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!