After five weeks of crazy schedules, it feels unreal to be able to relax and just be home.
I flew back to Vancouver from Halifax, slept in my own bed and ate some real food.
A few final highlights from our last weeks of travel: We visited a Mennonite family, who fed us lunch, in Ontario.
We toured their museum with a Mennonite guide and learned about their simple lifestyle, which uses very little technology.
In Toronto, we got to meet a woman named Kim Phuc, which was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot about forgiveness.
Kim suffered napalm burns in the Vietnam War, and her photo as a little girl was on the front page of the New York Times. She explained that forgiving the people who waged war on her country was a long, slow process. But she said it's important that we always work towards forgiveness for people who have done us wrong. And we had some fun too. In Montreal, we tried Quebec poutine, which was really good, and we got to go shopping. Quebec City was next, where we enjoyed a night out at Cirque du Soleil.
We visited Fredericton, New Brunswick, and met with some Peace Bus alumni.
In Fredericton, a Peace Bus delegate's parents kindly hosted us. We went to an outdoor movie in a park, a first for most of the Peace Bussers, and a very cool experience.
The next day we went to Hopewell Rocks and stayed at a gorgeous ranch, where all the westbound Peace Bus delegates met our group of eastbound Peace Bussers, and the 25 of us were together for three days.
We rode horses and went to a climbing gym, enjoyed birthday cake (it was a delegate's birthday), and explored the Bay of Fundy (famous for its tides). At the Bay of Fundy, the tide was far out, so we dressed in our swimsuits to walk on the mudflats and have mud fights.
Of course, we then had to rinse the mud off, which one of our leaders did by blasting freezing cold water out of a hose at our shivering bodies.
When I think back on my five weeks on the Peace Bus, the things I miss the most are the 14 people I travelled with for those five weeks this summer, the people I now call my second family.
Annie Takaro, a Grade 9 student at New Westminster Secondary School, has been sending The Record updates on her journey on the "Peace Bus."
The bus carried a group of teenagers from across Canada through Children's International Summer Village, who made the cross -country trek to promote peace.
Annie has sent Record readers updates from her summer travels on the bus. This column is the last instalment in her journey. For more on Annie's travels, go to www.royalcityrecord.com.
