Je suis une francophone!

Salut!

My upkeep with writing in this blog hasn't been great, I know, but this is because life has been pretty busy as of late! The last couple weeks have consisted of lots of schoolwork, tests, and a trip to Quebec City. The latter was obviously the highlight because Quebec City is gorgeous! After visiting there, I really understand what people mean when they say Quebec is a "must see" province! Montreal and Trois-Riveres are beautiful in their own rights as well, but Quebec City is like a whole other world! It reminded me of Europe a great deal and I was fortunate enough to be there in time for the city's summer festival. Again, lots of incredible musical talents, street performers and fun! I stayed there for two days/one night with a big group of girlfriends. Our first morning consisted of a guided tour of the city, where we had a chance to see some of the city's famous landmarks, including Chateau Frontenac, the National Assembly building, and historic Old Quebec. My favourite was Old Quebec, where quaint little shops and unique restaurants line cobblestone streets. Artwork and culture are ever present in Quebec and it was a pleasure to be a tourist in such a place. The Explore program set up an afternoon excursion to Chute Montmorency, a large waterfall on the Montmorency River. We walked a trail around the entire fall, which ended up being quite the hike on a pretty hot day – it was beautiful though and worth the effort! By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty beat and ended up at a restaurant called "L'Accent" for lunch. This is where I had my first real Quebecois poutine, and not going to lie, I wasn't all that impressed. Laily had already warned me that in Quebec, cheese curds are used in poutine instead of cheese that melts and I have to say that I'm not really into it. I guess that's a good thing though, since I don't necessarily want to love something so unhealthy! After dinner, we headed to our hostel where we got ready for a night on the town. It was such a fun time getting to explore Quebec City at night! The Festival was well under way and there were hundreds of people celebrating on the streets. We ended our day at "Dagobert," one of Quebec City's most popular spots for dancing, where we ran into pretty much all of the other Explore kids who were staying in Quebec City for the night. The next day was spent exploring the town further, before hopping back on buses to return to Trois Rivieres. 

On Fridays, classes end at 12:30 rather than the usual 3:00 pm. On the Friday before we left for Quebec City, Explore set up an excursion to the local beach for some fun in the sun! This past Friday we experienced a pretty crazy storm – rain, wind and thunder. I had been feeling slightly under the weather, (daily transitions between the intense heat outside and icy air-conditioned buildings began to take a toll) so I spent the entire day indoors, resting and enjoying some alone time. This entire weekend has been a chill one – kicked off Saturday with a run and brunch with my roommates, and spent the night dancing in centreville, while Sunday consisted of lounging poolside all day. I love lazy weekends like these! 

On the school front, things are alright... I've been struggling quite a bit with the professor who teaches my group, because I've found his teaching methods to be pretty unhelpful so far. We spend one hour each day (that's one third of our class time) singing children's songs – no joke. The other two hours are spent marking homework from the day before (which usually tends to be simple worksheets) and playing occasional children's games in French. My friend who is in the same level as me but with another professor tells me that they're learning so much and they don't sing at all! Unfortunately, my professor's lack of a holistic method has meant that we're not learning enough grammar and vocabulary. There are a few other people in my class who are equally frustrated with him and we've tried voicing our concerns, but unfortunately he doesn't agree that singing is unhelpful for language students. Thankfully, my tutorials have been great – one is a conversation class, and the other is a computer lab with lots of helpful software to study from! I've been making the best of the situation by teaching myself as much as possible, and I definitely feel that practicing my French after leaving the classroom has helped a lot. After all, while in Explore "je suis une Francophone!" I'm definitely going to continue to advance my French after the program ends.

Beach Day! 

Love Quebecois breakfasts!

I can't believe that there are only two weeks left here. Although I'm having a great time and am really happy to have met some of the friends I've made, I definitely feel like I'll be ready to move on by the end because I'm excited for what comes next! I'll be visiting with Laily again for another week before continuing on to see my family in Toronto. After that comes Hamburg! 

Well, that's all for now. Bon soiree!

XO

Commencer.

Bonjour!

So I’ve returned to the gracious convenience of blogging, in an effort to remain alive in the worlds of my dear ones at home. Also, I skimmed old blog entries from Fiji and I have to say that the ability to read back about emotions, discoveries and thoughts from adventures that have passed is pretty incredible. With that said, I’m still in Canada for now, so I don’t know if my posts will be nearly as exciting as past ones and I probably won’t have tons to say until I continue my travels later in the summer... regardless, I’ve been asked by a few people to try, so this is for you guys :)

For starters, tonight is the first time that I’ve turned my laptop on (from its airplane friendly off mode) since being in Quebec. Pretty crazy how busy I’ve been in my first week and a half of arriving! Regardless, je suis au Quebec et je suis heureux! 

My first few days in Quebec were spent staying with my wonderful cousins, Laily and Mehdi - they are the coolest! I enjoyed my time with them so much and am so grateful for their love and hospitality. Our cousin Sonia came to visit and ended up staying at Laily's for two nights as well! It was such a fun time. Alongside spending some quality time catching up, we managed to do some touristy things in Montreal as well. This included breakfast dates at some pretty stellar breakfast restaurants (I’ve come to learn that the Quebecois take their breakfast and cafés very seriously), one full day of sightseeing in Montreal, and an evening of music at the International Montreal Jazz Festival! I was really attracted to all that Montreal has to offer... there are several little areas with varying artistic and cultural things to see and experience. Also, I haven’t seen as much live street music in one day as I did during my one day in Montreal! I’ll be returning there for about one week after my program is over, so I’ll have more to share then!

Premier Moisson, a delicious café in Montreal.

Family!

Performers at the Jazz Festival.

International Montreal Jazz Festival.

Montreal streets.

A second-hand shop in Montreal. Aka ART.

The day they dropped me off in Trois Rivieres!

Currently, I’m staying in a small town called Trois-Rivières, which is situated somewhere between Montreal and Quebec City. It’s a quaint town with far more Francophone people than the province’s bigger cities, which is precisely why I chose to come here. I had heard that attempting to learn French in Montreal would be futile, as residents immediately opt for speaking English upon detecting an Anglophone accent. After the few days I spent in Montreal, I can attest to that! So, my hopes of being fully immersed brought me here and I am glad because I have to say that my French has already improved! I am here for a five week intensive French program that is subsidized by the federal government (yes, I too was surprised to learn that they care to support education after all!). My weekdays consist of 5 hours of French class and tutorials. In addition, we participants were required to swear an oath to speak ONLY in French for the entire five weeks that we are here. Thankfully, this really only applies to public places (meaning anywhere on campus, excluding our apartments). With that said, this aspect of the program is taken extremely seriously – we have been warned that local business owners and taxi drivers are aware of our program rules and have been encouraged to give us "red cards" should they hear us speaking in English. This means we're constantly checking our shoulders while out and about in town, because should we receive a maximum of three red cards, we would be expelled from the program. As you can imagine, this is pretty intense – being required to constantly speak in a language that I am not yet fluent in can be mentally exhausting. Despite the occasional difficulties, I am glad that the program is set up in this way because I have to say that I have absorbed more in one week of being here than I did in half of a semester of French classes in high school or uni!

Anywho, some fun updates include the fact that I’ve met a few really cool people out here. I’m living in a four-person apartment with 3 other ladies... two of whom are from Vancouver, while the other is from Ottawa. Also, I should mention that one of the people who I’ve hung out with most since being out here happens to know Iwona from high school, also works at Lougheed Mall and lives down the street from me. Small world! A few of the other girls I've come to know are from various parts of Canada. Together we've explored the centre-ville (Trois-Rivières’s downtown, which is a ten minute drive away from our university campus), spent some time at the campus pub where there are karaoke nights and good music, and checked out the local music festival which is running for two weeks while we are here! The festival offered some great music on Canada Day and I enjoyed getting to see how the locals here celebrate the holiday.

The Music Festival in Trois Rivieres!

Karaoke night!

Yep.

The one downside to Trois-Rivières is that the food and restaurants out here are pretty bad. For example, on Canada Day a group of us went to a restaurant where we were made to wait 45 minutes for our food, failed to ever receive water refills, and were tricked into getting extra cheese on our pasta (which we were subsequently charged $4.00 for without being told in advance). On top of all that, we all disliked our meals because the pasta was super bland – and in my case burnt! Oh, and I paid $30 for just that dish. Haha. It was an experience, that’s for sure. The cafeteria food that we are fed with as part of the program is not great either... the salad bar is the only healthy option and I can’t say that it has the freshest food. In Fiji, I would buy my own fresh produce and food, and the restaurant options were always delicious and well priced. In Vancouver, we’re pretty spoiled with our abundance of restaurant options, service and fresh produce markets as well. So that’s been the only real adjustment for me, which I’m making the best of by buying my own food from the local IGA on occasion. OH, and the heat here can be intense... super humid and hot, but I don’t mind that because I’m just happy that it’s summer. Plus, Suva prepared me well for that!

This past weekend I went to Montreal again for two nights so that I could spend Laily's birthday with her. It was such a nice visit and a great way to distance myself from the intensity of living in a Francophone world on campus for a bit! Since returning to uni, I've been ready to learn and am happy about my little life here. There's a trail right outside my apartment that I've been going for runs on which has been fun! I also finally set up my internet connection and decided to write a bit. That brings me to the end! I’ve rambled on for days... sorry for making this read such a long one, and if you’ve managed to make it to here, kudos! Haha. I’m missing you guys, who know who you are :)

Gros bisous,
Ghazal < 3 

View from a run last week.

Getting creative with food!

Bonne fête a toi! 

With my lovely Laily on her birthday!