I am bad at keeping you up to date

There will be more pictures to come. I have been in such a lull here. Nothing much to say. I don't have a ton of spending money so I haven't had the chance to do many things. There is a strike going on at my school but I want to assure you all that it is all ok. Nothing is effecting my courses. I also would like to upload some pictures soon.

I have been sort of swapped with homework and classwork. More to come!!! :) Stay tuned.

ONE MONTH LATER:

After been here for a month, I am finally learning my way around. I went to the Carnival in the city about a week or so ago. I did, however, manage to lose myself on the bus system prior to that day. I now know how to expertly navigate the system. Apart from that, I have received an assignment back, to which I received an A. Great. Also, I got the result of my test-of-unsurpassable-oral-difficulty; I got a C. Better than what I thought, so I'll take it. Now, knowing what to expect, I can better prepare myself for the next test. 

Things are going great, and my only regret is not keeping my blog up-to-date. I am spending alot of my time at my dorm but some of it spend doing other things, such as playing the pianos (which are only for the piano majors, but at least if someone says something, I can play the foreigner card and say that I didn't know, I'm foreign.) 

Next weekend, 24 February, I am going to the Coeur de Pirate concert in Montréal. I am overly excited for this. It'll be the first train I've ever rode in. Hopefully, I will update you soon with what happens. CAIO

Class Week

After much craziness that one calls "enrollment week," I have finally got settled into my courses. There was a minor set back with a class that was way out of my level but that has all been settled and now I am taking the following courses:

• French Grammar II (written) - I will be learning written grammar (As if the name did give that away...)
• French Grammar II (oral) - I will be learning oral grammar (Once again, big surprise...)
• Quebec Civilisation - I will learning the geography, politics, about the inhabitants, and etc...
• French Evaluation II of written works, (Redaction de Textes Academiques II) - This will be the most challenging because although I am enrolled into Rédaction de Textes Academiques II the course was mixed with the course after which is Rédaction de Textes Academiques III, therefore I will have to work harder. Although the teacher did say that she will be "easier" on those who are enrolled in the 2nd year.

Jour 1; On Commence

I'm going to continue my blog in just English for now because I know the vast majority that are reading these do not understand French. I arrived here in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada on January 4th and everything was going to plan and I even managed to get off my plane at the same gate in Newark, NJ that I was needing to get on to go to Quebec (did you know that you can see the statue of liberty from there?). This was until l'Aéroport de Jean-Lesage where the man, who looked at my passport, failed to mention that the baggage claim was before those doors. I ended up leaving and had to sit and wait nearly an hour to get my baggage. When I got my baggage, I found a taxi without a problem, being that they were sitting right outside the airport with a giant sign pointing to them saying Taxi. I walked up to the man and figured, ok this is when I'll start using my french... Here goes nothing! As I am uttering my first word in French the man says, "Hello."

I think to myself for a minute and respond back with a hello, of my own. Why did he just do that? We start driving down the street and the next thing I know he is hopping out of the van (yes, a taxi van), apparently he didn't get the trunk closed tightly. So, we are driving and I ask him what are some good places to eat around here, and he tells me, "Oh, we have McDonalds, Burger King, Subways (yes, he did pluralize Subway) and we have KFC..." As he is rambling off everything we have in The United States, I look out the window and see the places in hopes of picking out an interesting restaurant because Mr. TaxiMan, wasn't helping. 

Finally, we arrive at the university and my taxi cost about 30$, which I expected. What I didn't expect is to have to pay that 50 cents or so it was for him to stop in the middle of the road and re-close the already closed trunk. I thank the man and we part for our separate ways.

I get to the housing office and ask for my keys... Nothing special there; the man gives me my keys and tells me I'm in 1411 Biersmans-Moraud. OK. I then trek out to find my room. I found it without any problems. Open the door. There is just what I need; it's not too small, not too large. Perfect. 

Perfect was an overstatement that night, I come to find out. Being that I was limited to what I could bring with me, I obviously decided to bring close over bedding. I know at SIUE, there is a thing for our study abroad students to rent theses sorts of materials, given that they aren't exactly travel-friendly. Well, I suppose Laval doesn't have that or I haven't heard about it. It was below Zero degrees that night, and I had no blankets.... I had to use my coat and random hoodies to keep warm because apparently my room heater wasn't exactly working correctly. If it was working, I mustn't know what 70 degrees feels like. 

"There are battered woman shelters more luxuriously appointed than the photo I'm looking at. Can I send you a care package?" - Michael William DeMoss

After one miserable night of freezing and near starvation because I couldn't exactly find the food on campus. I woke up the next morning... (see next blog post)

Enfin, le jour

Enfin, c'est le jour où j'arrive au Québec et pour la première fois de ma vie, je suis à la étranger - je suis étranger. Mon vol part STL à 5h55 et je vais arriver à Newark, NJ vers 9h du matin, où j'attendrai 30 minute avant de partir le 2e vol qui va aller à québec. J'y arriverai à 11h30. A ce temps-là, j'aurai besoin de trouver le bureau de changer le liquide. Après ça, il faut que je prenne un taxi pour aller à l'Université Laval où j'aurai besoin de me présenter au bureau de logement.