October Update

Hello friends! So the snow is starting to fall in the Haute-Gaspésie. I went into the national park on Saturday the 13^th (not even MID WAY THROUGH October!), and there was so much snow that the car started to slide from side to side on the ice, and we had to turn back.

Whilst the third years in Saint Andrews appear to be stressing about crucial essays, and staying up in the library, I have been colouring in union jacks and singing ’10 green bottles’ with my primary school classes. In all seriousness, if I were to compare the two experiences, I would say that whilst university produces stressful bursts of work (all nighters in the library etc.), as an assistant, the work is less stressful, but it is always there. School starts at 8am if I’m teaching primary, and 9am if I’m teaching secondary. I can’t arrive 10 minutes late, as I did for pretty much every 9am tutorial I attended in second year! I’m in school for around 4 hours day, and do a bit of prep in the evenings. I follow a 9 day timetable, which is rather confusing. 

I am also starting to feel like a member of the townsfolk here. Instead of wishing me a ‘pleasant holiday’ when I go to the supermarket, the cashiers bag my items up and eye me up and down with recognition. The other assistants and I also had people coming up to us at the bar, saying ‘you’re the new assistants, aren’t you?’ which made us feel like the local celebrities!

Since I last wrote a blog, a few more things have been crossed off my bucket list of things to do in Quebec:

1) I hitchhiked for the first time in my life! In order to get into the national park (there are no buses), you need to have a car, which Jenny and I don’t have. We decided to hitchhike into the park, which was a risky strategy. We realised just before we started that we might potentially hitch successfully into the park, and then be unable to find someone to give us a ride back, meaning that we would be stuck there overnight with the moose and the bears! All was well however. Within 5 minutes of waiting outside Tim Hortons, we met a lovely lady called Sylvie, who was going into the park hiking for the day, and was willing to give Jenny, Lydia, Sarah and I a lift. We ended up spending the entire day with her, coming back together in the early evening.

Sylvie (the woman who took us into the park) is on the left!

 2) I saw some moose! As we were driving back from our days hike, Jenny emmited a blood curdling scream, which made me jump a foot in the air and brace in preparation for a crash. It turned out to be a moose at the side of the road. They aren’t hunted in the national park, and are used to seeing people on walks, so weren’t put off when we pulled over and went to take photos and get a better look at them! We ended up spotting four or five!

3) I hosted a dinner party for two teachers from my school and the other assistants. I cooked toad in the hole, as a traditional English dish. It was the first time that I have made it, and think that it will become one of my staple recipes (it’s so easy to make!)

4) I offended a pupil. On a particularly bad day of Primary School teaching, a class wouldn’t stop shouting and running round. Nobody was listening to my instructions, so I yelled ‘shut up!’. A girl on the second row thought that I had been shouting at her, and had shouted ‘Salope!’ (which means bitch/ slut!). I tried to explain to her that I hadn’t been calling her a slut (she’s about 9 years old…why would I do that?), but I don’t think that she swallowed it!

5) I made my debut on the stage in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. My role was (drumroll….) page-turner!!  I use the piano in the ‘maison de la culture’ to practice on a couple of times a week. When, last week, a page turner was needed in a concert there, I was the person that they phoned! The concert was amazing. It was a clarinetist who is in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a rising star pianist, both touring Canada as part of a young talent scheme. I was in total awe of them, and it was so cool to sit so close.

Here is a clip of the tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YP-z56m_Uw

6) I celebrated Thanksgiving (or l’action de grâce as it’s known here) with some real Canadians! The assistant from Ontario, Jennifer had her mother over to stay, and along with one of her teachers, Robert, and Jenny, we cooked a sumptuous meal, washed down with a good amount of wine. It felt a little like Christmas, as afterwards we watched two episodes of Friends (just like Christmas afternoon telly…)

7) I saw some famous ex ‘Canadiens’ players in Matane. If you haven’t heard of the ‘Canadiens’, which I hadn’t, they’re one of the best ice hockey teams in Canada. I didn’t have a clue who they were, but everybody was going crazy asking for their autographs after the match, so I feel like it should be included here!

Thank-you for reading! Until next time, goodbye! Or, they say in Quebec: ‘Salut, Bye Bye!’

Long time no see!

Dear friends and family. I’m not dead! I’m sorry that I haven’t been updating this blog! Now that I’ve finally got around to it, SORRY THAT IT IS SO Loooooong!!! I’m not expecting anybody to reach the end of this-

If anything, I’ll just keep this buried deep in the abyss of the internet, and use it to remember my first three weeks in Canada with affection!

So I’m well and truly settled into my apartment and work routine in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. My apartment is amazing. I have my own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, lounge and washer/dryer units for cheaper rent then last year when I was sharing a house with three other girls in St Andrews! The Irish and Canadian assistants are a stones throw away, and we have made a habit out of falling asleep on each others beds, eating Jolly ranchers and watching mtv. Here are some photos for you to get an idea of the space in my appartment:

My appartment is the top floor. I have my own staircase on the left.

I arrived in Montreal on the 4^th of September, and was lucky to be on the same flight as another assistant, Emma! When I told the MELS (Minestere de l’Education, du Sport et des Loisirs du Quebec) team my flight number, they told me that I wouldn’t be the only assistant on that flight, much to my relief! I somehow managed to get my luggage within the weight restriction of 23kg, but this means that I came with no winter clothes, no books, no toiletries, and hardly any clothes. I’m sincerely hoping that this excuses my spend on our Walmart voyage to Matane (the nearest large town) last week of 189 dollars (ahhhhh). When it got to the point where I was taking individual socks out of my suitcase and reweighing it, in the desperate hope that it would knock a kilo off my luggage weight, I knew that I would have to make some ruthless decisions, leave out lots of things, and buy them here!

By the time it was time for me to leave, the packing process had addled my brain to the extent that I was pretty unemotional about the whole ‘saying goodbye to your family for a year’ thing…I was also very excited about the long haul flight, as it was my first time on one (apart from the traumatising Iberia plane I took to Peru, which was so uncomfortable that I banish it from memory). Upon arriving, Emma and I went through customs. I was not amused when, upon going through Immigration, the French Canadian man stamping my passport , along with his collegue in the booth next to him, roared with laughter when I told him that I would be living in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts for a year. He said ‘even WE don’t understand the French that they speak up there’.  Great!

We took the hotel shuttle bus to the ‘Hotel Quality’ on the outskirts of Montreal where our training was held over the next three days.  And Quality it was! The hotel had a swimming pool, sauna, and gym, which everybody was pretty pumped about! The weather was a perfect 26 degrees, and everyone went on a jolly trip around Montreal, ate Poutine (a local speciality of chips, cheese curds and gravy), and sunned themselves before the training began. There were about 70 of us being trained- around 35 Brits, 20 Germans and 15 Mexicans. We had some great food and heard speeches by a woman from the British council in Montreal, and members of the MELS team. Then we had some workshops which involved us acting out classroom scenarios, which were then performed. Hilarity ensued…

On Friday, we were all bussed out to our individual destinations. I am living high up the Gaspe Peninsula, which means that I was on the infamous Gaspe road trip. We left at 1pm on Friday, and Jenny and I (the two British assistants who will be working in Sainte-Anne) arrived at around 7pm on Sunday night. There were many stops dropping people off along the way, and we got to drive through some stunning scenery, and stay in two motels- one of which was on the shore of the St Lawrence!

En Route to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts! (Photo courtesy of Will :))

In Gaspe, we met a member of the Commission scolaire des Chic-Chocs (basically the woman in charge of education for my area), and she took all the assistants from Sainte-Anne and Gaspe on a walk in the National Park. We didn’t see any Bears unfortunately, but the scenery was stunning, and I saw my very first chipmunk scurry across the path. (I have also seen my first skunk crossing a drive in Ste-Anne. WIN!)

Then it was back to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, where we would be living for the next 9 months. Jenny and I said an emotional goodbye to Renaud (our awesome driver, and member of MELS) and were left to meet our ‘Responsables’ who will be keeping an eye on us during our time here.

Now for a description of the town and my school! Sainte-Anne-des-Monts was described in my ‘Rough guide to Canada’ circa 1997  as ‘not one of the more pretty towns’. I cannot see why this is- It has a lovely old church with wooden clapboard houses, and beautiful sunsets over the sea every night. What could be more beautiful? I’ve already fallen in love with the place. It is right by the sea and the Chic Choc mountains. The town is pretty small, but it has a ‘downtown’- consisting of a Tim Hortons , two supermarkets, and lots of shops.

There are also lots of clubs to get involved in. This is probably because Sainte-Anne-des-Monts is a retirement town, so all the oldies run clubs. I find this great! At the ‘maison de la culture’ on my second Saturday here, they had a sort of event (a bit like a Freshers fayre) where you go and sign up for clubs. I signed up for Yoga, an oil painting course of 8 weeks and inquired into piano lessons. I might join the choir too haha but haven’t made up my mind. There’s a swimming pool in my school, and they have a cinema once a week (also in my school). And bowling. Last week there was a circus in town that we went to see, and they were amazing. As you can see, there’s a lot to keep you busy, and with Matane (a much larger town) an hour down the coast, you’re never too far from amenities.

The nightlife is surprisingly robust! There are a few bars on the seafront, and a little way down the coast, a hostel named the ‘Sea Shack’ hosts late night concerts. There is a hot tub and hammocks strung around in the trees, with a great view out to sea. Our first visit to the sea shack involved a day of canoeing on the St Lawrence, watching an amazing sunset and driving home with our cameras stuck out of the car’s sunroof. We returned a few nights later in the evening to watch an amazing band play, make friends with hippy German/French/Polish hikers and drink at their beach bar which looks like it should be on a beach in Hawaii- not in a town which reaches -30 degrees Celsius each winter…

'Les Chiens de ruelle' playing at the sea shack'!

Other outings include a trip to Rimouski to watch the 'Oceanics' play ice hockey and a night in Matane which involved impromptu paella with Lydia (the monitor there)'s landlord, followed by us going to a heavy metal concert (probably the only people not wearing black there), followed by a night at 'le lounge'. 

The people are very friendly here, and will do anything for you. I’m struggling with the accent at the moment however. When people are addressing me, I’m fine! It’s listening in to conversations between locals that I find impossible. I think that what I’m hearing is the French equivalent of a really strong Southern American drawl. There are words here which don’t exist outside of this town. For example, the phrase ‘Ben manque’ which means ‘probably’. If I were to say ‘on va ben manque aller au cinema’ outside of Ste-Anne,  nobody would understand what I was trying to say! Another thing that is really confusing is that ‘déjeuner’ (which in France means to have lunch) here means to have breakfast. Dîner (which in France means to have dinner) is to have lunch, and ‘souper’ is to have dinner.

The teaching itself is going quite well. I’ve been given my own cute classroom which can seat up to 20 kids, with MY OWN BLACKBOARD. I got really excited when I first saw it, and proceeded to draw and write my name all over it…). . I can borrow a projector if I ever want to screen films, and there’s internet etc. Basically, everything that I need. As a language monitor, it’s my job to take small groups out of lessons and practice English conversation with them. I’ve pretty much spent the first two weeks presenting myself to the groups and playing ‘two truths and a lie’ with them (standard korfball game). I was rather disconcerted when many of them proceded to write about relatives that had died, and their dogs. But at least it got them talking !...I’m also teaching some primary classes (My school is a middle and secondary school mixed). I find this a little harder as some of the classes are so hyper, and I teach all of them instead of taking out little groups! I think that this is good in a way though, because it’s more like real teaching, and will help me to decide if I want to become a teacher in the long run.

My Classroom

I’m running out of steam here, although there’s so much more to say. That’s all for now folks! That-you so much for reading, I shall be updating you with more Ste-Anne small-town drama next week!