Explore Bursary Program

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!

Although I fully intended this to be a blog for my Belgium semester only, opportunity has struck and I will be studying for a month in Québec this summer! Because the French-Canadian culture is so different and it is a further step in my same journey to master French, I figured there was no point letting a good blog go to waste. 

Hence, here is the latest rendition of my travel adventures.
 

3866 km away from home. Not quite Europe but it will do!

I will be in Trois-Rivières, Québec, attending the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières for 5 weeks. Here is the general program concept:

"Explore is a bursary program for students wanting to learn French. Five weeks of discovery, new acquaintances and exchanging ideas, in a stimulating setting for learning your second or foreign language.

Three and a half hours of courses are given every morning from Monday to Friday. In the afternoon, students attend different workshops to improve their French such as: songs, dance, phonetics, theatre, environment, newspaper, conversation etc."

Throughout the duration of the program, I will be staying in the on campus dorms with other students in the same program. On top of the classes, the program provides us with the opportunity to take advantage of the culture around us. Here is a sample of the activities they plan for us:

• Welcome activities
• Tour of Trois-Rivières
• National historical site, "Forges du St-Maurice"
• Tour of Quebec City
• Tour of Montreal
• Day trip to the Mauricie National Park
• Folk evening at the sugar shack
• Indoor and outdoor sports
• Movies
• Thematic evening
• Casino evening
• Traditional Québecois evening
• Student show

Although I didn't get a home stay exchange as was my preference, I lucked out with my location. Trois-Rivières is absolutely perfect because you're exactly half-way between Montreal and Quebec City and get to take advantage of both.

I'm excited! I really think this will be a fantastic opportunity to continue my French and get to know and love my country even more. Having never been farther east than Ontario, this will be an exciting new experience.

The best part? Since it is a bursary program, the only thing I have to cover are my flights! :)

Love & Light,

Jacqueline

Home Sweet Home

Hey Everyone,

Life has finally slowed down enough for me to sit down and write a final post to this chapter of my life's adventures.

If we're being honest, there are no words to describe the feeling that comes from moving across the world, establishing yourself in an international community and then leaving it all behind. I miss it already. I look up Europe flights every couple of days in hopes that a seat sale will tempt me back across the Atlantic. The people I met have absolutely inspired me to be more aware of the broader world out there. The lifelong friendships will be cherished more than I could have ever imagined.

Because I'm at a loss for words, I felt it would be most appropriate to look back at the very first post I did in preparation for my Belgium exchange. I outlined four goals for myself. Copy and pasted from the source, they read:

1) Learn how to survive on my own in a foreign country
2) Become fluent in French
3) Travel as often and as broadly as possible
4) Seduce a handsome Belgian Prince and create a Canada/Belgium mega-nation

I feel like the best way to summarize my trip would be to assess how much progress I made towards those goals.

1) Without doubt I learned to survive on my own in a foreign country. To be fair, I had a lot of help. I had no idea how much of a family all the Erasmus students would become to me and how much we would all come to rely on each others' experience, friendship, and support. The increase in my self-efficacy and self-confidence has increased immensely.

2) Although I didn't reach the level of fluency I had hoped to attain, I still made a fair amount of progress. My background in French was school courses from grades 4-10 followed by four years of absolutely no French at all. To jump back into it, I was both impressed and discouraged. Firstly, I was impressed because I remembered a heck of a lot more than I expected. Discouraged because I realized I had never really learned all the much. So much of those early years is repetition and verb conjugation work sheets that I realized I had barely any oral comprehension. Furthermore, the Belgian accent was unlike anything I had heard before. To be fair, they couldn't understand my French accent either. If nothing else, I am now more determined than ever to continue my French studies and reach a true fluency. I came back to Canada and immediately enrolled in a French course. Additionally, I am planning to write my DELF exams and do an exchange to Quebec this summer.

3) Overall I was pleased with the amount of travel I squeezed in. Given that I was taking four classes, I was somewhat restricted to what I could visit in day trips or weekend trips. I was pleased with how much of Belgium I got to see as I had wanted to get a good feel for my host country, its people and a variety of events. All said and done, I visited Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Malta, England, and Sweden. Adding this to my prior travel experience in Canada, USA, Mexico, Czech Republic, and Austria, I'm starting to feel like I'm finally starting to actually get out of the shell that is Southern Alberta.

4) There may indeed be a Canada-Europe mega-nation someday. But it won't be with Belgium.

So thank you to all of you who followed along with my adventures. Your comments and presence in my visitor statistics was immensely appreciated.

As I continue on with my post-secondary education and entertain thoughts of pursuing a master's degree in Europe, I feel I may live to blog again. Presently, I feel a sincere gratitude and love to everyone who I met, who helped me along the way, who supported me,  and who made the four months of exchange the best of my life.

Love and Light,

Jacqueline

That's All Folks!

Hey Everyone,

The last few weeks have raced by and I am presently writing from an apartment in Paris that my family has rented for the week.

I am done with Liege! Cue sad music!

Moving out of my kot really made it strike home that my exchange is done and it is back to real life and my real degree.

Unfortunately, that's all for now. I apologize for such a short teaser end post but I am running on 3 hours of sleep and would like to give this one more thought. Gotta be thorough!

Love to you all and stay tuned for the biggie end post,

Jacqueline

Liège Grenade & Gunfire Attacks

Hey Guys,

As most of you have probably heard by now, today Liège experienced a pretty devastating attack that left 4 dead and 75 injured. Although the details seem to keep changing ever few minutes and there is no consensus between news sources, the CBC story is the most accurate as far as details I have learned. Read the story and see the pictures for yourself.

CBC - Belgian Grenade Attack

As far as I know, everyone I know is safe and sound. A friend  of mine was working out in a gym that is located just 50m away from where the attack occurred but otherwise it appears most people were still at the university or safely at their homes.

My apartment is just far enough away and on a loud enough street that I didn't hear the grenades or the gunfire. Kiersten could hear the gunfire though and we all bore witness to the dozens and dozens of emergency vehicles. My street got overwhelmed with rerouted vehicles as the Liège police shut down the city center.

I think about all the times I've walked through that area and just feel a chill run down my spine. In fact, I was there yesterday at the exact time the attacks happened today. Oi.

Yesterday Max and I had made plans to short cut across Place Saint Lambert today to go do interval training on the Montagne de Bueren. He got delayed this morning and our time got pushed back to 1:30 pm as a result. Our original running time would have put us within the same hour as the attacks. I reiterate - Oi.

Enough close calls really makes you wonder when your time is coming.

Here is my relative location to everything that happened today:

• The grenade attacks happened at Point C - Place Saint Lambert which is 1.3 km (10 minute walk) away.
• Rumors said that gunfire occurred at Point B - Place Saint Paul which is 600 m (4 minute walk) away.

Note the scale and how zoomed in we are...

The worst part was just hearing all the rumors. At one point people were saying there were three gun men roaming around as close as Point B.
 
Love to each and every one of you,

Jacqueline

My Love Affair with Germany (December 2-3, 2011)

Hello Friends and Family,

I have a confession. I'm cheating on all of you. With Germany.

It started off as a mild interest in the people of the nation and has now bloomed into a full emotional affair complete with weekend flings in foreign cities.

It breaks down into two features:
- I am head over heels with the German people on exchange with me
- I am head over heels with the German language

Strange I know. People always comment on the harsh nature of the German language but believe me when I say it is absolutely beautiful and misunderstood. In fact, I am presently learning as much as possible in my spare time. In regards to the people, out of all the nationalities I have met it is the Germans who mirror Canadians the most in values and world view. Maybe it is just the ones I have had exposure to but I am convinced that Canada was secretly founded by Germany and not France or England (who are both so silly).

Back to the point.

Tina, my favorite German and frequent running partner, needed to go to Frankfurt to check out an apartment for her upcoming 6 month internship. I wanted to officially spend time in Germany (having only passed through its airport and trains) and make a pit stop at the Baha'i House of Worship. Et voila. Two weeks later I found myself in Germany.

Sushi, Crepes, Village du Noel, Fernando's 22nd, Camillo's 25th, & Saint Nicholas ESN

Hello One and All!

As can be expected, now that we are nearing the end of exchange and have managed to actually solidify some friendships, the invitations for dinner parties and birthdays keep rolling in. In the last week and a half I have attended a homemade sushi night (hosted by an Italian and a German) that was followed by wandering the Christmas Market, a Spanish birthday party (where the host insisted on cooking everything himself), a homemade crepe night (where the French host made crepes for 40 people and hosted us all in his bedroom), a Brazilian birthday party (hosted for a friend by two Polish) and a secret Santa-esque/Saint Nicholas night.

It has just been so phenomenal getting to know all the different cultural traditions and trying all the different dishes. What I would give to get this kind of experience back home on a regular basis!

Sushi at Martina & Marco's :)

Stockholm: November 18 - 20

Hello Everyone,

Last Friday marked the beginning of another whirlwind weekend trip. Kiki, Bee, and I jumped the first train to Chareloi in order to make our flight. This meant a 4:30 am wake up call in order to be on time for the consecutive train to bus to airport to plane. Although we managed a little sleep during travel, believe me when I say it was no where near enough. Thankfully, we had the adrenaline of being in a new country and an exciting new city to keep us on our feet as we started exploring Stockholm.