"This Marshmellow's On Fire...."

Hey everyone! This post will be a combination of Tuesday night's soiree feu (bonfire) and today's camp du jour outing. Let's get to it! :)

Tuesday night was amazing, and unfortunately it will be the last time that the seven of us as a Surrey group will see each other, because as this weekend is Family Day weekend, we will all be doing different things with our  host families. The next time we see each other will be next Wednesday during our croisiere (cruise) with most of the other YMCA groups that we spent the summer with, Friday for our fete de depart (going away party... </3) and then four full days of train through Canada.

But back to less depressing matters...

The seven of us went to Janie's parents' house to have a bonfire and to chill and unwind. Spencer brought the guitar, so coming soon, you might find us on Youtube. Or not. But we got to roast marshmallows and sausages and just have a good time with each other.  Check out some of the pictures!

my gorgeous ladies, Fiona (L) and Helen

Patrick selfies...

LOL

I love this YMCA family <3

 

........................................................................................................................................

 

Today at camp everyone of every age group was going on a bike trip. As I was with the older group, 9-12, we went out to Joliette to a public pool. Our trip took us through St. Paul (coincidentally we passed by the Camp du Jour at St. Paul where Spencer works), passed through a bridge over riviere l'Assomption (the Assumption River) and biked through Joliette. In total, going and returning, we biked about 25 km. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along to take pictures of some of the amazing scenery that we passed. It was a long day with really hot weather but it was totally worth it - I saw a lot of new things that I probably wouldn't have been able to see alone.

 

 

It's been a great trip, and I'm sad to say that it is coming to an end very soon. I don't want to see it end, and I feel like this trip has gone by so fast. I've met new friends, tried new things and learned different things about the Quebecois culture.

 

Alright, let's get some music going. I think this song pretty much describes our trip, and my coworker was blasting it today while we were biking: "Good Time" by Owl City ft. Carly Rae Jepsen.

 



 

a bientot,

 

Rachel

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La Ronde!

Saturday was a long, 12+ hour day BUT amazing and super fun, even for someone like me who isn't a big fan of huge rollercoasters! As part of the Six Flags franchise, La Ronde definitely did not disappoint. We got to see groups from all over the country and met many new people as well as met up with old friends.

I would have to say that the favourite for me of the day was Splash, although it is absolutely true that if you stand on the observation bridge you will get more soaked than if you were on the ride. We all experienced that! The Ferris Wheel gave you a really nice view of the man made island that La Ronde sits on, which was breathtaking. To be honest, I did a lot of the milder rides. The most exciting thing I did was my camp namesake, Dragon. It was Restaurant O.Noir all over again, but.. meh.

The highlight was definitely the feu d'artifices (fireworks)! This contest that is held in La Ronde features many countries and is the largest contest of its kind in the world, which was quite impressive! Canada was putting its fireworks magic to the test last night and was a big hit!

 

I loved spending time with my friends, trying the different rides and just taking in all the scenery and Quebec-ness that was all around me. It was an amazing day and I had the best company to pass it with :)

 

I have a video for you, but I will have to post that later for you guys. I'm sure you will all enjoy it :) In the meantime, we are thisclose to having to leave Quebec! </3

 

 

I hope that I'm going out later for the remainder of the weekend... fingers crossed! This is how we live it up in Quebec !

 

a prochain,

 

Rachel

 



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An Interesting Eating Experience

Ce soir j'avais un experience tellement interessant... to celebrate the beginning of the weekend, the Surrey/Terrebonne Est group went to Restaurant O.Noir in Montreal for dinner with Janie, our coordinator and Vanessa, the regional coordinator. As you may know, noir means "black" in French. What was our challenge tonight?

Try eating dinner in nothing but pitch black all around.

Upon arrival we were given menus to order our meals and told to turn all electronic devices off that would emit light, and then we were walking into the main dining area, conga-line style with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. All you can hear is the sound of people talking and silverware clanging against plates, but other than that, you see absolutely nothing.

We had bread (try spreading butter on bread in the dark!) and then our meals came shortly afterwards, ranging from selections of filet mignon, ribs, shrimp, lamb... I personally had the filet mignon that had peppers and potato wedges. If only I saw what it looked like...but it tasted amazing! I was also very thankful that the people in the kitchen cut up the steak into smaller pieces. Dessert was soon to follow: blueberry cream cake pour moi... c'etait tres delicieux!

Eating in the dark was not only an interesting and fun experience, but also an "eye-opening" one. All the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant are legally blind, and this experience showed me how I take the sense of sight for granted. It really is difficult to eat in a pitch black environment.. after a while I gave up with the utensils and used my hands!

I would like to thank the YMCA for paying for such an incredible meal and experience.. one day I hope to come back and do it again! Also a shout out to all the cool people at Restaurant O.Noir: what you do is awesome! Great food, amazing experience :)

welcome to O.Noir!

here we go!

 

 

So it's been such a long time since I last posted it seems, and I can't believe that we are so close to this trip coming to an end. I'm quite sad to go; I feel like there is a lot of places that I haven't been to yet. Oh well, at least its Montreal and Quebec. I'm definitely coming back again a l'avenir (in the future). 

 

The song for tonight was one that Vanessa had introduced me to... I had heard it back home, but never the French version, so here it is: "Alone Again (Encore Seule)" by Alyssa Reid ft. Dice B.

 

Bonne weekend !

Rachel

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Rafting, Shopping, Volunteering and Jamming

Bonne weekend! I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Saturday was really, really incredible as we went rafting in the Lachine Rapids in Montreal. It is quite deceiving because at first glance it is a calm river, one that you would never have imagined that people go rafting in!

After getting suited up and having a brief safety lesson/figuring out what various commands are (that would save our lives!), we began rowing out. It was interesting to see "boils" in the river - holes in the bottom of the river floor that cause the water on the surface to create whirlpools that aren't strong enough to take away anyone's paddle from their hands, but a unique and interesting site to see. The waves were strong and drenched us all from head to toe, leaving our boat thigh high in water! Big John was the name of the last wave, and we were literally getting air time at one point before crashing down onto the water. Needless to say it was quite the experience!

Here we are!

the rafts...

 

After our lunch we drove into Montreal for shopping. I felt really bad dragging boys along to different stores where I browsed to my heart's content. While I bought very little (which I don't know if I should be happy or sad about), it was nice to spend the day with friends in a retail environment! there were a lot of the same stores that we have back home, and it was interesting to go into Garage, which was created in Montreal. The prices are much cheaper here, I have to be honest about that!

 

before shopping!

 

Dinner was at a cafe that sold everything in Vieux-Port (Old Port in Montreal). I had Quebecois style pizza which had mushrooms and of course, bacon. Why I didn't have poutine remained a mystery. I was also impressed that Patrick took a chance and tried escargots au gratin (snails with cheese). According to him, he said that it tasted great. One of these days I suppose I will have to try it. For dessert we went into a Ben and Jerry's ice cream store, and what better way to end the evening but with Chocolate Therapy ice cream :)

 





Sunday morning into the very early afternoon was spent in Mascouche for the marche public (public market) which was your typical farmers' market that sold different local products. I spent the day doing bricolage (arts and crafts) with the little kids - we were making picture frames. It was fun to spend time with adorable little kids who have wild creativity runs in their minds. The market itself was a really cool place, running from June to September every weekend. A shout out to all the vendors that work there tirelessly every weekend as well as the really cool live band that was there playing music right by the bricolage table!

Afterwards since it was so early, Spencer and Nathan came over to spend the afternoon and evening. Spencer and I invented a new card game, "Egyptian Jack" - a mashup of the card games Slapjack and Egyptian Ratscrew. In theory both games are quite similar but they both have different conditions and rules, but who needs that when you can create your own game? That quickly escalated to Water War (thanks to Jimmy Fallon) with water guns, perfect on a hot day :)

And as for jamming? I got a electric keyboard from my host family as well as a guitar to use for my time here to make music, and together we were all playing music and singing random songs. I love music and jamming is the best feeling in the world. I missed it so much!

Well, I wish I had more pictures from this weekend but I really wouldn't have wanted to lose my camera in the rapids. There are more pictures on Facebook if you would like :)

Song, song, song - this was a song that the band right by the arts and crafts station was playing and singing. I remember when I used to be obsessed with Bryan Adams - "Summer of '69"

bonne semaine tout le monde!

Rachel

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Observations & Oddities of Quebec

Hi everyone! I hope that everyone is having a blast so far this summer. It`s so surreal to think that this Saturday will already be halfway through my trip :( The saying is true that all good things must come to an end, I suppose.

Although Quebec is still a Canadian province, I noticed and found out so many different things about it. There are so many quirks and funny things that I am not used to but am slowly accepting and appreciating. As this is only the halfway point I`m sure that I will come up with more as the weeks progress. I will make another installation, but here is what I have so far. Some maybe obvious and maybe you might not care, but here they are:

1. The airport in Montreal is named after Pierre Trudeau, the 15th Prime Minister of Canada who was born in Montreal. He was successful in creating a bilingual Canadian government.

2. The YMCA group that I am with from Surrey lives in a place called Terrebonne; however, I am living in a little town called Crabtree. By car, the trip takes about 40 minutes in good traffic conditions.

3. It is interesting to note that the 7 of us from Surrey all live in different towns that are quite small and spread apart from each other. Most towns are named after saints' names, such as St. Jacques, St. Paul, etc. as well as religious events such as L'Assomption and L'Epiphanie.

4. In each of these towns, there is always a church, and sometimes a school attached to it. This is why there are so many churches present in the area. Depending on how big a town is, there maybe supermarket, depanneurs (corner stores), public parks, and usually there are small community centres or arenas.

5. Many families have smaller houses and very large backyards that have swimming pools for the hot summer months. It seems to me that pools are a must here!

6. After being in a grocery store here in Quebec, it is nice to know that they do sell regular milk here that are in cartons, but most families opt to by ``bagged milk`` which is exactly what it sounds like: milk in a plastic bag.

7. As I write this on a public library computer, I noticed that the keyboard is a tad on the difficult side to use: usually to get certain symbols such as the @ sign on a regular keyboard, you would press shift and then 2, but now I have to got ctrl+alt+2 .... c'est tellement difficile!

8.  I currently work as an animatrice (camp monitor) at a day camp in Crabtree. After doing things like these for four years back home, there really isn't much difference between BC and here except for the fact that our real names are not used, and we have `camp names`. The reason for this is still a mystery to me, but I do have some speculation. My name is Dragon here at the camp, and ssshh, no one knows my real name!

9. Every day at camp the kids go swimming in the pool that is right smack in the arena. All children are required to wear a swimming cap (something I haven't worn in such a long time!) or else they are sidelined for 5 minutes before they can go in. Why this is, I`m not too sure...

10. A lot of the Quebec langauge is slang and Anglophone terms as well as the fact that it's very different from what I learned in school! They even turned the English word ``texting`` into a a French verb. It is conjugated like a regular -ER verb in the French language, which I found tres tres drole.

11. Listening to music on the radio here has been very fun. While there are a handful of Quebecois radio stations, there are some stations that play Top40 hits (in English!) and the DJs all speak French. They even have the Virgin Radio station here!

12. There seems to be a lag in trends and fads here in terms of pop culture. Some of the movies that we have already seen and may already own on DVD come out later here, although there are some major releases that come out the same time as back home. Music wise, everyone here is hooked onto Gangnam Style!

That`s all that I have observed so far.. I will put up another post continuing where I left off.

The other day I heard a song at the Super Aqua Club that Spencer had introduced me to... this one`s for you, buddy :) ``Cruise`` by Florida Georgia Line

a tantot,

Rachel

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Le Weekend a Quebec (les videos boni - partie trois)

I'm so sorry for the delay in the posting of these videos! The first time I posted them it was brought to my attention that the videos weren't actually videos but more like Vines... so I made a video instead. It has everything from this weekend (mostly Saturday) compiled into one. Enjoy!

a plus tard,

Rachel

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Le Weekend a Quebec (dimanche - partie deux)

Salut encore! (hello again!)

Sunday was an early day too, as we woke up at about 7:45 am to get ready for Valcartier, a waterpark similar to Cultus Lake. When you have 50+ girls sharing a two sink, three washroom stall bathroom, it gets catty. Congratulations to the girls that got up at 5 to do everything they needed to do before the rush ensued.

Breakfast was picked out by each of our coordinators (I believe there were five YMCA groups in total: Surrey, Langley and three from Ontario). Janie got us croissants, chocolate croissants and berries <3

We rode the bus to Valcartier for under 5 minutes. The weather was amazing and the cement was hot, but it was an awesome day. There was a huge wave pool (where you could literally drown), many slides that are similar to the ones that we have back home as well as slides that had stories and themes attached to them, similar to how when you wait in line for a ride in Disney World, they pump all this imagery and information into your mind about what is going to happen.

I will admit it here and now that I did chicken out on one slide, Everest. It was pretty vertical the first part of the way down. I walked all the way up with my friends, got my mat on the top and looked over the edge and turned around and walked all the way down, alone. It didn't help that there were young kids running up the stairs in the opposite direction. Oh well, at least everything else was really fun and not as scary. I loved the tube rides, and the ones where there were rapids pushing you along as you reclined in your tube.

Pictures - there are only a couple, because I didn't want to kill my camera halfway through the trip:

 

 

We were in Valcartier from 10-3, and we left Quebec at 4 for an arrival back in Terrebonne at about 7. I then went to Spencer's house to chill for a bit: failing at Rock Band because I never play.

 

So that was the weekend! Vlogs and videos to come in the next post which will be up shortly.

 

My song for you tonight - while us Trenchers were waiting in hopes to catch a glimpse of Marianas Trench, we were all singing a cappella to random MT songs, such as this: "Celebrity Status" by Marianas Trench

 



 

a prochain,

 

Rachel

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Le Weekend a Quebec (samedi - partie une)

Bonjour everyone! Ca va? I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, I know that I certainly did!

Just a couple housekeeping things before I start:

1. I just wanted to say that there will be three posts to this weekend's story to avoid really long posts that are eternal: Saturday, Sunday, and vlogs

2. In case you think I'm being a Captain Obvious, we went to Quebec City which is sometimes referred to as just "Quebec", similar to the way there is New York City within the state of New York.

3. While some photos will have faces in them, for the sake of repeats, most of these pictures will be scenic. All my photos from this weekend (all 100+ as well as the ones from the beginning of the trip!) can be found on my Facebook.

Now we can begin!

Our day began bright and early as we bussed out from Terrebonne to Quebec City. The bus ride was 3 hours and wasn't too bad. I was sitting next to Spencer and he is a fun bus buddy.

Our arrival in Quebec City was perfect timing for lunch. We walked as a group to the Quebec Parliament buildings. They are very majestic with statues of important Quebecois historical figures all over the building. While I didn't get to see the inside, the outside was just as amazing. I found out throughout the day that there were many statues and busts of important figureheads all over the city.

Not all but the main part of the building.. all the darker figures are the statues

In front of the massive fountain! (L-R me, Helen, Fiona, Valerie)

Surrey repping!  (L-R Spencer, Helen, Fiona, Patrick, Valerie, me, Tianna)

Terrebonne Est family!

While some of our friends with the YMCA were doing a tour (the tickets sold out!), our group went off to explore Quebec City and the souvenirs it had to offer. Eventually we met up with some of our Langley friends... check out how European it looks!

Staring contest with Winston Churchill

walking down the street

L-R: Prabhjit, Steven, Nathan, me, Helen, Fiona, Spencer, Patrick

$10 clearly not wasted

 



<3

My adventure buddies for the remainder of the day (Helen, Fiona, Nathan, Patrick and Spencer) walked down past the Fairmont Quebec, onto the boardwalk until we stumbled onto the Citadelle de Quebec, a historical site we had no idea was there. Climbing up the hill and the stairs were a nightmare especially in the extreme heat (made me think of Mr. Cabralda and all his "hikes") but when we got to the top, the view was amazing and breathtaking.

 

photo creds to Spencer :)

The Fairmont

the view part one

enjoying the view

on the boardwalk

?

the view part two

adventure buddies!

 

Walking about in the Citadelle was an interesting experience. It is a military installation right next to the Plains of Abraham that we unfortunately did not go to see. But we did get some cool pictures!

on the wall of the Citadelle

with one of the guards that you would see in Britain!

 

Our eventful walk turned into a nice chill out session back at the parliament which then lead to a frenzy: someone neglected to tell us that both Down With Webster AND Marianas Trench were in town that night! We had to go to dinner at La Maison du Spaghetti (which was really good) and then Spencer and I did get a sneak peek...

 

Helen's caricature!

waiting for Marianas Trench </3

lasagna... :D

DOWN WITH WEBSTER IN THE FLESH !!!!!

 

That night we walked about 20 minutes to see Cirque du Soleil by the water... while the walk was tiring (especially since I was walking for 5 hours before!), the evening scenery was spectacular!

captured the moon right above the Fairmont

my girlies :) (L-R Fiona, Helen, Valerie et moi)

Cirque du Soleil!

le gang! (L-R Helen, Fiona, Steven, Patrick, Silken, Damon, me, Nathan, Tianna, Prabhjit)

 

The show was amazing, with all its drama, dancing and danger. The acrobatics and dancing made me jealous because I can do neither, but it was really fun to watch. I congratulate all the members of the show on their amazing work and effort!

 

We rode our bus for one hour to our place to sleep: a haunted gym. Just kidding, but the fact that there was a cemetery right by there didn't help it either. We were sleeping in a school that had a tiny gym, causing everyone to compacted and squished up against one another.. we got there just after midnight, so no pictures there.

 

 

See you in the next post, I will leave the song for then.

 

A prochain,

 

Rachel



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