On Wednesday we all woke up as prisoners. Our hostel was a former Yale. We slept with four or six persons in a two or three-cellblock. Most of the teachers and the pupils didn’t sleep very well. The rooms were small and we all had a matras with plastic on it. But for the whole group was sleeping in a former prison a special experience.At half past seven we had a simple but good breakfast. After our breakfast we went to the museum of science and technology: a beautiful museum that looked a little bit like the former Evoluon in Eindhoven. The museum was about different topics like the space program in the past, transportation by trains, cars en motorcycles, information and communication technology. We stayed in the museum for a couple of hours. At half past eleven we already took our lunch and after that we had a sightseeing in Ottawa. We drove along the Rideau Canal. The area around the park is now a day a national park. In the past it was used for transportation. In the winter it is frozen most of the time. The citizens from Ottawa used it al that time for skating. At the board they can buy chocolate-milk.

We saw the beautiful centre of this city. It was incredible for us. One of the most beautiful cities we ever have seen.

When Canada became a nation, the nation had a problem. The French Canadians wanted Montreal to become the capital. The English Canadians wanted Toronto. The government decided at that time that Ottawa, a very small village, got this big price. A village that was lying between English Ontario and French Quebec. It is a man made capital that started to grow at the end of the nineteenth century. Now a day it’s a town with one million inhabitants. A beautiful clean city with old and new buildings. Parliament Hill is the centre were all the old nineteenth and begin twentieth century buildings stand together.

We also visited the question hour off the parliament. We saw that the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Cretiën, got sometimes applause from his own party. We saw the difference between the Dutch parliament and the Canadian. In Canada there was emotion, yelling and lots of screaming. Compare to Canada, the parliament of the Netherlands seems to be very clean. When we visited the parliament question hour the group was divided. One group, the pupils with two teachers, had the honour to sit at the speaker’s area just between the Prime Minister of Norway. The rest of the group sat at the public area.

At half past three we all had time for shopping. We went to the pub.

In the evening we had a haunting tour. A guide in a black coat, with a candle in her hand and without a broom walked with us through the city. We heard ghost stories of different old buildings.

At half past eight the tour was finished. We went to a pub and drank a couple of bears. At twelve o’clock we went back to the prison.
Niek, Anton en Idalie

2college.

Report students by: Wim Janssen & Maartje Schollen

We waked up very early in the jail, because the breakfast was ready at 7.30AM. We waked up at 7 o’clock to go downstairs.

The breakfast was very simple: four different types of Cornflakes, some toast, muffins jam and coffee. So everyone could find something he liked.

After the breakfast we went to the Museum of Sciences and Technology. There was a lot to do: watching to different types of cars, locomotives and boats (also the Titanic). But you could do things yourself too: play computer games and do funny things with your own voice. There also was a place they called: “Crazy Kitchen”. That is a little kitchen, but it is totally slanting. So when you came in there, you lost your sense of balance, that was really weird. In another area (about space) you could see a real spaceship and you could do a quiz about space.

There was a demonstration location they called it DEMO. We saw there a feature presentation, about science and technology. A man did a lot of little tests there, for example a soup can race and they also let someone sit on a nail chair, and after the presentation everyone could sit on it.

In the time we’ve been in the museum, we walked there around and we could do whatever we want to do in that museum. In the time we were there, you couldn’t see everything.

At noon we had to be in the cafeteria from the museum. In that cafeteria we could eat something. Later we could go to the museum shop, to buy a card or a souvenir. Just before we left the museum we made a group picture.

After the lunch that we had eaten in the museum, we went to Parlement Hill in Ottawa. This is the building where the Parlement was established. This was one of the most beautiful buildings and it made me think a little bit of Londen.

The check was very strict, but there was no other way. It was ridiculous to see how the Speaker and his people in their weird costumes passed.

The conference itself was in the beginning funny. It was quiet nice to see how some people dried up and how some people got an applause. This never happens in the Netherlands. Later it was so boring I preferred to be in the hostel.

After that we had our own choise what we wanted to do. Some people went to the city for shopping. We went to walk with Harrie. We walked around Parlement Hill and we saw Ottawa was a beautiful city. We saw the locks. They were very impressive.

After that we went ourselves to the city for looking in stores and buying something. The most was of course Made In Taiwan, but some stuff was quiet nice.

I don’t get why Holland is the land of the tulips. In Ottawa were more tulips than wherever in Holland (except in the nurseries).

We ate in Yesterday and we were thinking of the next day. After dinner we have done the creepiest thing ever: a ghost-walk in Ottawa. Wow, it was so creepy we had nightmares that night. Some stories were quiet interesting, but we had imagined an other thing of a ghost-night. One nice story was about our hostel. Someone who has killed a politicos has been executed there. Now he is probably innocent. A good reason for haunting the place.

That night we waited hopefully for a ghost. We were disappointed so we wanted our money back! Later Jos told us he had seen a bible.