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GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1,1, 1987—PAGE 1A
e students enjoy stay in G eric
activities here in Goderich
Finnish students impressed with
BY PATRICK RAFTIS
Residents of southwestern Ontario who
dream of travelling to destinations in
Europe might be surprised to learn there
are many Europeans with an equally -
strong desire to see this part of Canada.
At least that's been the experience of Ben
Hannan, of Kenilworth, who has the for-
midable task of being area co-ordinator
for the Manitoba', Ontario and Saskat-
chewan office of ASSE International Stu-
dent E,cchange Programs.
Hannan says this area is "highly
popular" with the European youngsters
involved in the program. .
"The word that spreads among the kids
in Europe is that this is a very friendly
part of the world. The families, are very
happy and they do a lot of things," he
said.
"Goderich, as well, has many services
to offer. There is a great high school,
with lot of programs that aren't
avail'`able to these students in their home
countries." •
Sanna Landenpera and Nina Clarin,
two Scanaanavian exchange students cur-
rently living with host families in
Goderich, would tend to agree with that
assesment. Sanna, from Finland, and
Nina, from Sweden, said while they found
the idea of living in a foreigncoun'try for
a year hard to get used to at first, they
are enjoying the experience immensely.
The girls arrived last August, and Nina
said the whole thing seemed just like a
holiday – at first. '
"Then school starts, and you realize
You are stuck here - well, stuck is not the
word 1 mean, but, you know, you realize
you can't just go home for a whole year,"
she said.
"Yeah, that's the scary part," agreed
another of the Eurpean students who
recently joined Sarnia and Nina in
Goderich for •a two-day visit to the town.
Five countries, Sweden, Finland, Nor-
way; Germany, Denmark and France,
were• represented by the seven 16 -19 -year-
old students visiting the home of Bob and
Sharon' Morris, in Goderich on Jan. 31
and Feb. 1': The students were accom-
panied by Hannan and his wife; and'trad
the opportunity to takein a number of
Goderich area attractions, including: the
Huron County Historic Jail, swimming '
and cross-country skiing at. Benmiller
Inn, a high-school. basketball tournament
at GDCI and a horse-drawn sleigh ride on
Blue Water Beach road.
Sanna has been staying with the Morris
family, while Nina is being hosted by
Dan and Murial Murphy, of Goderich.
Both girls have been exposed' to some
sightseeing outside the Goderich area
during their visit, including trips to such
spots as Toronto, Niagara Falls, Detroit
and others, giving them a chance to' ex-
perience a varied sampling of North
American culture. .
Saana was particularly impressed with
Toronto.
"It'sa nice clean town," she said.
She has also been impressed with the
variety of activities available in
Ggderich, somethirt she was nervous
about, coming from the Finnish town of
Joensuu, which has a population of about
50,000. She finds there is more to do here,
than in similar -sized municipalities in
Finland. Shre is a member of the local
figure skating club, as well as being in-
volved with such activities as cross-
country skiing, tennis and volleyball at
GDCI. Nina is also involved in volleyball
at the school.
The main purpose of the ASSE, said
Hannan, is to. "promote world understan-
ing and appreciation of different cultures
– getting people from different countries
to understand each other." Both the ex-
change student and the community they
visit can benefit from the experience, he
explained.
•
Sanna Landenpera, an exchange student from Finland, who is staying with a Goderich
family and attending Goderich [District Collegiate Institute this year, is also an active
member cif the local Goderich Figure Skating Club and participates in other local sports ac-
tivities. ( photo by Patrick ileitis)
"Put these kids i'n a high school and
kids can suddenly say 'what's it like over
there?"'
Being from Finland, Sanna recently
found herself taking a lot of kidding over
the result of the recent World Junior
Hockey Championships. When the Fin-
nish entry ended up with a gold medal
following disqualification to the Canadian
and Soviet teams for brawling, the
general opinion among Sanna's
classmates was that the Finnish team
didn't win the tournament on their own
merits. •
"I had to explain to them that Finnish
players are good too,'; said,the Grade 12
student, who has a keen interest in
hockey herself.
For Bob and Sharon Morris, hosting an
exchange student has been enlightening
in several ways.
"It's been a very enjoyable experience
in that, you have to live with someone
from a different culture, and yet, they
are a teenager and there's so much in
common among teenagers everywhere,"
said Sharon. The Morris' only child is
16 -month old. Janine, so having a
teenager in the house has been quite a
change of pace for them.
"I've never had a teenager before. She
international
visitors here
This group of international visitors spent
the weekend of Jan. 31 and' Feh. 1 in
Goderich, taking in such local activities
as a tour of the Huron Historic Jail and
the Benmiller Inn. The visit was organiz-
ed by ASSE International Student Ex-
change Programs and was attended by
exchange students from Finland,
Sweden, Norway; Denmark; France, and
West Germany. in the Back row are.San-
na Landenpera (centre) and Nina Clarin,
who are. spending the year with Goderich,
families. (photo by. Patrick Raftis)
giVes us a different perspective on
Canada," adds Sharon.
Currently, there are 176 European
students visiting Canada under the ASSF,
program and.Hannan said about 250 are
expected to take part next year.
The program promotes travel in both
directions, said Hannan, noting that there
are 85 Canadian students overseas on a -
one-year exchange right now and he ex- •
pects that number to increase to about
175 next year.
Hannan points out that the ASSE acts
only as an intermediary between the
student's and the .host families and does
not fund the trips. Students must pay the
entire cost themselves, from airline fees
to spending money. However, they are
provided with living accornodations
thrpugh the host family program.
For more information on, ASSE Inter.
national Student Exchange programs,
contact Ben Hannan, area'co-ordinator,
RR 4 Kenilworth, Ont., NOG 2E0,
telephone (519) 848-2002.
Discovering = _, d learning
go hand-in=h°. _�.d as
Victoria students learn
during
school spirit day
it was a day for discovery at Victoria
Public School last Thursday as the entire
student body took part in a Victoria Spirit
Day called "Discovery Day."
The day -long activities enabled the
children and teachers to learn more about
their classmates and students through
various types of collections:
Students were encouraged to bring in
items which they collected or something
that was of interest to them. During the
morning, students in each classroom
discovered each other's hobbies and in-
terests through displays and
demonstrations:
In the afternoon, the students were
divided into groups comprised of all
grades and toured each classroom to
"discover" the various collections. Some
collections were Cabbage Patch Kids,
Scottie. dogs, wrestling figures, bells, and
Smurfs.
---E;-ackelassroortt teacher wise -hada list of
FEATURE
REPORT
questions concerning items in the
classroom which each group had to find.
Each room also had a "what is it" box con-
taining an article which the students had to
identify by feeling only. Examples of
these items were shark's teeth, wood.
blocks, a nut cracker and a juicer.
Discovery day was designed to keep the
spirit of Victoria school upbeat as well as
providing a manner in which children
from all grades can meet and get along
with each other and, as one teacher said,
"It shows that anything can be turned into
a-learn'ing-expei it ice..""-
Thursday was Discovery Day at Victoria Public School. Throughout the day, students from
Kindergarten through to Grade 6 took part in displaying and demonstrating collections of
their interests, ranging from wrestling figures to Cabbage Patch dolls. In each classroom,
there was a box containing an item which the children had to identify without seeing. Here,
Jason Kerr reaebes inside-onenf-the• boxes while Eric Watt looks 41n. "What am .I" boxes
contained things such as Shark's teeth, wood blocks, a nutcracker and a juicer. (photo byrou- Tee
n p ,
13Y
WILLIAM
Tf10MAS
ring on those
great sounds
of summer
This is not the dead of winter. This is
not fierce, unforgiving February that
makes every Ontario native wish he were
born into a family of straw merchants
plying the market stalls of Freeport, The
Bahamas.
You insert a 100 -watt bulb into the
lamp, remove the shade and look directly
into the hght. It's too bright so put on a
pair of sunglasses. Your back aches a tit-
tle from the garden work so you stretch
out on the sofa. You close your eyes and
the sofa begins to sway gently like a ham-
mock and as you wipe the cold, full bottle
of brew across yourfforhead you smell.
. the fresh•clippings of -grass, you feel the
warm closeness of hot, dry July and you
hear... .
"Stieb's fasthall is high and away for
ball two."
"The batter Ruppert Jones, • since be-
ing brought up to the Tigers to replace
the injured Chet Lemon, is struggling
along with ,a mi•serable•.127 average but
you know, Tom, if.you look at his average
batting right against left-handers in
night games in Milwaukee in May, it's
really not all that bad." •
"So true, Jerry, so true. We'd like to re-
• mind, all you youngsters 'out there that
next .Saturday when the Boston Ked Sox
are in here it's Toronto Blue Jays Bat
Day • The' first. 250 youngsters accom-
panied • by adults who enter. Exhibition
Stadium will `be given an official Blue
Jay bat - one per youngster, no.more than
five youngsters per adult and bring a jar,
or something to put your bat in. last year
few fans got bitten carrying them
around in their pockets, and as you well
know, bats can carry 'rabies." -
"A'swing and a miss - strike two....two
and two on Jones."
"You know, • Torn, baseball players.
have kind of a cruel sense of humour
sometimes. The last time Detroit was in
here, a few balls skittered off the glove of
• ' Jays' first baseman Willie Upshaw. Well,
two days later when Upshaw bines .to
the park 'he finds a new glove in his
. locker. made by Mimico Iron and Dye
Company - solid steel.
• • A fool .tip gets away from Ernie
'Whitt...two and two."
"We'll fake this.opportunity'to remind
all you youngsters out there that Sunday
next when Milwaukee comes in here for a
double-header, the first game has been.
designated 'NuclearWaste Day' • so thea
first '400 kids who get into. Exhibition
Stadium will be presented with small
jars of nuclear waste, compliments of
Ontario Hydro and their Pickering
Nuclear Station. Again kids must be ac-
companied by adults, five kids per adult,
r one jar per kid."
"Jones swings and fouls it, off • behind
e en, ll "
"I scseree where stitwo Joaqanduintwo.Andujor got
th
nimselt a one -hitter in St. Louis last
night." • •
"That's right. ,Joaquin, that's quite a
name. It's pronounced 'wa-king...I
always wondered if there's a couple of lit-
tle guys running around the Andujar
home in Evanston, Illinois, by the name
•of 'Running' and 'Jumping' Andujar,".
"Curve ball, low and outside. Ball.
three. Three and two."
"Say what you want about Joaquin An-
dujar, Tom, but you get that guy's name
on a Scrabble board and you got at least
30 points looking you in the face."
"Full count on Jones."
"Old Buzzy Badawey was up here in
thebooth before the game and Old Buzzy
played right here in Toronto for the old
Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club and
Buzzy was saying how he first signed a
professional contract for a warm-up
jacket that had somebody else's' name'
across the back and $10 a game including
meal money."
Boy how times have changed...
"The fastball... Jones swings and .lines
it foul into the seats along the third base
line."
Not for Old Buzzy they haven't. He's
still selling newspapers on the corner of
Young and Eglinton.
"Stieb thirows to first to keep Trammel
honest."
"We'd like to .remind all you
youngsters out there to circle Friday, .Ju-
ly 6 on your calendar. That's an evening
game with the New York Yankees and
it's also 'Eternal Happiness Night'. The
first 500 youngsters that come through
the turnstiles at Ekhibition Stadium will
receive eternal happiness - one per
youngster and no more than 5 youngsters
per adult."
"Stieb's fantastic 2.08 ERA is having a
lot of trouble with Joves' feeble .127 bat=
ting average."
Yeah, but Tom you remember what old
Woody Hinky, the old 'Red Sox Socker' as
Woody was called - said about statistics -
old Woody used to work in a lumber
camp in northern Alberta in the off
season - that's where he got the name
Woody, his real name was Harold -
anW d used to like to tell the
yway Wood y
story of how there was 100 lumberjacks .-•
in that camp and..."
"A breaking pitch, swung on and again
fouled off."
"...1'fJ1 lumberjacks and two women
ccroks.,in- the kitchen and Woody says,one
of thl • men was having kind of an
Turn topage 2•