News from RSIC in Ontario, Canada, hosted by Appleby College
September 29th – October 5th

10/7/2018 – by Alex Goldman

On Wednesday, we woke up at 7:00 for our last day at Muskoka Woods Camp. After packing away our Muskoka linens, finishing packing up, and having breakfast, we met up with our barazza leaders. Our Barazza (Salamanders) activities consisted of making a square out of a large circle of rope with our eyes closed, a tile-matching game, tennis, and pickleball. We were then divided into buses based on our Barazzas and spent the next three hours driving back to Appleby College. We listened to a speech about diversity and development from the ex-Governor General of Canada, who was an immigrant from Hong Kong herself. Finally, we were picked up by our homestay families and we were taken out to dinner before preparing for the next day’s scavenger hunt.

9/29/2018 – by Kathy Fan

Today was our last day in Quebec City. We left the hotel for the Quebec airport in the morning.
Our destination was Appleby College, an international private school in Oakville, Ontario. We were picked up by Appleby students and Round Square leaders when we arrived in Toronto.
After checking in, Appleby was introduced to us during a campus tour. Their school is not only diverse, but also looks like Hogwarts, just like us, but with a complete housing system that competes through points. Shoutout to council, the housing system looked super fun, we have to step it up!
Later, we attended the opening ceremony in a ice hockey arena, before heading to our homestay/hotels.

9/28/2018 – by Alex Goldman

We started off with a light breakfast and we walked to a bus stop and boarded a bus (some individuals had balance issues when they tried to stand up in the bus). After arriving at the Plains of Abraham, we were educated about the battle that took place there, and our group was divided into British and French “armies” and educated in “drills.” After I was asked to act out a leg amputation, I took my peg leg and 45-60% chance of survival, and we explored the battlefield before heading off to lunch. For lunch, we visited a genuine creperie. Then we walked around the city and looked for souvenirs when Ishaan found out that a fur blanket costs $4000 and might not make the best souvenir. We visited and were given tour of Quebec’s parliamentary building, which is very relevant since their elections are on October 1st. Finally, we went to a local museum which had a great exhibit about the history of Quebec’s indigenous population and ended our day with dinner at a pizzeria and a stop by a local tea house.

9/27/2018 – by Gabriel Baez

Today we arrived in Quebec where we’ll be spending the first two nights of our trip. We were all awestruck by the magnificent trees which had already begun their fall color transformation and the overall range of topography. We spent some time walking around the small Old Quebec City, which is home to less than 1000 residents. The Old City is marked off from the modern Quebec City by a wall that surrounds the old city with the coastline of the Lawrence River. We stopped for photos at a statue by the water that overlooked the Lawrence River. We finally stopped for dinner at a restaurant called Le Chic Shack, not to be confused with Shake Shack, however they had similar menus.