with the smoke of burning sage to get rid of the all the bad and ended by moving around the circle and giving each person a hug. Hugging is seen as an extremely good thing which was really nice cause we luv hugs, especially Emily 😛 As well as being an insightful activity it was some really nice bonding time for the group and even in the short time that we’ve been together we’ve all become so close and we’re all such different characters yet we get on so well together. We’re like a little family now. It has definitely been the cutest day so far. After the aboriginal meeting we met with the geography professor Carlos from the Azores Islands who we all thought was hilarious and you could tell just how passionate he is for his subject which made it all the more interesting. We learnt so many fantastic things about Kelowna where we are and Canada in general. I didn’t quite appreciate how big Canada really was until he told us that you could fit the whole of Belgium into Quebec alone 33 times. After Geography we grabbed some lunch then headed to a shopping mall half way between the UBCO and downtown Kelowna where most of began shopping for gifts for back home. Then it was time for a movie at the Orchard Plaza where we all agreed to see “A Million Ways To Die In The West”. The movie was hilarious and the Canadians certainly didn’t hold back on laughing which we aren’t used as back home. Today was quite a busy day but a really enjoyable one at that and we can’t wait for the fun that is still to come on this fantastic trip.