Well, I finished my last day of teacher and cooking class today. It has definitely been a long but enjoyable week! I think I will sleep well on the plane home tomorrow morning.
Yesterday, in cooking, we made a Greek salad and calamari. The Greek salad turned out to be very tasty! It included tomatoes, cucumbers, spices, etc. and then we actually grilled the purple onion and red peppers before cutting them up and putting them in the salad. We also grilled a huge chunk of feta cheese. I put them all in my salad bowl and Vincent laughed at me as he usually does. He said, "Aren`t you going to cut them up? Those will be pick pieces to put in your mouth!" As I pulled them out of my bowl and started chopping, I said with a smile, "I just wanted the person who got that big hunk of feta cheese to feel pretty lucky!"
Calamari is made with the sickest (in my opinion) and slimiest piece of squid you can find. You have to pull out the spine and then try to scrape off the thin film of plasticy skin. It took me 5 minutes to do and made me want to throw up the whole time. Vincent said that the only way to have melt-in-your-mouth calamari is to skin off the slimy film before frying it, or else it is quite tough. Bon....I finally got most of it up and sliced it into rings. I then battered it up with egg and flour and put it in the deep fat fryer. Mmmmmm!!! I took one little bite and ended up throwing the rest away. Shhhhhh....don`t tell Vincent.
Last night, my host mom took the four of us staying with her to the local mall. It was huge...like really the hugest mall that I have ever seen in my life! We looked in every type of store imaginable, but I didn`t find one thing to buy. This is my only trip, I believe, where I will not even be bringing home one souvenir. Oh well. I do have lots of pictures to post. Last night we then took the bus downtown to see all the great nightlife. It was amazing! I loved the small band of drummers, the lights, the excitement...we got home after midnight but it was worth it.
This morning, class was canceled...yay! We went on a guided walk around the whole city. This was interesting! My favorite part was stopping in a chocolate factory. We were offered all types of free samples upon entering. I ordered a mini cone of Dominican Republic Vanilla Bean...OH MY!!! It was the closest thing to heaven that I`ve had in a long time!
The last cooking class today had on the menu carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies. Great treats, eh?! I had made them both before, but it was a fun and relaxing afternoon. The carrot cake turned out positivley delicious! We cut it in half and then poured the gooey icing in the middle as well as on top. It was a masterpiece. He said that I couldn`t take it home on a plate because I wouldn`t be here to return the plate on Monday. Instead, I grabbed a huge cardboard box and set it on top. Now I have this huge cardboard box to carry around all night. I hope some people in the street will stop and have a bite. If not, that will be a big pain to carry around.
The cookies were normal chocolate chip cookies but Vincent had bought all types of chips and nuts: peanut butter chips, white chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel, toffee, walnuts and pecans....the dough tasted delicious! However, the cookies all turned out like little flat pancakes. Vincent`s all turned into one big flat pancake cookie. He didn`t want me to take a picture of him holding the tray of cookies, but I begged him. It is good to see that none of us are perfect, even an expert chef. :)
As we were washing the dishes and Vincent was giving me his email address...BANG!!! A clap of thunder and the power went out. Vincent swore: SH--! I screamed. It was very scary! The lights went out and our super-sonic dishwasher went down. Standing by gas stoves and all this electricity, I got a bit nervous. Some generator lights later came on and we piled the rinsed dishes next to the huge dishwasher.
Well, it is happy hour now: 5-7 pm at a local pub. I have been talked into going, though I keep protesting that I don`t drink. I guess I`ll find something else to order. Should be fun to have one last good night talking to all these new friends.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Bluberries and Sugar
The week in Quebec is almost through and it has definitely been a roller-coaster ride! As I have stated in every other post, the morning teacher workshop is a total waste of time (2-3 hours looking on google per day!!) but at least I have been able to write in my blog and email everybody even though I haven`t gotten one original idea to use in my classroom! Today we are told to look up website French newspapers and radio program and then present what we found to the other 8 French teachers here. Bleh! I`ll just make something up in my head the moment when we are supposed to present.
Yesterday afternoon was filled with all sorts of baking. The agenda listed apple crisp and blueberry pie as our items for the afternoon. Mmmmm!! Vincent told me that he buys several kilos of butter a day just to cook with us, not to mention his catering business on the side! Watching all that goes into these recipes makes me really aware when I go out to eat that you never know what is in that flaky dessert. For example, yesterday we used butter, margarine and oil! Eeek! The apple crisp was my favorite. It was a pretty straight-forward recipe, but Vincent showed us techniques for peeling apples and keeping them fresh with lemon juice on top. You don`t use cups in the metric system, so I had to use a scale to measure 250 grams of flour, 125 grams of butter, etc. It takes a long time. I like the American system of cups better. Mine turned out perfectly! I just wished we had had ice cream to go on the side! I started making the blueberry pie crust. It was lots of fun to learn how to cut the butter into the flour and mix it--but not too much--with a bit of water and salt till it got to the right consistency. But then I watched Vincent`s demonstration of making the blueberry pie. He dumped 2 boxes of beautiful, fresh blueberries right into the crust and then piled on the sugar and flower mixture until you couldn`t even see the blueberries anymore. I got started working on mine, but didn`t have the heart to do it. My apple crisp was already enough dessert. I put all my fresh blueberries in a plastic sack and said that my pie crust didn`t turn out. He tried to help me make it work, but I finally confessed that I would rather take fresh bluerries home to eat for dessert that night. He seemed a little sad to see me not even trying to make that blueberry pie, but I couldn`t help it. I really wanted some fruit!
Andrea and I went home yesterday afternoon after our classes on the regular city bus. Our host mom, Christiane`s husband just got back into town. They had a huge barbecue celebration out on the patio by the pool. It was so fun and relaxing! Their French is the typical Quebecois style--very hard to understand. Sometimes I got confused when talking to them. They brought out watermelon and I said, "Oh, j`adore le pasteque!" They said we don`t call it pasteque here, but "melon d`eau" instead. Another funny thing is how many English words they randomly insert into their sentences like, "C`est weird. C`est cute. C`est la partie!" instead of the regular French bizarre, mignon and fete. I have to really pay attention to understand them too because every sentence is followed by the word -lo...but this family really is tons of fun!
Christiane said that since I am leaving Saturday, she is going to take us to a little side city to go shopping tonight and then to see the Moulin a Images--a night windmill that lights up, I believe. I guess we`ll see how it goes.
Yesterday afternoon was filled with all sorts of baking. The agenda listed apple crisp and blueberry pie as our items for the afternoon. Mmmmm!! Vincent told me that he buys several kilos of butter a day just to cook with us, not to mention his catering business on the side! Watching all that goes into these recipes makes me really aware when I go out to eat that you never know what is in that flaky dessert. For example, yesterday we used butter, margarine and oil! Eeek! The apple crisp was my favorite. It was a pretty straight-forward recipe, but Vincent showed us techniques for peeling apples and keeping them fresh with lemon juice on top. You don`t use cups in the metric system, so I had to use a scale to measure 250 grams of flour, 125 grams of butter, etc. It takes a long time. I like the American system of cups better. Mine turned out perfectly! I just wished we had had ice cream to go on the side! I started making the blueberry pie crust. It was lots of fun to learn how to cut the butter into the flour and mix it--but not too much--with a bit of water and salt till it got to the right consistency. But then I watched Vincent`s demonstration of making the blueberry pie. He dumped 2 boxes of beautiful, fresh blueberries right into the crust and then piled on the sugar and flower mixture until you couldn`t even see the blueberries anymore. I got started working on mine, but didn`t have the heart to do it. My apple crisp was already enough dessert. I put all my fresh blueberries in a plastic sack and said that my pie crust didn`t turn out. He tried to help me make it work, but I finally confessed that I would rather take fresh bluerries home to eat for dessert that night. He seemed a little sad to see me not even trying to make that blueberry pie, but I couldn`t help it. I really wanted some fruit!
Andrea and I went home yesterday afternoon after our classes on the regular city bus. Our host mom, Christiane`s husband just got back into town. They had a huge barbecue celebration out on the patio by the pool. It was so fun and relaxing! Their French is the typical Quebecois style--very hard to understand. Sometimes I got confused when talking to them. They brought out watermelon and I said, "Oh, j`adore le pasteque!" They said we don`t call it pasteque here, but "melon d`eau" instead. Another funny thing is how many English words they randomly insert into their sentences like, "C`est weird. C`est cute. C`est la partie!" instead of the regular French bizarre, mignon and fete. I have to really pay attention to understand them too because every sentence is followed by the word -lo...but this family really is tons of fun!
Christiane said that since I am leaving Saturday, she is going to take us to a little side city to go shopping tonight and then to see the Moulin a Images--a night windmill that lights up, I believe. I guess we`ll see how it goes.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Shrimp on the Barbie
Okay--if anybody knows me at all, you`ll know that seafood really isn`t my passion. Well, yesterday the menu for my cooking class was coconut shrimp with mango sauce, Thai soup and Thai chicken curry. We started off with the shrimp. They are ugly, gray little critters but the tails come off easily with one little pinch. That was kind of a cool discovery! We then learned how to batter them without getting your fingers all sticky and covered in flour! What you do is set up four little bowls. You have one wet hand and one dry hand. Then you put the wet hand on the shrimp, the dry hand in the flour once the shrimp are dropped into it, the wet hand again in the egg yolk and the dry hand in the coconut-bread crumb mixture. It is a genius idea, don`t you think? My fingers were actually pretty clean by the end! I then put all 8 of them in the deep fat fryer and watched them sizzle. When they were done, they looked pretty tasty! I put them aside and worked to make the mango sauce.
For the mango sauce, you blend up a cut-up mango with a bit of cilantro, sugar and water. As always, I love large quantities and put in way too much water. Vincent, the chef, joked that I wanted to make mango juice. He gave me another mango and watched as I put in just a pinch of water. It turned out pretty good as well....and would you believe it?? I ate three shrimp with sauce! And I hate shrimp! But these were actually pretty good. It is fun to see how much you enjoy trying out foods that you really worked and sweated over.
The Thai soup and curry were actually an interesting adventure as well! Vincent showed us how to cut the chicken against the grain and how to peal fresh ginger with a spoon. By the way, did you know that you never wash mushrooms? I never knew that till now!
After we got everything all boxed up, these two old ladies were still piddling around and their dishes weren`t even washed. Another girl and I washed and dried practically everybody`s dishes. I asked Vincent if I could leave because it was 4:00 and my friends were waiting for me outside but he said I needed to help out the old ladies. I tried my best but they acted like they had all the time in the world! Frustrating!
I finally got out of there at 4:20 and we took the bus up to the Chateau Frontenac. It was as beautiful as I remembered. We got some ice cream and sat on benches to watch the St. Laurence river as the breeze blew through our hair. We could have opted for Queue de Castor (Beaver tails)--really just batter, deep-fat fried and covered in powdered sugar--kind of like funnel cakes...but we thought it was too hot for that. It made for a nice afternoon. We then went shopping together. Andrea bought a bride`s maid dress for over $300 at this store called Chateau!! Ahhh!! I don`t plan on buying any souvenirs here because nothing has really caught my eye and I`ve been here before. Does anybody want anything? If you do, you have till Friday to let me know. Your options are a Quebec flag, postcard, stuffed animal or caramel cookie.
Bon--this teacher class is getting underway. I guess I need to present an idea to the others about how to teach grammar to kids. We have supposedly been surfing the internet, looking for ideas for the past two hours now. All I can think about is how fun it will be to learn how to make apple crumble and blueberry tarts in my cooking class today.
For the mango sauce, you blend up a cut-up mango with a bit of cilantro, sugar and water. As always, I love large quantities and put in way too much water. Vincent, the chef, joked that I wanted to make mango juice. He gave me another mango and watched as I put in just a pinch of water. It turned out pretty good as well....and would you believe it?? I ate three shrimp with sauce! And I hate shrimp! But these were actually pretty good. It is fun to see how much you enjoy trying out foods that you really worked and sweated over.
The Thai soup and curry were actually an interesting adventure as well! Vincent showed us how to cut the chicken against the grain and how to peal fresh ginger with a spoon. By the way, did you know that you never wash mushrooms? I never knew that till now!
After we got everything all boxed up, these two old ladies were still piddling around and their dishes weren`t even washed. Another girl and I washed and dried practically everybody`s dishes. I asked Vincent if I could leave because it was 4:00 and my friends were waiting for me outside but he said I needed to help out the old ladies. I tried my best but they acted like they had all the time in the world! Frustrating!
I finally got out of there at 4:20 and we took the bus up to the Chateau Frontenac. It was as beautiful as I remembered. We got some ice cream and sat on benches to watch the St. Laurence river as the breeze blew through our hair. We could have opted for Queue de Castor (Beaver tails)--really just batter, deep-fat fried and covered in powdered sugar--kind of like funnel cakes...but we thought it was too hot for that. It made for a nice afternoon. We then went shopping together. Andrea bought a bride`s maid dress for over $300 at this store called Chateau!! Ahhh!! I don`t plan on buying any souvenirs here because nothing has really caught my eye and I`ve been here before. Does anybody want anything? If you do, you have till Friday to let me know. Your options are a Quebec flag, postcard, stuffed animal or caramel cookie.
Bon--this teacher class is getting underway. I guess I need to present an idea to the others about how to teach grammar to kids. We have supposedly been surfing the internet, looking for ideas for the past two hours now. All I can think about is how fun it will be to learn how to make apple crumble and blueberry tarts in my cooking class today.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Becoming a Quebecoise Chef
Wow-- the cooking class yesterday afternoon was as amazing as you could ever imagine! It definitely made up for the disorganized and boring teacher workshop in the morning. At 1:00, I arrived to the smiling chef Vincent and his huge commercialized kitchen! I was one of the two new students to this group of 10. He handed me a white button-up cooking jacket, pointed to the sink, and told me to get ready for three hours of hard work. And it was hard work, but I learned a lot! He showed us how to quickly chop vegetables without cutting your fingers--you bend your fingers in a certain way behind the knife as you quickly cut through carrots, celery, onions, etc. I`m not very good at it, but with practice, I could get it..I think. We made some meat ragout in red wine sauce as well as chicken, vegetable soup with puffed, cut-out pastries. It was kind of like mini chicken pot pies but better. There were rows of gas stoves and ovens with every type of dish, pan and utinsel that you could ever imagine! The pans were always hot and I guess that commercialized fine cooking doesn`t believe in hot pads because the only way to move the pans and put the lids off and on was by using these thin white towels, sometimes doubled-up.
When making my own beef ragout, I guess I didn`t pay much attention to the presentation because I took the cup of oil he gave me and dumped the whole thing into the pan. Vincent screamed, "Ahhh! Too much oil!" I quickly poured most of it back into the cup before I sauteed the mushrooms. The rest of the afternoon, when demonstrating, he always joked, "Not too much oil" and looked at me. I said, "I love oil, Vincent" and smiled back. I only burned my hand once and that was when I stuck the pan, filled with puffed pastries, into the oven. Oh well...as they say, a souvenir from Quebec.
I finished all the hard work at 4:00, took one taste of the delicious mixtures, boxed it all up and put it on the fridge to have for lunch today. I met with the other French teachers outside the school and asked how their afternoon conversation classes were. They said that they were as boring and pointless as yesterday. We are all a bit disappointed with the school system here and disorganization, but at least all the other French teachers here are lots of fun to hang out with! We are actually upset about the lack of ideas we are getting to use in our classrooms at home, but we joke about how bad it is, so it makes us feel better. For example, our morning French teacher told us that our mornings will be surfing the web for two hours about the subject she gives us and then sharing with the other members of the class everything that we found. I said that I could be the teacher at this rate. She doesn`t bring any of her own original ideas to share....We could do this at home!! Oh well..at least I have cooking to learn from!
After class yesterday, Andrea, one of my roommates and a French teacher in the top of Alberta where it isn`t dark at all these days, and I walked towards the Chateau Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in the world. It got so hot, though, that we turned around and took the bus back to our little house. We decided to help Christiane make the dinner and then put our feet in the swimming pool. It was a nice evening. Fernando, the only guy living there, didn`t help with the dishes. Christiane joked, "Hey Fernando! Guys do dishes here in Quebec!" I threw a towel at him and told him that he needed to learn how to work. He looked embarrassed but actually helped out really well.
This morning we took the 45-minute bus ride to school and got here right on time--at 9:00. We were given 2 hours to look for French songs to share with the others and come up with lesson plans. She didn`t even give us one lesson plan idea! Oh well...now I get to write in my blog. It is near 11:00 and I am thinking about the delicious food that I made yesterday which I will soon get to try out. Mmmmmm!!!
Monday, July 5, 2010
C`est le fonne!
It is the summer and what does that mean? Knowing my pattern for the past few summers, I just can`t let the time pass away only in Utah--as much as I love the mountains, lakes and rivers of my birthplace...especially the Dutch Oven cooking that I have been doing recently with the cousins--I`m just always itching to get far away for a small chunk of time. This year--off to Quebec. This will be my third summer in Quebec (the last ones were in 2006 and 2008) and I would really love to try out something different like Tahiti or Martinique, but I have yet to find a program that offers French study on any of these tropical islands. So...here I am!
As usual, it has been quite the adventure. When I got to the Salt Lake airport yesterday, the man looked at my passport and said, "You have too many stamps in here! You might not be able to travel because you don`t have any blank pages!" He wasn`t very nice to say the least. I have at least 5 pages at the back of my passport, but he said that the last three can never be used and went on and on....I got a bit nervous, but he let me on the plane, so whatever.
When I arrived yesterday afternoon in Quebec City, I passed through Customs just to see my pink suitcase that follows me everywhere on my adventures---covered in my sunblock. It was literally dripping in white cream. How embarrassing! I knew that I had wrapped all my creams in plastic bags, so I didn`t know what happened. Later I read a letter that was put in my suitcase, saying it had been randomly selected to be inspected. The plastic bags were opened and I guess that is how the sunblock exploded and got all over everything. Thanks, security people!
A lady was waiting for me with a sign holding my name as I walked out of the airport. It was kind of fun to see my name on a sign and feel that I belonged somewhere. She put me in her car with another 15 year old girl and we took off to find my Quebecois family. She got out the address and drove down the street to my house for the week. This year, I can only stay a week--i usually am gone 2-3 weeks--but it is better than nothing, right? She pulled up to this nice looking house with a picket fence and a man with a canoe on his car in the driveway just glared at me. I thought, "Gee....this is going to be a bit difficult. My host dad isn`t even happy to see me." I tried to give him a friendly, "Bonjour....." still a glare. The lady who was driving asked him if he was expecting a student to stay with him and he said no. Phew! She got the house wrong.
We drove a bit further and found an adorable bright yellow house to stay in. This lady was so much more hospitable. Her name is Christiane and she lives in a very nice place with a huge swimming pool. Her whole basement is dedicated to students and there are 4 bedrooms, a living room and kitchen! It was nice! She was very friendly and introduced me to Fernando, a Brasilian guy--way fun, 30 years old--who is staying in one of the rooms. We had a great time talking about Brasil since I served a mission there. He has been learning French for 6 months and speaks very well. The two of us helped Christiane make fajitas for dinner and it was very delicious! Two more students arrived that night and everybody has been so fun and friendly. I am actually a little bit sad that I can only stay one week.
This morning, we got up early and took the bus to our school at Merici College. It is a huge ancient building. I am currently in the class for French teachers and we are supposed to spend the morning looking at websites for teachers that she put together. BORING! I hope this class gets better. This afternoon, I am signed up to take cooking classes from a chef here. That has to be fun, right? Tonight, I`ll go around and see more of Quebec before having dinner with Christiane!
The adventure continues...
As usual, it has been quite the adventure. When I got to the Salt Lake airport yesterday, the man looked at my passport and said, "You have too many stamps in here! You might not be able to travel because you don`t have any blank pages!" He wasn`t very nice to say the least. I have at least 5 pages at the back of my passport, but he said that the last three can never be used and went on and on....I got a bit nervous, but he let me on the plane, so whatever.
When I arrived yesterday afternoon in Quebec City, I passed through Customs just to see my pink suitcase that follows me everywhere on my adventures---covered in my sunblock. It was literally dripping in white cream. How embarrassing! I knew that I had wrapped all my creams in plastic bags, so I didn`t know what happened. Later I read a letter that was put in my suitcase, saying it had been randomly selected to be inspected. The plastic bags were opened and I guess that is how the sunblock exploded and got all over everything. Thanks, security people!
A lady was waiting for me with a sign holding my name as I walked out of the airport. It was kind of fun to see my name on a sign and feel that I belonged somewhere. She put me in her car with another 15 year old girl and we took off to find my Quebecois family. She got out the address and drove down the street to my house for the week. This year, I can only stay a week--i usually am gone 2-3 weeks--but it is better than nothing, right? She pulled up to this nice looking house with a picket fence and a man with a canoe on his car in the driveway just glared at me. I thought, "Gee....this is going to be a bit difficult. My host dad isn`t even happy to see me." I tried to give him a friendly, "Bonjour....." still a glare. The lady who was driving asked him if he was expecting a student to stay with him and he said no. Phew! She got the house wrong.
We drove a bit further and found an adorable bright yellow house to stay in. This lady was so much more hospitable. Her name is Christiane and she lives in a very nice place with a huge swimming pool. Her whole basement is dedicated to students and there are 4 bedrooms, a living room and kitchen! It was nice! She was very friendly and introduced me to Fernando, a Brasilian guy--way fun, 30 years old--who is staying in one of the rooms. We had a great time talking about Brasil since I served a mission there. He has been learning French for 6 months and speaks very well. The two of us helped Christiane make fajitas for dinner and it was very delicious! Two more students arrived that night and everybody has been so fun and friendly. I am actually a little bit sad that I can only stay one week.
This morning, we got up early and took the bus to our school at Merici College. It is a huge ancient building. I am currently in the class for French teachers and we are supposed to spend the morning looking at websites for teachers that she put together. BORING! I hope this class gets better. This afternoon, I am signed up to take cooking classes from a chef here. That has to be fun, right? Tonight, I`ll go around and see more of Quebec before having dinner with Christiane!
The adventure continues...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Happy Canada Day!
Today is Canada Day!! Oh my! I don't think I have seen so many crowds in a long time. Last night, the teacher classes and tour offically ended. We had a great closing dinner at a nice restaurant and some goodbye speeches in our suite here. It was quite touching. I got a prize for traveling the furthest to get here. It's a nice ribbon. Pretty cool. I actually almost started crying at the thought of having to say goodbye to Ray and some of the other teachers here. A third of the teachers left this morning in a van for Maine. The rest of us decided to stay for Canada Day today in Ottowa and Quebec's birthday party on Thursday.
We left at 8:00am this morning to see the parade. There were tons of cool floats of Samuel de Champlain, Native American peoples, bagpipes and lots of other bands. I crossed the street to get close and watch the changing of the guard. This took a half hour and was followed by a horse show. By this time, it was super hot and I was tired, so I decided to leave. Right as I was walking to cross the street, however, I realized that the entire section of Parliment Hill had been blocked off. I was blockaded inside with the other thousands of people. When I asked the police why they blocked it off, he said that horses would be coming through and it was a safety measure. I didn't see any horses. I had become distanced from the group, so I sat down on the grass to get a bit tan. The time ticked by....and ticked...I couldn't believe it. It was so hot and I was thirsty. What seemed like an eterntiy later, but was really 2 hours later the horses trotted by, they finally took down the baricade that surrounded the place. I was so happy to get out that I went straight to the mall, got myself a McFlurry from McDonalds and went back to my hotel room to get out of the mob.
Yesterday I saw the National Gallery of Canada--an amazing museum with all types of European and Canadian Art. Today, Jessica, the young teacher who is so cute from Charlotte, North Carolina, and I are going to Rideau Hall, the place where the governor lives. There are free tours every hour of the place. Actually, on Canada Day, all the busses run free of charge and noone pays to enter the museums. That's great! I don't think we have anything like that in the states.
It has really been a fun adventure. I don't know if I will be able to write again because we leave for Quebec City tomorrow and that hotel does not have internet. These Suites we are staying in here are the nicest place I have ever stayed. We are right downtown and we all have our own kitchen and private bedrooms. There is an indoor pool on the 5th floor with a huge window that you can look out and see the city while you swim. Isn't traveling the life? I love for vacations!
We left at 8:00am this morning to see the parade. There were tons of cool floats of Samuel de Champlain, Native American peoples, bagpipes and lots of other bands. I crossed the street to get close and watch the changing of the guard. This took a half hour and was followed by a horse show. By this time, it was super hot and I was tired, so I decided to leave. Right as I was walking to cross the street, however, I realized that the entire section of Parliment Hill had been blocked off. I was blockaded inside with the other thousands of people. When I asked the police why they blocked it off, he said that horses would be coming through and it was a safety measure. I didn't see any horses. I had become distanced from the group, so I sat down on the grass to get a bit tan. The time ticked by....and ticked...I couldn't believe it. It was so hot and I was thirsty. What seemed like an eterntiy later, but was really 2 hours later the horses trotted by, they finally took down the baricade that surrounded the place. I was so happy to get out that I went straight to the mall, got myself a McFlurry from McDonalds and went back to my hotel room to get out of the mob.
Yesterday I saw the National Gallery of Canada--an amazing museum with all types of European and Canadian Art. Today, Jessica, the young teacher who is so cute from Charlotte, North Carolina, and I are going to Rideau Hall, the place where the governor lives. There are free tours every hour of the place. Actually, on Canada Day, all the busses run free of charge and noone pays to enter the museums. That's great! I don't think we have anything like that in the states.
It has really been a fun adventure. I don't know if I will be able to write again because we leave for Quebec City tomorrow and that hotel does not have internet. These Suites we are staying in here are the nicest place I have ever stayed. We are right downtown and we all have our own kitchen and private bedrooms. There is an indoor pool on the 5th floor with a huge window that you can look out and see the city while you swim. Isn't traveling the life? I love for vacations!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Cultural Differences
This trip is finishing quickly! I can't believe how fast time is flying! Last night we pulled into Middlebury, Vermont. It is a quaint college town. Too bad it was raining--it became hard to see all of it. Everything is beautiful and green with tons of flowers and small shops. My roommate likes to eat all three meals at restaurants. I get sick of restaurants all day (our trip has been called Le Voyage Gastronomique), so I had some snacks from the grocery store for dinner.
Thursday night, we had reservations at a restaurant famous for all types of beer in Montreal called Forquet Fourchette. Most of the teachers ordered different varieties of beer and wines. When the waiter got to the Belgian lady next to me, she asked for water. He then came to me and I also asked for water. He got so frustrated and started yelling, "I can't give everybody water!! You guys come in here, taking up 20 seats and order water!!!" I thought it was weird that he had such a tantrum because we were the only people in the whole restaurant. At least we were giving him some business. The Belgian lady and I said we would pay for mineral water. He nodded, still upset and went on to the next person. Needless to say, I've had better service in my life.
The next night, we had reservations at a different Forquet Fourchette restaurant just outside of Montreal. I was not looking forward to it. This time we were going for dinner and not just drinks. The University of Maine was paying for this dinner. I read the menu and was not looking forward to the choices: pheasant wing, pork sausages or another big cut of meat. The lady who manages the restaurant walked by to make sure all was okay. The teacher next to me from Florida said she was vegetarian and would like the salad bar. The manager lady nodded. Then when I said I would also like to order vegetarian, she frowned, "I can't offer the salad bar to the whole group!!!" I think my mistake is being second. Anyway, she finally agreed to make us a vegetarian plate and I was glad I was the squeaky wheel once all the other people were served their hunks of meat. These servers are just like the French servers. You'd think they aren't working for their tip, but in Canada we pay a tip on top of the bill.
Well, now that I am calmed down from those experiences, sadly, we are leaving Vermont today. We got to see the lighthouse dedicated to Samuel de Champlain. He named the Champlain Lake after himself when we came into what is now New York in 1609. He made over 20 trips to New France and back to France again. He never had his picture painted, so it is up to us to guess what he looked like. We don't even know the exact date of his birth. Some people have suggested he could have been several different men because who could survive so many harsh winters and disease and live to be such an old age? Plus, nooon has found his tomb. It is a mystery.
Today we travel back to Canada. We will be in Ottowa until Wednesday morning and then we will go back to Quebec on July 2nd. On the 3rd is the huge party to celebrate the founding of that city 400 years ago!!
Thursday night, we had reservations at a restaurant famous for all types of beer in Montreal called Forquet Fourchette. Most of the teachers ordered different varieties of beer and wines. When the waiter got to the Belgian lady next to me, she asked for water. He then came to me and I also asked for water. He got so frustrated and started yelling, "I can't give everybody water!! You guys come in here, taking up 20 seats and order water!!!" I thought it was weird that he had such a tantrum because we were the only people in the whole restaurant. At least we were giving him some business. The Belgian lady and I said we would pay for mineral water. He nodded, still upset and went on to the next person. Needless to say, I've had better service in my life.
The next night, we had reservations at a different Forquet Fourchette restaurant just outside of Montreal. I was not looking forward to it. This time we were going for dinner and not just drinks. The University of Maine was paying for this dinner. I read the menu and was not looking forward to the choices: pheasant wing, pork sausages or another big cut of meat. The lady who manages the restaurant walked by to make sure all was okay. The teacher next to me from Florida said she was vegetarian and would like the salad bar. The manager lady nodded. Then when I said I would also like to order vegetarian, she frowned, "I can't offer the salad bar to the whole group!!!" I think my mistake is being second. Anyway, she finally agreed to make us a vegetarian plate and I was glad I was the squeaky wheel once all the other people were served their hunks of meat. These servers are just like the French servers. You'd think they aren't working for their tip, but in Canada we pay a tip on top of the bill.
Well, now that I am calmed down from those experiences, sadly, we are leaving Vermont today. We got to see the lighthouse dedicated to Samuel de Champlain. He named the Champlain Lake after himself when we came into what is now New York in 1609. He made over 20 trips to New France and back to France again. He never had his picture painted, so it is up to us to guess what he looked like. We don't even know the exact date of his birth. Some people have suggested he could have been several different men because who could survive so many harsh winters and disease and live to be such an old age? Plus, nooon has found his tomb. It is a mystery.
Today we travel back to Canada. We will be in Ottowa until Wednesday morning and then we will go back to Quebec on July 2nd. On the 3rd is the huge party to celebrate the founding of that city 400 years ago!!
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