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...