Polyvalente Louis-Mailloux - les premiers jours!

This week was my first week at Polyvalente Louis-Mailloux. 

Some things right off the bat about this school:

-They have a cafeteria and I ate at it. This was exciting for me.

-The school colours are green and gold just like PHSS and UNBC.

-They have a medium sized school bus (not a short bus!) for the sports team which is painted green and gold.

-There are murals painted by students all throughout the school.

-I'm not sure how many staff members there actually are but I've counted over 30 in the staff room at once.

-The school loves Survivor and all the English classes watch it on Fridays!

Anyways, being in the school has been a huge challenge/confusing thus far, but each day is better than the last. It's challenging and confusing because there are four English teachers that I'm working with/for, and it's hard to understand who expects what of me when. Also, while I only speak English with the students, I am expected to converse in French with staff and I am having a difficult time understanding and communicating well! I have been speaking in English with the English teachers so far.

I have a schedule now though, I have a different assigned teacher for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So on those days I'll be doing activities with their English classes. On Mondays and Fridays I will do prep work and mock interviews with the students. Oh, I also feel very important because I have my very own desk in the English department room!

This week I got the opportunity to sit in on some of the classes I'll be working in. I am working with grades 9-12. They are further separated into A-, and B-track (bilingual) classes. So far the students seem interested in learning and practicing English. There are intensive English programs for the grade 9 students. They take English for 2 hours a day. One of these intensive programs is paired with an art class which I think is pretty cool!

In one of the grade 10 classes the teacher introduced me to the class. One boy in the front row couldn't even look at me as he said to his teacher, "What is her name? Her name is Cah-sahhn-drahh? My dog is named Cah-sahhn-drah!". Then the entire class and myself started laughing, and the teacher was like "Well, your dog has a person's name, she does not have a dog's name!". I'm not sure why it was so funny but it sure was! 

The students all have very lovely names and I'm working hard to learn them, as well as learn the pronounciation. Many of the names are spelt the same as names I am familiar with, yet here they are pronounced completely differently.

Next week I will be doing presentations to the class on myself so that they can get an idea of who I am. I'll also be beginning to do activities with them this upcoming week! I hope they're able to understand me.

At home I have started "watching", well just having the TV turned on, to try and better understand French. So far my favourite thing to watch is Dora la Exploratrice! She talks in French and teaches English. It's very amusing and I understand it. I think I need to watch something a bit more challenging!

Coast to Coast FOR REAL!

For anyone who really knows me I will say something over and over again, finally saying FOR REAL. Anyways I know I did a blog post already that I had made it from Coast to Coast, and sure I had, but now I can say I've made it from Coast to Coast FOR REAL! This post is about a week overdue but better late than never, right?

Anyways, last Friday morning Erin (the English Language Assistant from Shippagan) and I set off on a trip to further explore the maritimes. We took the scenic shore route down through New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. The drive was beautiful. We were hoping to find some nice seafood for lunch but we didn't find many places to eat and when we finally did settle on something it was a greasy deepfried seafood place but it was alright! I forget the name of the town, but it was really interesting in that there was a group of about 30 kids there getting slurpies who were so bilingual. They all went back and forth from speaking French and English, some with accents, some without, replying to one another in opposite languages, mixing words of the two languages. It was really interesting to follow! Further along the way we stopped at Shediac to take some pictures with the World's Largest Lobster.

Confederation Bridge was super cool! You can all ask Erin but I'm pretty sure I squealed the whole way across! I was so amused by the ups and downs and the curve to it, but kind of disappointed that you couldn't really see off it. You could see PEI as you were nearing the end of the bridge though and it was so cool to see all the red cliffs and scattered lighthouses along the shore. We spent some time driving around trying to find Gamble's Corner, a place where Erin's family has history. We think we found it, but it's been so many years since she was there she wasn't entirely sure!

For dinner we were set on fresh PEI veggies and potatoes to be cooked over a campfire. First we found a self-serve potato stand, and then a self-serve veggie stand with a pretty limited selection given it was the evening, but then we found a couple of farmers sitting around selling veggies. We bought so much and had a good time chatting with them for awhile. Right next to their place was a little home with a sign claiming it was The Birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery. The farmers told us that that wasn't actually the house, the real house had burnt down, and they had moved that one there! We felt kind of silly because we had just taken a picture of it! They were able to give us some suggestions for a campsite for the evening and we made our way there quickly since it was getting late.

We camped out on Southern Coast of PEI at Linkletter Provincial Park. It was so windy that we had to park my car to block the wind, and we still had difficulty getting the fire started. We ended up using hand sanitizer since it was the most flammable thing we had! Our fire roasted veggies for dinner were fabulous.

In the morning I went in a 10K running race in Summerside. It was a fundraiser for the local hospital. I actually have no idea how many people ran in it but it was a lot of fun. I got 4th in my category, 9 seconds after the girl who placed 3rd! Once I realized that I kind of wished I had run a little harder! It was a nice route though, through town and along the Confederation Trail. After the run they had all sorts of food for us so it really was a great time!

For the afternoon we went up to the Northern Shores. We were going to go to Cavendish but the beaches were closed to swimming so we didn't pay to go in to the National Park. Instead we went out to North Rustico to go to the beach. I went swimming for about 15 seconds because Erin really wanted to swim. It was terribly cold because it was so windy out, but I can now say I've swam in the Atlantic Ocean! After our "swim" we climbed around on the sand dunes and along the old falling apart jetty. Before leaving Prince Edward Island we went to get COWS ice cream. COWS ice cream is my favourite and it's originally from PEI so that was very exciting for me!

We left PEI for Nova Scotia on Saturday night because Natalie would be arriving at the airport in Halifax on Sunday. She is going to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. I thought it would be a lot of fun to surprise her at the airport and take her to the university. I wanted to do something epic though. So, before leaving PEI I bought a lobster trap to fill with goodies for her as a welcome basket. Anyways, more about this later.

For dinner we stopped at the Old Germany Restaurant in Amherst, Nova Scotia. We couldn't find anywhere to eat in this town before coming across this restaurant! There had been a huge apartment fire in town and most of the conjoined buildings were closed. Thankfully no one was hurt in the fire. We stumbled in to the restaurant 10 minutes before the kitchen was to close and offered to leave when we saw that sign. They were so nice though and told us to stay. We had a great time chatting with the waitress and chef. The restaurant is usually run by the chef and his wife, but she was sick, so her friend was helping out. It was a nice dinner but it went pretty late.

We wanted to drive all the way to Halifax that night and we did, finding a Walmart parking lot to spend the night. I have to say that was my most sketch Walmart camping night experience. First of all there were no campers or RVs there. There were tons of random creepy people, and teens loitering about in the parking lot. Something I find very amusing about the East Coast is that tons of kids still ride those Razor scooters. On this trip I saw this three separate times! Anyways we survived the night in the Walmart parking lot. The highlight of the night was probably when we were trying to put all of our stuff in the front seat so that there was room to sleep in the back. Remember that we have a lobster trap... Lobster traps are quite large. I could probably fit in a lobster trap. Erin tried to put it across the front two seats on top of all our other stuff and broke my rearview mirror right off the window! It was the funniest thing ever to me although she felt terrible. Miraculously it was still gluey so we managed to reattach it for now!

In the morning we went in to Halifax for a few hours and walked along the boardwalk. I saw Theodore the Tugboat and all sorts of other neat ships. We didn't have nearly enough time there. We went down to the little marketplace and had Indian food for a breakfast/lunch. Then we had to rush off to meet Natalie at the airport. We went the wrong way twice and I was so worried that we weren't going to make it on time! Erin and I had a plan that she would pretend to be a representative from St FX to meet Natalie. So I dropped Erin off with the lobster trap while I went to get parking. Luckily I got in to the airport before Natalie did. An Air Canada worker had already asked Erin what the lobster trap was all about and so she took me into special baggage so that I could have a good view of what was to unfold with Natalie getting off the plane.

Erin had a bright orange sign that said Nathalie Cameron (yes, we spelt her name wrong because I thought it would be funny). Natalie at first went straight to baggage but then saw the sign and walked up to Erin. Erin, who spent the summer working at a Ukrainian village pulled out her accent and pretended to be an exchange student from Ukraine studying at St FX. She had all sorts of details about Natalie and confirmed that she had paid for the $400 welcome, right? Apparently Natalie just kept saying "I'm so confused, I don't understand.". I enjoyed watching this for awhile and then Erin brought her to special baggage to get her guitar and there I was! It was really funny. Hopefully Natalie and/or Erin will post their side of this story on here since I was behind glass for most of it!

The drive to Antigonish was a nice one, not too long. The St FX campus is so cool! The buildings are so old and neat. So many of the people working there were St FX graduates, and I could tell this by their X rings. Natalie's residence is so nice! I always used to think that UNBC had the nicest "suites" for residence, but I think St FX has taken that title. They're a lot roomier and have nice laminate flooring and wooden cabinets. A four bedroom suite has two bathrooms so you only share a bathroom with one person. The three of us had a pretty chill evening as Natalie's roommates hadn't arrived yet. I ate candy while Natalie and Erin played guitar and sang. It was lovely.

Erin and I left Antigonish fairly early on Monday morning since we would be starting work on Tuesday morning. We didn't even make it out of Nova Scotia before we were distracted be a lavender farm! We stopped to check it out and buy some different lavender products. The owner/farmer gave us a presentation as well. We tried lavender cookies and next time we'll try lavender ice cream. The drive back to the Acadian peninsula felt a little long because we were so tired from our busy trip but it was so much fun and I'm really glad that we did it!

CARAQUET!!!

Well I'm here in Caraquet, New Brunswick! I've officially made it Coast to Coast, in that I have been from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Caraquet is lovely. Caraquet is the capital of the Acadia and the residents here certainly sport that. About two weeks ago they had their Acadian festival, Tintamarre, so I don't know how much display is left from that, but, almost every yard has an Acadian flag flying! People have ribbons and bows of red, white and blue on their homes. Telephone poles are painted with the Acadian flag at the base. It is so cool. These people are so proud to display and are so passionate of their heritage and culture.

The maritimes are amazing as well. This is my first time this far East and it's all I could have imagined and more! Lobster is cheaper than crab here, and you can get it just about anyway, anywhere! Whole lobster from a roadside stand, or lobster panini from a cafe anyone? There are lobster traps just sitting in people's yards. Caraquet is also the "Oyster Capital" and they even has an Oyster-Eco Museum here. The marinas and the homes are just as they are portrayed in pictures and movies too.

Just outside of Caraquet is an Acadian village. I think it's similar to Barkerville in that they have preserved and enhanced what was there in the past, and have people working there to give you an experience of what it once was. I hope to go visit it soon!

I have been finding a lot to do and explore here already. There is a walking path along the banks over the ocean, and many beaches and jetties to walk out on to. The playground by the marina is totally nautical with boats to climb. There is a lighthouse near my home, and windmills far in the distance. So far every evening has been incredibly windy and the ocean is dark and stormy.

As for my home I have a basement suite. It is a lot bigger than I imagined it was going to be. Today I'll hopefully try to walk to my school to see just how far it is from where I live. On Tuesday I have a meeting down in Tracadie-Sheila with the regional Odyssey advisor and the other language assistants from the Acadian peninsula. I'm still not sure what day I'll actually start in the school.

Sunday August 26th we split ways

On Sunday morning the three of us went for brunch at Mike's. It was so good! For everyone who has always told me that cheese and apple go well together - I finally believe you! I had a three cheese apple breakfast pizza, and Grayden got chocolate hazelnut banana crepes. They also had another type of pizza there that had the crust cut into small points so that it looked like a sun! It was beautiful; I want to try doing that sometime.

After brunch we began to toss around the idea that Papa and Grayden accompany me to Caraquet to see the town where I would be living. We did things the old fashioned way and actually went to the airport to inquire about flights! I've never gone to airport to ask about and book flights so that was very interesting to me. It turned out that flights from New Brunswick were going to be almost double that of from Quebec City, so the boys ended up booking their flights from Quebec City, and for a few hours later, as that was the cheapest option. It was too bad they had to go so soon, but I was able to get on my way to Caraquet, and Grayden could get organized for school.

After they went through security I began my lone road trip. There was so much construction going on and I almost made it all the way through to the highway I wanted on my first try! After about 15 minutes of navigating construction zones and guessing on temporary signage I had made it across the bridge to Levis, but took a wrong exit coming off the bridge which put me back on the same bridge driving back to Quebec City! Because of all the construction I had to backtrack almost all the way to airport, but I got the route right the second time and was on my way.

I think out of all provinces I have driven a lot through, Quebec has the cutest small towns. The houses and the yards are just so neat. The highway through Quebec to New Brunswick wound along the riverside and there were a lot of farms. I was driving on a Sunday and I must have passed at least 20-30 garage sales in people's yards! I think it is something they do often because many of them had fairly permanent signage, and open sheds that were so well set up like little shops! I wish I had had cash on me and then I would have stopped and looked around.

I spent Sunday night at a hotel in Edmundston. The hotel was a Days Inn but it was so old-fashioned and had so much character to it. Edmundston was very French, as has been every single town I've passed through in New Brunswick. My understanding is that the northern portion of the province is mainly French, while the lower portion is more densely population and English-speaking.

Monday morning I began my drive to Caraquet. Along the way were many more small towns. The drive was gorgeous. It was hills up and down, and forest all around.

Odyssey Pan-Canadian Training Session, Quebec City

Oh dear, it has been too long since I wrote in this blog. I'll do my best to remember all the fun things I did, and all the cool things I saw while in Quebec City! I am currently still here, and probably will be for another day. Papa and Grayden will fly back to Vancouver in a day or two, and then I will begin to drive to Caraquet, taking two days to get there. According to google maps the drive is about 8 hours but I want to explore along the way.

Before checking in to my hotel for the training session on Thursday, Papa, Grayden and I walked around and explored Quebec City. We got Libyan wraps for lunch and watched some street performers. It was so nice and hot.

There were over 300 language assistants at the Odyssey Pan-Canadian Training Session. We stayed at the Delta Hotel right outside the walls of Vieux Quebec City. It was a really nice hotel, and in an ideal location for exploring the city. My room mate at the hotel is from Alberta, and is going to Shippagan, New Brunswick, less than an hour from Caraquet. She is also teaching in a high school.

That evening I went to an amazing candy store, buying enough candy for a lifetime, but eating it all at once. Then I walked down to meet Vicki at the train station. After taking her to check-in to her hotel we went to Chez Ashton to get some poutine. It wasn't quite as amazing as I remembered it being, but it was still pretty good and had the squeakiest cheese curds ever! I think my top poutine shop is Smoke's Poutine in Toronto, but my top outside of Quebec. We went around in to some little tourist shops. I mainly just bought postcards. Sooo, if anyone wants a postcard send me your mailing address! I'd love to send you one just as long as you write me back in return!

On Friday, training didn't start until lunch time so we woke up early to have breakfast so that we could explore the city some more. All the food we had at the hotel was amazing. They had huge buffet spreads for each meal each day. The number of desserts they put out was crazy. I can probably not eat for like a week after how much I ate this weekend! The opening lunch for the training session was a lot of fun. On the agenda for the opening were "Ice Breakers", and quite honestly I groan when I see that, expecting to have to do something like pass around a balloon saying "My name is Cassandra. Je m'appelle Cassandra. I am from British Columbia. I like horses...". But, it was way better than that! One really fun game they had was putting up photos and we had to yell out what town they were, and also putting up weird town names and we had to yell out what province they were from. 

Over the course of the 3-day training session we met with our provincial coordinators, past language monitors, did workshops on being a language assistant to learn our roles and learn activities, learnt about culture, etc. It was all so very interesting and we got to play a lot of games. I certainly learnt a lot and feel a lot more prepared for my job. 

On Friday night a small group of us went down to watch a free outdoor Cirque du Soleil show "Les Chemins invisibles". It was a really cool setting - they had it below a highway overpass! I had never been to Cirque du Soleil before and I absolutely loved it! I didn't really understand it very well but it was so cool. There were tons of performers with fantastic costumes, and different light and sound effects. They had a trapeze, BMX tricks, the long material ribbons that acrobats do things in, rings, all sorts of neat things! I could definately watch it over and over again! They show was an hour long.

Saturday night we went to an outdoor screening of "The Image Mill". It was a four-part video outlining Quebec's 400+ years of history. It was projected on to grain silos down at the river. The area was equivalent to 35 IMAX screens! They had some really cool effects in it. When there was a fire in the film they had coloured smoke rising making it look like the building was actually going up in flames. They had fireworks which appeared to come out of the buildings and towers, and they shone (sp?) laser lights up into the sky. Before watching the show we loaded up on candy, from a different, but equally awesome candy store. We spent some time down in the Champlain area of Vieux Quebec City, and also completed our mission of finding beavertails. While waiting for "The Image Mill" to start, Vicki and I saw "Poutine glacee" in the snack shop. We thought it was actually going to be poutine ice cream - fries, cheese curds, and gravy on top of ice cream. It sounded sickening but of course we wanted to try it anyways! It turned out it was caramel popcorn, mini marshmallows, chocolate wafer sticks, and caramel sauce on top of gravy. So it turned out to be delicious but sweetly sickening!

Today was the last day of the training session. I was sad to be leaving all my new friends but I'll get to see some of them again soon. After walking down Vicki down to the bus station this afternoon I saw a wedding taking place right next to the finish line for the Quebec Marathon. You could hardly hear the music in the wedding ceremony because everyone was cheering so loudly for the runners! Vicki will only be about 3 hours from me, and Erin will be less than an hour away. In November all the language assistants in the maritime provinces will be meeting in Charlottetown, PEI, for another training session.

Now tonight I am staying in a hotel with Grayden and Papa just outside of Quebec City. I'm not sure what we'll be up to tomorrow, but eventually there should be a post!

Je suis en Quebec!

Je suis en Quebec! Did you know that the province of Quebec is not supposed to have an accent over the first e, but if you are referring to Quebec City it is either Quebec City (in english) or Québec (en français)!? Montréal should always have the accent whether in french or english apparently, according to a government guide I just browsed through. I don't know how to do the accents on my keyboard though so they are copied and pasted! That is such a pathetic excuse though, but I guess I'm saying please don't mind my bad writing :P

Anyways it is lovely to be back in Quebec, minus the fact that I can hardly speak French at all anymore. I guess I'll get back in to it quickly, having no other choice!

Through Quebec we drove through some lovely country side along the river. We stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs, enjoy the view, and use the outhouse. It was the most hilarious outhouse I have ever seen! On the front door there was a sign with a women's figure, and a sign with a men's figure with an arrow pointing forward. If you stepped forward along the outside of the outhouse to the back there was a funnel installed on the wall and two pieces of wood to make sides for a urinal. It was funny. There was also an apple tree at the rest stop so we got to have a little snack as well.

On our way up to Quebec City we stopped in Trois-Rivières. Trois-Rivières was where I did Explore, a five-week summer French immersion program in 2007. It was so neat to go back there. We didn't go past the college where I stayed and studied, but we went downtown and to the walk along the river. I saw so many places that I really recognized, and so many places that I never remembered seeing before. There is a restaurant on the boardwalk along the river which I do not remember being there. Right outside of the huge Canada Post building they are working on making an outdoor pedestrian plaza with fountains and a tower with a flame coming off the top! I really want to go back and spend some time in Trois-Rivières. I think those of us from Explore TR 2007 should have a reunion there!

We got to Quebec City in time for dinner and went to St. Hubert. It was the ultimate chicken place. On one side was a take-out section which was what I sort of expected the entire place to be, but the other side was basically like a Swiss Chalet. The food there was so good and we got unlimited coleslaw which was really funny because a day or two ago Grayden was saying all he wanted was coleslaw! For me they had coleslaw with vinegar and oil, instead of the creamy coleslaw dressing which I'm not a huge fan of.

We spent last night at a hotel/bar/club called Ozone. It is so cool. They have huge crazy art and mirrors in the entry and hallway. Our hotel room has an entire wall that is a mirror, and the carpet is striped. There are green lights outside the rooms doors to the outside balcony, and on the roof of the hotel are lights that change colour continuously. In the parking lot there are rectangular light towers that change colours as well. It is just a super funky place. I was expecting it to be really loud last night, but it wasn't at all. The loudest thing is the construction going on next door which began bright and early. I was so tired that it didn't really matter much though.

I don't really know what we're going to get up to this afternoon but I am excited for the training session to begin. I'll be spending the next three days staying at the Delta hotel downtown for the Pan-Canadian Odyssey Training Session. I'm not sure how many language monitors there are, but I know from BC there are 30 of us, and provinces with larger populations will have more than 30. There will definitely be a couple hundred of us. Vicki, one of my best friends from Toronto who I met at Explore in Trois-Rivières will be here for the training as well. I'll meet her tonight after she gets in at the train station, and we'll hopefully go to Chez Ashton soon!

Papa and Grayden have booked another night at this hotel, Ozone, and will be exploring around Quebec City for the next few days I believe, or that is the "plan" at this point! Anyways, I'll try to keep up with these posts over the next few days about what is going on here! I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer, and getting excited to go back to school for those of you that are going back!

Our Nation's Capital, OTTAWA!

It feels like so long since we drove from Timmins to Ottawa so I'll do my best to remember all the things we saw along the way! Also, I'm sorry if I repeat anything from past days, thinking it was another day :P

Apparently Timmins has the best poutine, but I never did have time to try it while I was there. I was holding out for poutine until I arrived in Quebec, but I do have to say as you get closer to Quebec the poutine gets significantly better, even before you actually get in to the province of Quebec! Probably the best news about my hotel in Quebec City for the Pan-Canadian Odyssey Training Session is that my favourite poutine restaurant is less than a 10 minute walk away! The last time I was in Quebec City, 2007, we went to this poutine place, called Chez Ashton, and despite the fact it was pouring rain and there were open restaurants all around the line-up was right out the door to go in. A funny thing I just found out this morning about Chez Ashton is that in the winter the poutine is discounted by the drop in temperature! If it is for example, -27 degrees Celsius out, your poutine is 27% off. That is so cool! I don't think I'll be getting any discounts this time though, it's wonderfully warm out! Anyways, that was a huge tangent on poutine - back to Ontario!

We slept-in in the morning at our hotel in Timmins because we were no longer in much of a rush to get across the country, having had made it so far so quickly. We drove through a town called Porcupine, but sadly we saw no porcupines :( They are on my top list of animals to see in the wild, others of which include a polar bear, a platypus, and a double-tusked narwhal (but a single-tusked narwhal would do!).

Most of our drive from Timmins to Ontario was actually through the province of Quebec. We passed many cute small towns, some farms, and many kilometers of forests. We drove down through Gatineau/Hull, and across the bridge in to Ottawa. We had a hotel address and were driving around downtown unsure of where the street was. We stopped and asked a taxi driver where we could find Albert Street, and it turns out we were on it! By about 7 pm we were settled in to our hotel on the edge of Parliament Hill. Papa and Grayden went to a pub while I showered and organized my stuff.

Later we met up downtown on Parliament Hill to watch the Mosaika light show. It was so cool! It was like all of Canadian history from high school social studies crammed in to a beautiful colourful light show projected on the Parliament Buildings. It was amazing, and I think if I lived in Ottawa I would probably go watch it like every night! It was on par, if not better, than fireworks, and I love fireworks! I also feel like it was one of the most Canadian things we could do for the night in Ottawa! And, to make it even better, Katy, who I know from UNBC, but lives in Ottawa, came out to watch the show as well. It is so nice to get to visit your friends in their home towns; I just wish I could have spent more time there! When it was over Katy and I went down to the market and had beaver tails. I hardly ever see or get beaver tails on the West Coast, and have never ever seen funnel cakes on the West Coast (except for at Eastside Marios which does not count as street food/fair funnel cakes), so these are two of the most exciting things about coming to the East for me!

Our evening in Ottawa was just great, and in the morning we were able to spend some more time in the city. Grayden and I wanted to see the cats on Parliament Hill, but getting there was a bit of a mess to begin with - we couldn't find parking after leaving our hotel, and then the gas light in the car came on and we were downtown where there are no gas stations. So we drove across the bridge into Quebec, and on to the freeway and eventually found a gas station. Then we turned around and came back in to Ottawa. Luckily this time we were able to find parking.

We walked up over the Rideau Canal and got to watch them lowering boats through the locks down to the river. It was so tiny in comparison to the Panama Canal, but very cool to see. Then we made our way up to the Parliament Buildings where we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard. Grayden said "Do we have to watch this?", and those were kind of my thoughts as well! We continued along in hopes of finding the cats on Parliament Hill. The last time I was there I just remember them being there. But this time we walked all around and didn't see them anywhere so that was a little disappointing. I thought maybe they'd gotten rid of them like they'd gotten rid of the bunnies at UVic but apparently the cats are still on the hill, and we just missed them somehow. We went to the tomb of the unknown soldier and wandered around the city a bit more before heading out onwards to Quebec.

Ontarioooooooo

Yes, Ontario is BIG. We left our hotel early this morning to make our way across this province and almost made it all the way!

It was so cool to see Lake Superior. The Great Lakes just blow my mind every time I see them. I can't get my head around the fact that it is a lake, not open ocean! The first time my besties from Toronto visited they asked me when we were on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, "What lake are we on?". I laughed, but I had only just stood speechless on the shore of Lake Ontario for the first time a week before.

Unfortunately driving past Thunder Bay we didn't see much of Thunder Bay. I was really interested in seeing Lakehead University, which, from the map, looked like it was on the side of the highway but I never did see it out the window. I am loving seeing the scenery from a car window, but I can't wait to do another cross Canada trip and get to experience the places more, and of course visit friends along the way! I'm sorry to the handful of you that I've already passed! I would have loved to have had you shown me around your small towns and cities.

Today we stopped for breakfast in Nipigon. Nipigon has the world's smallest Canadian Tire, but I doubt it could have been the most limited! Their stock went up to the roof, and things were hanging on to the walls by bungee cords. I'm thinking they must have a lot of ladders to get you down whatever you would like. They really had everything there though! It was incredible.

We took the TransCanada Highway along Lake Superior for awhile before heading across "Northern" Ontario on Highway 101. This has brought us to Timmins, apparently home of Shania Twain, where we are spending the night. Along the way we passed White River which is where Winnie the Pooh began. We did see a live bear, and also a live skunk on the drive. The live skunk was a lot nicer to see then the dead skunk. We've also seen a few dead porcupines on the drive - I'd really like to see a live one though!

For dinner we went to Eastside Mario's. There was a sign that said half price appies between 6pm and 9pm. When we went in the waitress said we could sit in a booth, or in the bar for half price appies. We kind of missed the part that it was only in the bar that you could get them half price, but either way we wouldn't go in there since we had Grayden who is only 12. So we went and got a booth on the restaurant side. Papa got two appies, and after ordering, read that they were only half price on the bar side. When the waitress came back he asked her about that, and said well, he couldn't go sit there with Grayden, and she was like "It's not such a bad place.". After she walked off I asked "Are you sure Grayden isn't just allowed to sit there?", so when she came back we asked her that, and sure enough, kids are allowed to sit in the bar section! Interesting, considering it seems the Liquor Control Board of Ontario rules all alcohol sales to the point where you can only buy alcohol to take away from them, and not on Sundays. However, you can buy fireworks just about anywhere, anytime, including from a school bus on the side of the highway!

It's looking like tomorrow we'll be into Quebec. We're a bit ahead of schedule only having to arrive in Quebec City for the evening of August 22nd so perhaps we'll get to adventure a bit more for the next few days. We are hopefully going to hang out a bit in Trois-Rivieres so I can show papa and Grayden where I spent 5 weeks of the summer of 2007 for the Explore program. Hey Explorers, where would you recommend we go/what should we do there?

Thanks for reading :)

Yesterday morning, leaving Alberta

When I did my blog post yesterday I was just so excited about Saskatchewan that I totally forgot to write about our morning in Alberta!

It didn't take long for us to get to Calgary. It was cool to see the Olympic park with the ski jumps and luge track on the small hillside. We took the bypass around Calgary but it seemed that Calgary was still out at the bypass! We couldn't believe how many houses there were outside of the city. Thousands of houses that looked exactly the same. Neighbourhoods that had houses of four different plans, with four different colours, rotated at different angles so that they looked different. But, they really didn't look that different!

Although Drumheller was out of our way it had been years since either me or my papa were there, and Grayden had never been there so we took a bit of a detour to see it. It was just as cool as I remember it. I really wish I had taken and posted photos for those of you who have not been there before! I am beginning to realize that some of the highlights of my days in these posts are about our meals. The restaurant we went to for breakfast had four garden gnomes in the centre! I

The second half of Alberta was pretty flat. I think that is why I expected extreme flatness when we crossed the border into Saskatchewan! Canada is so cool, it has such diverse scenery!

In to Manitoba and on to Ontario!!

We left Grenfell bright and early to make our way in to Manitoba. The first bit of Manitoba was just as flat as the second half of Saskatchewan was, but soon trees and hills started to appear. We had breakfast in Manitoba in an adorable little town just off of the highway called Carberry. It seems every town here has competed in Communities in Bloom at some point, and they all have kept up the gardens and hanging baskets. Even though Manitoba and Saskatchewan are in the same time zone, Saskatchewan doesn't observe daily savings (I think?) and so when we went for breakfast in Carberry we found out they weren't serving breakfast anymore. However, there was a cafe with all-day breakfast to please my dad and Grayden so we went out there. It was called the Robin's Nest. Our waitress was wearing a black t-shirt with a neon coloured Justin Beiber on the front.

When we got to Winnipeg we couldn't decide whether to drive around or through, and not deciding soon enough ended up driving through. I am certainly glad we drove through! I never had any idea of what Winnipeg was like in my mind, so to just see it was really cool. There were mostly old brick buildings in the part of town we drove through, and lots of trees lining the streets. On the grass outside of a building was a tail-gate sale, with a truck, and two separately manned tables. The one table was selling wedding veils! We got a little lost trying to get out of Winnipeg and back on to the TransCanada highway but since I wasn't driving it just meant a bit more sightseeing for me!

After Winnipeg it wasn't long until we crossed the border into Ontario. Manitoba really just flew by. The first major town in Ontario was Kenora, which we had the option to bypass. However, having just blown so much time in Winnipeg we figured driving through another town couldn't hurt! Kenora was absolutely beautiful! It was a lake or lakes, with islands, and bridges, and homes on the water, and boats, and fountains in the lake, and people paddle boarding! I would love to get to spend some time there exploring the water and the forest! They also had a Dairy Queen, which automatically made it fantastic, but the best part was that it was like a walk-through window-serve DQ!

I've been to Ontario multiple times, to Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls but I had never seen much of the wilderness of Ontario. I now understand The Canadian Shield that we learnt about in high school social studies. There is so much rock! The rocks bordering the highway were beautiful granite with sparkly pink swirls! I even saw a granite mine/processing plant. I was obviously eagerly looking out the window for moose but I didn't see any unfortunately.

We're spending tonight in Ignace, Ontario. I think that is about all I have to say about it, probably because I'm really tired!

So, I've decided that Canada is really big, but not that big considering we've made it this far in just 3 days. However, I think I'm going to realize just how big Ontario is because it kind of looks like it goes on forever and ever, and I think we'll still be in Ontario tomorrow night!

Saskatchewan is not just flat

Saskatchewan is not what I expected. Everyone, besides those who have not lived here, had told me that it is just flat. Everyone who has ever lived here has told me it is beautiful. Well, I would say it's a bit of both, but definitely not as flat as I expected! It was small hills about halfway across while on the TransCanada Highway. By the time we got to Regina however, I began to learn what flat is! I think what I was most surprised by was not how flat it was, but by how big the sky was! It was beautiful though! And for anyhow who thinks it's not beautiful, I'm not a fan of the Kamlooops landscape and people usually gasp at that!

The TransCanada Highway skirts past downtown Regina so the city of Regina we saw were Canadian Tires, Walmarts and Chuckee Cheese's sprawled along the freeway. We decided to continue on to find somewhere to spend the night.

First we stopped at Indianhead. The Indianhead motel looked like some place that could be the Whelanhead motel the next morning with our heads outside the building... So, we decided to check out the other motel in town. Called the Sunshine Motel, it was about the size of a large house, and had a phone number to call to have someone come down and get you a room. It was actually pretty cute but given the fact there was no where to eat in town we decided to move along. As we were leaving we saw a sign that said that Indianhead is the filming location for Little Mosque on the Prairie. That left us wondering if all the nice store fronts, with appearingly empty stores, were just for the show...

Our next stop was at a town called Wolseley. It was another adorable little prairie town, but it was just as empty as Indianhead was. It was kind of sad to see these little places with no one there, and all the old buildings sitting empty. Once again the town had no where for us to eat so we pulled back on to the highway.

Next along Highway 1 was Grenfell. We found a motel right next to a restaurant in an Esso. Now, realize that we had been on the road for well over 12 hours and were terribly hungry. We found a motel right next to a restaurant in an Esso. Yep, sounds great! We checked in and the hotel owner told us the restaurant closes at 8pm so we quickly made our way over there. It turned out to be the most hopping place in town! On the menu was Fish & Chips - with the fish being Pollock! I chose Greek Chicken Fratzolaki which was chicken, feta, tomato and onion with tzatiki on a torpedo sub style bun. I was convinced that they had made it up but it was delicious anyways. I asked my Greek food know-all Justin if it existed and he didn't know what I was talking about. So then I went to my other friend Google, and the first hit was Library Squirrel - Saskatchewan Words! While we were eating a young lady came to our table and said "I would just like to welcome you to Grenfell!" And we said "Thanks!", thinking she was just very friendly. Then she said something about her father and our house so we thought she was saying her dad checked us in to the motel. Then she said "Yes, so congratulations on your new home. That was my father who sold it to you and he told me to welcome you to town!". We thanked her but said that we hadn't bought a house here. She tried to explain herself that her dad had sold it to a family and she thought we were them. Her assuming that the only family she didn't know in the restaurant must be the new family was definite confirmation that we were in a small town! The poor girl was so embarrassed but it made our night. I don't think she should have been so embarrassed; last year in Dawson Creek a guy came all the way across a restaurant to give me a hug and congratulate me on my engagement! I also almost lost an arm at dinner tonight when a mop handle came down like a paper cutter! It was a very entertaining dinner for sure.

Not only is the sky huge in Saskatchewan, so is the sun when it sets over the horizon! Goodnight friends!

PS I just realized that I totally neglected writing about the morning portion of our trip through Alberta. I will hopefully get caught up on that tomorrow, because that was a great time as well!

Beautiful British Columbia & Alberta Bound 0-950km

We spent day one of our trip crossing British Columbia. I was never amused to see the phrase "The Best Place on Earth" written across the front of high school provincial exams, but I have yet to see anywhere more wonderfully beautiful and diverse than British Columbia! It was a gorgeous day to begin the road trip.

We drove to Kamloops via the Coquihalla. I hadn't come this way for so long, so since we left Hope it's felt like a whole new adventure! Along the way we saw a deer and a few bears. Unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife in Banff National Park. Perhaps that's a good thing though, and that the wildlife is all happily in the forest, instead of behind the fences bordering the highway! But, I really would have liked to have seen some mountain goats!

Once we got to Banff National Park we realized we were going to have to be driving through, not spending the night, because all accommodations were either full, or extremely expensive. We got to have a look at Field, which had the cutest little homes all turned into rental places. In the evening I finally got to see my lovely Lake Louise. I'm only claiming to it since Louise is my middle name; I think that's fair! We stopped there quickly for a few photos before continuing our drive through the Rockies as the sun set. We are spending the night in Canmore, Alberta, which is also a beautiful place. 

We're looking forward to cruising across Alberta tomorrow and making our way into Saskatchewan. Hopefully our next hotel will have internet as well, and I will give a short update. 

I'm sure I've forgotten half the things I wanted to say, but it's time for bed! I have taken a few photos, but unfortunately I still don't have a cord to upload my photos to my computer. So this is my public apology to all of you who haven't seen any of my photos since Panama!

OH, here we go, CANADA

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to travel across Canada, to see every province and every territory. In the spring when I accepted a job offer as an English Language Assistant in New Brunswick I decided I would not be flying over Canada's central provinces once more! I have never seen what is in between Alberta and Ontario from the ground; I've only seen it as a patchwork of fields out an airplane window.

I left Telegraph Cove yesterday afternoon and arrived home around midnight. I had a full day on the Coast to unpack and repack for the trip! My summer in Telegraph Cove was fabulous, and as this is my "Coast to Coast" blog I should try and post some of my adventures from Vancouver Island.

Thursday July 16th I will be heading out on an adventure across Canada with my father Cash and my brother Grayden. I want to post in this blog about we see and do as we travel the country! We don't have much of a plan or schedule besides leaving in the morning of the 16th on the ferry, and arriving in Quebec City for the evening of August 22nd for my 3-day training session.

As for a bit more information about my job... I'm not too sure! I will be living in Caraquet, New Brunswick, working at Polyvalente Louis-Mailloux high school, teaching English. The program is called Odyssey and is run through the Council of Ministers of Education, and Canadian Heritage. I think I'll be learning just as much, if not more, than my students as I try to pick my French language skills back up!

Anyways, I should get a good rest for day one of the trip! We'll try to add new posts as we go along, and please take a moment to comment so that the time spent on here feels more worthwhile :) Currently listening to Classified's Oh Canada and getting excited!

PS Anyone who knows how I "pack" should be proud of me for the minimal amount of stuff I'm hauling along - I should take a picture! I guess it helps that the apartment I will be living in in Caraquet is completely furnished!