Melanie's Canada Study Abroad: An Overview of Week 2 in Québec

Sunday, July 10 I ventured on my own into the city to find the movie theater. I saw "The Secret Life of Pets" played in French. Sometimes movies that are translated take a different name, and in this case, the movie is called "Comme des Bêtes" or "Like the Beasts" as a literal translation into English. I really enjoyed it and I think I understood 80% of what was said for 1) it is a children's movie so the speech is slower, and 2) I think that English-translated movies are slower in terms of speech than French-made movies. Overall I really enjoyed the movie.

On Monday, July 11 I had an eventful day with class in the morning and then my first dance workshop. For the dance workshop we are working on a dance to a song called "Tous Les Même" by Stromae. It is just like any other dance class but in addition to learning a dance that we will perform at the show at the end of the program, we learn vocabulary. One of the first activities that we did was fill the missing words to the lyrics.

After my dance workshop I did a free activity called "Prend ça cool - Festival de la Slackline." Here's a video of me doing it with an assistant. I tried without help but it's so hard I could not even get up on the line.

A few people and I tried a quebecois dish called "poutine" at the university's pub. We ordered one large one for 8 of us; it comes in a bowl the size of a salad bowl at Olive Garden. The dish itself is french fries with gravy and mozzarella cheese. It was really good.

After the poutine we went to see a movie that the school was playing for us.

Wednesday was my next eventful day when I played in the soccer tournament. I only participated in that because it was something active to do and there was free hot dogs involved. Every person who participated got to eat the hot dogs. My team did a lot better than we thought we would do! We won our first game but lost the second. Oh well...It was fun and I met more people.

Thursday was my next adventurous day because I did a tour of Saint-Roch, Vieux-Port, and Noctem. It was a tour of trying to dodge the rain as best as we could. First we saw the train staion and then we went to the old port where we visited a market and I bought some good macaroons. After that we walked around there and we finished at a microbrewery where we got to try one of their beers.

Front of train station

Old ticket booth in train station

Inside of the train station

Inside of train station

Inside the market

Macaroons I got to choose from

View across the river

The port

Monument that resembles the front of a ship

After I ate some dinner after that trip, I went to see a movie that the school was offering. This movie was a comedy called "1987" and I found it quite funny.

Last Friday I was invited to a bbq with some friends so I spent my night there hanging out with them.

Saturday I did a hike into the mountains. The hike was called "Randonée au Cap Tourmente et Basilique." The first stop on our excursion was at a very pretty basilica that was built in 1923 after the first one had burnt down.

Part II of our trip was the hike. It was very difficult going up the side of the mountain because it was very steep but the view was spectacular and totally worth it. We got to enjoy the view by having lunch at the top of the mountain. Throughout the hike I felt very in touch with nature.