First Few Days in Québec

I have now started my summer study abroad in Québec, Canada.   

View of the St. Lawrence River from the plane

Sunday I arrived in Québec on an hour and a half flight from Newark.  Once I arrived at the airport there were representatives from the school to help get ourselves to the university.  There was me, and maybe 8 other students waiting for the bus which we waited for about two hours for it to arrive from the time that I got to the airport.  The bus took us right to our dorm (I was supposed to live with a family but they emailed me about a week before the program to tell me that they did not have a family for me.) and I signed in and went to my room.  Two of the girls who are best friends that I met in the airport live down the hall from me so I went to the grocery store to get some things after I unpacked.  

Monday we got our class schedules and had our first day of class.  We also had a mandatory meeting where we found out more about the program and how it works.  

I seem to really like the way this program is set up.  I learned that there are about 600 students in the summer French immersion program (400 Canadians and 200 international stuents).  We also have a bracelet system.  We have to wear a bracelet corresponding with what level we are placed in so other people know our level of French.  There's blue for the beginner levels, red for intermediate, and yellow for advanced and superior.  I am in French Intensive 4 so I have a red one.  Before the program started we got to buy tickets for the paying programs online.  There are things like hikes and tours.  I signed up for something for almost every weekend.  I also learned at the meeting that everyday the program offers at least three free activities to do on campus.  These are things such as movies, soccer, volleyball, and like I'm doing later, a tour of Old Québec.  I really like how organized this program is and am happy with all of the things that I have to do here.  

Even though I am not living with a family, we are forced to speak French.  They have a card system where we receive a green card if we get "caught" speaking French, we get a white card if we do not wear our bracelet, and we get a yellow card if we get caught speaking English.  The class with the most green cards at the end wins a prize.  

As far as classes are concerned, I basically have class every weekday from 8:30 until 12/12:30.  My four credit class I have every day for about two hours and my two one-credit classes are twice a week for about an hour and a half.  We get quite a bit of homework every day but I don't really mind because we are basically condensing a 15 week semester into 5 weeks so I understand.  

We also have two workshops that are mandatory; they are conversation and one of our choice.  The workshop that I chose was dance.  This is another great opportunity for us to have to speak the language and also a great way to meet more people.  

Overall, I think I have less culture shock than when I went to Spain because even though they speak a different language here, it's still in North America and we share a lot of the same customs with Canada.  

Speaking of customs, some of the things that I found out meeting a lot of Canadians is that most of them stay around home for college; they don't venture out across the country like we do.  Also, things here cost a little more, but in reality the exchange rate of $1 USD is equal to $1.30 CAD, so the US dollar has more worth than the Canadian dollar.  

A lot of people ask me how Québec French is different from French in France.  My answer to those people would have been that it's similar to English in a way.  US English is different than British English and Mexican Spanish is different than Spanish in Spain.  That's just because of the ways that different languages develop.  And so the people of the same language can still generally understand one another, but they may use different words and have a different accent.  That's just how it is here too.  I haven't noticed a lot of differences yet in vocabulary, but I did notice how my professors say some words a little differently.  

That has been my week so far and I'm taking a trip to the old part of the city later, so I'll definitely post about that at a later time.  I really think I am going to like this program and that I will achieve my goal of improving my French.