BBQ, hockey, hiking and much more

Hey! Hope you’re fine...

I’m having a great time here, always something to do! If there are no parties, weekend trips, cooking with my flat-mates, sports,… there’s still some work left for university. But don’t worry, I’m not working too hard so far ;-) Today I made my first histogram using R, yeah!! But I don’t want to bore you with stuff like that.

Hmm, where should I start, there are so many things to tell you…

Almost two weeks ago, I met Ardit again. He’s the first person from Montreal I got to know when I was still in Munich (He was doing an internship in Germany…) and he took me a party of a friend. This party was really crazy as you can imagine from the picture. The guy on the picture was the one giving the party and he did an internship in Germany as well and some years ago a German course in Munich. He was really happy to meet a girl from Germany and showed me all his German dictionaries, grammar books, souvenirs and so on. But that’s not the reason why I say this party was crazy (I think I behaved in a similar way when I met Ardit in Germany). Most of the people at this party had just started their studies at the (English speaking) McGill University and many of them were 19 years old Americans having just arrived in a country where they are allowed to drink as much as they want. You can imagine what happened…

I’m also presenting you a first picture of at least one of my flat-mates, Annabelle. They guy on the picture is Philippe, a friend of Annabelle who likes to hug people ;-) And there is our new barbecue… Since Gabriel bought it one week ago, we’re having a BBQ nearly every day. At the same time, the ice hockey season started and I had to watch my first match on TV. There was even a German player who was born in Dingolfing (Christoph Schubert). Well, it was strange to me to sit in front of the TV watching this hockey match and eating grilled chicken wings and potatoes at the same time.

I had another interesting conversation about Germany. Contrary to Russian people, people here are really interested in German history, politics and daily life. Interestingly, one of Annabelle’s friends didn’t associate Germany with Hitler and the Nazis but with well insulated houses, waste separation and things like that. Okay, for us it is normal to build houses made of brick, well insulated and so on, but here most houses on the countryside are made of wood, some of them are not habitable in winter! He also asked me how I imagined Quebec before I came here. Actually, what surprised me is the really mild climate so far but the culture here is not that different from Europe. He told me then that he had a lesson at school about the picture that French people are supposed to have of Quebec. They are taught here that French people think Quebecois live in igloos!!! That’s why he asked me ;-) When I told him that I’m from Munich he said “Ah, there has been an assassination in Munich!” He was talking about the assassination during the Olympic Games in 1972, he had seen the film about it. In general, I’ve got the impression that all knowledge about Germany people have here is based on movies.

Last weekend, I went to Val-David with some German friends. It is a small town (is it a town?) located next to a regional park two hours away from Montreal. We spent the whole weekend outside and enjoyed the beautiful landscape and nice weather. On Saturday, I did some hiking on the Mont Condor.

Well, the height difference was about 100 meters (not really the thing we call a mountain) and the park was much smaller than we thought. In the end we did all the hiking paths except one what took us about three hours. But nevertheless, it was a really nice path with roots, stones etc and sometimes not that obvious ;-)


The first trees are already turning red and yellow, Indian Summer has started…


On Sunday, we rented a canoe and a kayak and paddled down a small and quiet river till we reached a beautiful lake. After a picnic and a little rest, we did a bicycle tour on the “chemin du petit train”, a former railroad line. All in all, I had an awesome weekend!!!

Oktoberfest started in Munich, elections will be on Sunday, so I think there’ll be a lot tell me. I’m always curious to hear what’s going on at home. So don’t hesitate to call me in skype or send me a message. Miss you!!!

geli

Une fin de semaine très québecoise

Life is going on here in Montréal. This week, some more courses started, today I had the best one so far… A really useful one called “Pratique professionelle de la Recherche”. I’d really like do take this course although it’s on Friday but it’s not sure yet if it will be possible. Normally students have to write about the project they are currently doing for their master’s thesis or PhD and I’m not working in the lab here. But if I’m lucky, I can do it with my bachelor’s thesis. I’m waiting for the professors decision. Next Tuesday, I have to submit my final choice of lectures. But don’t be afraid, university is not only hard work ;-) Last night, there was a great concert organized by the student’s association, for free. The headliner was “Karkwa”, the best band from Quebec according do my flatmate (who is playing in a band himself).

I’m also discovering the best places for shopping. On Tuesday, I went to the Marché Jean-Talon to buy fruits and vegetables. For only 13 $ I bought five bananas, a melon, two zucchinis, three peppers, tomatoes, onions and champignons. Much cheaper than in the supermarket. Another thing you should not buy in supermarkets here are cosmetic articles. You buy them in pharmacies like Pharmaprix (In Germany, I would never go to the pharmacy to buy a shampoo but only if I’m ill). Today I went to such a pharmacy and it turned out to be quite similar to German dm or Müller. Apart from a small corner where you get medicine, you can buy perfumes, all sorts of cosmetic articles, office staff, CDs, food etc. Unfortunately, so far I couldn’t find really good bread here. There is a Boulangerie (Bakery) close to my home but the bread I bought there can’t compete against German bread. And on Tuesday I discovered that the shop where I spent so much money in Quebec City is also in town. I shouldn’t go there…

Yesterday, Nadine and me rent roller-skates and took advantage of the good weather (it’s still quite warm here). The guy in the rental agency gave us the advice to take the bikeway along the Canale de Lachine and buy some ice-cream at the Marché Atwater. The ice-cream was really great =) The day before, I played Squash (for the first time in my life) at the university sports center with an Austrian exchange student I met here. It was really fun…

I still didn’t tell you about my last weekend that I spent with my friend Marie-Claude I met in France 4 years ago. As most of my courses hadn’t started so far, I was free from Thursday till Monday (Labour Day). And I was lucky because she and her boyfriend were on vacation, too. By the way, when I saw in the academic calendar that there will be two holidays on Mondays (Labour Day and Thanksgiving), I thought we were really lucky that this year these holidays happen to be on Mondays what means long weekends. In fact, Labour Day is always the first Monday in September and Thanksgiving the second Monday in October ;-)

Okay, back to my weekend which was a very quebecois experience and not at all touristic. I had to listen to the special dialect all the time and learned lots of typical expressions. And I didn’t speak any German but only French what pushed me into the language again. But it was also really exhausting, in the evening, I was extremely tired although we relaxed the whole day and slept for 10 hours. I met some friends of Marie-Claude and her whole family because they were celebrating the birthday of her sister-in-law and also of her boyfriend which will be on the 18th of September. Strange thing, he already got presents and so on!
As her parents never left Canada, they were really curious how a German girl looks like ;-) I had to explain the whole history with eastern and western Germany and that the wall was only in Berlin and not through the whole country. They have their knowledge about Germany mostly from films and Marie-Claude said that she’s fed up with these films. She asked me if there are no films about simple love stories playing in Germany. Are there any apart from German productions that never reach the North American country??
We also talked about the separatist ambitions of the party Bloc Quebecois. Most people I talked to told me that an independent country of Quebec would be nice to maintain their culture that differs from the rest of Canada but that it is not realistic as their economy is to weak… (There has been a referendum in 1995 where 49,42 % voted for their independence!) Another interesting discussion was their opinion about the French language. My friends from France told me that the language they speak here is no French. Now I know the other point of view to… The people in Quebec are proud of their dialect that uses still some words from the time of the French colonies in this area, thus the older and more original French. In some cases they use even less English words than the people in France (e.g. “Fin de la semaine” instead of “week-end” in France). And if they use English words, they don’t try to pronounce them in a French way ;-) Although surrounded by English speaking populations, most people on the countryside don’t speak any English.

I’ll finish with some pictures…

This is supposed to be the place where you get the world's best soft ice.

Marie-Claude and me in Lévis. In the background, you can see Québec City again.

Marie-Claude's house in Rivière-du-Loup with view on the St Lawrence...


Rivière-du-Loup, a small town in the north of Québec situated on the riverside of the St Lawrence River

The beach of Rievière-du-Loup is the second most beautiful place on earth for watching the sunset (the most beautiful one is in Japan).

Picnic on the beach Monday morning before I returned to Montreal by a lift with allostop.

This weekend, I'm going to stay here in Montréal... Have a nice weekend!!

Kisses,

geli

Québec City, Whale Watching and First days at University

Hey!

What's up in Germany? Last weekend, I've seen a very little part of this huge country (only Russia is larger than Canada!). We visited two cities that seemed to be really close to Montréal but nevertheless, we spent a lot of time on the road... Although the streets are really straight, you're not allowed to drive faster than 100 km/h!

Friday morning at 9 am, we met at the car rental agency to get our car. Along the St. Lawrence River, we went to Québec City. It's the capital of the province Québec and the oldest city on the continent. It's a nice small city with French atmosphere but also very touristic! The city's landmark is the castle Chateau Frontenac, a hotel that has been seen famous guests like the Queen Elisabeth, General de Gaulle and Frank Sinatra. The weather turned quite cold on Friday evening. A good reason to go shopping the next day and buy a warm sweatshirt and a jacket ;-)

Only few minutes away from Québec City, we visited the Montmorency Falls. These falls are higher than the Niagara Falls but it's only a small river.

Our second destination was Tadoussac, a village on the riverside of the St. Lawrence where the river already reaches a width of 30 kilometers. We stayed in a really relaxed hippie hostel. Tadoussac is known for whale watching and that's exactely why we went there. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from our whale watching trip at the moment. I can only tell you that it was a lot of fun to cruise on the river with the zodiac. And we saw some beluga whales, a humpback whale, minky whales and lots of seals. There's one seal per inhabitant of the province Québec! The picture shows the harbour of Tadoussac, the yellow boats in the front are the zodiacs...

Here are some more pictures to show you the atmosphere of travelling in Québec. As you can see, we had a lot of fun from time to time! But the music on the radio was really annoying and the straight roads were quite tiring... So Roland, thanks a lot for driving!!


The villages here are in most cases one row of houses on each side of the street with large gardens without fences but short cut grass. Every village has a huge church of the size that you normally find in cities, with silver shining bell towers. The houses look a little bit like toy houses.

This is how farms look like in this region. They all have these kind of silo towers, often with the name of the farm written on it.

And here are two pictures of the beautiful landscape. Especially in the north, there are so many forests, really amazing! I have to come back to this area when the Indian Summer begins.

And this picture is for my family and the friends from my hometown ;-)

When I returned from the trip on Sunday evening, I could finally move to my room. I'm sure you are curious to see some pictures of my new home. On the first picture you can see the really confortable and huge bed and the shelves. The second shows my desk. And of course, there is also a wardrobe which is not on the pictures.

And this picture shows a part of the huge livingroom and kitchen. I'm living here together with Annabelle and Gabriel, two "Québecois". We're often cooking together in the evening, the doors of our rooms are always half open. I'm already feeling a bit at home here. What else to tell about my flatmates? As they are "Québecois", they speak French or at least something similar to French. They drink a lot of wine, what means that I'm also drinking a lot of wine and less beer or vodka ;-)

What else happened this week? University started on Tuesday and I already had two courses. The first one was really great, the professor is American and thus doesn't speak to fast and if he doesn't know the words in French, he switches to English ;-) In general, all courses last 3 hours with only a little pause of 10 or 15 minutes!!! And I thought that 90 minutes of lectures are long and tiring... The course I had yesterday was quite hard. In the end, I wasn't able anymore to concentrate.

Everyday, I'm learning new things like how can I print lecture notes, how to use wireless LAN at university, where I get a lock (cadenas in French) for the lockers in the swimming pool (I went there two times this week, entrance is free for students!) and so on. I'm feeling a bit like freshman again ;-)

Having my own room, going to university, sports, bars etc makes me feel like really living in Montréal. Yesterday, I picked up a book that I ordered in a bookstore last week. And today, I got a letter here in my new apartment!! I registered for a music course (Jazz et improvisation) on monday and they sent me a corfirmation of my registration.

Well now, it's already quarter to two in the morning. You're already getting up and I should get some sleep now!!!

A la prochaine,

geli