First week on Explore

Bonjour everyone!

I should have written sooner! I have so much to say about the last week but don’t want to write a long boring post. Well regardless, it is long. Hopefully not too boring.

I am at what amounts to summer camp en français. We eat together, we live together, we have ‘camp counsellors’, and lots and lots of provided activities. It is just too fun.

Downtown at the waterfront with my roommates L-R: Candace, Kat, & Maria

 Day 1 & Travel 

Getting to Trois-Rivieres (T.R.)  required me to fly out of Calgary at 6:30 am, take a miniscule layover in Winnipeg (barely 40 minutes), fly a couple more hours over to Montreal, and then take a two hour bus to T.R. Although I had expected to take the journey quite alone, In Winnipeg there ended up being about 13 of us from the program on the same plane to Quebec and subsequently on the same bus. It felt like such a safety net to have so many people to work with for figuring out our bus stops, sitting with on the bus, and sharing taxis to the university.

Wouldn’t-you-know-it Story:
 On my Winnipeg layover while sitting at the gate, I busted out a protein bar from home as I had yet to eat breakfast. Due to grabbing randomly from the box before I left, I had brought a double double chocolate flavored one which are notoriously bad for making an absolute mess of your teeth. Having not said a word to anyone since I was bid adieu at the airport, I figured I was in the clear to give ‘er a go.  Literally, upon taking my second bite (a fairly decent sized one too), a guy who had been on my first flight sits down next to me and starts making small talk. Not only is this bite too big to swallow, I’m trying to lick off my teeth before replying and kind of keep my hand in front of my mouth. Not really that embarrassing a story but just one of those things. Plus first impressions count for so much and my intuition was right – he’s here at the program with me. Oh well. He seems to think it was actually pretty funny.

Upon arrival at the campus we checked in, hauled our bags over to the residences and found our rooms. I am on the top floor of my building (4^th floor). My bag had been 9 lbs over weight but the super airport check-in guy had let it slide after I had tried to redistribute some weight into my carry-on and succeeded in transferring a grand total of 2 lbs. I believe his words were, “Well you tried”, as he put a ‘heavy’ tag on it and sent it on its way. His kindness saved me $52. Woo! As I went to climb all these stairs however, this bag’s extra weight quickly became a curse.  I arrived to my apartment sweaty, disheveled, and having that nice I’ve-been-traveling-for-the-last-12-hours look. And of course, knowing my luck, I was the last of our apartment to arrive and all the other girls were there already. First impressions were made, names exchanged, and then I retreated to freshen up before going for dinner with a pretty decent sized crew. We ended up at A&W as most everything was closed or reservation only for Mother’s Day.

Day 2

Monday was particularly hectic. After the welcome assembly we were shuttled into classrooms to write the placement test before doing campus tours, a program presentation assembly, a meeting for the vegetarians/food allergies (I ended up getting a card that allows me to buy soy milk at the same price as regular milk – wooooo!), getting student I.D. cards, and going to a Hawaiian themed evening welcome activity where our placement results were revealed and a big dance beach ball party was held.  The placement results are given by letter. A’s are absolute beginners and X is the most advanced group. There are 19 groups and for some reason several letters are unaccounted for (for example there is no groups H or W). Anyways, all things said and done, I was placed in the highest intermediate course (intermediate 3) which is letter S (group 15/19). Not too shabby! It really puts me near the top of the pack.  It is interesting though that a lot of people in the different levels vary so vastly in their skills. I would say my written and oral are pretty much on par with each other but there are people who are almost fluent but at a lower level due to a complete lack of grammar and vice versa.

Day 3 -6

The rest of our week became pretty routine. In the mornings we have class from 8:30 am – 12:06 pm that is taught by a university instructor and is a lot of grammar, oral, and written exercises.  We’ve already written 3 tests – one to access the level of the class more specifically, and two on Friday to assess our learning during the week.  Our afternoons have more individual schedules depending on which workshops we chose. I have a Quebecois music/singing workshop on Monday/Wednesday and a conversation workshop Tuesday/Thursday. These are run by the ‘animateurs’ – local students hired on to be our program team.  I like to think of them as camp counsellors because there job is to keep us entertained, help out our French, run the program, and generally keep an eye on us. In the evenings we have optional activities such as a different sport offering each night, information sessions, S.O.S Francais (for if you need help with your course work), and usually some sort of theme part on Friday. This first weekend it was a famous duos/families theme and two of my roommates and airport boy went as Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I was really impressed by how much participation there was. Everyone who went, probably about 250 of the 430 participants, dressed up and did a really good job of their costume.

Day 7 - 8

Saturday was the official program tour of Trois-Rivieres. I ended up talking a guided tour of the downtown and visiting the basilica here. It is really interesting having everything put in perspective. What I mean by that is T.R. is one of North America’s oldest cities and yet it is just a baby compared to what I was seeing in Europe. It was impressive but yet completely underwhelming at the same time. What I loved the most was catching the beginning of the music festival down by the river front. Quebecois music is heavily folksy but so catchy – very talented musicians and singers. I think I would’ve stayed longer but the bus was leaving and I didn’t want to have to find my own way back especially because I managed to get a pretty hefty sunburn. The worst part about it is that I had worn a long sleeved t-shirt just to avoid such a thing but didn’t have sunscreen for my face and neckline. You can bet what my first purchase was the next day. We have been dying from heat though. Although we had storms throughout the week, our weekend has been blazing hot. We have been hiding out inside until it gets cool enough at night and then go out and sit in the grass with guitars or go for walks.  With our apartment being on the top floor we are especially paying the price of all this unseasonably ambitious heat.

Extras

•  We had to take an oath to only speak French in all times and all places. Each student starts with 5 points and if they get caught speaking English, the animateur will dole out a red card and the student loses points. If you lose all of your points you get sent home.  You can redeem them though by performing little punishments such as memorizing a French poem
• My roommates are all the same age as myself and we are definitely a little family. We eat together, usually hang out together, and attend all the events together. It is quite the diverse apartment though. Each girl I live with would be eligible for dual citizenship if she wanted with either Pakistan, China, or the UK.
•  I have started running again in the mornings. The only downside is that it is SO much more humid here and I find it really difficult to breath. My skin and eyes are loving it though

So there we have it! I will endeavor to write more frequently so it doesn’t build up like this. It is off to a great start though and I can’t believe the first week is over. The next 4 will absolutely fly by.

Je vous aime and vous me manquez,

Jacqueline