Melanie (13) has spent every spring weekend she can remember helping out on her family’s high volume maple syrup farm in Lanark County, ON. Her days are spent helping out in the forest, shop, processing plant and giving tours. In the evening, she and her two younger sisters like to step-dance to the tune of their granddad’s fiddle. Amrit (14) of Richmond Hill, ON, is passionate about classical North Indian, or "Kathak" dance. Her Indian heritage is a major part of her life: from food, to music to dance.

The Swap: Melanie has little knowledge of East Indian culture and its various art forms. She enters the exotic world of "Kathak" dance and is challenged to learn a choreographed routine and perform as part of a showcase. Meanwhile, Amrit has her hands full on a farm for the first time. She’ll experience a whole new appreciation for syrup through her challenges to snowshoe through the forest and tap a tree and prepare maple syrup the old fashioned way for tour guests.

SWAPPER JOURNAL - MELANIE

"I’m a maple syrup producer from the Ottawa Valley area and I had an awesome swap with Amrit, a Classical Indian Dancer from Toronto. I got to learn Kathak, an Indian dance, eat really spicy foods and hear Indian music! The most interesting thing that happened to me on my swap was when I got to try all these really REALLY spicy foods at an Indian restaurant! It was like eating lumps of stuff in weird coloured sauce! You’d never guess, but it tasted really good!

I’d like to thank the crew of SWAP-TV because they gave me one of the coolest experience I have ever had in my life!!!! I don’t think that I can ever forget this, it was the best thing I’ve ever done!"

SWAPPER JOURNAL: AMRIT

The entire journey to and from the Canadian countryside was definitely a memorable experience. I met great people, ate great maple syrup and absorbed the great Canadian landscape; one i had never seen. Everything I had been presented with, challenges, fun, and even moose meat, was new to be discovered by me. Basically an exhilarating experience, much appreciated. When I left the farm, Grandpa Ray came to the car and said told me to look at him as another grandfather for I was like his 4th grandchild, and having no grandfathers myself, I thought this was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said to me. A big thank you to the whole Fortune family, such a beautiful group of people!