Veronika Travels

It seems like every morning I wake up later and later. This time, I woke up at 7:30 – only an hour before I had to be at school. I swear I set an alarm and that when I got up my watch said 7:02, not 7:32. Oh well. Before breakfast I quickly put the laundry on the clothesline that we didn’t get to yesterday. The sun was shining right in my eyes so I had to hang up the clothes by blindly feeling my way around. I hope none of them fell off!

 

By some miracle I arrived at school exactly on time and then we were off in two cars to Esprit-Saint. It’s a small village about 45 minutes away from Trois-Pistoles that (along with many others) was going to be closed down in the 70’s to “modernize Quebec”. The villagers (saying that makes them sound kind of savage or something. What about townspeople?) protested and there was this huge ordeal, the result being the villages didn’t close down. We watched a couple videos but I was so tired from the night before that I was having a hard time concentrating. For the second film, it was just a bunch of the townspeople talking back in the 70’s. I think the only one who understood it was our teacher.

 

I knew we were going to be late for our atelier, but I had forgotten to tell my animateur so I was getting a little worried. I absolutely hate being late and when I looked at my watch as we were leaving, I saw that the atelier had started 45 minutes ago. By the time we arrived, I was an hour and a half late… or so I thought! For some reason, I thought that our atelier started at 12:30, but it actually started at 1:30! I was only fifteen minutes late! In fact, I wasn’t even late because they had a little presentation in the auditorium. Sometimes, the world just works in my favour.

 

When I went to my atelier, we tried to watch our films that we made last week, but unfortunately, most of them (including mine) didn’t work. The few films that we did see were, well they were mainly various shots. That’s essentially what the project was, but our film had an actual “storyline”. It’s too bad that we couldn’t see it.

 

After watching the films, we went into the art atelier’s room and watched a bunch of animated films from the NFB and previous Explore students. They were all really good! While watching them, I had an idea/extension to a previous idea that I had and I could not get it out of my head. It happens to me sometimes where an idea hits me and I feel a strong need to plan the entire film out right there and then. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do so but I jotted a couple of notes down. Hopefully when I come back to Terrace, I’ll be able to make it.

 

The reason we were watching these films is because we’re making a short animated film in groups. Three other girls and I are making a short film about a student who spoke in English one time too many and gets sent home from Trois-Pistoles. It’s a tragedy that could be placed alongside great stories like Romeo and Juliet. Get out autographs now!

 

After that I went home and worked on my blog for a bit. As usual, I’m behind so when you see this post it will be along with five million other late blog posts.

 

We had dinner and Catherine and Anna went to the multimedia room at the school to work on some homework and Valeria and I stayed home. She had to call her mom and I had to work on my blog and email a few people.

 

Once she was done talking to her mom (in Russian! Valeria is one of those crazy people that know every language imaginable), we went for a little bike ride to the pier with Johanne. We also explored the houses on the beach and found an old cave. I of course imagined that there was some local legend about this cave being haunted, but it turns out it was just used a storage place to keep things fresh. How exciting. I’m going to go ahead and keep thinking that this was Three Pistol Jack’s hideout where he kept his stash and if you dig deep enough you can find it… unless his ghost gets you!

 

After our excursion, we went to the Forge à Bérubé for the poetry evening. We were a little late, but it was okay. We arrived just in time to do a poetry exercise where you draw your hand and write what’s inside you inside the hand and what’s outside well, outside. It was an interesting activity, but it took some thought for me to write something down.

 

I find that inspiration comes at random times – it can be right before I fall asleep, while I’m eating, while I’m meant to be doing homework… it doesn’t always come when I want it to, but when it does it’s very exciting!

 

After that, we biked home and spent a bit of time chatting with Catherine and Anna. We realised that the Cirque du Soleil thing might not be an actual performance in a theatre, but a little street performance that they do. If I can, I want to see if I can get a ticket to see Cirque du Soleil, but we’ll see what happens.

 

Quebec City is next weekend!

 

 

Veronika

Today is one of the most epic days. It’s the final for the FIFA World Cup and it’s also the day where I go kayaking for the first time. I’m ever so excited!

 

I woke up at about 9 and went to work on my essay. Having no idea what I was doing or what I was supposed to write about, I decided to retype all of my written notes and organise them according to their topic. I was going to do this anyways, but it really helped with my essay.

 

Once I was done, it was time for brunch – waffles and other assorted breakfast items. We eat really well here all the time. And (aside from breakfast) we always have something different. Sometimes things are similar, but it always smells good when I come home for dinner. It’s just like home!

 

Today we had to do laundry because we haven’t done any since arriving here. Luckily for us, we have a washer at our house so we didn’t have to spend the day at the Laundromat. None of us really knew how to do the laundry (except I did get lessons from Theresa! They came in handy!) so Johanne helped us. When the loads were done, we put them on the clothesline. While the other loads were in the wash, we went to the museum/park across the street that also had a bar with a TV so that we could watch the game with a bunch of other Explore students. Originally, I wanted the Netherlands to win, but as I started watching I remembered my love for the Spanish and I switched sides. Sorry! It worked out in my favour though, because Spain won!

 

It was really funny being there with the other girls, especially Catherine. She doesn’t really know anything about soccer because she doesn’t watch it so she was confused the whole time. Someone came in and asked who was winning, to which she replied “The Netherlands”. As you may or may not know, they didn’t score at all so that was smooth on her part.

 

We had to leave after the 90 minutes because we had to eat dinner before going kayaking. The TV was left on at our house so we could see if someone scores while we were still at home. While I was getting ready, I heard Anna squeal from upstairs and I knew that Spain had scored, and had therefore won the game (she’s a fan of the Spanish team, so I had no doubt who won). I quickly ran upstairs to see the replay and it was a really lovely goal. Valeria and I were happy that it was Iniesta who scored because we were talking about him while at the bar because she kept thinking that the announcer was saying Fiesta.

 

We quickly gathered up our stuff and ran across the street to the place where us kayakers were meeting up. I’m glad we were so close because I had to run home for a couple things (sweater, health card number) and was able to come back right away. Once there, we signed some papers and then they gave us our wetsuits. Trying to get myself into the wetsuit was one of the most difficult things of my life. They really are skintight and I felt like a small whale trying to put it on. Somehow, I managed to squeeze myself into it and then we were off to the pier. Laval gave us a ride out there so we didn’t have to walk all the way. I love our host family! Once the guides arrived, we got into our skirts and life jackets and went through the safety as well as the how to kayak demonstration. Laval and Johanne took a bunch of pictures for us, which was really great. After waiting for one of the kayakers to arrive, all ten of us (eight plus the two guides) got into our kayaks and were off! We were in pairs for the kayaks (thank goodness, because I’m not that strong!) and it took Valeria and I a few minutes to figure out the kayak. For some reason, we couldn’t turn! The guide pointed out that I hadn’t put the rudder in (I swear I did…) and after putting it in the water for real, we were off and kayaking!

 

It was so awesome!

 

I absolutely love kayaking. We were towards the back most of the time, but it was perfectly fine. Luckily for us, we chose the perfect day – no wind, warm, sunny, and we say two or three seals. We also had two really great guides (Jean-Marc and Guillaume… I believe…) and they were very helpful and fun to kayak with. They were both impressed at our level of French and that even when were at home by ourselves, we spoke French together. Another interesting thing was that Guillaume went to school here in Trois-Pistoles with Johanne and Laval’s daughter! Small world!

 

I had such an amazing time kayaking and the only thing that made it slightly less than perfect was this massive blister that I have on my thumb. It’s not very fun.

 

After our adventure, we went home and I got to work on my essay. I took a little break first – I tried to call home but I only had a few minutes left and decided to save them. I took my computer and my notes and locked myself in the laundry room. There’s a desk and a little light and not much else to look at, so it’s perfect for doing homework – no distractions!

 

When I write my blogs, I usually make little jot notes in a word document saying what I did during the day before actually writing it out. This is especially helpful if I don’t do the blog on the same day so that I don’t forget too much. While trying to write my essay, I wrote, “I’m doing this essay completely wrong and am freaking out.”

 

That perfectly describes how I was feeling at the time. I really had no idea what I was doing and was feeling overwhelmed with it. But then I sat myself down and really looked at what I had to do. I only had to write three pages by hand. Really, it’s only 300-400 words if I don’t write too small. Keeping in mind that I usually go over a thousand words for my blogs, I was feeling a little more confident. Then I went through my typed up notes and looked at the different subject headings, finding four that I could use for my essay. After that, I wrote and wrote (taking the occasional break) and finally finished my essay at 12:30am, two hours before I anticipated!

 

Things seem to eventually work out in the end for me. I have to try and remember that when things feel really overwhelming. *cue the song from Monty Python “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”*

 

 

Veronika

Today was a long day. I woke up and got myself ready to go to Bic National Park (I’m not sure if by national they mean Canadian or Québécois). After a 45-minute bus ride, we arrived at the park and then were on our way up the mountain. When I signed up for the trip, I thought that it was just walking around a little and going to the beach looking at seals.

 

Apparently not.

 

The hike itself wasn’t that difficult, I wasn’t sore or anything, but I (and everyone else) was covered in sweat. It was pretty gross and I don’t even want to know what the pictures that we took of ourselves look like. It was still really fun though. It’s about a 45-minute/one-hour hike up the mountain with various lookout points along the way. At one of the lookout points, I picked out another island to include in my micronation (I’ll explain later. Remind me).

 

At the top, we had lunch and took many pictures. Then we had to descend. It was quicker going down, maybe 30 minutes, and then we took the bus down to the beach. There’s a bunch of historical buildings and a little café there. We just went to the beach and decided to hike around on the rocks… with no shoes on. It was probably not one of my better ideas but it was still really fun. While hiking around, one of the Explore students (who is also a rock climber) was there scaling one of the rock faces. It was really cool to watch and it made me want to do some more climbing. It’s been too long (that’s a hint for anyone reading this who does rock climbing – take me with you!).

 

Eventually, it was time to go home and have dinner. After, we went to the soirée franco at the Forge Bérubé. It’s a really cool place. It used to be a forgery, but now it’s used for events. It still has a bunch of forgery tools and stuff as decoration, which makes it a really cool place.

 

The soirée franco was basically a dance (not traditional like last night) with a French/Quebecois music. We were also supposed to be in costumes (Valeria and I decided to be simple and be Hawaiian. I had that song by Les Trois Accords in my head the whole time). The music was good, but there weren’t a lot of people and we were getting bored so we decided to leave. We went to the Cantine d’amour (a local restaurant/diner popular amongst the students) but it was full so we decided to walk around for a bit.

 

Were going to go home (taking a longer route so we could walk around a bit), but met a couple of guys from the program and they were heading to the Maison d’écrivain to play some music (there’s a piano and guitar there). So we decided to go along with them. The Maison d’écivain is a cool little place where you can sit and hang out with your friends. It has a bunch of old historical pieces there, which makes for a cool ambience.

 

We all chatted for a while and listened to people play music and sing. It was really good, and also very relaxing. Eventually, the owner wanted to go home so we had to leave. But because we are so chatty, we stood outside for maybe another half an hour or so talking. Finally, we decided to head home and go to bed. We were all fairly tired.

 

And so ended yet another day in paradise!

 

 

Veronika

 

Remember how yesterday I slept in a little? Well, this morning I slept in for an hour. It felt nice, but I really should have gotten up earlier – lots of stuff to do! I was quite rushed in the morning, but somehow I still managed to get to school on time.



It’s incredibly hot and humid here. But then other days, it’s freezing cold. The weather here changes so dramatically (even hour to hour) that I never know what to wear. Layering is a good idea here.

 

In class, we received (to my dismay) our first assignment. I was hoping for a nice relaxing weekend in between going to Bic National Park, watching FIFA, and kayaking. However, our teacher apparently had other ideas for us. We have to write a 2 – 3 page essay about our first impressions of Quebec culture. We need to have four body paragraphs and I’m not really sure what the subtopics will be. This is apparently for us to practice writing and for him to tell us what we need to work on, which is a great idea and really helpful. However, this essay is worth 10% of our final grade, which is a lot of marks standing on one assignment (that’s meant to be “practice”).

 

I think that if I do the Explore program again, I should consider doing horribly on the placement test so that I get a really easy course. Also, that way I stand a chance at the “most improved” award! We’ll see about that idea.

 

For a moment I considered cancelling my plans of going to Bic and other activities so that I’d be able to do my essay. I quickly threw away that thought though because for me, I’m here to improve my French but that’s not my main objective. I’m here to learn about and experience the Québécois culture and I won’t be able to do that sitting in my room or at the café writing an essay. I’ll achieve that goal by going out and having experiences that I will actually enjoy and remember fondly for years to come.

 

Besides, if the essay isn’t perfect and I don’t get 100% it’s not the end of the world. Life will most likely go on and I really have to start accepting that fact so that I don’t go insane with my desire to overachieve. I’ll start learning to accept it this weekend or something (I might also want to work on my ability to procrastinate…).

 

After break, we had someone from the woman’s centre come to our class to talk about women and feminism. I felt a little bad for the only guy in our class, but perhaps he found it somewhat interesting. I myself was interested a bit in the topic, but for the life of me I could not concentrate on what she was saying. Even though I slept in, I was still really tired and had to will myself to keep my eyes open.

 

I ate my lunch at the school because for my atelier, we were taking a bus to a museum in Rimouski and didn’t have enough time to go home to eat. Then we were off with the visual arts atelier to Rimouski. They had a display of photographs there – they were really great. One of the displays had hundreds of little photos that were illuminated. I’ll post a picture of them.

 

There was another display but it wasn’t photos, it was letters. The creator sent letters to various employers who had job postings in the paper, and did so hilariously. Sometimes he (she, I’m actually not sure. I think it’s a he though) would apologize and decline their posting and other times he would denounce their company and their practices. Overall, it was a hilarious read.

 

When we got back to Trois-Pistoles, I went in to town briefly before going home and sleeping. After an hour or so of rest, I woke up to rain. Crazy Trois-Pistoles weather…

 

We had dinner and while eating, there was thunder and lightning – so awesome!

 

After that, we went out to the traditional Québécois music and dance night at the school. It was awesome! The dances were really simple and really fun to dance, the only problem was that because there were so many people it was like a sauna – even with the windows open!

 

When the dance was done, we still had a lot of energy and wanted to go somewhere. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anywhere for us to go dancing so we decided to walk home. We were just going to go to bed, but we ended up staying up until 2:30am talking in Catherine and Anna’s room about pretty much everything. My roommates are awesome.

 

In fact, everything here is awesome. Except for the fact that I never know what to wear because the weather changes every five minutes. But I guess it keeps things exciting!

 



Veronika

     I seem to be falling behind with my blogging. Not that you’d really know because I post these all at once and days after I’ve written them. But I just finished up yesterday’s blog and am now starting on this one. I promise I won’t leave this for tomorrow, otherwise it will be the end of the program and I’ll still be on the 11th!

     I realised today that our morning classes last for about three and a half hours with a small ten-minute break. So long! Considering all of my classes at Caledonia are only one hour long (two for double block), this is a lot more than I’m used to. Also the material is much more difficult than anything I’ve ever experienced. Good news though: I’m starting to understand what we’re talking about. I still don’t know how it really relates to our topic, but that’s okay. Also, I’m participating a lot in the discussions and am actually having relatively intelligent input. I feel mildly successful.

     Do you remember the story that I mentioned in my last post? Well we mentioned it in class today and apparently it’s actually a traditional Québécois story (of course, they changed a couple things like the “no speaking English thing. They added that). 

     After lunch, we had our atelier and we learned about different shots and what they’re used for. We watched a small section of a film that exemplified the different shots. A little side note about the film: I believe it’s called Léolo and it’s one of two full-length films made by a Québécois filmmaker. He only made two because apparently he died in a plane crash or something like that.

     Once we were done watching, we got in to small groups and set out to make a short film. As I don’t really know anyone in my class I just went with the group next to mine. I had a little bit of difficulty with that not because they were annoying or rude or anything. It was because their level of French is fairly low and they have trouble expressing what they mean and also understanding what I’m saying. It worked out anyways; but I had to really think about how to put things simply and to not go so fast when I speak. Good practice! 

     I made little jot notes for what I wanted to mention in my blog. The one that pertains to this time in the day says “filming fail”, and that’s exactly what it was. After we finally got ourselves organized, and only had a few more takes to do, the camera died. The one day I don’t bring my own camera (extra batteries included) we get this silly camera that dies on us!

     Now this should be relatively simple to fix. We get the extra battery and finish up. Well, we did that. While our animateur went to find the audio/video guy, we watched a bit of the Spain vs. Germany game (I heard later that Germany lost 1-0. I’m a little upset). We finally got the battery and then went to go film again. And the battery dies. At this point, we have maybe ten minutes left, but we’re told to wait for another battery anyways and that we would be given a few extra minutes. Luckily for us, this battery works and we film the last couple shots. I’ll admit, it’s horribly done (I was filming, the other three were acting), but it’s all right. I just have to remember to bring my own camera next time (they both use DV tapes, so it should work out!).

     After that, we registered for our activities for this weekend my roommates and I (and I swear, most of the other Explore people) are all going on an excursion to Bic (I think it’s an island, but don’t quote me on that).  And then on Sunday, we’re all going kayaking (after the FIFA final, naturally). I’ll tell you all about these activities in later blog posts!

     Another thing I should mention is Mom, I finally tried that fudge from Hell’s Gate. It’s still good, don’t worry and it tastes really really good. I haven’t tried the little coconut piece yet – I’m saving it for “je-ne-sais-quoi”.

     During dinner (which was tasty as usual. I especially enjoy the bread and cheese!), Laval (our host “dad”) quizzed us on French verbs. I managed to “pass” so I’m pretty happy about that. Johanna’s (our “mom’s”) sister is visiting for a bit so she had dinner with us too.

     After dinner, we went back to the school (up the mountain again. I’m going to have amazingly muscular legs by the end of this!). There, they had ping-pong tables set up for us as well as a corner with “jeux d’amimation”. We played Scategories, Pictionary, and did some miming. It was pretty fun. Then Catherine (one of my roommates. The other two are Valeria and Anna. Don’t quote me on the spelling) and I went and played ping-pong with a couple of guys without any real rules. We made it almost a crazy combination of volleyball, tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. Often we were just passing back and forth in the air, without even touching the table – so much fun! I even did some filming there. I’ve been feeling less awkward about filming people so I’m making progress!

     Then it was time for us to go home, and time for me to catch up on my blogs. I’m happy to say that I am now completely caught up and will (hopefully) be posting tomorrow!

     If you have any questions/comments/want to say hi/whatever, there are a few ways you can do so! You can comment on this (or any) blog post, email me at [email protected], or fill in the comment sheet in the contact page. I look forward to hearing from you!

     À bientôt!

 

Veronika

     I am going to see Cirque du Soleil. 

     Yes, you read correctly: Cirque du Soleil – In Quebec City.

     I’m just a little bit more than… SO EXCITED!!!

     I have always wanted to see them, and now I’ll finally have the chance. I do hope that this actually does happen while we’re in Quebec, as it would be terribly upsetting if it didn’t.

     Today started at 6:30am. It would appear that I’m not really on summer holidays, but I don’t mind. I finished writing yesterday’s blog and got myself ready for the day. Then I was heading up the “mountain” (as I like to call it) to school. My class is still difficult, and I have no idea how to go about making things easier. Well, I have a few ideas but right now I’m just concerning myself with trying to vaguely understand what we’re talking about. We seem to be doing a lot of talking, but what we’re discussing doesn’t really seem to connect a lot. Sometimes I think it’s just me and my lack of educational experience but I’m really not sure.

     By next Monday, we need to choose our idea for our final project (I checked, it’s worth 40% and then our exam is worth 30%. Needless to say, I’m in trouble). Hopefully I’ll figure something out before then. It needs to somehow relate to Quebec culture and society, so at least I have a little bit of direction on what my topics can be.

     I came home for lunch and then was off to my atelier (workshop) where I proceeded to make a slight fool of myself. I think I have to learn to accept that I will often be the one to have social screw-ups and that’s just the way it is. Easier said than done. At least I have a good French accent. We have a lot of beginners in our class, so sometimes it’s difficult to understand them. I’m sure that by the end of the five weeks, they’ll be practically Québécois.

     At about 5pm, we went back to the school and all of us (250+) got into several busses and drove off to the beach for l’épluchette de maïs (an activity put on by the school). When we got there, we had to look for the flag with our teacher’s name on it and wait for our other classmates. Because there are only seven people in my class, it didn’t take long for us to get together. However, the teacher was nowhere to be found. We had a box of corn in front of us, so we began to unwrap them and were completely finished by the time the teacher arrived. After chatting for a bit, the corn was cooked and ready to eat! Luckily, we were the first group and got the very first taste of this delicious corn. So good!

     After we ate a bit more, we went down to the beach (we were in the field) where we walked along the shore and climbed all over this huge rocky area. There were also little shrimp things in the tide pools. At first I had no idea what they were and thought they were a weird sort of bug or something.

     Because it was so sunny and beautiful, I didn’t want to leave the beach but eventually we were told to come back to the field: the games were about to begin.

     We had a sort of “Olympics” between all of the classes with three different events: potato sack races (where we had to spin around five times, run over to our teammate with the sack, and then they run back); wheelbarrow races (where the person who was the wheelbarrow had to dress up in a ridiculous costume, race across the field, and then take off the clothes to pass them to their teammate who would do the same); and also tug-of-war (with six people per team. Considering we only had seven people in our class – all relatively small and only one guy – we didn’t win. But we were close!). Yeah, we didn’t win anything, but it’s all good fun anyways!

     After that, we gathered around the campfire and had live music. There was lots of dancing going on and I was right in there with them! Nothing fancy of course, just your goofy campfire dancing. Later on, I think we’re going to have a night of traditional Québécois music and dance. I’m looking forward to it!

     Once we were all “danced out”, we had a story beside the campfire. It was about these lumberjacks that want to go home to their wives because they’re miserable out in the woods working for this company. They decide to make a deal with the devil and they fly in a canoe to their homes. However, there’s a catch: they have to return by midnight and they can’t speak a word of English. On the way back, one of the lumberjacks accidently shouts “Oh my god!” and then their flying canoe falls to the ground. Luckily for them, they don’t die and all is well (I’m sure that there’s more to the end, but I can’t entirely recall it). It was really fun to watch because we had a narrator sitting on a bench in front of us and then we also had several of the animateurs (the people who run our workshops) acting out the story. So much fun!

     Unfortunately, we had to leave at 9pm. It seemed pretty early, but I guess I did need some sleep. I think that if I want to survive my morning class, I’ll need more sleep!

     Bonne nuit!

 

Veronika (Véronique si vous êtes français!)