OK I do believe that will be enough French for the moment. Yep... the first thing I did once I arrived in Montreal after my 10 hour train journey from NY was to eat LA POUTINE at St Hubert. Just a heads up, when you say LA POUTINE, you say it in a sing-song voice.
True to form, I was met by a gang in Montreal which was great! Katie, Julie and Chantal. Merci beaucoup encore pour fait le conduire! Je vous remercie!!!!
BTW if you ever have the choice of the train from NY to Montreal compared to the Greyhound bus... go for the train everytime, it may take a couple more hours, but it so much more pleasant. The train goes along the river and it is stunning. Hoping to go back in Autumn this year to check it out again.
Julie and me with our POUTINE
Chantal and Katie with POUTINE... OK Katie has a salade... but she could have POUTINE when ever she wants
Judith, Katie's daughter , me and Harrods, the bear I gave to Judith. Judith is doing painting by numbers, just in case you can't tell 
Me, Judith and Katie
Chantal, Katie, Judith, me and Julie chez Katie
Judith et son lapin
Julie is in the unusual situation of having 3 homes! Her boyfriend, Stephan, and her live in Sherbrooke, really close to the university where Stephan is doing his Phd. Julie though works in Victoriaville at a primary school teaching year 3 which is about 1 hour and a bit from Sherbrooke. So she has managed to score a room effectively next door to the school. The other home at her parents.
The problem then was I couldn't actually turn off the tap. So after a some what long interval, Julie came back and was immediately able to turn it off (turns out I was trying to turn off the wrong tap, which was loose, which is why i couldn't get any hot water)
So, Stephan is doing a Phd in something to do with lasers going through different materials and the by products of doing that, at least that's what i have remembered.
This is Julie and me with the "laser" at the university
Stephan and Julie
Julie and Stephan at Sherbrooke with la coupe Stanley, OK it is a model. The last time montreal won was around 1992 I think... early 90s anyway
La neige
I spent one day with Julie in her third grade class which was really fun!!! She is a great teacher too. We did some grammer which meant I got to write sentences on the board which the kids had to correct, then we identified the nouns and verbs.
Maths was next.... this was all about measuring. So I got to help out a bit and explain to some of the kids how to draw lines greater than or less than or in between certain lengths! Tout en francais.
At the end of the day we had our Party de l'Australie. So we played Australian animal hang man. I also got lots of questions about Australia and in particular kangaroos. Julie had to explain to the class that I wasn't a vet, so I couldn't answer all their questions.
I also taught her class to sing "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree". I have a video of it, but I don't think I can load it onto my blog... it is great though!
I was able to have dinner at Julie's third place, being her parents place one night too. Plus even her brothers came to dinner, and Karine! Karine is a friend from school and also happens to be Julie's cousin.
Julie's parents gave me the required can of maple syrup, we checked to find one with the best recipe on the top. You'd be amazed at what you can do with maple syrup.
I spent alot of time at Julie's parents' place when I was on exchange, so it was absolutely fantastic to be able to see them, and have dinner with them which involves me hearing about 5 conversations in French at once.
Since I was last there in 2002, they have one more horse, and a lovely stable to keep the three or four (can't remember) horses.
Can you see the glass doors? When I looked out them in the morning all you can see is snow and a few horses and a stable.
A big highlight for my Quebec visit was going to the Centre Molson (which is now called Le Centre Bell, and hasn't been the Molson Centre for years) to see Les Canadiens de Montreal play agains Boston Bruins. One of the rookies from 1996-1997 season, Saku Koivu, is now the captain.... how times change.
Interestingly, hockey is so huge in Canada that we had to pay almost double the face price for our tickets, as they are just so not available. But it was totally worth it!!!! Plus we won! The atmosphere at the Bell Centre was so much better than Madison Square Garden and the Rangers!
Plus they even had this thing at the begining which was a take off of 24. That is 24 hours in the life of the Montreal Canadians. They even had Kieffer Sutherland speaking French at the end talking about how they are going to win their 24 Stanley Cup this year which was quite cool.
My last day was spent in Montreal with Julie and Katie, doing some shopping at Roots and ice skating
La neige
I spent one day with Julie in her third grade class which was really fun!!! She is a great teacher too. We did some grammer which meant I got to write sentences on the board which the kids had to correct, then we identified the nouns and verbs.
Maths was next.... this was all about measuring. So I got to help out a bit and explain to some of the kids how to draw lines greater than or less than or in between certain lengths! Tout en francais.
At the end of the day we had our Party de l'Australie. So we played Australian animal hang man. I also got lots of questions about Australia and in particular kangaroos. Julie had to explain to the class that I wasn't a vet, so I couldn't answer all their questions.
I also taught her class to sing "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree". I have a video of it, but I don't think I can load it onto my blog... it is great though!
I was able to have dinner at Julie's third place, being her parents place one night too. Plus even her brothers came to dinner, and Karine! Karine is a friend from school and also happens to be Julie's cousin.
Julie's parents gave me the required can of maple syrup, we checked to find one with the best recipe on the top. You'd be amazed at what you can do with maple syrup.
I spent alot of time at Julie's parents' place when I was on exchange, so it was absolutely fantastic to be able to see them, and have dinner with them which involves me hearing about 5 conversations in French at once.
Since I was last there in 2002, they have one more horse, and a lovely stable to keep the three or four (can't remember) horses.
Odette, me, Julie, Karine, Gaston, Michael and Jimmy
Can you see the glass doors? When I looked out them in the morning all you can see is snow and a few horses and a stable.A big highlight for my Quebec visit was going to the Centre Molson (which is now called Le Centre Bell, and hasn't been the Molson Centre for years) to see Les Canadiens de Montreal play agains Boston Bruins. One of the rookies from 1996-1997 season, Saku Koivu, is now the captain.... how times change.
Interestingly, hockey is so huge in Canada that we had to pay almost double the face price for our tickets, as they are just so not available. But it was totally worth it!!!! Plus we won! The atmosphere at the Bell Centre was so much better than Madison Square Garden and the Rangers!
Plus they even had this thing at the begining which was a take off of 24. That is 24 hours in the life of the Montreal Canadians. They even had Kieffer Sutherland speaking French at the end talking about how they are going to win their 24 Stanley Cup this year which was quite cool.
3 comments:
Great post! Looks like you had a great time! :o)
Good catch up blog Christina! :) I like the white jumper you are wearing but not sure about that "Get Smart" trench coat! (hehehe) Though you guys do look like you are prepared to take on some lasers. (Laser said like Dr Evil..)
Jo
you go girl.. getting back into the French.. im proud of you.. =)
Thats so cool that you got to go back to Quebec. I'm just trying to catch up on where you are at.. sometimes your hard to keep up with you.. =)
love ya chick!
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