You know what kind of letters make you the happiest? The kind that tell you—hey you’re kind of smart.

The Université Laval sent me my marks today. I got an A in CORRECTION PHONETIQUE (Phonetics) and a B- in LANGUE ORALE ET ECRITE (Oral and Written Language). La langue française est très facile.

I’m down to my last two exams before I’m officially done here at Laval and that’s probably a good thing because I need to get home where I can get some rest.

I’ve been keeping busy this last week. On Monday a few hundred students here in the French immersion program took a ride down the St. Lawrence on the Louis-Jolliet. The folks here sure know how to fill up a boat. (photos)

Tuesday night was spent chilling out with my host family and eating, quite possibly, one of the best meals of my life. Definitely top 10 anyway.

Yesterday I had lunch at a Pub in Vieux Québec with my classmates and afterwards I took a bunch of photos of a couple of the girls.

Last night was the Spectaculaire, a talent show with vaudeville style acts. After the show, and the souvenir video, we had some of the best cake I’ve ever eaten followed by an evening of dancing and partying at the campus pub. Not everything was exactly perfect, as was previously alluded to, but on the whole I did have a good time. Oh, and as a splendid little cherry on top I ended up walking home alone in the rain for an hour and got home 3:30 in the morning—nice.

I don’t remember even talking to my roommates this morning at our 7:00 breakfast. I barely remember grabbing a couple slices of bread and washing it down with OJ—oh breakfast of champions. I think they realized I was not in my finest form. Luckily the written test this morning was not too tricky.

Saturday is rapidly approaching and in addition to the fact that I really like it here, I am not overly excited for my trip with Air Canada’s infamous service. If the voyage here will be of any indication then I wouldn’t make any bets on when I’m going to arrive. If you’re reading this in Lethbridge, don’t wait up—I’ll be home when I get there.

In honor of my air travel here is a quote about airports:

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.
-Douglas Adams

I think the same can be said about Air Canada’s service—a kind of carefully refined treatment that can only be achieved with a lot of practise and determination.

This bittersweet ride is almost over. I’ve had the time of my life here—filled with both good and bad experiences. I guess some lessons take a lifetime to learn; I’m definitely still learning.

This morning I was fretting a little because I really wanted to go to the “Parqours Aventure Le Relais” (I think that translate to something like Relay Adventure Park), but I didn’t buy a ticket in advance and I was worried that they would be sold out.

Well as the universe has decided to be on my side lately, I showed up at the University and got the very last spot! Ca va tres bien!

The Parquors Aventure is a series of suspended cables that stretch between the trees (we were told that each one was a separate “game”) and each game is a different level of difficulty. One of the most interesting ones was a kind of snowboard zip line where you jumped onto the board and then zoomed down the line. It’s difficult to explain properly without a photo and since we were doing a lot of climbing, I opted out of bringing my camera with me.

However, some of my friends brought their smaller (more manageable) cameras with them and so I have a few photos of the event (like this one):

Here I look a little wobbly, but it was because I was trying hard to use only my sense of balance and not to grab the “life line” above my head in order to get across. I ended up being able to get across this one without “cheating” but most of the others, I would have fallen if it weren’t for grabbing the line (oh and of course the fact that I was strapped in).

At one point I was getting pretty confident about racing across the lines and one of the wood panels under my feet actually broke. Of course, I had the harness to hold me up, but I still got quite the adrenaline rush.

I’m having such a great time here but I’m heading out in only 7 more days! It’s time to really buckle down and get the most of it with regard to learning French!

When I first arrived in Québec I decided to count all my laps in the pool in French. I’ve gotten pretty good at counting by 25’s but I still make the occasional mistake.

While counting them today, after mixing up how far I had gone, this thought occured to me and made me smile.

There are three kinds of people in this world: Those that can count, and those that can’t.

Bon journey!

There’s only a week and a day left in my short journey to Québec. I knew the days were going to go quickly here, but seriously I can’t believe it’s so close to being over.

For the most part everything has been fantastic. The written exam didn’t go nearly as well as the oral, or phonetics but there will be more tests which will give me ample opportunity to improve. I think my major problem was that since I speak a little more fluently than the others in my class, I felt like I could get by with less studying (well I got by, but it was ugly).

Last night I tried to hook up with some friends, but somehow I forgot where I put the number and I was expecting them to call me anyway. I found out this morning that there WAS a message for me last night - but “we must not have heard the phone ring because we were talking to loudly at dinner”. Ok? That doesn’t seem just a little odd? Anyway it was no big deal, but I did check out the Salsa dancing place, Chez Morrice, just in case. Lot’s of dancing, little (or rather “no”) people that I knew.

Tonight I will be hooking up with the friends though. We are going for a picnic at the Plains of Abraham followed by a FREE jazz concert. Certainly Québec is more fun than any place I have ever lived before. The festivals just keep coming one after the other!

Each day I’m notice myself becoming better and better at French. At school we are supposed to only speak French and while I’m no where near 100% fluent, I am becoming quite good at basic conversations.

Last night they held a “Casino Soirée” at the University. On my way over there a little old lady on the Street asked me for directions. I explained that I only spoke a little French but nonetheless she asked again, more slowly this time, if I could give her some directions. Amazingly enough, I not only knew the area well enough to explain it to her, I even did it completely in French. I must have gotten some good karma from it, because just moments later the bus arrived and I didn’t have to walk to the other bus stop as per my plan.

The Casino was such a blast! Even though we weren’t playing for money, I had a fantastic time. They had lots of Black Jack tables a roulette wheel and some other games of chance. I found it a little hard going at first, but then I discovered one of the dealers was giving out 20,000$ chips for only 10,000$ (She thought the blue ones were only worth $10,000). One sneaky exchange with her got me back into the game enough that I could feel comfortable that I wouldn’t end up losing all my chips early in the night, but she figured it out almost immediately after I made the change. One lucky guy had been cashing into blue chips all night before he or she knew of the error.

However, the real luck came when I discovered one of the tables where the dealer had NO CLUE WHATSOEVER how to play Black Jack. There was one time that she had 20 points and took another card. I guess she was hoping for an ace. It was pretty much the case that so long as never busted I won every hand. After awhile someone explained to her that as the dealer she only draws more cards until she has 16 or more—still it was fun while it lasted.

We ended the night with a little dancing and partying even though I should have been home a few hours earlier working on my homework. Learning French can be fun but doing activities in French is way more fun!

I can’t say enough how awesome the My Explore bursary program has been. If you are a Canadian student (within the last year) with even the remotest interest in learning French, I highly recommend the program.

Interprété par Jean Leloup

I lost my baby
I lost my darling
I lost my friends
I lost my mind

Pour une fille d’Ottawa
Grandie à Ste-Foy
D’un père militaire
Et d’une belle fille qui fut sa mère
Qui écoutait du country

Entre deux caisses de bière
Et partait le samedi
Pour un lac de Hawkesbury
Rejoindre la grand-mère

And all the family…
And all the family…

Ah je ne peux vivre sans toi
Et je ne peux vivre avec toi
Mais tu peux très bien vivre sans moi
Je suis foutu dans les deux cas

I lost my baby
I lost my darling
I lost my friends
I lost my mind

Coup de fil de Jaimi
Qui un jour tomba
Pour une fille d’Ottawa
Grandie je ne sais pas
D’un père pilote de l’air
Et d’une mère je ne sais quoi
Tous deux aimaient le cinéma

Nous sommes habitants de la Terre
Il y a des milliers de frontières
Quelqu’un existe dans l’univers
Pour quelqu’un d’autre et c’est la guerre

I lost my baby
I lost my darling
I lost my friends
I lost my mind

Pour une fille d’Ottawa
Grandie à Ste-Foy
Et qui un jour tomba
Pour un chanteur populaire

Grandi en Algérie assez fucké merci
Et qui lui dit adieu je repars faire ma vie
À Hawkesbury

I lost my baby
I lost my darling
I lost my friends
I lost my mind

Last week I went on a tour of Le Soleil newspaper headquarters here in Québec city. At the end of the tour, our guide asked us to write a little bit about what we are doing in Québec and to send a photo for their online version of the paper. I sent the following (I hope people can understand it because some of it I had help with and some I did not!):

Je m’appelle Jeff Milner. Je viens de Lethbridge, Alberta. Je viens juste de terminer mon bac à l’Université de Lethbridge en Nouvelle Media en avril.

Je suis venu ici pour apprendre le français, parce que je trouve la culture et histoire québecoise intéressante. J’ai reçu une bourse du gouvernement du Canada. Je suis en le cours Français “Elémentaire A”.

J’aime Québec beaucoup. Mes lieux preferés à Québec sont Vieux-Québec et les Plaines d’Abraham.

J’ai hate de revenir.

The photo was taken at the Plains of Abraham after a demonstration of historic battle formations and musket firing.

Update: Les photos publiées! (Click on the smaller photos to the right to see our individual photos and paragraphs).

Last Friday I saw “Live” at the Festival d’été de Québec and tonight I’m going out to see Hot Hot Heat (official site|myspace). I’ve never heard of Hot Hot Heat, but listening to their music on the net, it appears I’m in for a great show tonight.

So another little family update: currently I’m still loving life in Québec. My parents have survived some of the most intense tension in Israel recent years and are now headed home. My brother and his wife will be arriving back in Canada later today after spending a year in Australia and my sister is still taking beautiful photos of her (mischievious) kids. I can’t wait to chat with them all about each of our adventures.

My brother and his wife climbed Mt. Fuji - (photo). My parents left a city in northern Israel that was bombed later that day by militants in Lebanon - (more info.) As for me, I’m loving Québec. I played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday. Tonight I will see the band, “Live”!

Québec is like a foreign country where they still take your Canadian change.

I have been having the most wonderful time over the past week. My comprehension of French has been growing at an amazing rate and I’m meeting a ton of wonderful new people.

On Tuesday we watched a French film called, L’auberge espagnole. Fantastic story about a guy from France who decides to live in Spain for a while in an effort to improve his Spanish so he can advance in his career. He leaves his girlfriend behind but makes some new friends along the way and has some very interesting problems to overcome. It’s a cute movie and though I didn’t always follow the dialogue completely, I really enjoyed the story. I recommend it.

Wednesday evening, we hit up the Beach volleyball and partook in hotdogs and coleslaw. Though I’m not usually much of a fan of hotdogs, these ones were smothered in fried onions, ketchup, relish and mayonaise—wow! They were extremly good.

The highlight so far, however, has to have been the trip to La cabane à sucre : la cabane à Pierre. La cabane à sucre translates to The Sugar Shack. Sugar Shacks are where they make the maple syrup for which Canada is world renowned. It’s made mostly in the winter months, so our tour of la cabane à sucre didn’t include watching them actually creating maple syrup, but we did see where they did it (and some of those that knew french better than I found out how). I think it’s basically they boil it in big vats until it’s ready (The Wikipedia entry on maple syrup is a lot more clear)

You’ll notice from the photo the odd shape of the building, that’s because the whole roof is actually a kind of chimney for all the gases evoporating from the boiling maple sap.

The dinner provided at la cabane à Pierre was absolutely fantastic (can you guess what cabane à Pierre is?) I ate like a French king and loved every minute of it. Potatoes, ham, beans, bread, meat pie, pancakes, and more all drenched in the world’s best syrup (yes Maple!). Pierre himself even showed up and we danced the night away.

For dessert they gave us (I forget the actual name) it’s maple syrup poured over ice and wrapped around a stick like a popsicle. So much fun and so tasty.

I know I just got here, but I already know I’m not going to want to leave in only 4 more weeks.

My red eye flight with Air Canada was, as is no surprise to any of you that have flown with Air Canada, delayed. I missed my connecting flight but caught the very next one (though my bags did not). Anyway, enough complaining about Government funded private ventures that are bound to fail…

Québec has been more wonderful than I could ever have imagined. My host, Danny, is a fantastic cook and continues to surprise us with delicious recipes at every meal.

July 1st is known in Québec as the moving day. People take it seriously and actually do move on Canada Day - there is probably some deep symbolism behind their choice of days - but I prefer not to think about it. My host, Danny, is also in the process of moving, so while he worked to get things transferred to his new apartment, I went for a walk in the old city of Québec.

The old city or Vieux-Québec is located beside the St. Lawrence river. The smaller width of the river as it enters the towns of Quebec and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city, Kébec being the Algonquin word meaning “where the river narrows”. It doesn’t appear very narrow to me, but I guess it’s a relative thing.

Walking through the old city makes me feel like I’ve travelled back in time. Founded almost 400 years ago (1608), the old buildings and French architecture have a magic way of connecting me with my Canadian heritage. I spent the day walking around taking a plethora of photographs.

That evening my new roommate and I walked down to The Plains of Abraham and enjoyed a free concert followed by Canada Day fireworks. As a note of potential interest I learned that the Plains of Abraham is the largest urban park in Canada, and repeating this fact at the Welcome Party last night won me a nice red University of Laval t-shirt.

On Sunday Danny took us to see La Chute Montmorency (Montmorency Falls). They were named in 1613 by Samuel de Champlain in honour of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, viceroy of New France. (That area of Canada used to be called New France).

It’s been too long since I’ve been around anything so breathtaking. There is a lot of water moving out into the St. Lawrence over the falls and I had a good time watching the hypnotic motion of the water falling so far down. Apparently early explorers were excited to have found such an abundant supply of fresh water so near the St. Lawrence River.

I’ve started my month long French immersion and I’m loving it! Of course I’m just at the elementary level, but I’m thrilled to have actual conversations with people in French. It’s a lot less stressful when you know the other person is just a nervous about their French as you are with yours.

Oh, and one last thing, the University pool is fantastique.

I’m about to embark on the My Explore programme, a month long French Immersion class at the University of Laval (or en français de l’Université Laval). Posting may be sporadic throughout July or then again, maybe I’ll find that I have a lot of both interesting experiences to write about and time to write about them.

Au revoir, I’m off to Quebec.

I’m counting the days before I head off to Quebec City for the five weeks of intensive courses in French as a foreign language. I’m extremely excited and have been hitting the Speak and Read Essential French MP3’s extra hard lately.

I’ve also been reading up on the 1759 Battle for Québec. I find early Canadian history so rich with action and excitement, I love to read all about it! We’ve got our fair share of stories that would make brilliant blockbuster movies, allow me to share this one and let me know what you think.

The odds were stacked against New France. The British outnumbered the French three to one in ships, four to one in troops, and the Brits had a ten to one advantage in money.

I’ve been checking out Google maps to try and figure out where the attack must have happened. As the story goes, the British sailed down the St. Lawrence with more than 140 ships (one full quarter of the British Navy) and were spread over a distance of 50 miles. James Wolfe, the English General, had also in his command over 13,500 men—9,000 of whom were from the best units in Britain.

It was the best trained and equipped army North America had seen, supported by the biggest and best fleet.
-popular historian Gordon Donaldson

However, conquering Québec City, “the Gibraltar of the New World” was not an easy task, and Wolfe soon discovered that despite his huge advantage there wasn’t really any way to get beyond the city’s fortified walls. Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, the French general, was misinformed by native-born Canadien and governor Pierre de Vaudreuil’s engineers that the English cannons did not have the range to reach them over the huge St. Lawrence River, and so didn’t reinforce the southern shore. In this they made a grave mistake.

Determined that he would wear the French down by sheer persistence, Wolfe ordered his cannons to pound the city for months killing civilians and destroying homes by the score. The prolonged destruction served no real military purpose other than to terrorize and demoralize the city’s inhabitants.

Summer turned to autumn and still Wolfe had not taken the fortified city. Time was beginning to run out for Wolfe, and he began to worry how he would explain to England why the attack was taking so long. He decided to try a new strategy.

Earlier, [Wolfe] had spotted a break in the cliffs west of the city, at a cove called l’Anse-au-Foulon. If [he] could somehow land his men undetected and then scale the cliffs, he might be able to put his army on the plains behind the city and draw Montcalm out into the open . . . and so it was, on a moonless night in mid-September, that a flotilla of 30 flat-bottomed boats slipped silently downriver with the tide.

On September 13, 1759, after bluffing their way past a French Sentry, an advance guard climbed the narrow trail and overpowered the French post at the top. The rest of the troops followed soon after pulling themselves onto the Plains of Abraham and by daybreak more than 4,500 English troops assembled on the far side of the City.

The surprise was complete. General Montcalm had been convinced that the final attack, if it came, would be on the other side of the city at the Beauport shore. When an aide suggested that the British might try to climb the cliffs, Montcalm had snorted with derision. “We do not need to imagine that the enemy has wings,” he wrote in his journal, “so that in one night they can cross the river, disembark, and climb the obstructed cliffs.” But now, they had done just that. As he hurried to assemble his troops, Montcalm looked out at the redcoats that were lining up behind the city, and complained, “They have no right to be there.”

Wolfe had managed to drag up only two light cannons. Montcalm decided that time was of the essence and that the British had to be attacked immediately, before they could dig in and strengthen their position. For the first time since the British arrived, Montcalm acted impulsively. He had 3,000 reinforcements somewhere behind the British lines—a message had been sent and they were on their way—but he didn’t wait for them to arrive. Instead, Montcalm gathered the troops he had on hand and threw open the city gates . . .

The battle lasted only 15 minutes. The British had formed a “thin red line,” two men deep, and the French advanced in a ragged charge, the regulars and the Canadiens stumbling over each other. Native snipers were picking off British soldiers from nearby woods, but Wolfe stood his ground. Then, when the French were only 30 paces away, the order was given. The redcoats raised their muskets and fired, one platoon after the next in rolling thunder across the Plains. Smoke filled the battlefield. The British re-loaded and advanced, emerging from the smoke like ghosts. They fired a second volley, and that was all it took. The French broke and ran.

Both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed due to injuries suffered in the battle, Wolfe on the Plains and Montcalm within the city walls. The two sides had each taken roughly the same number of losses, 650 each, and the British hadn’t really won anything of consequence, it was just a field, and in fact not a particularly safe one, but all the same the French were rattled.

The British had won a field. That was it. If anything, they were in a dangerously exposed position. Québec fell not because the British won, but because the French lost their nerve. Vaudreuil panicked and fled with his troops along a side road. Five days later, the city’s bewildered commander (who had been left behind without any clear instructions) surrendered the city. The Canadiens hadn’t been conquered by the British: they had been abandoned by France.