Category Archives: Quebec 2008
Friday the 13th- Last Day in Chicoutimi
Friday June 13th 10:47am
So here I am, my last day in Chicoutimi. Right now I’m sitting here with Andrea, listening to music and trying to get the last bit of studying in. Yesterday was a really good day. My class finished our group project and watched our movie three times because it’s that funny. I never did get to edit it but I think I like it better with all our bloopers still included. For lunch we went as a class to St.Hubert’s which is kinda like a French Swiss Chalet. Afterwards I met up with Andrea and a few of the guys from her class on Rue Racine where we got ice cream and sat on the vieux port for a while. Andrea and I were going to buy Lisette a bouquet of flowers to say thank you but the shop was closed when we got there so we had to go elsewhere, where we bought some nice pink flowers for her to plant in her garden. Other than that we bought her a card and also a new key chain. We somehow managed to break the one her extra key had been on so we bought her a new one with a whale on it from when we went to Taddousac. Last night was a pretty laid back night. We packed, swapped pictures and studied. Anyway I should probably get back to studying and I’ll see you all soon!
French Word of the Day
Mec: So it was Anisha who introduced us to this word and it has become a commonly used word in Chicoutimi. It’s just a slang word for “guy” but usually you will hear it in a phrase such as…”Ou est le beau mec?”
Le Bistrot
Thursday June 12th 7:34am
So I am writing this post this morning because I did not have time to write last night because we were too busy having one of the best nights ever! Yesterday in class we were busy filming our class project and in the afternoon me and a few others were going to edit it but the camera was not compatible with my computer, we did not have a firewire and multiple other things went wrong so our project is still sitting in my backpack, on the mini DV tape. Yesterday afternoon was pretty relaxed. Most people were practicing for the upcoming recital and for the rest of us there was not really anything to do. The recital was definitely interesting. There were a few dramatic skits, interpretative dance, the gig and a choir. After the recital we went to Le Bistrot which is right next to the school for some dancing and a few rounds of volleyball. Afterwards, Anisha, Taylor, Andrea and I headed to McDo for some early morning grub. At the end of the night we crawled into our beds and did not wake up again until the alarm went off at 7 this morning.
French Word of the Day:
Bistrot: So this is kinda a French word but in Chicoutimi it is more than that. If you are ever a student at UQAC you will know that the Bistrot is more than just a place to go to hear really bad karaoke but also to play volleyball and hangout. C’est super fun!
Three Days To Go
Tuesday June 10th 10:13pm
Only three more days until I will be hoping on a plane and heading back to glorious Nova Scotia! I’m a third happy to be going home, a third sad to be leaving Chicoutimi and the other third of me is stressed to the max because I have less than a week to unpack, see everyone, get all my stuff done and re-pack again! I guess that’s what I get for trying to be a globetrotter for the summer.
Anyway, today was a pretty relaxing day. In class we practiced our roles for the movie that we plan on filming tomorrow, which will count as one of our oral presentations. I have been nominated editor since I’m the only one who knows anything about a film editing and happen to have a program currently on my computer. After lunch I had a little survey to fill out and then we just waited around for the mini buses. Today was extremely humid and we were very happy when the heavens broke open and it rained on us. After supper, Andrea and I stayed upstairs with Lisette and her great-grandson Maxime. He is the most adorable little boy ever and I’m fairly certain the Saturday morning he will be coming home with one of us. We went outside to sit in the back yard for a little bit too. It was really just a lazy day for us. Everything is starting to wind down so we are just trying to savour the moment.
French Word of the Day
Bobettes: So this is probably not the correct spelling of this word and I really don’t feel like asking anyone for it. Last night Lisette was telling us about past students she had that did not want her to wash their bobettes but some how mine and Andrea’s alway end up on the clothes line, for all of Chicoutimi to see.
Le Grand Jeu
Monday June 9th 10 :45pm
Today was the first school day of the last week, how insane is that? For the most part things are winding down so in class today we did a few small exercises and some review for our grand exam Friday. After lunch we had “Le Grand Jeu” which turned out to be UQAC’s version of Family Feud. Questions were asked to 50 Quebecois and we were to guess the top four answers. Personally my favourite question was “Which season is preferred most in Quebec?” Since there were four top answers and only four seasons, this question was a shoe in. After the grand jeu we had a lot of time so Andrea, I and a few others decided to walk home and grab some ice cream on the way. If you are ever in Chicoutimi stop at this little ice cream/ chocolate store near le vieux port because they have the best chocolate dipped ice cream cones ever! Dairy Queen does not even come close to comparing. So it was a beautiful day, kinda humid but we had ice cream and everyone was in a great mood, until we reached the bottom of the monstrous hill that we had forgotten we had to climb. Once we managed to drag ourselves home we had supper with Lisette and went for a walk with Anisha. Afterwards we came home and chatted with Lisette. She mostly told us about the work she is currently having done on the house and the students she has had over the past fifteen years. I feel like I have to seize as much time as possible with Lisette because I’m finally in a place where I can actually carry out full conversations, mind you it might not always be the best of French all the time but we can now understand each other. I feel like I need another few weeks to practice before coming home but sadly I only have days. Oh well I’ll just have to enjoy my time and who knows, I might be back!
French Word of the Day
Défricher: This word comes from another song that you can hear being sung pretty much any moment of every day at l’ecole de langue. This action is done by farmers or at least is in the song.
Les Étoiles Filantes
Sunday June 8th 8:51pm
My last week-end in Chicoutimi is officially over. This time next week I will have been home for one whole day. It seems like such a bizarre statement to me right now so before I get all reminiscent I’ll give you a run down on my weekend.
So Friday morning was like every other morning, we got up went to class and had lunch at school. After lunch we went to Centre Ville in search of the final touches to our costumes. We decided on the Three Blind Mice because we thought it was very original. One of Andrea’s friends from back home told us that we should go as the FLQ and while we thought it was quite clever we decided against it because (1) we did not know how exactly to dress as the FLQ, since they did not have uniforms or a desire to stand out and (2) because we did not think that would go over to well with the locals. (For any of you who don’t know who the FLQ are, you need to read up on your Canadian history.)
So we ended up at Dollarama and found everything we needed. This is what my costume comprised of:
Head band with taped on black and pink ears
Big black sunglasses
Black eyeliner and red lipstick for our noses and whiskers
Grey knee socks that I cut the toes out of to make long sleeves
Grey tights
And of course we had our stolen sticks and black ties that we found the night before.
I was not feeling to good after our shopping so we all headed home and I took a nap before supper. After supper we started to get ready. You should have seen the look on our faces when Andrea took her tights out of their package and we realized that we would be lucky to get our arm in them. Honestly they were the tiniest things I have ever seen but they were made for tall people and somehow we fit in. While Andrea was showering, I decided to put on my costume but after I put on my dark jean capris I realized that they just would not do. I figured that if the others were going to be in all black, I would look out of place as a half blue mouse so I looked for an alternative. I found what I was looking for in my grey dress pants that I happened to bring along with me. Again, imagine the look on Andrea’s face when she walked back into our room and I am sitting on my bed using an exacto-knife to cut my pants into mouse shorts. That’s right, I now only own one pair of work pants but it was so worth it. Andrea was also quite amused when she walked back into the room a few minutes later and I was then hemming my pants. Apparently I am very crafty and can make a mean pair of shorts in the matter of minutes. Once I was finished, we walked down to Anisha’s house to make our ears and then waited for the mini-bus.
So our costume did not get the response we had expected from the Quebecois. Apparently something was lost in translation because they all thought we were Cat Women or Josie and the Pussy Cats, neither of which made any sense because we had whiskers and walking sticks!! At least the other students thought it was brilliant and appreciated our creativity. The night was super fun and mostly everyone was dressed up. Everyone was there, from Mario and Luigi, the Spice Girls, the Village People, Borat, The Red Wings and the Stanley Cup, Marilyn Monroe (of whom happened to be a guy from Andrea’s class, but he pulled it off extremely well), and even Ghandi! The leaders and guides of the program made a movie to start the night off and it was a spoof of back to the future where he was to go back in time and bring famous people from the past to the party. At the end of the movie all the guides showed up in their costumes. We had Cleopatra, Smurfette, Queen Elizabeth, Mona Lisa, The Daltons (not really sure who they were but they were from the wild west), KISS, Mr Clean, Little Red Riding Hood, Michael Jackson and Batman. Friday nights are always amazing at Ecole de Langue! After the party we decided that we were really hungry and a bunch of us when downtown to Mikes. Andrea and I ended up sharing a plate of poutine and this massive dessert consisting of brownies, ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup. We were feeling very Quebecois eating poutine at two in the morning, it just felt right.
Needless to say, we did not exactly roll out of bed the next morning. Andrea has a friend doing the same program in a town near by so she came down for the afternoon and they headed to the mall. I decided that I was a little behind on some reading for Ghana so I took most of the afternoon to get caught up and eat jelly bellys. Later in the afternoon I turned on my Ipod and walked to Centre Ville to meet Andrea and Anisha for supper. All I can say is that walk was the best way to spend my last Saturday in Chicoutimi. We live about half an hour walking from Centre Ville and we have this beautiful view of the river as we come down of the hill. I think I will chose to always remember Chicoutimi from that view. Halfway across the bridge, I stopped for a few minutes to take it all in. Anisha was running a little late so Andrea and I took a walk through a sun shower and headed to the water front for some famous chocolate dipped ice cream. We ate supper at Georges Resto-pub and then went to Café Cambrio for some dessert. While we were there, we were informed that there would be a musician playing so we decided to stick around for a bit. We really shouldn’t have. The “musician” ended up being a guy shredding on his ukulele while he made high pitched whale sounds. Think Dory from Find Nemo meets heavy metal ukulele, it was bad and we left within minutes. It was still a good day and that somehow added to it.
Today was our last excursion and we went to Tadoussac for a day of whale watching. I slept most of the way there and was thrilled to wake up to a downpour, no one wanted to get off the bus. Of course, as Murphy’s Law would state, it poured the whole ten minute walk to shelter but stopped within minutes of us getting inside. I will say I was happy that it was sunny so that we could walk through town but I could have done without the damp jeans and mushy shoes for the day. Tadoussac was almost like home because of all the fog, it was everywhere. The first hour on the boat, no one seemed very pleased just because we were all wet, cold and it was too foggy to even hope to see anything. However when the sun came out things seemed to turn around and every one cheered up. The fog never really went away but it just made the fjord look even more mysterious. I think that was the best past, forget about the whales, the fjord was where it was at. We were actually really excited to see the fjord because in Chicoutimi you only see the Saguenay River because it’s not deep enough to be considered part of the Saguenay fjord. It was beautiful. We did end up seeing a few whales, some Minkie whales and a mama and baby beluga so it was a good trip.
To get all sentimental again, I am really going to miss this place. I think the reason Chicoutimi is having such a huge affect on me is because I did not expect to experience culture shock and I pictured it being just like home. I was so busy looking past Chicoutimi to Ghana that I didn’t really think about what being here would be like. I pictured coming here, working on French, leaving, going to Ghana and then having a life changing experience but Chicoutimi has come to mean a lot to me. I don’t really know what it is. Chicoutimi is still Canada but it is a very different Canada. It’s funny to be in this highly separatist Francophone area as an Anglophone. It’s really hard to explain and I could probably do a better job if I was talking so if you want to know more about my jumbled feelings let me know when I’m back and we can chat. I don’t know what it is but I feel like the people of Chicoutimi have a lot more respect for French and their culture than we do for English in Nova Scotia…but maybe that’s just me.
PS-I’m having troubles uploading pictures so you will all just have to wait a week until I’m home to see them all.
French Word of the Day
Les Étoiles Filantes: So this is the title from one my new favourite songs by Les Cowboys Fringants. If you’re very lucky you might see these in the night sky and get to make a wish.
« On s’dira que l’on était finalement que des étoiles filantes »
