Italian teen spends Canada Day in Kincardine

Caroline Balbo is a long way from home, but she joined in waving Canadian flags on Canada Day in Kincardine.

The 17-year-old is from Vicenza, near Venice, Italy, and has spent the past week in Kincardine with her hosts, Ken and Linda Stanley, through a Lions International youth exchange.

She arrived Saturday night, June 27, in the middle of a rain storm, and the weather hasn't improved much, as Canada Day, itself, was a chilly 15 degrees Celsius.

Caroline says it's much warmer at home and much bigger, since Vicenza has a population of 110,000. However, she likes the small-town atmosphere of Kincardine and she loves being beside the lake.

With the Stanleys, she has been to a barbecue in Ripley, seen the sunsets along the lake, been to the Monday market downtown and the Keady Market, enjoyed the backyard pool, been biking, visited the Elora Gorge and seen the falls, and been to the Grand River car races and even taken a ride in the pace car. There were also plans to go to the Hanover Drive-In, and visit the Pine River Cheese Factory.

This is Caroline's first time in Canada and she likes it very much. "In Italy, we live in a flat in an apartment building," she says. "I like it here where each family has a house."

She is also enjoying the food here, particularly fish and chips, and French toast with maple syrup.

"The people are very kind," she says. "In Italy, it is not the same; here, most people say 'Hi'."

Friday, she will head out with the other exchange students to the Charlie Shaw Camp in Oliphant for a week, and she will then stay with a family in Blyth for two weeks before returning home.

While at the camp, she will visit the Lions Dog Guide School in Oakville, as well as Niagara Falls, the CN Tower, and Canada's Wonderland.

Back in Italy, she will be entering her fifth year of high school in the fall, and then she plans to go to university to become a doctor, possibly a psychotherapist or a pediatrician. Her father is a general practitioner, and her mother is a teacher. She also has an 18-year-old sister.

She would like to do more travelling, and she would definitely like to return to Canada.



Caroline Balbo (C) of Vicenza, Italy, waves Canadian flags with her Kincardine hosts, Linda (L) and Ken Stanley