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: