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 extremely 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 four more weeks.