This year on Victoria Day I celebrated the revolt against the British...
Je pense que J'ai beaucoup a ecrire.... I have so much, in fact, to say, that it is all being cut, so... follow the link if you have 5 hours to spare!
I last wrote Friday, I believe, before I went to the first welcome party, soiree de bienvenue, and much has happened since then. First of all, the party was pretty good.... I didn't get back from the mall with the other girls (roommates/ colocs) until late... almost 9, and the gumboot presentation began at 9, So... obviously, by the time I got ready to go I'd already missed that :P And then my coloc decided at the last minute that she wasn't going to go with, so I had to go by myself, which always sucks... but, of course, as soon as I got there I found some ppl I knew so no prob. And I was completely Shocked over the transformation of the cafeteria de l'ecole into a hoppin night club ;P It was pitch black apart from the colored lights and globes everywhere, with a big stage set up with the DJ spinning and a little bar set up in one corner that served beer for $3,00, pornstar shots and cocktails (strippers) for $2,70 and who knows what else! I ended up drinking pornstar drinks all night because I heard one girl order that in English (which they knew the name of) and I didn't know how to order anything else in French, so I stuck to those... and super surprised that I didn't end up with a hangover from all the sugar!
In any case, I only had 5 or so and then when it ended at 11:30 a bunch of us went over to le Bistro, which was definetly not a karaoke bar on Friday nights :P another club scene... I stayed for about an hour, but I'd lonly taken $20,00 out with me for once (SO SMART!!) so by this time I only had enough for 1 drink at le Bistro and was home by around 1. It was a pretty fun night, but I don't think I'll be planning too many more party nights while I'm here.... just wouldn't be able to afford...
Samedi (Saturday) was a free day, and since my permanent coloc, Audrey went home for the weekend, it was just Natalie and me. We both did studying for the morning and early afternoon an then decided to walk to the mall and go for a lil shopping before groceries... Of course, convenient for us, by the time we got allll the way to the mall (really onlky like 20 mins :P ) we discovered that it was closed.,,. apparently everything closes at 5 on Saturdays here :S So we just got groceries and came home and made a feast for souper avec vin.
Dimanche (Sunday) we met at the school at 9 and headed off to Parc Saguenay for a million hour and trillion mile climb straight up to the top of a rediculously steep and rockey mountain, called Cap Trinite which FINALLY resulted in a beautiful view of the entire fjord in the Saguenary riviere. This is North America's only fjord and 1100 feet above stands a statue of Virgin Mary, notre dame du saguenay, (lit. our lady of the Saguenay) that is 3 tonnes and 35 feet high, who supposedly watches over all sailors in the fjord below.
The story is something along the lines of this: in the late 19th century, some dude almost drowned in the fjord, but was miraculously saved and NATURALLY assumed it was Christ who saved him. So, OF course, it only made sense to erect a monstruous statue of the virgin mother mary on the highest point of the mountain surrounding the fjord as a sign of devotion to his saviour. I guess it took COUNTLESS times to finally figure out how to drag the humungous statue even to the foot of the mountain (it kept sinking),.. they finally towed it through the water in pieces and I won't even mention the effort it took to drag 3 tonnes of mother mary 1100 feet straight up a rocky tree-ey scary terrain.
So, nevermind That. Pity me for the effort it took Me to drag myself up that treacherous neverending vertical ascension. I honeslty thought I wasn't going to make it. A bunch of people did give up, and some got turned around because they were taking too long. Including one 65 year old guy, who I felt sooo bad for... The fact that he was making the effort and was inclined to complete this task that many 22 year olds couldn't finish, and despite his effort and intentions was refused the chance to finish. He completely missed out on the georgous view from the top, which made me sad. ANYway... I did finish, and was so proud of myself, yet VERY out of breath and covered in sweat (32 degree day!!!) but the view was way worth it. I'll see if I can't upload some pictures finally.
THEN... as if this post isn't long enough already... ;) Monday was Fete Nationale des Patriotes, which is essentially a replacement for Victoria Day, where the Quebec rather cebrate the rebellion against the British... the French opt for a rebellion of the saints day instead. ;) Lundi was like 35 degrees all day and N & I spent most of the day studying then walked downtown around centre ville and ate at a fancy shmancy francais restaurant (fondue du fromage et l'escargot!!!) which was pretty cool.
Finally... today was back to class for the morning, which went super fast because after some verb review, we played a game in groups of 4 which was essentially study for our first test tomorrow. It was super fun because the people in my group were awesome. Unfortunately I only came second place for correct forms of verb conjugations in le jeu :P Apres midi (after noon), I went on my first canoe trip, which was AWESOME! We went to Lac Simoncouche which is the same lake, cabin, camp area, etc that we will be taking a day trip to in a week or two and it was Beautiful! I was partners with a guy in my class that I've made friends with Albert, so it was actually fun. We had just over an hour to paddle around this little lake, and then we won the race on the way back to the cabin after. Next time we go we will have almost 2 hours, once a week for the next 2 weeks. I wish I had taken pictures of the lac, but I forgot my camera, so I will take some next week.
I think that is enough for now....! Bonsoir!!!!
I last wrote Friday, I believe, before I went to the first welcome party, soiree de bienvenue, and much has happened since then. First of all, the party was pretty good.... I didn't get back from the mall with the other girls (roommates/ colocs) until late... almost 9, and the gumboot presentation began at 9, So... obviously, by the time I got ready to go I'd already missed that :P And then my coloc decided at the last minute that she wasn't going to go with, so I had to go by myself, which always sucks... but, of course, as soon as I got there I found some ppl I knew so no prob. And I was completely Shocked over the transformation of the cafeteria de l'ecole into a hoppin night club ;P It was pitch black apart from the colored lights and globes everywhere, with a big stage set up with the DJ spinning and a little bar set up in one corner that served beer for $3,00, pornstar shots and cocktails (strippers) for $2,70 and who knows what else! I ended up drinking pornstar drinks all night because I heard one girl order that in English (which they knew the name of) and I didn't know how to order anything else in French, so I stuck to those... and super surprised that I didn't end up with a hangover from all the sugar!
In any case, I only had 5 or so and then when it ended at 11:30 a bunch of us went over to le Bistro, which was definetly not a karaoke bar on Friday nights :P another club scene... I stayed for about an hour, but I'd lonly taken $20,00 out with me for once (SO SMART!!) so by this time I only had enough for 1 drink at le Bistro and was home by around 1. It was a pretty fun night, but I don't think I'll be planning too many more party nights while I'm here.... just wouldn't be able to afford...
Samedi (Saturday) was a free day, and since my permanent coloc, Audrey went home for the weekend, it was just Natalie and me. We both did studying for the morning and early afternoon an then decided to walk to the mall and go for a lil shopping before groceries... Of course, convenient for us, by the time we got allll the way to the mall (really onlky like 20 mins :P ) we discovered that it was closed.,,. apparently everything closes at 5 on Saturdays here :S So we just got groceries and came home and made a feast for souper avec vin.
Dimanche (Sunday) we met at the school at 9 and headed off to Parc Saguenay for a million hour and trillion mile climb straight up to the top of a rediculously steep and rockey mountain, called Cap Trinite which FINALLY resulted in a beautiful view of the entire fjord in the Saguenary riviere. This is North America's only fjord and 1100 feet above stands a statue of Virgin Mary, notre dame du saguenay, (lit. our lady of the Saguenay) that is 3 tonnes and 35 feet high, who supposedly watches over all sailors in the fjord below.
The story is something along the lines of this: in the late 19th century, some dude almost drowned in the fjord, but was miraculously saved and NATURALLY assumed it was Christ who saved him. So, OF course, it only made sense to erect a monstruous statue of the virgin mother mary on the highest point of the mountain surrounding the fjord as a sign of devotion to his saviour. I guess it took COUNTLESS times to finally figure out how to drag the humungous statue even to the foot of the mountain (it kept sinking),.. they finally towed it through the water in pieces and I won't even mention the effort it took to drag 3 tonnes of mother mary 1100 feet straight up a rocky tree-ey scary terrain.
So, nevermind That. Pity me for the effort it took Me to drag myself up that treacherous neverending vertical ascension. I honeslty thought I wasn't going to make it. A bunch of people did give up, and some got turned around because they were taking too long. Including one 65 year old guy, who I felt sooo bad for... The fact that he was making the effort and was inclined to complete this task that many 22 year olds couldn't finish, and despite his effort and intentions was refused the chance to finish. He completely missed out on the georgous view from the top, which made me sad. ANYway... I did finish, and was so proud of myself, yet VERY out of breath and covered in sweat (32 degree day!!!) but the view was way worth it. I'll see if I can't upload some pictures finally.
THEN... as if this post isn't long enough already... ;) Monday was Fete Nationale des Patriotes, which is essentially a replacement for Victoria Day, where the Quebec rather cebrate the rebellion against the British... the French opt for a rebellion of the saints day instead. ;) Lundi was like 35 degrees all day and N & I spent most of the day studying then walked downtown around centre ville and ate at a fancy shmancy francais restaurant (fondue du fromage et l'escargot!!!) which was pretty cool.
Finally... today was back to class for the morning, which went super fast because after some verb review, we played a game in groups of 4 which was essentially study for our first test tomorrow. It was super fun because the people in my group were awesome. Unfortunately I only came second place for correct forms of verb conjugations in le jeu :P Apres midi (after noon), I went on my first canoe trip, which was AWESOME! We went to Lac Simoncouche which is the same lake, cabin, camp area, etc that we will be taking a day trip to in a week or two and it was Beautiful! I was partners with a guy in my class that I've made friends with Albert, so it was actually fun. We had just over an hour to paddle around this little lake, and then we won the race on the way back to the cabin after. Next time we go we will have almost 2 hours, once a week for the next 2 weeks. I wish I had taken pictures of the lac, but I forgot my camera, so I will take some next week.
I think that is enough for now....! Bonsoir!!!!