I have now been to 10/10 Canadian provinces, but more importantly, I give the province of Newfoundland a 10/10! Everything about it, the scenery, the people, the wildlife, the little fishing bays and towns were amazing!
I went there during March Break with my friends and fellow English language assistants Vicki, Erin, and Trevor. We spent the night before taking the ferry, in Antigonish with Natalie.
On Saturday we had dinner in North Sydney before the ferry. We had dinner at Lobster Pound & Moore - a really neat restaurant with interesting lobster dishes. Vicki and Erin got lobster wontons, while I had lobster ravioli! It was all good, but very creamy and rich. It had been Trevor's birthday a few days earlier so we surprised him with a piece of cake and singing waitresses. His response "I hate you.". Glad he enjoyed it! The ferry ride to Newfoundland was pretty uneventful. We took a night ferry so it was too dark to see anything and everyone slept most of the way. The ferry had so many huge tvs in it and every time I woke up something bizarre was playing and I wasn't sure what was going on.
Excitement unfolded in the morning when we saw Newfoundland as the sun was coming up. We had pretty bad weather for driving on the Sunday. However, from the moment we drove off the ferry the landscape was a perfect portrayal of my mind's image of Newfoundland! There were huge jutting rocks, small coloured houses, and table top mountains.
We drove to Gros Morne National Park where we spent some time tromping through the thigh deep snow in the rain and wind. We stopped at a gas station/general store while we were to ask adivce about things to see in the park, and the guy had a great accent and talked so fast that we didn't have much idea what he was saying. While in the park we visited a beach with a shipwreck, a river with the sides lined with huge sheets and chunks of broken ice, and various viewpoints. The most exciting thing was probably when we saw a herd of caribou! This was also the only time I saw any moose. I saw two chopped off moose heads and their beautiful pelts just tossed to the side of a parking lot. I pet them and honestly after that I'm surprised I was allowed back in the car!
We spent the night in a hostel in Bonne Bay which was a converted hospital. The man who runs the hostel gave us a tour of the place. They still have things there like an old x-ray machine. The dorm rooms was an old ER with beds surrounded by curtains. It was pretty neat and creepy. We got double rooms however, so we were in offices converted to bedrooms. It was a windy night, and we were the only ones there and the old building was pretty creaky. It was a fun place to stay.
In the morning Erin and I woke up extra early to go hike out to a lighthouse viewpoint. It was beautiful and totally worth getting up for. Monday we drove to St. John's. It was a long trip and the weather was once again anything but ideal for driving. We stayed in a colourful jellybean house hostel in St. John's. Besides the university students living at the hostel we had the place to ourselves once again. After we settled in to the hostel we went to get something to eat. It was late and the only place we could find open was a Smitty's in a hotel. I wasn't convinced it would be anything special, but to my pleasure, there was a "Newfoundland section" on the menu. We ended up trying cod's tongues, scruncheons, and toutons. Cod's tongues are exactly that - cod's tongues, and to me they had a very similar taste and texture to traditional cuts of cod flesh. When we ordered scruncheons that waitress laughed and explained to us that it was fried chunks of pork fat and that we probably would not enjoy a bowl of them very much! She suggested having it fried up with the cod's tongues so we took her advice on that one. How disgusting, but deliciously addicting to eat tiny cubs of fried fat! I could never do that at home. And toutons - toutons are my new favourite thing! It is basically fried bread dough that you eat with molasses. I was never crazy about molasses but here in l'Acadie I have developed a taste for it.
We went to sleep pretty exhausted and excited to wake up to see the city of St. John's in the daylight.
Posts of Newfoundland are to be continued...
Saturday, 16 March 2013
Saturday, 8 September 2012
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!
Friday, 7 September 2012
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!
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!
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, 25 August 2012
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!
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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!
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!
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