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.
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| Beach Day! |
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| 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
Your prof is a total dweeb! If it wasn't for the fact that you're not learning as much as you should, I'm sure you would have actually found his unconventional methods more enjoyable. An hour of singing a day is a lot, I didn't know you had signed up for a musical academy!
ReplyDeleteOn a brighter note, that breakfast looks fab! Eggs benny I presume?
Tu me manques!