Je Suis "Ironwoman"

LOL NOT REALLY ^

Anyhoo today was tres difficile, but before I get into that, I just want to thanks and give a shout out to the St-Jean family (Tianna's host family) for letting me spend the night last night and for dinner. It was great and I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart! :)

Arbraska was something else, really. It's not like any high ropes course I have done in my life.. this one was "physically taxing" (quoting Damon here...) in all aspects, and the fact that you had to hook and unhook your clasps to make sure that you didn't plunge to your death was another matter entirely. All in all I'm not sure whether or not I was happy or sad to do it, but I do know that I tried my best and I accomplished things that I didn't know that I could.

Here are some pictures of the courses that Helen, Fiona and I did - started from easy (facile) and then worked our way up to intermediate and extreme. It was also the first time I went ziplining and that was a very interesting experience...unfortunately I couldn't get any shots from the trees because I didn't want to juggle both my camera and my life while 10 feet plus in the air...

Ready, set, climb! (L-R Fiona, me, Helen)

le cours facile!

choosing your courses...

where do you want to go?

would you like to start at the beginning?...

...or dive right into the extreme?

LOL that's not high at all...

 

 

We had a lot of fun with both people from Langley and people from all over Ontario that we met along the way. It was an interesting experience, and while difficult and sometimes painful it was definitely worth doing.

 

In our down time after all the climbing, here is what the hooligans did...

 

Jumping in the forest...

having somewhat normal group photos..

and not so normal group photos :)

 

 

Today I also went to dinner with my host dad Simon, who took me to this little pizza place where we had pizza (obviously!). He also took me around to see the different churches as well as the school that his kids go to, College Esther-Blondin which is a MASSIVE school and state of the art.. I wonder what it would be like to go there? I couldn't get a photo because it was so big... they have a arts wing with theatres in it as well as a sports wing with a couple gyms, work out rooms and a pool. C'est tres incroyable! (It's very incredible!)

my dinner, pizza-caesar

The church at St. Jacques

 

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly this week flew by! My song for you today is a French song that I heard on the radio by Marie-Mai, "Je Cours" :



C'est la fin de le weekend... bon semaine, tout le monde! (It's the end of the weekend.. have a good week, everyone!)

 

Rachel



 

 



Read More

Our Day at the Beach!

Bonne weekend tout le monde! (happy weekend everyone!) We had a wonderful day at the beach today at Rawdon, a beach about 40 minutes away from where I am currently living at. The sun was shining and thank goodness there was a breeze, or else I'm pretty sure I would have melted.

We met up with the people from the Langley YMCA group, and it was nice to see each other again after our travel day and our pre-departure meeting! Even though we only stayed a couple hours, it was a nice relaxing way to make up for the fact that most of us were chasing after little kids (where as some people were surrounded by chocolate!)

A couple of us swam across the lake to a dock that is floating on the other side... it was tough and tiring but it was worth it! It is really too bad that I don't have a waterproof camera so that I could take pictures while on the other side. We all got to chill out and then we swam back... I felt so athletic at that point! (:

A lot of my pictures do the explaining, as well as the vlog that I made at the beach (yes, I made yet another one!):

 

my 4 girls ready for a day at the beach! (L-R Valerie, Fiona, Helen, Tianna)

beach selfies!

chips... (L-R Tianna, me, Helen, Fiona, Valerie)

The lake... I successfully swam from one end to the other :)

More beach selfies, pardon my hair (L-R Helen, me, Fiona)

avec the Langley YMCA group, love Silken's face! (L-R Spencer, me, Nathan, Damon, Silken, Prab)

Langley+Surrey repping! (L-R Tianna, Fiona, Spencer, me, Nathan, Damon, Silken, Valerie, Prab, Patrick, Helen)

 

 And for your entertainment, here is the vlog! It was brought to my attention that my other two vlogs didn't play... I will get right on that bug and fix it. Check it out again in a few!

 

:)

 

And my song... I heard this on the radio today on the way to the beach. It's interesting because the radio DJs speak in French but this station in particular played all English songs. One of my favourites and I know it's my mom's as well, so this one's for you, mom :) "Just Give Me a Reason" by P!nk ft. Nate Ruess.

 

alrighty, that settles today. bon soir,

 

Rachel



Read More

Jazz Fest vlogs!

So I finally got them up and running! Here is part one (at the fest) and part two (rehashing on the metro)...

 

:)

Rachel

Read More

Je Touche du Bois

You know how in English we have the phrase "knock on wood"? That's what it is in French, and that describes my situation at the moment.

See, I said earlier in a past post that Quebecois kids were easier to handle, but after working with 4-6 year olds, I found that no matter where you are in the world, that age group is probably the most difficult to handle. It was even more difficult for me because of the language barrier, obviously, but also the fact that I can't really assert any sort of authority. The kids were actually making fun of me and making racist jokes against my culture! Honestly it made me really mad, but I know that this is only the beginning. As my dad said, "it gives more incentive for you to actually learn the language." That is my mission for the remainder of my time here in Quebec.

Meanwhile, everything is going well. The weekend is here, so I am excited for the activities that I am going to be doing with my YMCA family such as the beach and Arbraska (high ropes in the trees).

Also, guess who cooked dinner for her host family? I made garlic salmon, a recipe brought all the way from the west coast... c'etait tres facile! (it was very easy)

 the salmon right out of the oven

voila! bon appetit!

 

 

That's all for now, as there wasn't anything spectacular that happened recently. This weekend will be a blast, I can feel it! I'm also going to try and get those vlogs from the Jazz fest up soon as well.

 

 

For whatever reason, this song is playing everywhere in Quebec, and it's not even French nor is it a new song... I'm not joking when I say that I hear it at least once a day. So here it is: "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin

 

                                          

C'est la weekend!

 

Rachel

Read More

Festival du Jazz~

Hello everyone! I have plenty of pictures  for the Jazz festival, but to sum up the first half of the day, as part of my job with the camp du jour, we went to Parc Regional educative Bois de Belle-Rivieres, a park that has a lot of hiking trails, disc golf course, water parks, a pool and a mini beach, just to name a few amenities. We did something called a GPS adventure which, as the name implies, requires the use of a GPS to find things. It was quite interesting - I never did anything like it back home!


After work it was a really quick change - nothing new, it was just like any other band trip! - and then we left for the festival du Jazz a Montreal! All the Terrebonne Est people were there, the seven of us, and we met up with a group from Windsor, Ontario. We got to listen to Kellylee Evans, who was a Jazz singer that sang in English. Unfortunately, my video blogs could not make it onto this post because of an upload error, but possibly Facebook. C'est bon?

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from today's festival adventures:

 

 En route! (L-R) Patrick, Valerie, me, Spencer,   Fiona, Helen and Tianna

Soundcheck!

The official poster for the Montreal Jazz festival

Helen and Fiona :D

Surrey, BC and Windsor, ON together

Kellylee Evans in action!

                                                           One of many stages at the festival~

Oui, c'est ca. We got Starbucks/Orange Julius, and according to Patrick, "I will never have it ever again." Why? He didn't know that a medium was equivalent to our larges in Vancouver!

Here is a song by Kellylee Evans to give you a taste of her sound. We listened to this song, entitled "My Name Is".

bon soir!

Rachel

Read More

"Desolee, Je Ne Comprends Pas..."

That was a common phrase that I used today, translating to "sorry, I don't understand." In fact, I probably used that at least twice every hour. I'm getting there, though!

The day after Canada day there was an obvious spike in participants at the camp, from about 25 to possibly 65-70. I introduced myself again on numerous occasions - "Bonjour, je m'appelle Dragon. Ma francais n'est pas bien parce que j'habite a Vancouver en Colombie-Britannique. Je resterai qu Quebec pour 6 semaines... eh, c'est tout!" - basically a warning that my French isn't that great because I don't live in Quebec but Vancouver where we speak English tout les temps (all the time). And if you are wondering why I introduced myself as "Dragon", it is because all camp leaders need a nickname, and the kids are not supposed to know our real name.

All the kids and my coworkers were very understanding and spoke plus lentement (very slowly) and repeated phrases several times. One girl that I got to know, Charlianne, probably repeated very phrase at least three times before I could mentally piece together the words that she said and before I could come up with a decent response for her question. It is quite interesting to observe Quebecois children - they are all very eloquent and they speak very fast. Kids that speak English probably talk in half the speed that the kids in Quebec do. They all have very interesting and beautiful names - Remy, Charlianne, Marilou, Alexis [AH-lex-ee], Frederick, Rosalinne, ....

In all, today was a good day. There was a slight change in the weather too, and currently it is raining! How can this be?! :)

Here is a picture of my dessert:

 << mmm Strawberry Shortcake!

 

 

That's all for today! Tomorrow we are all going as a group to the Festival du Jazz a Montreal (Montreal Jazz Fest). I am very excited for that!

 

 

I leave tonight's post with a song, again by Quebec rockers Simple Plan... I feel that this is quite appropriate: "Jet Lag" by Simple Plan ft. Marie-Mai (a Quebec singer)... en franglais!

 

 



 

A prochain,

 

Rachel

Read More

Working... on Canada Day?!

Bonne fete du Canada tout le monde! Happy Canada Day everyone!

While most people (including some of my new friends in my Terrebonne Est group!) were enjoying the holiday, I got up bright and early to start my first day of work at Camp du Jour de Crabtree (day camp at Crabtree). On the flip side, because it is a holiday, we had less people at the camp, about 30 today. One of my coworkers was telling me that they expect upwards of 100 kids throughout the summer! I was accompanied with my homestay brother, Remy.

Today was quite the learning curve, as obviously most of my coworkers and virtually all of the kids speak rapid French. If I thought that 4 years of intensive French class (with two years in honours French, thank you very much!) was good enough preparation, well, j'avais tort (I was wrong)! It was a blessing to work with people who also speak English, and that all of the kids were very understanding with the fact that I am a girl who speaks English very well and that my French n'est pas bien (is not good). At the beginning, I will admit, I was very homesick again, probably because the French is so present everywhere, every time.

It was a fun day though: my boss/coordinator at the Camp du Jour is also a Zumba teacher, so we did a massive work out which then segwayed into a full on soccer game where yours truly scored a goal! The kids then went swimming in a gigantic swimming pool that was inside the arena/community centre.

Lunchtime was spent at La Cremiere du Pont, an ice cream shop in the area that had it's 10th birthday today. There was a celebration that consisted of hot dogs for the kids and a rally (scavenger hunt) around the neighborhood. The prize was un pop-sludge (popsicle) for each of the kids... and some very delicious cake! It was a very extravagant cake, and I wish I had gotten a picture of it! My camera ran out of battery -.-"

When we returned, we were playing little games that I recognized from my own experiences as a camp leader at home - Squirt; Duck, Duck, Goose; Stella Stella Ola - but all in French. I have to say though, all the kids were great and I tried my best to communicate to them in my broken French. I find that kids in Quebec are really sophisticated, but maybe it's because of the fact that they are speaking French.

I was happy to spend the rest of the day at home. We had spaghetti for dinner, and after my chores I played Life (the board game, but in French!) with Remy. It was a great first day, and I feel that it can only get better from here on out. Here is to 6 more weeks with Quebecois kids!

 << Playing Life!

 

(L-R) Me, Remy, Mathieu

 

C'est tout pour aujourd'hui (that is all for now). Currently listening to this on my Youtube mix as I blog - la chanson du jour, ma chanson favorite, "Beautiful Disaster" by Jon McLaughlin (and no, he has no relation to Sarah McLaughlin).

Later alligators! Happy Canada day once again! :)

Dragon (Rachel)

Read More