Goodbye Gaspé

Yesterday was my last day in Gaspé. It's weird thinking that on Monday I will be back in school at home. I built a wonderful life in Gaspé that I will miss very much. The beautiful mountains, the colorful buildings, Charlotte's family, the French and of course all my friends are only a few things I am going to miss from Gaspé. I have made so many memories and I will always remember my wonderful sojourn.
I am really thankful for all the people who befriended me and who were so very patient with me. Everyone in Gaspé was extraordinarily friendly and I met many people who I will never forget. After many prolonged goodbyes I bid farewell to most of my friends, but it saddens me to think of those who I never had the opportunity to say "au revoir" to. Although it is not too upsetting that I missed a few adieux because goodbyes are much too sad and I really I don't mind my last memory that some of my friends have with me being happy instead of a tearful goodbye.
I am really glad to be able to say that in my three months in Gaspé there is nothing I regret not doing. I played volleyball, football and basketball, I joined cadets, joined the chess club, trained to run from Québec to Montréal for the Défi Pierre-Lavoie, made many great friends, saw Gaspésie and lived by one of my many mottos: "you're allowed to do it until they tell you otherwise" (which only got me in trouble once). There were so many new things to do in Gaspé that I would have never been able to do if I had stayed at home. I am extremely happy that I went on the exchange and I am ecstatic that I did everything I did do while there.
This experience was absolutely wonderful and I am really glad that I took the opportunity to go on the exchange, it was fantastic. I really loved all the new opportunities that i had from going to Gaspé and it was a great being on the mountainous coast instead of the prairies. I will definitely miss lots about Gaspé and I would really like to come back and visit someday; see the beautiful town in the Summer and see my friends again. I am not exactly excited about leaving, but in the words of Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

Thank you to all who have been reading my blog, I really hope you enjoyed it. Adieu!

Easter Break

I spent our almost week long Easter break in Trois-Rivière, a city about an hour and a half away from Montréal. After our eight hour drive on Thursday we arrived at Charlotte's aunt and uncle's house. The house was full of energy with Charlotte's two cousins, their parents, Charlotte's parents, two dogs, Juliette (Charlotte's sister), Charlotte and myself.
We spent most of Friday in Montréal trying to find a grad dress. After searching through many boutiques Charlotte found a beautiful dress for her graduation "bal en blanc". Afterwards we went to a huge indoor street market. It was extremely busy with everyone negotiating with vendors for the delicious looking sweets, fruits, fish and other foods being sold. I was glad it was still Lent or I would have spent all my money on all the different French confections. They had macaroons, cakes, cookies, some foreign delicacies and of course much from Québec, like the Gaspesien fish and all the maple products. I ended up buying some maple syrup and the vendor gave me some maple candies "for Manitoba".
After shopping Saturday morning all of us, save the dogs, joined more of the family at Charlotte's other aunt and uncle's house where we celebrated a surprise birthday party. Board games were pulled out and I learned how to play two new games. One was a board game that I lost rather quickly and the other was called loup-garou (werewolf), but it is also known as mafia.
Since I came here I have been told by many people that I have to play loup-garou a game that seems to be frequently played, but I had never heard of before coming to Québec. The reason why I didn't get a chance to play it was because you need at least nine people and we never had that many until this weekend. At the end of every round the players have to perform a "lynching" after accusing other players of being a werewolf and the accusations that were flying where hilarious. With people accusing the person who spoke first to the person who didn't speak at all there was no way to know how to defend yourself. We played all night and into the hours of Easter morning before everyone decide that it was time for the party to end. I was sad to leave, but we were planning to all go back later Easter day so I joined the family members who had not already left and went back to where we were staying.
For Easter, after Mass at the famous Basilica in Trois-Rivières, the family got together again and we had an Easter egg hunt. With only five of us "kids" we all got lots of candy. After eating an unreasonable amount of candy we played loup-garou and a few games of ultimate Frisbee. After supper we all settled down and watched the Montreal Canadians play Tampa Bay before heading home for bed.
Monday morning I decided to go for a run, but because I didn't know the city I got lost a few times. After asking two people for directions I finally found my way back to the house. In the afternoon we played badminton and I received some pointers on how to improve my game from Charlotte's aunt. I was really proud of myself when, out of the two skill building matches we played, I beat her in the second one. When it got dark Charlotte's parents, aunt, uncle and the dogs took a promenade through the old part of Trois-Rivières. We passed a store called Planète Poutine sells at least twenty different types of poutine! The day was slow, but it was nice having a day to cool down before we left.
I ended the splendid weekend with another long drive back to Gaspé. It was weird driving and not being able to see miles and miles around me. I had a wonderful Easter break and it was great meeting Charlotte's extended family, but with only three days left of school I am ready to be back and see my friends before I go back to Manitoba.

Mountains, Shrimp and (More) Poutine

I found something that is very originally Gaspésien: shrimp poutine. Yes, shrimp poutine. Last night, for supper, we ate at Brise Bise, meaning wind breaks, a restaurant overlooking the shore. Though the bowl of fresh shrimp they had on special looked extremely tempting, I had to try the shrimp poutine. I was not disappointed. It was absolutely wonderful and a great supper after the snowshoeing we had just come back from. After the meal I ended the long day hanging out with my friends and I noticed how much my French has improved since I arrived in Gaspé. I remember that the first time I was with the same girls I had trouble following one conversation let alone the three I was able to keep up with during night. There were still a few moments where someone would say something at light speed and I wondered how anyone can understand what was being said, but overall I think I did pretty good.
Earlier on in the day, after driving for almost two hours, Charlotte, her parents and I spent the day climbing mountains in the Réserve faunique des Chic-Chocs (Chic-Chocs Wildlife Reserve). Along with fourteen others, we made it to the top of Mont Vallières-de-Saint-Réal, the highest mountain there and climbed to the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Nearing the end of the trek I gained the title of "rabbit" because, as everyone else made their way down the mountains at a walking pace, I ran down every downward slope that there was. Seeing as we were going down the mountains there were quite a few opportunities for me to run. I thought that they might have been walking down because it was dangerous to run, but the worst that happened to me was a rather fun head over heals tumble that I took after my snowshoe sank into the snow.
They day was excellent for snowshoeing. Before we left I was warned that there could be fierce winds at the peaks, but when we got tho them there was barely any. The sky was clear and, with the sun glaring down on us, it got very hot very quickly. With all the climbing we were doing I decided to take off my winter jacket and just wear my t-shirt. At the end of the day, when we were at home, we noticed that I had been slightly burned by the sun, but it was nothing compared to Charlotte's new, scarlet tinge.
While on the peak of Mont Vallières-de-Saint-Réal with the other mountains all around me and the foreign language being spoken, though I was not that far from home I felt like I was in another world. It really felt like an adventure.

Mont Bechervaise

I finally went snowboarding! I don't know how I have lived five minutes away from Mont Bechervaise and haven't gone until this past weekend. It's a small hill with only a few runs, but it was still lots of fun. It was a beautiful day at the hill and I had a fantastic time. I was really worried that Gab, my friend who came skiing with me, would be way better than me because he skis almost every weekend, but although he was much more stable in bush runs, I was faster and could do jumps better making us about the same. I am glad I had Asessippi to prepare me. I also thought that I would have a difficult time understanding what he said, but I had no problem hearing him. The day went by way too quickly, and I am really glad I went, the hill is closing next weekend and this was my last opportunity to go.
The weather is beautiful here. There is still lots of snow and it is warming up so some of that snow is melting and turning into tiny streams that flow to the bottom of the mountain. I decided to go running yesterday morning before school. I set my alarm for 5:45 and ran around Gaspé for twenty minutes. I don't think I went very far, but it felt good to be running as the sun rose over the mountains. First, I ran up the mountain until I hit a dead-end, then I started back down. I ran to the bottom, to the bay, before starting the last leg: straight up to my house. I don't know whether I am glad we don't have hills like the ones here back home because it is painful climbing them, but it is also a nice change and it feels great when you get to the top.
It has started. I didn't think that it would start happening so soon, but today I saw my basketball coach for the last time before I am leaving. He is going away for three weeks so I won't get to say goodbye closer to my departure. I hope the two and a half weeks I have left don't go by quickly, I really don't want to say any more goodbyes anytime soon.

Poutine

It was lunch time and normally I would work out then eat my lunch, but leaving the school I saw some of the friends I would usually eat lunch with. by the direction they were heading I could tell that they were going to La Banquise, a restaurant near our school that I had never bean to. I quickly grabbed my jacket (hoping my wallet was in it) and caught up to them. We got to the restaurant and I couldn't decide what to get, thinking about getting a burger I then saw the list of poutine options. There were fourteen different choices! Everyone suggested getting the red BBQ sauce once I mentioned that I wasn't too fond of the brown sauce and although some of the choices were very tempting I decided to keep it simple and went with BBQ. My poutine was delicious! I have loved cheese curds since I got here and the BBQ sauce was nice and sweet going well with the salty fries, it was excellent. Before I left I was told not to eat too much poutine while in Québec and if I had known that poutine could be this good I would never have been able to truthfully respond that I wouldn't.

All the poutine choices at La Banquise

My BBQ poutine, mmmhhh

Snow Day!

There was another snow day yesterday, and I feel that it was a pretty productive one. Besides eating maple taffy I finished all my homework, finished a French novel I was reading, shovelled and had volleyball practice. I also practiced saxophone and piano. I feel I am improving immensely on the piano. I have been working more on my left hand because I can play the first page of Hedwig's Theme with my right, just not my left and right together.
I have volleyball regionals this weekend. I hope that there is still practice after the tournament, I will start having free evenings if my sports keep on ending. On Tuesday I trained with the weightlifting team for a bit so I might continue with that if it is not too late to join. The coach seems really enthusiastic about training me, but I don't know if it's for me. At least it will strengthen me for my other sports.

Not that I haven't been splurging on enough maple already, but yesterday we had maple taffy in the snow! It was really good. I probably ate way too much of it, but no one told me what our allotted amount was so, with the fact in mind that I am not here for much longer, I enjoyed as much as I could. My teeth were glued together for awhile after I finished, but it was worth it!

My Very Active Lifestyle

Monday night was relaxed. I came home from school, did homework, rested from my snowshoeing the day before and didn't really do much. Tuesday I had my normal basketball then volleyball routine after school before I went home and did some math homework. Football started on Wednesday and after I got all my equipment I practiced until six o'clock. At seven I had range at cadets, so after football I ran home, ate quickly, then ran to cadets.
Thursday I had basketball then volleyball like usual, but later that night there was Secondaire en Spectacle at the Cégep. After volleyball I walked home, but there was a bit of an obstacle that I had to overcome: a Gaspé snowstorm. I left the school thinking that it hadn't snowed that much the paths I usually took to get home would still be there, but boy was I wrong. The first trail that I took had been plowed recently so the snow was only up to my ankles and not to far up my shins in places. The second path, I am using path as a loose term, was never anything more than a line of footprints leading up through the mountains into the forest then back out. I climbed up the hill of snow leading to the entrance of the trail and there was nothing in front of me but the slight impression that hinted at the passage of a snowmobile. It was too late to take another route.

Head down I started running. My pace was extremely slow, but I lumbered on through the snow. Up to my knees I barrelled through, following the direction that I had taken when walking home before. When it came to the turn off that went farther up the mountain and into the forest I decided to take a "short cut". Instead I went straight and trudged through snow that was at least waist high. I finally came to the end and climbed a hill leading to the end of my "short cut" and the exit of the regular forest trail. Finally back in town I tried to run the rest of the way home, but the balls of ice that had formed in my shoes coating the arch of my foot were hard to ignore.
After getting home I ate quickly before heading out again for Secondaire en Spectacle. I was walking right into the wind and the blowing snow was blinding. I am glad that there was no cars on the road because I had my eyes closed most of the run to the Cégep.
The show was amazing! The first performance was a cello player and a pianist, and throughout the night there were guitars, drums, vocals and even a fiddle player. With so much talent it was hard to pick who to vote for, but I felt the three guitarists and drummer really deserved my vote. When they had played I had given them a standing ovation, it was a bit embarrassing because I was the only one standing, but they were fantastique! The votes were counted and their group won! I made sure to congratulate them before going home.

After school Friday I left with my basketball team for basketball regionals. The bus ride didn't feel long because of how great they were and during the weekend it felt like I had known them all forever although it hasn't even been two months yet. We finished the tournament in third, which was a great accomplishment seeing as we didn't even win a game at our last tournament, and I get another medal to bring home!

Maple Syrup

I finished reading the Harry Potter books! People seem to be surprised that I can read in French or something, and even more surprised that I read the seven books in four weeks. Today I told a gentleman that I was reading the books and that I had started about two weeks after I got to Gaspé. I said that I had a hundred pages left, I had to repeat to him that I did not have a hundred pages of the first book left to read, I had a hundred pages left in the seventh book. I can now finally finish the movies (which I have also been watching in French). I don't know what I am going to start on next, I looked for La Statégie Ender (Ender's Game) at the library, but they didn't have it in French. I am not to concerned about finding a new book right away, I have plenty to do here, especially since I started drawing more and playing the piano.

Learning to play the piano has been going excellently! While here I decided to take advantage of the piano than sits invitingly in the living room, because why not? Before I came to Gaspé I remember one of my musically talented friends listening to me playing what I knew on the piano and commenting that I was playing Hot Cross Buns wrong. I decided that I should start with a song that I like, so instead of beginning by relearning Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (the only song I ever knew how to play, and that was four years ago) or something simple I decided to go for Hedwig's Theme and it is sounding awesome. Though I have been playing other songs like Frère Jacques and Vivre le Vent, I always make sure to work on Hedwig's Theme whenever I'm at the piano. 

I did not know that they made maple syrup milk. Or how maple syrup can enhance the taste of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt. Maple flavored donuts are also wonderful as well as maple cheesecake. There is also maple flavored milk and yogurt.Vol-au-vents, croissants, mille-feuille, pâté chinois and of course various types of poutine are also all things that I get to enjoy here in Gaspé. Many of the dishes we eat here are those that I have had farther West, but there are also new ones that are delicious. There is not as much seafood as I was expecting, but I did try boulettes à la morue (cod fish cakes) and had pesto trout for supper today. I don't know who invents all the different types of poutine, but I really want to try the shrimp poutine that I have heard people talk about.

There is so much to do here and I am enjoying every minute of it. My French has improved drastically and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I only learned yesterday that I have been using a made up word for whenever I conjugated the verb "die" to the past tense. Apparently it is not "j'ai mouru, tu as mouru, il a mouru..." it is "je suis morte, tu es mort, il est mort..." How was I supposed to know? It's not like it is a verb I have to use very often. Today was busy for a Sunday and even though it is only 19 heurs (7pm) I feel like I am going to settle down and watch Harry Potter et l'Ordre du phénix before going to bed, adieu!

A Problem I Never Faced in Manitoba

My snow fort had been looking rather neglected, and I hadn't been in it for a few days, so yesterday I decided to closely check it out. After twenty minutes of vigorous work I realized that, with its collapsed roof and frozen interior, my fort was not going to become the palace it once was. I was not going to go inside after only twenty minutes of work so I decided to make a new igloo. The many snowfalls here in Gaspé made multiple spots for a new snow fort possible, but I wouldn't settle for any less than the best. Opposite the corner of the yard where my first fort was I found a beautiful location for my second.

Something I realized while digging was how different the topography here is than what I am used to. The neighbour's yard is at least ten feet lower than mine and the land between the two properties is extremely steep. When I was making my fort on the edge of my yard what I didn't realize was that I was slowly making my way to the icy drop off leading to the neighbour's property (no, the drop off does not lead to scuba divers who want to find clownfish for their fish tanks).

When I felt that it was wide enough, for the time being, I decided to dig to the ground, which I thought was only a few inches below me, so that I would be able to sit in the fort. My excavation was taking awhile, but I didn't think too much of it at first until I realized that I wasn't hitting the ground, I was digging deeper and deeper into the neighbour's yard!

By the time I was done my igloo for the day, the floor had two very distinct levels. One level was on the property where I live, and the other in the built up snow on the other side of the mini cliff in the neighbour's yard. Maybe I should've dug all the way to the ground, but I don't think I would have been able to get out of my fort if I had, and it would have taken a bit of time.

It was difficult getting the snow out the door and on multiple occasions I had just a sliver of light filtering though the wall of snow I had thrown in front from the trough I was in. It has never happened to me before where the opening of my snow fort has been level with the ground and the inside substantially below it. By the time I leave here there will probably be a whole tunnel system in the Labbé backyard, I just hope I don't dig to far and end up at the bottom of the small, icy cliff in the neighbour's backyard. 

A Wonderful Misadventure

I didn't really know what to expect when I left the house today. Not that I had never been snowshoeing before, we used to do it in elementary school and I had gone with Charlotte's mother earlier in the week, but never had I gone very far or for very long. Charlotte's parents and I, along with a man by the name of Louis who carpooled with us, left Gaspé at nine o'clock. A group of us, from Gaspé and Chandlerstarted our trek at ten o'clock, like planned, stopped for lunch at midday, like planned,but then something happened that was certainly not part of the plan. Halfway through our adventure we lost our way. A few times earlier on, while trying to follow the trail, we had become disoriented, but each time we had quickly found the "bonhomme bleu" that marked which direction we had to go. This time, though, we searched for at least half an hour without finding a blue gentleman to point us in the right direction. Finally, after half the group turned to follow our tracks back we heard a whistle from the trees across a river, someone had found both a sign with a man on it marking a trail and a geocache. Sadly it was not the right trail, backtracked to the vehicles to finish our endeavour. On our way back the stratus clouds that had been sitting above us threateningly decided to finally let loose big, fluffy snowflakes that I couldn't resist trying to catch on my tongue. 

Eighteen of us (along with two dogs) had planned to take the trail Sentier des Rivières all the way to L'Anse-à-Beaufils and even though we didn't make it, I think we had a wonderful misadventure.

 

1. Where we started our trek,
2. (Estimated location) Where we got lost for the finale time, and
3. Our intended destination.

Jeux des Cadets

This past weekend was Jeux des cadets and it was so much fun! The bus ride there was really long, but I finished the fourth Harry Potter book and met some great new people. One cadet, who found out after speaking to me for forty five minutes that no, I was not a thirteen year old boy, and I spoke for at least four hours, although he said he had trouble understanding me because of my accent. Only two people in Québec mentioned my accent before this Friday, but this weekend it seemed everyone was commenting on it.

The sport I was signed up for was badminton and, because of the amount of cadets my corps had going to the games (only seven), I was partnered up with a girl from another unit. We won a bronze medal by the end of the weekend and my corps brought home the sportsmanship trophy. During the final parade I didn't have my uniform so I had to wear the t-shirts we all had with our corps number. The 1933 Gaspé shirts were fluorescent green. Thankfully two other people in my corps didn't have their uniforms (I am still wondering what they were doing without them), so I wasn't the only highlighter amoung the navy blue, black and forest green.

On Saturday night there was three activities we could have done during our free time: gone to a dance, gone swimming, or watched a movie. I couldn't pick which one to do so in the end I decided to do all three. I started with the pool because the dance opened later and I hadn't been planning to watch the movie. I was really hoping for the diving boards to be open because they were higher than any I had ever jumped from before, but sadly they were off limits. After I accomplished touching the bottom of the pool and spent a fair amount of time doing flips and diving I found out which movie was playing (it was The Escape Plan) and watched from about forty minutes in to just past the climax before leaving for the dance. I am happy I came in when I did because it was in the middle of a line dance to In the Navy. I also learned another line dance, sadly I know the actions now, but I forget which song they belong to. The best part of the dance was when, four years later and four thousand kilometers away from where I first learned the dance in Penhold, AB, in Rimouski, QC, army, air and sea cadets filled the room to dance to The Bad Touch. C'était fantastique!

An Average Tuesday

This morning I awoke to my alarm blasting white noise at 6:15. Today was one of the days where, sadly, my radio found no station. I got ready for school, thankfully not having to do my hair (now that's a chore!). After my fantastic breakfast of Greek yogurt, fruit, homemade trail-mix and granola I caught the bus at 7:25. Never has the bus arrived a minute off. School started at 8:00 and I had my projet personelle d'orientation class which, like all the classes, lasted an hour and fifteen minutes. After a fifteen minute break I had science class. We were learning about atoms and, since I have gone over the material already, my friends, Matthieu and Gabriel, helped me with my French sentence structure. Next was éduc. which you probably know as gym class. There are four different gyms that are separated by one wall and two heavy-duty curtains. I asked someone last class how we are supposed to know which gym we are in for the day and she responded that we aren't supposed to know, every gym class we have to just all hope we are congregating in the right one. Today I was on my way to the farthest gym from the one that I was supposed to be in before someone thankfully told me that I had guessed wrong. After éduc. it was lunch and I was in the palestre with the rest of the boys to workout. There is about eight of us regulars who are in the workout room every lunch, sometimes there are new faces and some days one of us could be missing, but usually all of us are there from 12:15 until 1:00. After 1:00, when the palestre closed, I ate my delicious lunch, which was the same as breakfast because it was so good in the morning I had to have it again. My last class was math where we had an exam If I had been listening better in the previous classes I probably would have been expecting the exam. It's not that I didn't know it was coming, I just didn't know that it was today... I think I answered all of the questions correctly, except for one (how can a quadratic function only have one set of coordinates that are positive!?), but I probably lost points for the lack of work I showed. I really don't see how each question could have been worth four points. After the bell rang at 2:45, signalling the end of school, I headed to the gym for basketball practice. After basketball I had volleyball until 6:00 and learned that we are having a mini tournament on Thursday! I am excited, but I don't yet know who is on my team. When I arrived home it was supper time and I sat down to a wonderful meal of Greek salad and chicken. Dessert was ice cream along with the same delicious fruit salad I had for breakfast and lunch. At 7:00 I received a phone call from the Cadet corps here informing me that I had to pick up some papers so that I can join them this coming up weekend for Jeux des cadets (Cadet Games). I walked to our parade building before coming back home with the intention of doing my (which I should really get to, but it isn't due until Thursday so I have time). I have decided that I am going to play the piano tonight, instead. I will be able to play the instrument by the time I get back! Bonne nuit!

A Walk Home From School

Last week Charlotte and I walked home from school. She had told me that it usually only takes about fifteen minutes, but because I had stopped every few steps to either take a picture or get her to take a picture it took double that. Here are some of the better pictures, I am not much of a photographer, but I just wanted to share how nice it is here in the mountains.

The view from behind my school.

The mountains that are across the frozen Plage Haldimand (Haldimand Beach).

Directly behind me is the LM Wind Power building, there they manufacture wind turbine blades. Behind the factory is part of Gaspé, where I live.

After heading into the forest for a shortcut I looked at the beautiful mountains behind me as I prepared to climb higher. The arch is the entrance to a hiking trail.

Part way in the forest that is partially in Gaspé.

Back on the road and a block from home.

And finally we arrived at the Labbé-Gingras (and now Coffey) residence.

I am Going to be Wearing Snow Boots Tomorrow

I found someone who loves planes! Talking about aviation is a wonderful thing and those who know me know that I can talk about planes for hours. Apparently Jérôme can, too! After gym class we had an excellent conversation that involved gliders and our future careers in aviation. It was great to have someone who is interested in aeronautics to talk to. I think our talk went well, but sometimes it is difficult to know when someone is pretending to understand what you are saying or if they actually do understand. I remember, on the first day of school, Charlotte was showing me around the school and she said something. I thought that she asked me if I had spoken English with the students I had just been with, so I responded accordingly. Then it hit me what she had actually asked and if I hadn't turned beet red and said, "That was not your question..." we would have gone on believing that we had both understood the other.

I have been watching The Walking Dead and reading Harry Potter in French. I think Harry Potter is less intense in another language, but I am glad I get the chance to read it here. My goal is to be able to completely understand the screaming matches in The Walking Dead by the time I leave. Yes, I get the gist of them, but it is difficult to always understand everything they say. I am going to watch three episodes tonight so that I can catch up with the rest of the family and since my comprehension level has been steadily increasing maybe it will be soon that I know everything that is going on!

Tomorrow we are expecting a snowstorm. They say fifty centimeters of snow is going to fall, I am really excited! The wind is supposed to be blowing between 40 and 100km/hour, but if it is nice I am going to make a snow fort. The weather here is usually beautiful and the forecast says it will be minus six so I am really getting my hopes up. I am going to sit in my fort, read and eat some delicious Valentine's Day candy that I received in the mail today from my wonderful siblings. I can't wait for all the snow!

After a Week in Gaspé

A bonus to waking up a bit early here is being able to catch the sunrise over the mountains. Unlike the eight o'clock sunrise at home, it is in the sky by six forty. Yesterday I had poutine! My list is slowly being completed, my first breakfast while in Québec was crêpes and maple syrup and I am eating mille-feuille today! I went to Army Cadets last night (wearing a sea cadet shirt, they didn't notice). On paper they are a corps of only twelve cadets! Going from at least fifty of us in a gym to seven of us using a small hallway as a parade square was even more odd than doing drill in French.

A lot of the students here have been complimenting my French. I am so thankful for my awesome French teachers over the years for helping me get to where I am. Sometimes I hear someone use a word a certain way or conjugate a verb and I recall lessons I've had where I was taught how to say the same thing, but I never used it thinking that it didn't really matter. Evidently it does matter...

It feels like I've been here for way more than a week, every day has been incredible and I am ready for another one!

First Day of School

My first day of school in Gaspé, Québec, was confusing, yet fantastic. I can't remember the teaches' name, never mind where any of the classes are, but everyone here is extremely pleasant. The school seems huge, but with my wonderful exchange student I found my way around easily enough. There are three storeys to the building! I am pretty sure  a day of going to school here counts as a workout in itself.
It's spectacular how beautiful the town is, from the window at which I sit I can see Gaspé below and above me. The town lights are like little fireflies brightening the night. Amazing!