Summer surprised us

It was a summer like no other. I arrived in Canada as an exchange student and wound up living with a host family that was extremely eccentric. The mom fostered animals and the house was always filled with noise. The dad worked from home and found the noise to be very distracting.

On the morning of my second day, I woke up and I felt a strange cold sensation at my fingertips. The thing in my bed was scaly and it was slowly creeping up my arm. It was Poco, the fostered lizard that my host family had been nursing back to health. I bolted out of bed and ran into the bathroom where much to my horror, there was a giant tarantula hanging from the shower head. I decided to skip my shower and head downstairs for breakfast. At breakfast, Mimi, my home stay mom said,
"We're going on a trip to Stanley Park today!"
"Where's that and what is there to do there?" I asked.
The dad piped in, "We'll have to take the Lions Gate Bridge and drive through the park. It's a popular tourist destination with lots of very old trees."
I was not thrilled at the idea of going to a park with a lot of old trees. It sounded really ordinary. I didn't come to Canada to go see very old trees.
"Just wait, you'll see. You're going to have a great time at the park!" said Mimi.

At the park, we drove along the causeway and there actually were a lot of trees. I was staring out the car window when we pulled up alongside a woman renting bikes. My home stay parents suggested going on a bike ride along the Sea Wall. This did not sound very exciting to me, but I went along any way. I was right about it not being very exciting. Everyone kept stopping along the way and taking pictures of what seemed to me like just a normal city landscape. As we rode by Second Beach, I stopped when I heard the noises of an animal in distress. We pedaled hard to see a killer whale struggling on dry land. A crowd was gathered around the whale. When we asked them what was going on, the people told us they were trying to help the whale get back into the water. The lifeguards from the nearby pool brought the tarp that covers the pool to put under the whale so maybe the people could drag the whale back into the ocean, but it was nearly impossible to get the tarp under the whale. The day was getting hotter and everyone noticed that the whale's breath was getting more shallow. I then had the idea to run and grab the hose from the pool shed and sprayed water on the whale to keep it cool. As the water splashed over the whale, it gave a great jerk. At this moment, the tides which had been slowly rising got high enough so that the whale was able to push itself back into the water.

Now that I think back on it, this was actually a pretty fun summer. I had an amazing experience that most exchange students would never have.