Day 47, August 5, Rest Day in Ottawa Ont.

Vanessa and Brett woke up early to grab a tour of Ottawa. Allan and I slept-in until around 10:00am, and then walked to Parliament to tour around. It was only a 10-minute walk from Joanne and Brittany’s apartment.

Allan and I toured for a couple hours, and then headed to Rideau Centre. We needed to buy Joanne a new cell phone charger so she could call a couple Alumni. We then walked to DFAT, where she is doing her internship.

We all headed to the restaurant were the Alumni reception was going to be held at around 5:00pm. Joanne was concerned very few Alumni were going to show up. At one point, she told me only 12 people were going to attend, and that included the four of us. As the time went on, more and more Alumni began to show up. I later found out she was trying to make me nervous. In the end, about 13 Alumni and 3 current students on Coop, attended the event. I really enjoyed talking to everyone, and hearing their U of L stories. They were all very interested in our travels, which we enjoyed talking about. We didn’t get out of the restaurant until 9:00pm. No one made an early exit. The event was incredibly motivating for the rest of the trip.

Special thanks to Joanne Luu for making the Alumni event happen. She sent 130 personal e-mails with follow-up phone calls to Alumni in the Ottawa region. I don’t know how she does it, but she does, so thanks again Jo! An interesting note: other than our trip, the formation of an Ottawa chapter was topic most Alumni were talking about.