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.
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