In class today, we continued or discussion about the Opérations dignité and talked about their manifesto that we had read (or were supposed to read!). We also compared it to the FLQ (Front de la liberation du Québec) manifesto and because most of us weren’t entirely clear about that one, we went to the computer room and listened to a recording of someone reading it. The guy is (of course) a Québécois, although he is of Haitian decent. The recording was made last year and was fairly interesting to listen to. I hyperlinked the word manifesto so if you want to listen to it, just click on that word.
After that, we returned to class and discussed the two manifestos a bit more before heading home for lunch.
When I got back to school, my film group got together and we listened to some announcements before heading off on our filmmaking adventure (down the hallway)! I’m really glad that we chose to animate people – it’s much simpler and less time consuming than objects… usually. It also helps that I have a “continuous shot” mode on my camera. We’ll see how it turns out! When it’s done being edited (sometime next week) I’ll post it in the videos section of my website!
We had a fairly good group for the film. Most of them weren’t too enthusiastic (although two of them offered to help with editing – so nice!), but at least they spoke French the whole time.
On the subject of speaking French: I can’t recall if I mentioned this in previous blog posts (if I have, forgive me), but it’s still a pressing issue here so I’ll mention it again. There are many people here who are beginners, so speaking French is difficult for them. I understand. However, many of them still make the effort to try and speak French. Then there are others, who can speak French relatively well, and they choose not to! They speak English or Spanish or whatever, even though it’s clearly rule number one! The point of us being here it to learn French and we can’t do that very well if we’re speaking English all the time now can we? I know that many people have already had avertissements (warnings) and after the third one you get kicked out (we based our film on this). It’s just something that annoys me because I feel that if you are here, you’re here because you want to/need to learn French. If people aren’t going to speak French, they shouldn’t be here.
Can you tell I needed to have a small rant?
Moving on!
After finishing our film, I worked on editing it a little, but because there’s so many pictures, editing = waiting forever for things to render. So much fun!
At about 3:45, I went downstairs and got in line to sign up for various excursions (including the Quebec City trip!). I’m really glad my roommates were in line already, saving me a spot, because the line was huge! Finally the line started moving a bit, and before we knew it we were at the Quebec City table. After signing up there, we wrote down our roommates and headed over to the mountain table. There, you could sign up for either Mont Albert or Mont Xalibu. The latter is (according to them) a bit easier to do, so I picked that one. In fact, I had to choose that one because Mont Albert was full.
They gave us a little information booklet, which was great until I started flipping through it. To put it simply, if I survive the climb, I should get a medal or something. It’s a 5-6 hour roundtrip hike and although it’s easier than Mont Albert, it’s still listed as “difficult”. The view better be worth it.
It’s not so bad though, because we’re going to be taking breaks and stuff, but it will still be a challenge to complete. Wish me luck!
After the signups, I went to the Café briefly before heading home for dinner. I was thrilled that it didn’t start raining as I was leaving. For dinner, Joanne and Laval were at their son’s house for his birthday so we had to eat by ourselves. This involved us taking the “paté chinois” out of the oven and serving ourselves. Life is tough. It was really good, and for desert we had cookies. Here, we have desert after lunch and dinner – just like home!
Once we were done eating, we went to the school for a screening of “Les Choristes”. (Click for a preview of the film). If you have not yet seen the film, you really are missing out. It’s an absolutely beautiful film and deserves all the success it has achieved. Even if you aren’t really a fan of choral music, you will still enjoy this film. So what are you waiting for! Go out and rent/buy/borrow/steal the film!
As we were leaving, a few of the students invited us out to the Maison d’écrivain to celebrate another student’s birthday. It was pretty fun. Everyone was pretty relaxed and wasn’t too ridiculous, so it was good! After a while, we were feeling kind of tired and Catherine was loosing her voice (she needed it for a presentation tomorrow) so we decided to head home!
And so ends another day in paradise (aren’t we cliché!)
Veronika
After that, we returned to class and discussed the two manifestos a bit more before heading home for lunch.
When I got back to school, my film group got together and we listened to some announcements before heading off on our filmmaking adventure (down the hallway)! I’m really glad that we chose to animate people – it’s much simpler and less time consuming than objects… usually. It also helps that I have a “continuous shot” mode on my camera. We’ll see how it turns out! When it’s done being edited (sometime next week) I’ll post it in the videos section of my website!
We had a fairly good group for the film. Most of them weren’t too enthusiastic (although two of them offered to help with editing – so nice!), but at least they spoke French the whole time.
On the subject of speaking French: I can’t recall if I mentioned this in previous blog posts (if I have, forgive me), but it’s still a pressing issue here so I’ll mention it again. There are many people here who are beginners, so speaking French is difficult for them. I understand. However, many of them still make the effort to try and speak French. Then there are others, who can speak French relatively well, and they choose not to! They speak English or Spanish or whatever, even though it’s clearly rule number one! The point of us being here it to learn French and we can’t do that very well if we’re speaking English all the time now can we? I know that many people have already had avertissements (warnings) and after the third one you get kicked out (we based our film on this). It’s just something that annoys me because I feel that if you are here, you’re here because you want to/need to learn French. If people aren’t going to speak French, they shouldn’t be here.
Can you tell I needed to have a small rant?
Moving on!
After finishing our film, I worked on editing it a little, but because there’s so many pictures, editing = waiting forever for things to render. So much fun!
At about 3:45, I went downstairs and got in line to sign up for various excursions (including the Quebec City trip!). I’m really glad my roommates were in line already, saving me a spot, because the line was huge! Finally the line started moving a bit, and before we knew it we were at the Quebec City table. After signing up there, we wrote down our roommates and headed over to the mountain table. There, you could sign up for either Mont Albert or Mont Xalibu. The latter is (according to them) a bit easier to do, so I picked that one. In fact, I had to choose that one because Mont Albert was full.
They gave us a little information booklet, which was great until I started flipping through it. To put it simply, if I survive the climb, I should get a medal or something. It’s a 5-6 hour roundtrip hike and although it’s easier than Mont Albert, it’s still listed as “difficult”. The view better be worth it.
It’s not so bad though, because we’re going to be taking breaks and stuff, but it will still be a challenge to complete. Wish me luck!
After the signups, I went to the Café briefly before heading home for dinner. I was thrilled that it didn’t start raining as I was leaving. For dinner, Joanne and Laval were at their son’s house for his birthday so we had to eat by ourselves. This involved us taking the “paté chinois” out of the oven and serving ourselves. Life is tough. It was really good, and for desert we had cookies. Here, we have desert after lunch and dinner – just like home!
Once we were done eating, we went to the school for a screening of “Les Choristes”. (Click for a preview of the film). If you have not yet seen the film, you really are missing out. It’s an absolutely beautiful film and deserves all the success it has achieved. Even if you aren’t really a fan of choral music, you will still enjoy this film. So what are you waiting for! Go out and rent/buy/borrow/steal the film!
As we were leaving, a few of the students invited us out to the Maison d’écrivain to celebrate another student’s birthday. It was pretty fun. Everyone was pretty relaxed and wasn’t too ridiculous, so it was good! After a while, we were feeling kind of tired and Catherine was loosing her voice (she needed it for a presentation tomorrow) so we decided to head home!
And so ends another day in paradise (aren’t we cliché!)
Veronika
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