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!