Author: Jeff Milner

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. Definately top 10 anyway.

Yesterday I had lunch at a Pub in Vieux Quebec 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 practice 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 for 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!

There’s only a week and a day left in my short journey to Quebec. 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 Quebec is more fun than any place I have ever lived before. The festivals just keep coming one after the other!