WOHOO!!!! HOME IN 1 SLEEP!!!!

My week-long stay in Kingston will be coming to an end as of 5:50pm tomorrow!! The house-hunt was less than pleasant, but after seeing 10 houses over a span of 2 days, I found one that I like and have just signed the lease for it!! It's a cute little house 10 mins walk from campus, sharing with 4 other students. I moved some stuff in today, and should be all set to go for September!! =) In case any of you have friends who want to look for housing in Kingston, I think I've got it pretty well figured out, so you're welcome to send them my way.

Kind of related, if you need a hostel in Kingston for whatever reason, the place I'm staying at is actually fairly decent – it's called Skweek House. The house is pretty nice, it's run by a lady who lives in the building. The price is reasonable, $20 per night (beats $45 per night at Queen's Residence) – word of advice, get a room on the main floor (Unit 2). She lives here with 3 cats and a dog on the top floor, air circulates best on the main floor is all I have to say.

After spending a week in Kingston, I think the town and I should get along just fine – it's small (but then again, I've never lived any place smaller than Ottawa...) but it's pretty, lots of nice walks along the water, everything I need is within walking distance, and the campus is really pretty. I'm going to have to get used to a few things – i.e. a lot of restaurants downtown close by 730, which to me seem like prime dinner hour – but I'm definitely looking forward to starting my program here in the fall =) There's also advantages to living in a smaller city – I went to the mall yesterday and actually found things my size DURING A SALE!! You know how hard that is to do in Vancouver?? If I don't happen to be there on day 1, it's all gone!!

Next post I write shall be in Vancouver! YAY!! HOME AT LAST!!!!

On the Road Again – Aug 8th, 2009

Well, 5 weeks of French immersion has come to an end – it's a little sad, but I think I'm ready for something/someplace new. I'm typing this as I take the train from Quebec to Kingston, where I'll be staying for a week in a hostel while I look for a place for September. I think I got most of what I wanted from the program – all I really wanted was to be able to speak and have actual conversations in French, and I think I've done at least that in the time that I've been here. Living in home-stay was a good idea, at first I was concerned that I'd be a little old for this, but the arrangement was really what made this a really valuable experience for me. I had tons of opportunity to practice the language outside of class, and outside of the usual short conversations you'd get from shopping or asking for directions on the bus (not that I didn't also find those super useful), I actually have full on conversations with these people on anything from what I did that day, to Chinese history/culture/traditions (it's been a while since I've been at a place where I'm a novelty...) and Canada/Quebec politics. It was really interesting to hear what people here have to say about their province and what they think of their history, what they think of the rest of Canada, what they thought of their image outside Quebec – and how worked up they get about the Duplessis era.

I can't wait to come home though – I was really hoping to spend more time in Vancouver before I start school again, but my time in Quebec was definitely worth the little detour. I'll be home on August 15^th (JJJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so excited to be sleeping in my own bed once more. Not to mention home-cooked meals. I feel like I've mention home-cooked meals at least once a day ever since I got here (likely due to the lack of kitchen access in my home-stay – which I also mention at least 2 or 3 times a week). Oh, and Chinese food. Somebody please take me out to sushi and dim sum when I come home – I'm going into serious withdrawal here...

Aside: as I'm writing this, the little girl sitting behind me had her stuff animals date, kiss, and marry each other all w/in 30 seconds – and has been on a cycle of doing this for the past 5 minutes (so yes, the fur balls have been married like 6 times in a row). I don't know if I should be amused at what she's doing, be impressed at the little ditty she's managed to come up with to mark the occasion, or be annoyed at her singing...

Blur... – August 2, 2009

Yup, that's what the last week has been.... one big blur! Since my last entry, I've zip-lined and swung from the trees like Tarzan, seen Les Miserable in French (AMAZING – this is the first time I've seen the musical, and I'm super happy that I was able to watch it in the language it was originally written in), went on a cruise on the St Lawrence (hilarious night), watched 400 yrs of QC history flash by on a row of grain silos (Moulins à Image – they have a new show every summer, definitely worth a look), visited old battlefields at Montmorency Falls and the Plains of Abraham (where I read some really smug sounding historical narrations both in English and French – it's fun reading the blurbs, b/c if you read the English and French versions of the same text, depending on which side was victorious, one version might downplay the importance of the event – at the Montmorency Falls, I saw this blurb – "the British withdrew leaving over 400 dead, missing or wounded. On Sept 13, Wolf found a better way to take the City of Quebec" – which to me, reading between the lines, that's essentially "The French may have won the battle, but we the English won the war", I could almost hear the "Ha! In your face!"), went wine tasting in the countryside on Ile d'Orléan (where I had 5 different things of booze before lunch), explored pretty much every corner of Old Town and its surrounding areas, and of course tried more new restaurants and cafes.

In general, restaurants in Old Quebec have yet to fail me, but in terms of a nice area to spend a day, I've decided that I much prefer Basse-Ville (Lower Town) and the areas along the St Lawrence to the more popular tourist destination of Haute-Ville (Upper Town – where the Chateau Frontenac is) – other than having fewer tourists as you move west along the St Lawrence (fewer people have the time or will to walk down the staircases), there is just more variety in stores and restaurants, a more comfortable and relaxing atmosphere, and more interesting things to see and do closer to the docks. I'm a huge fan of the artisan stores in Petit Champlain, particularly the glasswork galleries – there's always nice stuff at Transperance (a glasswork store) but the best stuff I think is in the one in Petit Champlain.

Quartier St Roch is also a nice area to go to – tons of used bookstores, cafes, and restaurants –my favourite street is probably still Rue St Joseph, especially the stretch west of Chemin (?) de la Couronne. There's a nifty little coffee house across from the public library that serves really good dessert, tea (Mighty Leaf!!), and specialty coffee. Good restaurants – I tried a Moroccan tarjine for the first time there, it's essentially a meat dish which was prepared in a ceramic cone shaped container – I had lamb stewed in prunes and apricot – it was marvellous stuff. The St Roch Basilica, on east side of that street, can be worth a visit, though nothing about this church really stands out to me, other than the fact that in the wall space high above the tabernacle are 4 or 5 giant stone statues which have been dressed up as nuns and priests – I found them kind of creepy...

I finally went to the Plains of Abraham today – it's now an enormous park stretching along Grand Allée (aka night club district) all the way to the Citadels in the city walls, a popular and relaxing place to spend a nice sunny afternoon. Though there is no museum on site on the Battle itself, there are monuments and watch towers scattered throughout the park to commemorate the battle (or the Conquest as the Quebecois call it). Walking on the Plains, all I could think of was how difficult it must've been to fight on that terrain – you'd think a plain would just be a long flat stretch of land, but the Plains of Abraham is actually incredibly hilly and slopes fairly steeply towards the water. I only had a small purse with me – I can't imagine going up that hill w/ gear and ammo on my back.

And now.... to bed – must not tired myself out before the week is over!