Les voyages forment la jeunesse

To my dismay, I arrived back in the States today. Our last weekend in Quebec was packed full of fun and nostalgia. We truly became a family in Quebec, complete with bickering and the kind of laughter that makes your abs sore.

Friday turned out to be much better than expected. Our professor surprised us with two gifts. In lieu of presenting our projects, we merely had to turn in our papers and take our final. Furthermore, he told us that we would be going out to lunch on Saturday and that we wouldn't have to foot the bill. I'm not sure that I could accurately capture how excited we were at this news. We erupted in cheers and laughter during class and it took awhile for us to calm down. After class some of us went out shopping. I ended up in a bookstore in awe of all the French around me. I simply did not know where to start. I can spend hours in a book store here. Put me in a French bookstore and I could spend all my money and then some more. I limited myself to twenty minutes and four books, which was quite an achievement for me.

We went to a museum in the afternoon, Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec. Admission into half of the exhibits were free so naturally those are the ones that we went to. In one exhibit, many of the pieces were religious. Fatima and I walk up to a series of three paintings of a woman crying and Fatima says, "Look at the fat chick crying." We got closer and saw the description. They were photos of Mary Magdalene. All we could do was laugh hysterically at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. We laughed so hard that we got too close to the sensors and the security guard came over to us and scolded us. He was speaking to us in French and when he saw that we understood, he complimented us on how well we could speak French. We apologized and made sure to stay further back.

Hungry and curious, Fatima, Ashley and myself made our way over to a bar named after a local writer that apparently had really good food. It was here that I got some duck poutine (duck, french fries, gravy and cheese curds) and I wasn't much of a fan. We made our way back to the hotel where we got ready to go out for the night. On the walk back, we walked by an underwear store for men that we had passed countless times before. Except, this time there was a live model in the windows. Yep, a live underwear model. As we were gawking at him, he smiled and waved. I added it to the list of odd things that occurred in Quebec.We met up with our friends from Wednesday night, Xavier, Max, Andres and another guy whose name I cannot remember. We danced the night away and enjoyed our last real night in the city.

Saturday afternoon we went to Portofino's, the delicious Italian restaurant where we feasted. We were told that we could buy as much as we want, so I got soup, salad and a main dish. Most everyone else did the same and some even got dessert as well. I was full the rest of the day. A short nap later we all went back out for a walk. Ashley and Fatima had to get some last minute souvenirs, plus we just wanted to walk around for the last time. We made a huge loop around the city, taking everything in for the last time. At the end of our walk we ended up at our favorite place to get poutine. We weren't really hungry, but we needed to have some poutine for the last time.

Once we had made it back to the hotel, at least 3 hours after we had left, the most amazing firework show started. One of the military ships on the river was setting them off and we had a perfect view from our balcony. It truly was the picture perfect way to end our time there. I spent the rest of my night packing and organizing as we had to leave the hotel at 5:30am. 

Despite setting an alarm, we woke up late and had to rush to get out of the hotel. I spent some time watching the sun rise and taking in the incredible beauty of our surroundings. I almost teared up standing there, not believing that three weeks had gone by so quickly. Quebec quickly became my home and our tiny hotel room became my safe place. I loved everything about the city and I honestly cannot pick out one thing that I loved more than another. In fact, my only complaint is that I wish I could have stayed longer. 

The trip home was uneventful. The customs agents were rude and that was when we knew we were home. On the plane from Detroit to Memphis we rehashed the whole trip, talking about our favorite memories and quotes. We got the attention of a young man from South Africa and he laughed at our stories and general weirdness. My mom was at the airport waiting and we were thrilled to see each other. All of us said our goodbyes and the trip officially came to an end. 

I made it home to Alabama around 5 this evening. It's a weird feeling here. It's similar to when I came home from college for the first time: I knew that everything was same and that it was I who was different. I couldn't have asked for a better study abroad experience and I am already looking forward to the day when I can return to Quebec. I improved my French, built fantastic relationships with seven incredible people, and most importantly I grew as a person. This trip is something that I will forever remember and I am forever grateful for the opportunity that was given to me. I will always look back on my time in Quebec and smile for so many different reasons.

Per usual, I leave you with a photo: the last group photo when we arrived at the airport. 

I hope that you all have enjoyed reading about my adventure as much as I enjoyed writing about it.  As my friend Florian said, "Les voyages forment la jeunesse." This time, I'll let you figure that out.

Ta gueule!

As anyone who has ever been a student knows, procrastination is the key to a good project, paper, homework assignment, etc. While I write this, I should most definitely be working on my project due tomorrow or be studying for my final that is also tomorrow. However, in my infinite wisdom, I've decided to write a blog post per the request of my fabulous new sister, Vanna, who enjoys hearing about this crazy life of mine.

Yesterday was possibly the most interesting day here. I was up for almost 24 hours straight, something that we seem to be experts at accomplishing in this city. In the morning during class, our professor surprised us with an assignment in town. We were each given a quebecois expression and had to go ask a local what the meaning of it was. We went out in our groups, or advanced/intermediate pairs, to accomplish this. James and I finished the task in about 10 minutes, so we spent the rest of our 45 minutes overlooking the river and talking. After class, Fatima, Chloe, Julia and I went to our favorite little local restaurant, Chez Temporel. The food is always delicious but they never have enough people working.

For dinner we went on a nighttime cruise. We got box dinners and the boat traveled up and down the river several times. Once the sun went down, the boat turned into a sort of night club and we spent a couple hours dancing and having a good time. After the cruise, Julia, Fatima, Claire and I went to Chez Dagobert. The four of us were tired and not really expecting anything interesting to happen, clueless about what the universe had in store for us. On our way there, I had stopped to put on some lip gloss. Two guys walked by and one of them said to me in French, something like, "You don't need any lipstick, you're already beautiful." We just kept walking. The men here really are one of a kind. We met up with a friend we met during the first week, Xavier, and three of his friends, Max, Nic and Andres. We went inside and were delighted to be able to listen to some Quebecois white boy rap. Once we had our fill, we continued upstairs to the dance floor. Xavier was nice enough to teach me a Quebecois dance move named "le tabarnak." The word "tabarnak" is a quebecois curse word so it makes for an interesting name of a dance move. While dancing we witnessed several "almost" fights and a small man break dancing. At one point in the night someone came over to us and handed us an unopened, cold bottle of champagne, apparently something that had been happening to unsuspecting groups all night. When in Quebec, do as the Quebecois? 

Poutine from Chez Ashton is the best late night snack, so we decided to get some after we left Chez Dagobert. While the 8 of us were sitting and eating something incredibly bizarre happened. A kid around my age walks in the door, beelines to our table, reaches over Fatima while simultaneously putting his armpit in her face and slams his hands down on the table, his face resting mere inches from mine. He proceeded to ask me where the bathrooms were and say something about how he thought I was pretty. Completely taken by surprise, my brain couldn't register the rapid and slurred French. One of the guys answered his question and sent him on his way. There is clearly something about me that attracts the strangest things. 

We were standing outside Chez Ashton when a very drunk guy walked over to us and asked for a cigarette. We told him that none of us had any, which he simply could not fathom. I guess he thought we were lying because he stuck around for at least 20 minutes, periodically asking us for a cigarette. Someone saw that he had some blood trickling down from his ear and asked what happened. He simply responded, "Man, Quebec happened." Well then, I guess that settles that. This guy just did not want to leave us alone, so when we convinced him to go ask another stranger for a cigarette, we seized the opportunity and tried to get away without him noticing. We were a good 50 yards away when he started coming after us screaming about cigarettes. We cut across into a small street, trying to get away from him. Parked on this street was a white car with three people in it, a driver and two people in the passenger seat. The driver was essentially passed out with her head half way out the window while her two guests were getting frisky. Naturally, all of us gawked as we walked by, still hurrying as the Cigarette Man continued to follow us. About 20 yards after we had passed the car, the driver gets out and starts to yell at us in French saying, "WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" Max appropriately responds with, "Ta gueule!" which means "Shut up!" They yelled at each other for a good 30 seconds before we hurried Max along in our quest to get away from Cigarette Man. 

I guess that Cigarette Man got bored or distracted because he finally left us alone. The eight of us walked back to our hotel where we watched the sun rise. There's a bench just outside our hotel and to the right where there is the most amazing view of the river. We watched the sun rise and talked like we were old friends. The four of them were easily the coolest people that we've met here. To top it off, their English was superb! The entire night I was asking them about English expressions, trying to test their knowledge and modernness. They knew most of them, but I got them with, "pop a squat" and "cool beans," although Fatima quickly told them that no one says "cool beans" anymore (even though I definitely say that all the time). They apparently also thought that "cool beans" was lame and said that they weren't going to use it. Silly Canadians! 

For whatever reason, our professor cancelled class today. After getting into our room at 6am, we needed the sleep. In the morning, we all went to a short review session for our final tomorrow before we set out to conquer the day. Fatima, Julia and I went to the little deli and got some lunch. While I was ordering my sandwich, the young kid behind the counter asked if I wanted to speak in English or French. When I responded with French, he sort of laughed at me and went with it. He thought it was funny when I asked him what the word for lettuce was in French. I was just glad that he humored me. 

Fatima and I had decided when we first got here that we wanted to go to Lévis, the town across the river that speaks mostly French. Everyone else was busy doing their own thing today so the two of us made our way over there, thankful for the quiet and calm of each other as company. We had no plans in Lévis, aside from going to an ice cream place that several people had recommended to us. After we got off the ferry, we walked up about 150 stairs to get into the city. There's nothing like 150 stairs to start off a two hour walk! In town, we were walking when we heard two very loud farts coming from the man on the bench across the street. I suppose that Canadians and flatulence go hand in hand? We both looked his way and he smiled at us. We tried to contain our laughter and failed miserably. Strange people and strange encounters are never in short supply.

We finally found the ice cream place and I got some soft serve dipped in dark chocolate. I devoured my ice cream, careful to get it all over my face like a small child. Fatima and I had wanted to check out one of the churches. Half way there we got distracted by something else and abandoned our original quest. We ended up finding a sort of green-way on the edge of the city and walked at least a mile and a half back to the ferry. The view of Quebec was absolutely breathtaking, as usual, and we were thankful to be on flat ground for once. On the ride over we had made the comment that we wanted to feel the water to see how cold it was. Upon entering the green-way, we saw a sign that told us that we couldn't touch the water in the area because it was contaminated.... It's funny how these things work. We boarded the ferry back to Quebec about two hours after arriving in Lévis, exhausted and ready to be "home" at our hotel.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local t shirt shop. I was speaking to the salesman and naturally made some mistakes which he kindly corrected. I really do love it when they not only speak in French, but politely correct me. It's embarrassing but truly a good way to learn.

Well, it's getting late and I must get back to my project and studying for the final tomorrow. I leave you with three photos today: one of the sunrise, one of myself with my ice cream and once of myself on the edge of Lévis with Quebec in the background.

A plus!

Au gauche, les Américains!

Monday afternoon was spent doing laundry. It's always a hunt for enough change and for machines that work. While we were waiting for our laundry, we went to our favorite deli and got some lunch. There are two little tables outside the deli that the 5 of us were sitting out, just chatting quietly while eating. All of a sudden a little boy walks by, point to us and says to his mom, "Au gauche, les Américains!" which means, "Americans on the left!" We have absolutely no idea how he knew this, as we were merely enjoying our lunch. I don't think it's quite so obvious that we're Americans just by looking at us! Maybe this little boy was trained in the art of spotting tourists, who knows. Just another funny and random encounter to add to the list.


Last night we wanted to go to a new bar that someone had recommended. Unfortunately for us, it started thundering and lightning as we were leaving the hotel. Instead of going on a 25 minute walk to the new bar, we opted for the pub just up the road from us, Pub Saint Patrick. After hanging out at the pub for a little while, Fatima, Julia and I wanted some poutine so we walked up to Chez Ashton to enjoy our midnight snack. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back into the States and I can't go get some poutine whenever I want. 


Today, for the first time, I went out on my own. This entire trip I have constantly been around at least one other person, but more like two or three, at all times. Today everyone was either out getting food or sleeping and I was the only one around. After I worked on my project for a little while, I decided to go on a walk. I had been wanting to climb the stairs to the top of the wall and check out the view. If I haven't mentioned this before or if you aren't aware, the upper city is surrounded by a wall with cannons placed on the interior. Our hotel is actually at the edge of the wall and it overlooks the lower city, which you can see in pictures taken from our balcony. Anyways, I followed the wall around for awhile, in an area on the opposite side of our hotel, and saw some awesome little places of the city that I had failed to notice before. With this, I better orientated myself with landmarks and had some much needed alone time. I also was able to get some pretty amazing photos. At the end of my walk, I had been gone for an hour and a half and made a huge loop around the city.

When I first walked up the stairs to the top of wall, there were about 8 guys sitting on the wall looking very grungy and indulging in some illegal substances. One of them was even sitting with his legs hanging over the wall, looking over the crowd with a fishing pole in his hands. I have no idea if there was a line attached or not, but it was another strange sighting. I chuckled to myself and kept walking.

For dinner, some of us went into the lower city and ate at a decently good restaurant. I guess they had heard us talking to each other because they handed us menus in English, something that hadn't happened to us here yet. It was a little discouraging, but most of us spoke to the waitress in French anyways, to which she responded in French. I always appreciate it when they do that.

I've finally decided that I need to go exercise. I plan on going for a run tomorrow before class. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get out of bed on time, but I'll try my hardest. Due to all the hills and walking here, I can feel a difference in my legs, the strength and tone of them, from when I first arrived here. It's no wonder that the locals are in such great shape. I really wish this ease of exercise, namely walking, was more readily available in Starkville. Yes, I walk and bike to and from campus, but that's nothing compared to this!


Tomorrow we are going on a cruise down the Saint-Laurent river for dinner. I'm pretty excited for the food and the sights. We only have a few days left here and we're going to make them count! They're action packed and I'm ready for the fun times that are approaching.

Here's a photo from my walk today. I took this after I initially climbed up the stairs and began my walk along it. Pretty cool, eh?

I heard a rumor...

This weekend has certainly been interesting, action packed and incredibly tiring, as everything that we do here is. We met some people that were simply not worth our time and some "typical" English-speaking Canadians. As always, it is an adventure at every turn.

As I said in the last post, Thursday was Julia's 21st birthday. We wanted to go out to eat so we walked down into the lower city, which requires tackling the most intense hill that I've had the pleasure to walk on. It's an awesome work out, but we're all winded by the time we make it up/down. Anyways, we went to a cute little restaurant and had some delicious burgers. We had all been craving burgers and left satisfied. After dinner, we went into town to our favorite club, Chez Dagobert. We love it so much because we can go there to dance. It's not like any American club that I've been to. There are two floors. The first floor has a live band with more bar space and the second floor is where the dance floor is. Upon leaving, we met some guys that I can only describe as complete jerks. Fatima and I were talking to them in French. Julia came over and said something along the lines of "hey" or "what's up," to which the guys responded by calling her a "salope," which translates as "slut." We've picked up on some bad words here, it's almost necessary, so we were fully aware of their conversation. We promptly told the guys that we did, indeed, know what they were saying. They tried to convince us that "salope" means "beautiful woman." We walked away after than. Clearly they thought that we were just stupid Americans. Walking into a McDonald's, we met someone from California. He told us that he had never met anyone from Mississippi and make some rude comment about people from the south. We walked away from that situation too. It was truly a night of undeserving people and disappointing encounters.

Friday afternoon we took the ferry across the river. By doing this, you can see the entire city of Quebec, truly magnificent. The ferry goes to a town called Lévis that speaks almost no English. Sometime this week we're going to go over there and check it out. Friday night we went across town to the university here, Université Laval, the first French-speaking university in North America and where our professor studied. The student population is over 50,000! Since the winters here are so brutal, the entire campus is connected via underground tunnel. You can literally get to any point on campus via tunnel. There's also some pretty neat art in the tunnels and you can even ride your bike down there. After the university, we went to a movie theater named "Le Clap." We saw a Quebecois film that was decent. Naturally, we couldn't understand a good bit of what they were saying, but we did get the gist of it. I also really heard the Quebecois accent, something that I am trying to avoid picking up. After the movie, some of us went to the pub on campus that is located in their student center. Yes, it's normal throughout Canada for there to be a bar on campus. It's a brilliant idea really, but not something that I think would ever happen in the States. At the pub we met up with some friends that James had made earlier in the day. They go to school in Calgary and are here for an intensive language course. They were cool kids and we invited them over to hang out with us the next day.

Yesterday was quite the busy day. We went to a delicious local restaurant for lunch and then walked around for a few hours, shopping and enjoying the city. Chloe, Laura and Claire were on a mission to find some cute clothes, and that they did. After we made it back to the hotel, we cooked up some dinner and ate on the balcony as the sun set. Our Canadian friends came over and we all watched the light show before going out. (Side note: They were what you think of when you think of Canadians. They added on, "right" and "eh" to nearly everything they said. Ex: "So my Dad's a professor, right?" I wanted to say, "I don't know, is he?"). We made our way to Chez Dagobert, the favorite club, where we stayed for a few hours. We all came home in little groups, exhausted and needing sleep.

Today was very low key. A couple of us went down to the lower city to eat at a little restaurant that we discovered the other day. They have some really awesome poutine there. It's sad to think that I won't be able to go out and get poutine whenever I want in Starkville, so I guess I'll just have to make it. After a nap, some of us walked around the city until we found somewhere that we wanted to eat. It's nice to be out and about when there aren't so many tourists. It really feels like more of a quaint village at night, a very safe, very beautiful village.

Unfortunately, I will be home in a week, a sad realization to me. I've been so fortunate to have such an amazing experience here and I don't want it to end. Every single day here is absolutely wonderful, despite the constant fatigue and expensiveness. There are a few things about home that I'm excited about, namely the people, but mostly I'd rather be here than there. Maybe it's the sense of home, the ease of life, the people that practically know everything about me or the simple uniqueness of this place, but all I know is that I'm not ready to get back to my life in the states. Alas, such is life.

Here's the group on the ferry with Quebec in the background. Truly breathtaking.

L'auberge québécoise

These past few days have been on the quiet side. I can't believe that this time is passing so quickly. It feels like yesterday when I was going through customs and being harassed and judged for having pepper spray. Here I am, just over half way through the trip, already dreading going back home. We have 10 more days in this beautiful place. Like most everything else in life, that is simply not enough time. I'll blink and it will be over. I really, really want to move here one day. I know that I've said that before but I am being completely serious. I really hope that one day, after I graduate, that I'll be able to make a life here. Life is nothing if not full of obstacles to overcome and experiences to be had.

Tuesday we spent most of the day at the hotel. We went to the grocery store to refill our stockpile of food. We've been going through the same lane and using the same cashier, so we've built a sort of relationship with the cashier. He speaks to us in English, of course, and we try our best to speak to him in French. He laughs and so do we. 

There is a light show that we can watch from the balcony of our hotel, it's called Le Moulin à images. It is a projection that takes place on grain silos, 10 stories high and 5 football fields long. In about 45 minutes, it goes through the entire history of Quebec City using only images and sound. It is absolutely breathtaking and we're lucky enough to have a perfect view of it from our hotel balcony. After being here for 10 days, we still hadn't seen it so we decided to spend our Tuesday night watching it. I hope I get another chance to watch it. You simply cannot absorb it all with just one viewing.

Wednesday was another relatively calm day. After class, us "advanced" students went out to explore the town some more, as we had to plan a scavenger hunt for the "intermediate" students. We walked around, checked out some new stores, ate some delicious gelato and watched the street performers. It's nice to laze around the city, take in the sites, enjoy the hustle and bustle of tourists and, most importantly, speak French. After cooking dinner, we all went out to the pub down the street. We then tried to meet up with some of Julia's friends at the parliament building, but they didn't show up after half an hour and we got cold, so we left.

Today is Julia's 21st birthday! My teacher had been planning a small surprise for her, but we wanted to take it one step farther. Since the clock struck midnight, we had been downplaying her birthday. If she brought it up, we just changed the topic or downplayed its importance. None of us even mentioned it this morning when we were all eating breakfast. We wanted her to be extra surprised during class. During class we have little breaks and this is when we got everything ready. Someone took Julia upstairs while my professor, James and I went and got her presents. We had some pastries and candies as well as a picture book of Quebec and a book of Quebecois French for dummies. When she walked in the the door, we were all literally holding candles that she had to blow out. It was quite the little surprise, as the giant smile on her face hid nothing. 

After lunch, we went on the scavenger hunt. There were three groups of three, two advanced students and one intermediate student. I got to work with Claire and Julia. There was a list of 16 things that had to be accomplished, that ranged from going to a restaurant and asking the hostess her name, walking up to a stranger and asking them to take a picture, or counting all 116 steps, out loud in French, as we climbed them to the upper city. Most of the people we encountered nice and patient and Julia gained more and more confidence with every person that she talked to. My team ended up winning, taking just over an hour to finish and walking in the doors almost a full hour before the other two groups. All 9 of us got an awesome calendar of Quebec though, since, in our professors words, we are all winners.

Tonight will be full of celebration. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet, but I know that I'll be telling everyone that it's Julia's birthday. The plan is for all of us to go out and celebrate. I have no doubt that the night will result in some funny and awesome stories, as our nights usually do. There haven't been nearly as many people out on the town now that the music festival is different, so I'm hoping that won't be the case since it's Thursday night, but who knows. We will find out soon enough!

Here's the picture of us this morning, in class, celebrating Julia's birthday. That room that we are in is the dining room where breakfast is served and also the room where we have class. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

P.S. Who do I know in Russia?! I can see where my "audience" is, and there have been many page views of my blog there. I've been wondering if it's just a random person or if it's actually someone that I know. Anyone have any ideas?

You must consult the council!

Our trip to Montreal proved to be one of the most interesting 26 hours of my life. We left Saturday afternoon and arrived back in Quebec on Sunday around dinner time. We arrived at the bus station in Montreal at 6:30pm, where our friend, Florian, met us. We were supposed to be meeting with Fatima's friend and staying with him, but he cancelled at the last moment. Earlier in the trip, we had met Florian in the city and he lives in Montreal. As soon as Fatima's friend cancelled, we contacted Florian to see if he could show us around. He met us at the station and we proceeded to walk around Montreal. Little did we know, he knew almost as little about Montreal and how to get around as we did because he had only been living there for a month.

We had a small encounter with the police! We were crossing the street, ignoring the cross walk, similar to how we walk around on campus. There were two police officers on the other side of the street watching us as we weren't paying them any attention. They proceeded to start talking to us in rapid French. Fatima, Chloe, Julia and myself just kind of stood there and looked at them. Luckily Florian was able to talk to them and we all walked away with a mild scolding.

As we walked, we stumbled upon a street performance that was simply intoxicating. It was around 20 people doing different sorts of acrobatic dance moves. We wanted to go to a festival in town, but we didn't know how to get there. Therefore, we walked around Montreal for about two hours until we finally just gave up. We were all hungry and we begrudgingly decided to eat some McDonald's. I didn't want to eat there as I haven't eaten at a McDonald's in the States for a very long time. Unfortunately, it was going to be one of the cheapest options and also the quickest. The menu was very similar, just small cultural changes in choices, like offering poutine as a substitute for fries. We had been lugging our backpacks around for several hours by this point and were ready to be rid of them. We dropped our stuff off at Florian's apartment and went back out. We met up with someone that Fatima knew by association, a someone who got us into the VIP section of a night club for free.  The club was very crowded and also very smelly, an awful combination.  Upon leaving the club, we must have taken 10 different buses to get back to Florian's apartment. Florian did not happen to have any extra towels, so we had to use our sleeping shirts as towels when we showered in the bathroom that he shared with 4 other people. Quite the experience. To top the night off, we slept on a concrete terrace. Literally, it was approximately 6 feet long and 5 feet across with 4 people sleeping there. We only had a blanket underneath us, nothing on top. It gets pretty chilly here at night, so we had to cuddle for warmth. 

In the morning, we were as tired as tired can be. We got up early and made our way into town. Florian deposited us at the bus station where we were left to our own devices to get around. We made our way to a festival that showcased different countries of the world and their culture. Had it not been so hot and had we not been so tired, it would have been a really awesome place to be. At one point, when we were walking out the exit of the Metro station, there were 4 or 5 men standing there, shouting at the crowd, "Is anybody selling? Is anybody selling sex or drugs?" In Chloe's words, "That was either a really bad sting operation or those guys are just idiots." I'm still not sure what to make of that little occurrence. 

We boarded the bus to come back at 1pm. We ran into some traffic on the way back. The 2.5-3 hour bus ride turned into a 4 hour ride, because it just wouldn't be my life if there wasn't some kind of problem. We tried to sleep most of the way, or as best as possible on a bus. Once we arrived back in Quebec, we couldn't have been happier. Never in my life have I been so excited to be back in familiar territory, where I actually knew where I needed to go and didn't need public transportation to do it.

As a result of our exhausted mental and physical states, we spent the night in, the first night of the entire trip, as we try to go out and do something every night. James cooked everyone dinner and we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Sometimes that really is just the right medicine. 


Yesterday was a mostly normal day for us. We had class in the morning and spent the afternoon walking around the lower city. While we were walking around, an older, creepy man asked us if we were tourists. I don't think that we look that obviously like tourists, aside from when people hear us speaking English. Anyways, we weren't really sure what to say so we just smiled awkwardly and kept walking. Sometimes we just pretend that we don't speak English. It can work surprisingly well. 


As part of our grade, groups of three of us go out to eat with our teacher. We go to a fancy restaurant and have to speak French the whole time. Most importantly, we don't have to pay. Well, we do, but the cost is included in what we paid to come on this trip. It was our turn last night, Fatima, Chloe and myself. We were very excited about this. Any food that we don't have to pay for out of pocket is pretty much a miracle. We spent three hours at the restaurant and each got a three course meal, successfully filling our perpetually empty bellies. 


The 8 of us, myself, Fatima, Chloe, Julia, Ashley, James, Claire and Laura, hang out most of the time. We really don't have much of an option, but we genuinely enjoy each others company. I've found 7 new best friends! Like always, none of us really want to just sit around the hotel when we have the option to go out. We had a "family" excursion to a local bar and sat around and talked. We ended the night by going to Chez Ashton, our favorite place for poutine. Fatima and I made friends with two people eating there. We spoke in French the whole time, as their English wasn't very good. They were impressed that we were speaking French so well because they said that most Americans just don't try. A good time was had by all, as always.

It's a rainy and somewhat cold day today. Who knows what we're going to get into. I think we all need to catch up on some sleep and just relax. Then again, we always say that and then we end up staying up late, doing whatever comes our way.


Yesterday, the father of my childhood best friend passed away. I will always remember him for his big laugh and bigger beard. My parents have been friends with the family for more than 30 years, and he even drove my Mom to the hospital when she was giving birth to my brother. Today, my heart goes out to the Schilling Family.

Here's a photo of the waterfall that we visited the other day. It was so incredibly beautiful. We even walked across a bridge over it!

Here's the most recent family picture, take on  Île d'Orléans. 

Oh! C'est cute!

I come to you today from our bus headed to Montreal. We're on one of those luxury tour buses, so naturally it is equipped with free wifi. We're putting the $90 bus fare to good use, or so we think. The ride is about 2 and a half to three hours, so I figured that this was a good way to spend the time.

Last night was.... Interesting. There is a Drag Club in town. And yes, you've made the correct assumption: We went to it. It was a an experience like none other. Some of these "women," I'm not really sure what to call them, were very convincing. Had I not known the truth, I would have thought they were biologically women. Some of them had some killer legs! It was a little uncomfortable for me, so I didn't stay too long. It was a very interactive show, and I was afraid of them singling me out for anything crazy, although they did point me out once and asked if it was my first time there. After I had left, James ended up on stage. I'm sad that I missed that part of the show, but such is life.

Today was spent on a 5 hour bus tour outside of the city. We went to some really amazing places, including Île d'Orléans (an island in the river), le Parc de la Chute-Montmorency (a waterfall), the Albert Gilles Copper Art and Museum, Chez Maria (a store that makes all sorts of goodies with maple), and la basilique Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré. It was a very tiring but very beautiful tour. I may write more about the tour later, as it's a bit challenging to write a post from my phone. In the mean time, here's a photo of us at the basilica.

Montreal is going to be awesome, I can already tell. We had a bit of a problem nailing down a place to stay, so who knows what's going to happen. For all you older folks related to me that are reading this, you can take a moment to take a deep breath and release the worry. If at 16, knowing little French, I could make my way across Paris with my friend, I will be fine. I'm with three very capable friends, money, a bus ticket back and an abundance of common sense. Also, between the four of us, we have a couple of friends in Montreal. Maybe we'll end up on a couch. Oh, the possibilities!

Every year my Dad's side of my family has what we call Miller Camp. It's basically a week long reunion at some resort in Wisconsin. As many of the 9 siblings, their spouses and kids head to Wisconsin and we spend a week around the campfire, talking and just being family. This year will be the first time that I'll miss it in about 10 years. So, to my family: Have fun at Miller Camp! I miss and love you all!

Now accepting donations!

The Aerosmith concert was last night. It was a little disappointing for me. I guess I was just expecting more than they delivered. They were really awesome live, but they didn't play many songs that were really popular. The only song they played that I was decently familiar with was Jaded. Granted, we did leave before the end of the performance, but not by much. Bon Jovi's performance was better, in my opinion, and there were probably 50,000 more people there.

Every morning we have class for about three hours. We go over grammar concepts and cultural aspects of Quebec. At the beginning of the week, our teacher gave us an assignment. We had to go out in the city and approach a stranger. (Side note, my mom and my Uncle Sean had both told me that I shouldn't talk to strangers. Sorry guys, that's all we do here!) We were told to ask them questions about their life, their profession, etc, and we would have to report back today on what we learned. We each had 8 questions that we wanted to ask. I wasn't really looking forward to this because I did not want to just approach someone on the street and be that random, creepy American with a bad accent. There's a deli up the street from us that we go to just about every day (the same deli where we saw the argument). We had walked outside and there was an older man standing there with his dog. For whatever reason, I was feeling confident, so I began to talk to him. He was quite nice and was very interesting. He was even a French teacher! The coolest thing was his last name, DuFour. He came from a long line of bakers and "four" means "oven" in French. Cool, right?


Before we got here, Fatima, Julia, Chloe and I had decided that we wanted to go to Montreal while we're here. We had been told that it was really cheap to take a bus there, only around $20. I asked my teacher how we should go to get the tickets and he used this as a teaching point. He made me go ask the woman at the front desk of our hotel (in French, of course) how we should do that. I did, and the bus station is only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We ended up paying $90 each for a round trip ticket to Montreal. If that doesn't sound expensive to you, think about it this way: I could have fed myself for 5 days here with that kind of cash! Therefore, we are now accepting donations so that we can eat for the rest of our time here. Please and thank you! Kidding, of course.. We may be intelligent, but that bus station robbed us blind. We laughed the whole way back to the hotel because it was just so ridiculous. I just keep telling myself, "When you're 80, you'll be glad that you spent the money."  Luckily, I just know that we're going to have fun there so it will be worth it. 
Quote of the week: "I think we were sisters in another life. But you weren't white and I wasn't Mexican." - Fatima. These close living quarters in a foreign country are surely developing a bond like no other.

I might not post again until we get back from Montreal on Sunday. Until then!

Quebec around 4am:

We're from Mississippi. We don't wear shoes!

I gave someone directions! I was walking back to the hotel and a woman stopped me and asked how to get somewhere. I asked her to talk a little slower to make sure that I knew where she wanted to go. Once I was sure, I gave her some simple directions and pointed her off in the right way. I had walked into the street to point somewhere and the woman and her two daughters followed me. As she was leaving, a car came speeding around the corner. Cars aren't really on the street in front of our hotel much, much less speeding. One of her daughters ran to the side that her mom was on. Fatima and I grabbed the other one and pulled her to the sidewalk. There's nothing like a possible car crash to start the day. The excitement is truly never in short supply here.

We went to a neat museum yesterday. It was about the history of Canadians and how the people came to North America. The main focus of the museum was the French language and its evolution here. It was really interesting. Everything was in French and English, so if we didn't understand a French word, we were able to look at the English translation to fully understand.

Before I came here, when I would tell people that I was coming to Quebec to speak French, many people would tell me that it was kind of a silly idea because, after all, it's Canada. After being here for almost a week, I'm so glad that I decided to study abroad here. Most people speak French and English. Most things, like signs and menus, are in both as well. It's surprisingly very helpful because it's easier to gain complete understanding. If I was somewhere like France, I'd kind of be lost in translation, to a certain extent, because I wouldn't be able to clarify or double check things. However, it also means that people here are going to speak to us in English when they hear our accents. It's perhaps the most annoying thing. If we're persistent, though, they'll usually continue in French.

Oh, that reminds me. From my interactions here, I've come to the conclusion that many people do not like Americans. We were at the grocery store in line at the check out. We had been there for a little while so the cashier had been listening to our conversation and he was fluent in English. He asked if we were Americans and when we responded yes, he had a look of pure disgust on his face. I just don't understand how people can hate an entire group of people based on generalizations. I guess that's just life.

Unfortunately, my feet are getting torn up. They're swollen from so much walking. They're riddled with blisters. A pair of my shoes rubbed the first layer of my skin off in a few places, so sometimes my feet just start bleeding. On the bright side, I think I'm losing some weight. The combination of walking everywhere and not eating as much as normal is boding well for my legs and backside.

Last night we went to a bar that played live Latin music and was accompanied by salsa-type dancing. Most of the people there were from Middle or South America. Fatima let me borrow a pair of her high heels. I'm 5'6" and I was wearing 5 inch heels, therefore I was taller than most of the people there. I felt like a giant on the dance floor.

Tonight, Aerosmith is playing at the music festival. It's interesting how much Canadians love American music. Everywhere we go, American music is playing. I even heard Sweet Home Alabama! We stick out like sore thumbs because we start singing and it becomes obvious where we're from. I don't really get it though, because they don't even know the words to the songs. They just sit there and listen, not even singing along with the chorus. It's not like I can blame them though, incredible musicians come from the States.

I think I've discovered my new favorite quote. It's the one at the top of the page, under "Allons-y!"  (Side note, "Allons-y!" means "Let's go (there)!") Anyways, the quote was on the wall of the museum that we visited. For those of you who don't speak French, it means something like, "If we are marked for going somewhere, we cannot prevent life from taking us there." But of course, just about everything sounds much better in French than English.

We've decided to go visit Montreal this weekend. Fatima has a friend who lives there and is going to show us around. I'm really excited to get out and see some more of Canada. Monreal also speaks French, so we'll still be using the target language. We have to take a bus, so we'll be able to look out the windows and enjoy the sites of this beautiful country.

In conclusion, I'll be moving to Quebec one day.

Here's a photos of us at the bus stop last night. The guy on the far right is a friend that we've made here. He asked Julia out on a date! Left to right: James, Chloe, myself, Fatima, Julia and Xavier.

Lentement, s'il vous plaît!

The Bon Jovi concert was definitely the largest concert that I've ever been to. We were at least a mile from the stage and there couldn't have been less than 100,000 people there. When the concert started we were the only people around actually singing the songs. I guess no one else could really understand what was being said due to their English not being very good. We ended up chatting pretty extensively with a few people around us. The people that we meet here are always very interested in why we're here and where we came from. They also gave us some advice on where to get the most amazing ice cream. We'll be looking into that out soon.

Yesterday, we spent about 4 hours just walking around. We went to a farmers market, some used book stores and several grocery stores. We walked farther out of the old city than we ever have before and found some really neat places. By the time we got back to the hotel, our feet were screaming in pain. However, it's always worth the pain to explore.

There most interesting thing that happened in the past few days occurred in the little deli up the street from us. We had walked inside and were slowly making our way around the store when we realized that people were screaming at each other. We looked up towards the register and an old man was screaming at the top of his lungs at the cashier. I was just so amazed by the fact that they were yelling that it took me a little while to start listening. I'm not exactly sure what was being said, but I think the old man was screaming about money and maybe some being stolen from him. Another employee got involved and I think she was saying that all the workers there were good people and none of them would do that. After a little while, the old man stormed out of the store and a few moments later, the cashier followed. They continued to fight in the street and several people stopped and stared. It was so interesting to me because I hadn't really witnessed anyone being rude, loud or even angry here.

In a few hours, we're going to a museum. Tonight we made plans to go out with some people that we met here. The place that we're going to is across town near the university here. It's supposed to be Hispanic night and Fatima is very excited to get back to her roots.

Here's a picture of "the family" in front of the parliament building. We've been spending nearly every waking moment together, for better or for worse. From the left: Ashley, Julia, Claire, Laura, James, Fatima, myself, Chloe and Malcolm in the front.

J'ai perdu mes amis!

In total, I've had about 13 hours of sleep since I arrived here. It's safe to say that I'm strictly running off of curiosity and the determination to absorb everything French. When I finally sit still, I become acutely aware of the aches and pains in every inch of my body. Mais, c'est pas grave.


Yesterday was possibly the longest day of my life. However, I loved every moment of it.We spent the afternoon walking around and shopped a little. We stopped at a local restaurant and had some delicious poutine. We made a trip to the grocery store so that we don't have to eat out for every meal. It's safe to say that we will probably be living off of Fatima's quesadillas for most of the month. After the grocery store, we went back to the hotel to get changed. It was "cold" here, in the low 70s during the day and in the 50s at night. Coming from the south and 110 degrees, that feels like the ice age.


After eating dinner in our room, we headed back out to the music festival. There weren't any bands playing that any of us were very interested in seeing, but we went to see a few just to listen to some French. We even made a friend in the line for the bathrooms! We walked around for a while until we decided to go dancing.


While we were dancing, all 5 of us got separated. I walked around the nightclub but no one was to be found. I eventually decided that I was going to sit outside across the street from the nightclub, watch the door and wait for everyone to come out. I assumed that they were all together and I was the one all alone. Little did I know, all of us were alone. The crowd in the nightclub broke us apart. I sat and waited for about 45 minutes, just watching the people walk by. During that time, several people came up to me and spoke to me in French. I couldn't understand a few of them because my ears were still ringing so I just nodded along and smiled. It was obvious that I was cold and an older gentleman even offered me his jacket, which shows how amazing these beautiful people are. 


Side note, almost everyone here is gorgeous. I continue to be surprised by this. 


Anyways, two guys started talking to me and I told them my predicament. We spoke almost entirely in French and both of them told me that I spoke French very well, considering that I was American. One of them wanted to speak to me in English so that he could practice. We agreed that I would speak French and he would speak English. He was from France and he didn't have the opportunity to speak English there like the people in Quebec can speak English here. I talked to them for awhile while I looked for everyone. I eventually found Julia and she was with two other guys as well. The 6 of us went to Chez Ashton, which is comparable to our McDonalds, except they serve poutine instead of hamburgers and the food is a LOT better. Eventually we all made our way back to the hotel. Chloe, James and Fatima were back at the hotel already. They came outside and all of us watched the sun rise. We didn't climb into bed until 6am and we had to wake up at 9am. We are all absolutely exhausted. However, there is still fun to be had and people to meet. We can sleep when we're dead.


Hopefully we'll come back to the hotel earlier tonight so that we can get some rest. Bon Jovi is at the music festival tonight, so who knows if that's going to happen. 


The moral of the story? I speak French much better than I give myself credit for. If I can speak to native French speakers for hours in French (and a little bit of English), I'm well on my way to being completely fluent. 


The sun rise:

That's all for now, folks!

You, uh, you speak French?

Our first day in Quebec was simply amazing. We spent the early afternoon doing a walking tour of Quebec and familiarizing ourselves with landmarks. Compared to Mississippi, the weather here is amazing. There's an awful lot of hills and steep climbs. Chloe, Fatima (my roommates) and I decided that we're going to have killer legs after walking around here for three whole weeks.


After the walking tour we got some lunch and enjoyed it on our balcony. When I was in a small deli, I asked one of the workers a question about something in the store. My entire sentence was right, except for one word. Instead of using the French word for "sweet," I used the German word. The woman didn't understand me and I didn't understand why because I knew that what I was saying was right at the time, minus the random German word that did, in fact, mean what I wanted it to. It wasn't until dinner when I asked my teacher about it and realized what I had done. Oh, the woes of being trilingual. 


We went to a very fancy restaurant for dinner. The dishes were all very elaborate and I decided on some duck. It was amazing. Even better, it was free! Thanks, MSU. After dinner, we walked around some more until we were released to do whatever we wanted. Chloe, Fatima and I decided to stick around in the city and enjoy the nightlife. We met a lot of very nice and interesting people. We spoke to most of them in a weird French-English mixture because our French is about as good as their English. I had a nice conversation with a young man mostly all in French. He was patient and explained words when I didn't understand. I was proud of myself and grateful for his help. 


My problem here is that I'm not confident enough to speak to everyone in French. I'm afraid of sounding like a stupid American (in fact, several people told me how they dislike Americans). Last night helped me to realize that I just need to get over myself and SPEAK! I'm not going to get any better if I'm not practicing. However, most of the time when we speak French, the people here respond in English because they can hear our American accents. We have to be persistent and keep responding in French or say, "Parlez-moi en français, s’il vous plaît," which means "Please speak to me in French." Hopefully by the end of the trip I'll be able to confuse some people and make them think that I'm not an American speaking French. I suppose that is the ultimate goal and I intend to reach it.


Today is a free day so later we're going to go exploring and listen to some music and SPEAK FRENCH! I'm excited just thinking about all the French. I love to eaves drop and see if I can understand the conversations of those around me. Dorky, I know. 

I leave you with a photo that I took around 4am this morning: the incredible sunrise view from our balcony.

Oh, Canada!

Bonjour, Quebec!

I can't believe that I'm FINALLY here! My three week adventure in Quebec has finally arrived and it's off to a great start. We've been here for less than 12 hours and I'm already in love. 

We got here later than anticipated, around 11pm. Everything was going smoothly aside from a delay due to plane maintenance. Naturally, I wasn't going to be that lucky. I got caught up in customs because I declared that I had pepper spray with me, which is illegal in Canada (unknown to me). When the customs agent asked why I carried it, I responded, "for protection." The look on her face was that of shock, to say the least. I had to go into a back room where I filled out a form and my bag was checked by a male customs agent. He asked if I had any other weapons and I informed him that I had a small pocket knife. Of course, I had put the knife in the compartment with my underwear, so I turned beet red while he rummaged through my underwear. Eventually, he declared the knife was small enough to keep, but he had to take the pepper spray. 

Since I am considered more advanced in French than most of the other students (there are 9 total students), I have to help some of the other kids on the trip. I'm sort of a "mentor," in all things related to speaking French. Anyways, we took three taxis from the airport to the hotel and I was in charge of one. I talked to the driver about where we were going and even solved a problem with the luggage. It wasn't nearly as scary as I imagined and we made it to the hotel without problems. Mission accomplished.

Our hotel has quite a bit of character. This building looks like it has been used for 20 different things. It's a maze to get to our room, which I share with two others. Our bedroom has three random and unused doors, two of which come together and all of which don't open. We have a door out to a balcony with an AMAZING view. I can certainly get used to waking up every morning and looking out over the river. 

After settling in, it was around 12:45am. We went on a short walking tour. I already LOVE this city. After the tour, some of us went to a local pub. The waiter was very patient with us and our hesitant French. There's nothing like being hungry at 2am in a foreign country, so after the pub we decided to go to a fast food type place and we got poutine (a dish of french fries, gravy and cheese curds), which was surprisingly delicious. 

At 4am I finally settled into bed, exhausted and elated. Today will be just as hectic. We're going on a longer walking tour, eating at a fancy restaurant and then heading to the music festival. 

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to write in this blog. My roommates and I vowed to sit in the room as little as possible, and I'm going to try my hardest to make that a reality. 

In the words of Charles Aznavour, "Emmenez-moi au pays des merveilles."


Here's the view from our balcony: