Volunteering with the YMCA

Salut! Today was a Hollywood themed day at our Camp du Jour where everyone was dressed to the nines in fancy clothes. We had face painting and manicures (even for the boys!) as well as activities that were "celebrity/paparazzi" themed. C'etait tres amusant! :)

Les garcons et les filles... tout le monde est tres belle/beau!

 

Les animateurs et animatrices! (L-R [back] Girafe, Praline, Cachou, Moi [Dragon] Nemo, Malajube, Sun; [front] Milou, Bidule)

Got inked, no big deal (credits to Cachou for the sick Dragon!)

 

Our benovolat (volunteer work) with the YMCA gang was pretty fun: we were going around to different stores, passing out flyers about the public market in Terrebonne and Masscoushe (that we will get to go to!). Our reward? Quebecois poutine! (from a McDonald's...) Here is a vlog to sum up our work:

 

 

And the poutine? Patrick and I made a deal - he would pay, but I would have to order in French. Sounded good to me! :)

 

the anticipation...the gravy-cheesy goodness...

voila! poutine! (first time this trip!)

Thanks Patrick! (photo creds to Janie !)

 

C'est fin maintenant... I have a short day tomorrow at work (off at 1:30PM? AWESOME!) and then its our wonderful and exciting trip into old Quebec with the entire YMCA, meaning EVERYONE from all over Canada. Can't wait!

 

 

And my song... currently playing on my playlist as I post this and also my workout jam as I begun doing zumba in the mornings to get me moving. Not lying, about the song or the fact that I'm actually working out. "Music Sounds Better With You" by Big Time Rush ft. Mann

 



 

 

 



 bonne nuit,

Rachel

 

 

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Always Room for Ice Cream!

So today was a good day in the end! Unfortunately due to uncooperative weather, our YMCA volunteer activity was postponed until tomorrow... however, the sun did eventually come out and my host family took advantage of it.

Today's outing with the Camp du Jour was to Acrosport Barani in Laval, a gymnastics center. Although as a camp leader I could only do few activities, it was a fun place with a lot of different things to do, like getting pictures with Tarzan!

As for the title, in lieu of not having to rush dinner, we were able to go to La Cremiere du Pont, the ice cream shop that I walk past twice a day almost every day as I go to and from work. This was my first time inside and it was paradise. There is a bakery as well, and check out all the cool cupcakes they sell!

Bienvenue!

the outside of the shop

cupcakes <3

<3

the cool interior!

 

We had some really yummy ice cream... brownie flavor is something you can never go wrong with! There is also a gate that leads to this extra seating area over looking the river. Actually, La Cremiere du Pont translates to "The Creamery by the Bridge", which is true because it is right at the corner of a bridge.

 

Ice cream with Remy

overlooking the river

so peaceful! so serene!

With Karen, my host mom :)

 

Tomorrow will be the make up for today's missed activity..until then, here is the song "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole. If you are wondering what the relevance is, maybe it's because this trip currently is and will always be "unforgettable"? That could work, but the real reason is that it's been stuck in my head the past two days playing on repeat. Oh well, it's a nice song, so I don't mind.

 



 

A Demain et bonne nuit!

 

Rachel



 

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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



 

 



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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



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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

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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

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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

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