Lots of photos today, and although I'm tempted it's for that reason (i.e. formatting) that I'm writing in English (also a 7h30 train tomorrow morning).

Vieux Québec - the old neighbourhood - is utterly gorgeous, and it would be easy to spend all of a stay here. There are crooked rows all over the place, little turnarounds, cobblestone streets, and amazing lookouts. The site was chosen because it is so high up, meaning that the cliff faces on three of its four sides made it difficult to attack. I toured the Château Frontenac, and finally learned why there are random 'Château's scattered across the country - it was the idea of the CPR's William van Horne to build luxury hotels at major train destinations. To give an idea of scale, in the early 20th century a maid working there earned about $2-2.5 a month, and for one night at the hotel the price was around $1. I saw a free show by Cirque du Soleil! And I've been walking - for hours and hours and hours on end. It's really, really beautiful.

 

But today I decided I wanted to see the world outside the walls of the old city, where most people actually live and the neighbourhoods. Just after I ventured away from the main business district, I paused to consider taking a photo and ended up talking with Jean Dominique:

Jean Dominique has ancestry stretching back to when Champlain arrived at Québec, and was kind enough to give me a 5 hour walking tour and crash course in architectural styles. He also showed me the park along the stretch of the river, explained the effects it's having with regards to gentrification in the nearby neighbourhoods, and showed me the student district where we stopped for a bite to eat after all that walking and the food was amazing. Old Québec has been so expensive; I've heard so much about the food here but I've been surviving off croissant-based meals (plain in the morning, takeout sandwiches for lunch) because I can't afford $15 salads!

I ordered a tartare taster, which is pretty much the Québécois equivalent of sushi - it's raw meats with spices. The three types were beef, salmon, and tuna, and were so good. Because the place was actually a soup place, I also got a chocolate soup afterwards! It was ridiculously tasty, with raspberries, strawberries, peanuts, mint, and oddly enough tapioca bubbles.

 

I tried to remember as much as possible from the tour to share with you, and for myself as well since it was really educational! So, some of the major things:
-French style roofs are angular
-American style roofs are (approximately) arc-shaped, kind of like barns (sort of)
-Victorian style houses are detailed and often have towers
-Québécois style roofs are like American ones, but flatten out at the bottom so that the snow doesn't fall off. This also provides room for a galerie (porch) which the Québécois really like (This is true. In Alma almost every house had a porch, and even the apartments had little balconies).
-The general class segregation in Québec was such that rich people lived higher up
-In the lower city, there were 3 fires which eventually led to rules to prevent the spread between houses. An example of this is an extended sidewall between adjacent houses.
-The richer the house owner, the larger and more regular the foundation stones were
-A lot of higher levels fell during the 1988 earthquake, and the different brickwork can be seen where it was repaired
-The neighbourhoods are named for the old parishes of the region. These don't always match up with municipal districts, and in fact when the local communities were amalgamated, one was forgotten and is now a legally separate community within the city!

I could keep going for a while about this! But it's not really an architecture blog. :P Other random thing that I learned: I knew about Simons, but there is another department store in Québec called La Liberté, and these two are essentially the equivalent of Eaton's...except they're not bankrupt. La Liberté used to sponsor the Québec Christmas Parade, and Simons gave the fountain in front of the provincial government buildings as a gift to the province for being loyal customers (picture here)

Well, it's time to head off to bed so that I'm actually up in time for my train tomorrow morning. Thankfully, it's going to be a heck of a lot easier going down the hill then going up it (and with my luggage the travel time was twice what Google predicted, I have been getting my exercise here! It's good). Looking forward to seeing my cousins, and then I'll be back home in a few days...!

P.S. It has been pointed out to me that there are no actual pictures of me (mainly because I'm usually behind the camera). So to oblige, here is a photo of me and Stephanie after our flute duo at the final concert! We played Ave Maria. :)

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Just typing something up quickly before heading off to meet some students for breakfast. These last two weeks have been pretty whirlwind! There were a lot of obligatory evening events, not to mention practicing and rehearsals for the show at the end of the program (self-organized small ensembles and some groups with everybody since we're all musicians). My final presentation was on the Québécois school system (the main difference is the CEGEP level, which is an extra 2-3 years of education after their equivalence of Grade 11), its roots in the Quiet Revolution (a time of many social changes in Québec between 1960-1970), and the unique distribution of schools in Université du Québec network. There was also the final exam, the post-exam-exam, and a stack of program evaluations.

I didn't want to leave yesterday! I've grown to really like the city, the region, and my host parents. I think my favourite memory is the second-last night; after dinner Réjean was installing the patio stones, and Nicole and I were sitting out on the driveway in lawn chairs. I brought out a table with tea (for me) and an ice cream sandwich (for her) from the kitchen and we all talked until it was too dark for Réjean (and Nicole and I helped him, don't worry!). I like languages - and using them, - because it's something that's so directly applicable. I think about it less often in English, but for both languages there's a pleasure in succeeding in something so useful, and then beyond that using your knowledge to describe emotions, people, situations, and ideas more clearly. The same reason I like keeping a blog in the summer, I suppose.

But I did have to leave eventually, and yesterday morning I took the bus into Québec City with some of the other students, and arrived at noon. Towards the end of the program I was trying to juggle a lot of different travel plans which were kind of stressing me out, but this is so worth it. Québec is completely and utterly charming, and I can often tell how much a city inspires me by how many photos I need to take (I take a lot of photos anyway, but I can feel it's different when I'm really inspired). I may or may not have taken 175 photos yesterday...the 176th one on my camera is of me with my host parents at the bus station. I can't wait to put them up on my photo account, but it'll have to wait about a week.

Time to run now...until next time!

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[Translation at the end!] 

 Je suis très heureuse aujourd'hui, à la fin d'une bonne weekend. J'ai commencé à ranger quelques choses pour quand je retourne - et il y a beaucoup de tâches à faire! À la fin de mai, j'ai accepté un offre pour faire un maîtrise à McMaster (!), alors je dois chercher un appartement pour septembre et faire un budget. Un peu ennuyeux, je sais, mais nécessaire et je peux aussi découvrir si je peux fait un petit prolongation de mes voyages pour visiter Québec sur mon trajet retour. Je trouverai une voie pour y aller, je pense.

Samedi soir, nous avons mangé un repas traditionnel: la fondue Québécoise, fait avec un brouillon où on cuisine des tranches de viande, des crevettes, du fromage (oui!), des légumes, avec pain et patates. Et pour la dessert: gâteau des anges! Merveilleux. Aussi, je suis heureuse de vous présenter Nicole et Réjean, mes parents d'accueil ici. C'est tellement amusant de se reconnaître en parlant français; nous nous parlons souvent et notre sujet favori et la gourmandise!



Finalement, aujourd'hui j'ai fait d'Arbre-en-arbre et je suis très fière! C'est un série des parcours dans la forêt, où on doit traverser des différents filets, ponts, et tyroliennes entre les arbres et dessous une rivière. Franchement, j'étais plutôt bonne! J'ai fini tout les parcours, facilement; un fois j'ai utilisé ma Connaissance de la Physique pour traverser un pont suspendu avec un minimum des balances (pendant que tous les autres criaient!)! Je partagerai quelques photos de moi quand je les ai des autres pour le vous prouver.

 
Et après un fin de la semaine si occupé, je ne peux pas continuer à éviter le présentation que je dois préparer pour mercredi.

À plus!

TRANSLATION
I'm really happy today, at the end of a great weekend. I started to organize some things for when I return - and there are lots of tasks to do! At the end of May, I accepted an offer for a masters at McMaster (!), so I need to find an apartment for September and make a budget. A bit boring, I know, but necessary and I can also find out if I can extend my travels a bit to see Quebec City on my return trip...I'll find a way to do it, I think.

Saturday evening, we ate a traditional meal: Québécois fondue, made with a broth where you cook slices of of meat, shrimp, cheese (yes!), vegetables, with bread and potatoes. And for dessert: angel food cake! Marvellous. Also, I'm pleased to introduce you to Nicole and Réjean, my host parents here. It's really fun getting to know each other in french; we speak with each other a lot and our favourite subject is good food!



Finally, today I did "d'Arbre-en-arbre" (From tree to tree) and I'm very proud! It's a series of courses in the forest, where you have to cross different nets, bridges, and ziplines between trees and above a river. Actually, I was pretty good! I finished all of the courses, easily; one time I used my Physics Knowledge to cross a suspension bridge with a minimum of swinging (while everybody else was shrieking with each step!)! I'll share some photos of myself when I have them from the others to prove it to you. :)



And after such a busy weekend, I can't continue avoiding the presentation I have to prepare for Wednesday.

Cheers!

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