La Première Semaine

The first week is finished. Yikes. What a whirl-wind adventure. Vieux Québec, classes, la cabane a sucre, hiking in national parks, yes. It is an adventure here en Québec.

Classes are trés bon. Mon classe est pretty great. Our two profs are hilarious, and really awesome for us who are pretty new to the language. It's sort of like observing a grade one class. We sing songs, we practice making sounds with our mouths, count, say the alphabet, introduce ourselves and spell our names. We even got some verbal mental math the other day. Pretty sweet. We have people from all across Canada, as well as the US and Holland. Every class is an adventure. AND we have homework! So, you know, that's cool too.

Thursday we went to la cabane a sucre. They make maple syrup. C'est trés bon. Je mange un bon répas. Syrup in everything. In the soup. On the bread. On the main course of meat pies, saussages, eggs, etc. On the crepes for dessert. They had a drink that is "the drink of the cabane a sucre", and they call it caribou. Don't worry. It's vegetarian. Also, I have the recipe. Get ready. We learned some traditional Québecois dancing (ala square dance in SK), and after we worked ourselves up on the dance floor, we got "tire sur la neige". Now, maintennant il y a pas de neige, SO, they fill troughs with shaved ice, pour the cooked syrup on it, then you roll the syrup with a stick to make a sort of sucker of ice and syrup, then eat it quick, because as it warms up it becomes less like a sucker and more like a mess of syrup on your face, or in my case, in a beard. It was a LOT of fun, and some fantastic meals. Check out the photos here:

http://gallery.me.com/disneyd/100128

The rest of the afternoons have been filled with busywork, homework, finishing setting up my space here, dealing with paperwork things, and adventures into Vieux Québec. Check out some of THOSE photos here:

http://gallery.me.com/disneyd/100132

Today we went on a hike (randonée) a la parc du Jaques Cartier. It is part of the National Parks system, and a pretty cool place. We didn't get to explore too much, BUT, our hike was trés cool. The animateurs said that it was among the most difficile hikes in the area, so we were excited. After a lot of rocks, mud, nearly falling, losing the main group, and un peux de geocaching, we made it to the top for our lunch break. It was pretty awesome. La montagne est not like the west. They are covered in trees bottom to top, despite the fact that they are growing in rock. It's pretty cool. All in all about 10 km. The way up was MUCH faster than the way down. Check out the photos here:

http://gallery.me.com/disneyd/100111

Tomorrow J'espere a allez a the festival d'été du Québec. The Proclaimers and The Brian Setzer Orchestra is playing. So that would be pretty cool.

Alas. It is time again to clock out. I'll update some more in the near future. Depending on how many adventures come my way, and how much time I have to blog about it. Until then.

Bonne Journée!

d

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Bon soirée!

La vie en Québec! C'est magnifique!

Actually, after day one I am slightly overwhelmed. After a weekend to orient myself, classes will begin tomorrow. I FINALLY got the internet set up, SO here is my first post en Québec!

I arrived Saturday evening, and spent Sunday getting acquainted with Université Laval, and walked down to Vieux Québec (old Québec. It was very beautiful and I managed to find a few great spots to relax and manger une repas.

Aprés un bon day exploring the Haute-Ville and the Basse-Ville (upper and lower town), I stopped for dinner at a small pub and chatted with a french teacher who was in the city for 3 weeks for a conference (Sweet!). Aprés ca, I walked back to Uni and promptly collapsed. I have included a few photos of my adventures.



Today we had our oral test, which confirmed that I am in elementaire B....the most basic course is elementaire A....so you get the picture. I have met some friends (phew) whose language spans from elementaire B to Intermediate Advanced. So there's a good mix. Most are staying in residence, though one is with a host family.

They gave us lists of events that we can take in on weekends, and they range from whitewater rafting, whale watching and hiking to going to a large waterslide park (think kenosee on steroids), going to beaches, and more. They all sound pretty exciting. We're attempting to get on the list early to ensure we get in some good stuff.

That is all for this evening. My brain is sore from concentrating so hard during the hour and a half assembly to understand what the animateurs were saying in French. lol. It needs a rest before our social event this evening.

Stay tuned for more adventures from la belle province.

Bon nuit,

Derek

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