Hostel.

On Friday, Explore Session Printemps 2008 officially ended. We had a grand spectacle (yes, it's the same word en français) and a big fête, where we danced our little hearts out. Around 11pm we had a countdown to when we were officially allowed to speak in English -- and even with the animateurs, which was super drôle in some cases.
Yesterday morning my Chicouti-mère dropped me off at the bus terminal and I (along with a bus-load of other Explorers) were herded to Quebec City to go on our ways home. I planned ahead of time to stay in Quebec City for a bit with a girl from my class at L'Auberge de la Paix. a youth hostel right in Vieux Quebec. This being my first time staying in a hostel, I was pretty nervous, but so far it's been alright. My only complaint is that the bathrooms are extremely cramped and the faint smell of urine is slightly reminiscent of toilets in China. It turns out there are a few other Explorers here as well, which is a pleasant surprise.
Unfortunately it started to rain since yesterday and it doesn't look like there's an end in sight. I really want to go to the art museum today and see La Louvre à Québec...
But as it is, I'll just bide my time here in the hostel until I work up enough determination to brave the pluie, with my free coffee and anthology of French-Canadian poetry (pretending to be cultured), listening to the random guy playing guitar.

Days left in Quebec: 4

Le Québec me fait mal.

Just à-peu-près 8 more days until I go back home. It's sort of bittersweet to think that; I've been in Quebec for 33 days and counting, but it hasn't been very good for me.

1. During my first week in Chicoutimi, I started out with a small rash-like thing on my right wrist. I later got painful/itchy bumps on my feet and ankles, bilaterally. Then it appeared on my knees and the lateral sides of my thighs. It would be super itchy, and then hurt like mad when I scratched!
I saw the nurse at school (the most flightly person ever; I was so nervous) and she diagnosed an urticaire - hives. She gave me Benadryl and calamine and cream, and over the course of about a week, the skin symptoms subsided. She said the most likely cause was food-related and she advised me to cut eggs out of my diet, but I have since decided that the most likely culprit is the beurre d'arachides that I started eating on a daily basis since my arrival in Chicoutimi. Boo! I don't want to be a peanut kid!!

2. The mosquitos here can't get enough of me. I guess it's not necessarily detrimental to one's health to be bitten by mosquitos, unless it spreads disease, but it's insanely annoying. And they hurt too! While rock climbing, it was important not to let go of the ropes to swat mosquitoes, so it was like a feeding frenzy. At Tadoussac I also got eaten alive by the little moustiques, mostly on my head. I even found a little red welt right in the strip of scalp where my hair is parted. Bite count: 10.

3. I got some weird cold the weekend before last, that still hasn't really gone away. I've felt fine for several days now and I was always able to taste all my food (thank goodness) but my voice still sounds slightly like a man's.

4. I am eating way too much ice cream and pie here. A couple of my t-shirts are feeling more snug than usual. I went shopping at Smart Set today and I no longer fit into the size I used to. Their fault or mine?

So while it will be sad to leave Chicoutimi, I think it will be best for my health.

Our culture.

I chose to participate in the Explore program this summer to learn and improve my French. Here at L'École de Langue et de Culture Québécoise at UQAC, I am getting more than I bargained for, since we're also taught about the Quebecois culture. All it means is that they expose us to things we'd never otherwise know about.
Par exemple...We spent a couple afternoons learning traditional dances and listening to Quebecois music. There were two movie nights where they showed Quebecois films. I watched La Grande Séduction (★★★☆) and Gaz Bar Blues (★☆☆☆).
We were also required to do a project and presentation about something Quebecois in our classes. Some subjects covered by my classmates include Quebecois cinema, (contemporary) music, legends/fairy tales, le Cirque du Soleil (which was founded in Montreal), and the motto "Je me souviens". My topic was Le Rocket, Maurice Richard.
My prof will even sometimes deviate from teaching French grammar in class to explain Quebecois expressions and the way that people here talk, because he knows it's confusing and frustrating to spend all this time learning French and then going into the streets and hearing people speaking something totally different.
But grace à L'École de Langue, I've been able to appreciate that there's a history and richness to Quebec and to the Saguenay that is completely different from the diversity and multiculturalism that is characteristic of Toronto.

Quelques choses typiques de la région Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean:
☼ la tourtière - a slow-cooked deep-dish meat pie made with potatoes
☼ la tarte à sucre - sugar pie
☼ blueberry beer - la bière aux bluets
☼ fair-trade products - le cafe et le chocolat équitable. the place to be here is cafe cambio... en francais ici
☼ rocking chairs - des chaises berçantes
☼ outdoor activities - les activités en plein-air
☼ maple syrup - le sirop d'érable

Chicouti-key.

We have a system here in my Chicouti-home. We live in a bungalow with the back area converted into a hair salon where my mère d'accueil, Mado, works out of. My Chicouti-soeur and I only ever need to enter or leave by the front door. If Mado is home, the door is always left unlocked. But if she goes out, she leaves a key in the mailbox. The key is attached to a long shoelace, which she leaves half-hanging out.

I have no problem with this system. It means I don't have to worry about losing keys, and it communicates very clearly whether Mado's home or not. When we were newly introduced to it, I just made a mental note that it'd probably be really bad if the shoelace ever fell into the mailbox. But not to worry, I told myself, I'm sure that'll never happen.

Just past the midpoint of the program, last Friday night was the night of the "Soirée Québécoise" at school. I usually dread themed events, but I have to say that the whole thing was pretty cute and altogether enjoyable: we got dressed up in whatever "Quebecois" sort of getup we could find - usually just involving aprons, scarves, long dresses, or anything plaid; and then we were split up into families - Tremblay, Simard, Gagnon, or Bouchard - and spent the night dancing (traditional Quebecois dance, of course) and competing against each other in fun little games that the animateurs had planned.

Anyway after the soirée, I was pretty tired. I hopped in the minibus that would take me home (which was driven by the super hot animateur!!!). For some reason, everyone else in the minibus was not tired and hence would not stop talking. So by the time I got off at my stop, I was more than ready to hop into bed. I lifted the lid of the mailbox to retrieve the key and, as my luck would have it, the shoelace fell into the mailbox.

Now I don't know why people need to have such deep mailboxes. As far as I'm concerned, they need only be as high as the width of an envelope. But as it was, I couldn't reach the bottom of the mailbox where the key was now sitting. The box was securely fastened to the house, so I couldn't take it down, and it was too late to ring the doorbell and wake Mado.
In the end I broke a branch off of the tree on the lawn and managed to fish the shoelace out. I rarely mind being so little, but this was one instance in which it just really sucked.