Day 11

I can't believe our stay in Canada is coming to a close tomorrow...but not after some more fun today.

We started our day at a Hutterite Colony. Our hostess, Lydia, taught us what life was like living in a Hutterite Colony. The children aged 6 through 15 eat in their own dining room while the adults ate in their own dining, women on one side oldest to youngest and men on the other, also oldest to youngest. She explained that the women started cooking and in the bakery at 16, while the men did the farm work. They sell some of their baking goods in a local tourist town to make some extra money, but most of the colonies money is pooled together to pay bills, etc. The furniture is all hand made - and exquisite. It is amazing the craftsmenship (or crafts-womanship) that goes into it. The students had a chance to purchase some craft and household items from on of the young girls in the colony. As we left the colony behind, we had a good talk with the students about different stereotypes and what they thought about the Hutterites way of life. The conclusion was that they wouldn't want to live that, but that the people there seemed happy and that was what mattered.

From there we made our way to Drumheller (spelling might be wrong - all my notes are packed and ready for the trip home) where we had a scavenger hunt at the Royal Tyrrell Museum after having lunch in a park with the biggest T-Rex (even bigger than a real-life T-Rex. The students formed teams of 4 to complete the scavenger hunt and Team Awesome People answered the most questions correctly.

After an awesome experience at the museum we were off to East Coulee and the East Coulee School Museum where the students were able to experience a lesson with Mrs. Morrison, the world's strictest teacher, who is an expert on what teaching was like in the 1930's. I don't think the students will complain about their teachers next year.

Then we made our way back to Calgary and the Cascade Residence, stopping to check out the HooDoos and Horseshoe Canyon. Then it was a brief meeting and then on to packing showering and packing and getting ready for our 3 a.m. wake up call to be at the airport by 4 a.m. Our flight home is AA 1166, so keep checking the AA website in case there are any delays. It should take us a while to pass through customs once we arrive back home, but not too long.

Some fun things that you might want to ask your students about are:

1. "Sorry, Toaster broken"

2. Chuck offsets.

3. The Chuck of the Day.

4. Foofies.

5. How 7 layer bean dip compares to sedimentary rock.

It has been a joy traveling with each your students and we, the leaders, are glad you entrusted them in our care for the past 12 days. Speaking for myself, they all have a place in my heart and my door/phone/email/facebook is always open to them with their questions/need of recommendations/etc. any time!

See you all tomorrow!