This beautiful ceiling belongs to the Gare du Palais.
That's some BA graffiti right there.
I've been told that this is the best place for coffee, which means I will be visiting ASAP.
Sneak peak of the Chateau Frontenac.
Yesterday after school let out, some classmates and I walked down to Vieux Port. It's supposed to rain for the next several days (and it's a three day weekend!) so I wanted to do some sightseeing before the rain came.
We saw the Chateau Frontenac and the Citadel, a bunch of statues and the Gare du Palais. All beautiful, but a little underwhelming. However, I'm also the girl who has never visited 80% of the monuments in D.C. and never intends to. (And I lived there!) I prefer to tour museums and restaurants.
My next post will have more photos of the Chateau Frontenac. I didn't want this post to be a giant photo dump!
I realized last night that this week marks my one year anniversary in my French journey.
A year ago I was sitting in a classroom in Combs Hall petrified about learning a language. I had no prior experience with another language and had absolutely no idea about what to expect.
I was pretty certain that I was going to fail. That I was going to earn a failing grade for the next four semesters.
But it turns out that I'm not completely a failure at this whole learning a language thing.
I worked my way up from a B- to an A- in three semesters. I wrote a 900+ word essay completely in French during an intensive summer program. Now I'm studying French abroad.
And a year ago I had no inkling that any of this would occur.
This realization came at the best time. Speaking French is not easy and it's hard not to feel like you will never get better at it. Which is how I feel 24/7 right now.
Throw in a little homesickness, living in a new environment and you have a great case of the blues.
But if I look back over how much I've accomplished in the past year, and the solid grammar foundation I've built, I can be hopeful about the future.
I know, I know. The first few weeks are the hardest. I'm finding that out, y'all. But nobody can prepare you for how hard. I want to talk and talk and talk in French, but it's just not possible. Yet. But it will be.
In my head I can my dad's encouraging voice telling me to take it one step at a time.
That's what I'm doing. After classes, I work on vocabulary and finish up homework. At dinner our host parents ask us questions about our day and they make us talk. No oui or non answers for them!
It's interesting to compare my current struggles with last year's struggles. A year ago today I didn't even know what a verb conjugation was nor how to pronounce a French sound. At this moment, I can conjugate so many verbs and my French pronunciation is a trillion times better.
Baby steps, y'all, baby steps.
Happy anniversary to me! I'm excited to think about where my French skills will be next year. I'm hoping that I'll be able to read books.
I think tomorrow I'll buy myself a celebratory crepe. Or a cupcake. Or the biggest latte imaginable. Or all three.
Yesterday I hopped onto the wrong bus and headed to church.
...but it was only after I had gone waaay past the street to the church that I realized my mistake.
So I hopped off the bus and walked a mile up hill to church. (And if you are wondering why I didn't take a bus, they only run every fifteen minutes on the weekends and I was running late already. Better to walk!)
I did make it to church (give me a sticker!) and it was an English speaking service. Hallelujah!
It's a little Presbyterian church called St. Andrew's in Vieux Quebec. I'll probably go back next week because English speaking Protestant churches don't seem particularly easy to find in my area.
I'll keep looking though, because it's not exactly what I want in a church. (Things I want: a great sermon, youngish people.)
Today I went to Expo Quebec. It is basically the Quebecois version of American state fairs. Earlier this week in grammar class I was asked what my hobbies are so of course I said goats and blablabla. My professor told me that I had to visit expo Quebec because there are "beaucoup d'animaux" there. (Remember that all these conversations go down completely in French. Basically I comprehend the important parts and just nod and smile for the rest.)
That professor is now my favorite because I got to play with goats for a solid hour! It was the best therapy. I even took a few selfies with a goat.
My ticket cost $30ish CAD, but I figure it was worth it. I even realized that I've never been to a fair just as a visitor. I've always gone as an exhibitor! It was a nice change. Though now I miss my goats something fierce.
Here are some photos from my day in no particular order. If you want to see more, there's a whole entire album on my facebook page. (If we're not friends, find me! DG Hethcox.)
Oh yeah, the sexiest of thumbnails. I try, I really do! If you don't want to sit through six minutes of me chatting about Quebec, here's the bullet points.
The city: I like it.
The school: immersive.
The buses: very nice.
But really, just watch the video. It serves as proof that I'm alive (hi, mom!), healthy and not a crying wreck.
On Sunday my host family and I visited le Parc Jean-Roger-Durand to explore the river walk as well as a local church. After that we picked up another student who had just returned from Montreal and we ventured on to another waterfall. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of this waterfall. But it was gorgeous! I've never seen a waterfall before so this trip was very exciting. I wish I had brought my real camera, but alas, all I had was my iphone. But I'm glad I was able to document this trip. C'était beau!
(This is one of my favorite kpop songs. It instantly cheers me up/ motivates me.)
Not gonna lie, it feels like I've been in Quebec longer than four days. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing?
I arrived Saturday evening (the 18th of August) into an intense French environment.
I think today it all finally caught up to me. I'm having the hardest time saying simple words and forget about even pronouncing something correctly.
For example, I just had to ask one of my housemates the French verb for "to do". I know this verb. It's one of the most commonly used verbs in the French language. But my brain fatigue has taken over so I can't even remember the verb faire.
Anyways. Feeling a little pitiful today. Though I have a sneaky feeling that tomorrow I'll be fine. But for today, I decided to take care of myself with a trip to Target and a cookie at Starbucks.
Sidenote: I had to buy bobby pins and they are dreadfully expensive up here, even in Canadian dollars. In Virginia I can buy ~100 bobby pins for $1-2, today I paid 5,39$ CAD for a pack of 75. I didn't pack any because I thought they'd be cheap, but no.
I'm off to study for a quiz and finish some homework. I'll be posting some more interesting posts soon. Promise!
It's no secret that I love music. Music is one of the few things that can conquer a bad day and cheer me up. I almost always have some type of music playing, lately it has been my Kpop for Finalsplaylist. Kpop is my comfort music.
Anyways, instead of packing I've come up with my ultimate travel playlist, or my "musique de voyage".
It contains a little bit of everything that I love, songs that will help me transition into life in Quebec. There are only two Kpop songs, so don't be scared!
And I took some selfies with my awesome headphones and adorable ipod. I can't help myself.
I'm sure you are all dying to know if there will be a schedule on this little scratchpad of mine.
YES.
I'm hoping to post at least five times a week once I arrive in Canada. But if I get the opportunity to play hockey or ride a moose, I may skip a post or two.
I'm not going to promise any particular kind of posts each day except I know that I want to vlog at least once a week and start a series called Jours de Découverte (Discovery Day), which will feature something new (a French word, coffee shop, etc.) that I've discovered.
A few weeks ago a customer came in and wanted a few slices of fudge, he seemed to be cheerful and pleasant. A winning combination in retail! I always try to match my attitude to the customers attitude- if they're quite I'll be quite. If they want to chat, I'm more than happy to chat. Happy customers are always more fun to help, especially when they come in between several nasty customers.
This older man came in knowing exactly what he wanted: four medium slices of chocolate fudge. As I was slicing his fudge he started asking me about my weekend. I told him that I'd been here, at Hallmark, all weekend. "It must be nice to have extra cash, though," he said. I told him that, yes, I'm very glad to earn whatever I can because I'm going abroad next month.
He asked the normal questions; where are you gong, why, for how long, etc. He then told me that he'd never been outside the United States except for a brief stint over the Mexican boarder when he lived in New Mexico. He said that when he was younger he exchanged traveling abroad for exploring the national parks, unlike many of his friends. "If I could do it over, I'd do it differently," he said.
This was an eye opener for me. I know I'm lucky/blessed/privileged to have this opportunity to study abroad, but sometimes all those things get clouded by worries and stress.
Should I just focus on graduating and not go abroad? How will I pay for next semester because I'm not working for a few months? Should I stop taking gap semesters?
But if I don't do this while I'm young, when will I?
I'm calming my fears and taking care of my pre-trip jitters because this trip is important to me. Not just to learn the language, but to gain experience and grow as a human. I'm not going to waste the time I've been given by worrying about things I have no control over.
However, I've stress cleaned and organized so much that my room is looking pretty fantastic.
Away with fears for the future, Quebec and adventures wait for me!
