Day 5

Tonight I experience my first club. It was so much fun! I went with alexandra and her friend, Frederik?... not really sure, but it was great fun. When I was walking outside one of my friends from the french exchange, Gabrielle, pulled me aside and said hi. I was uberly stoked to see her since I haven`t seen her for 2 years. Its great seeing people again. This morning I went to Alexandra`s mom`s boyfriend`s house to watch a bunch of planes make the french flag in the sky and then teach them how to say, "French from france" because its like a tongue twister for them I guess. Then we went to pick up alexandra and went out for dinner. Her family made me order in french and speak only french to them to help me learn. I failed though and they ended up speaking english to me and letting me order in english and then they translated.
When i phoned home my fam jam says that i`m starting to get a french accent, but i dont`notice it.
Thats all i can write right now. Its 2:01am and i`m tired. night!

Day 4

I can`t believe I`ve only been here for 4 days. It feels like much longer though. During the day Alexandra is at school and working and so is her mother. Her brother is normally at his dads house or else, these days, at hockey school. He`s pretty good at hockey I must say. Everyday I`m learning more and more french. Its great. I didn`t think i`d pick it up this easily, but who`d-a-thunk-it (as my mother would say). I got my hair cut today. Its shoulder length with a bunch of layers. I`ll stick a picture on later due to my computer doesn`t have internet yet and i don`t feel like putting my pictures on alexandras computer and then deleting them... to much work. Its really super cute as people say though. I like it. Question?? Do you know how hard it is trying to explain to a french hair dresser what you want done with your hair? Well it turned out not how I wanted it, but its still nice. Alexandra and her family have spoiled me since I`ve been here. Alex payed for my hair cut. I offered, but she said no and paid. It was ooooberly nice of her.

Tonight we went to watch Anthony play hockey again. He is not on his normal team, but on the hockey school team. He is the youngest by 2 years and i`m suprised he is on the team, but i guess he is just that good. His team lost 7 - 1. It was dissapointing but overall it was a crazyyy game. If people in Terrace think their teams fight alot, you don`t even know rough until you`ve seen these teams. I will post a video i took later also. Literally after every whistle there was a fight, every time one of the blue boys past a white boy or vise versa they would check them or else close line them and then the crowd and the teams would go wild because it was "so good" and then they would yell in french. Pretty much thats it.

If you were wondering about the hot french boys... well seriously, I think they take every good looking french boy and put them in hockey and thats where you find them. I was looking at their team photos and couldn`t keep my mouth shut... well i did but you get the expression (if you don`t, look it up).

Today I actually could communicate with a french person. They bumped into me, said hello, how are you doing, and i replyed. I felt proud. 1 point for me! This is going to be a good year i hope. People are betting on whether or not I will get an accent, but i think not. I guess we`ll see : )

Until tomorrow, Choi!

p.s. Is my blog or the side parts in french? When i view it, it is, but is it for you or is it in english?

Day 3

Today was a great day. Time really does fly here. I took millions of pictures, watched a movie in french, a gout de nouvelle... i think.... , did the dishes (well loaded the dishwasher and turned the dial to make it go), phoned telus and had a 20 minute arguement, and then waited for Alexandras dad to pick me up. I phoned telus asking about their one number unlimited. When i called the first time they said that I could use the number on the back of the calling card (1-866-378-7166) as my one number unlimited. It only took 20 minutes to figure out if I could actually do it. In the end she said that I could. I was really happy because then it wouldn`t charge me 25¢ each time i used the calling card on my phone. Tonight when I went to get the Unlimited one number on my phone, the lady said that I couldn`t use it because it was a Toll Free number (even though it costs me 25¢ to use). I got frustrated and told them that they had just said this morning that i could use the number as my One number unlimited but I guess the telus lady who only spoke a bit of english with a strong punjabi accent was wrong.
*Note to self: Ask for the manager or someone who speaks english fluently that doesn`t say your name 50 billion times in a sentance that knows what they are talking about.

So in the end I have to use the pay phones that will hopefully be at my school all the time if i want to make a phone call instead of using my cell phone which would be much faster and i could have a private convo with people. Maybe my room mate will have a long distance plan on her phone that i could use... we can only hope.

We then went to his house, sat around for a while, then they took me out for dinner to Boston Pizza. Do you know how hard it is to find what you want to eat when everything is in french? You think it might be easy, but really is so difficult. I stared at the pictures hoping something would look good, but in the end it didn`t, so I looked at the appitizers and saw,"Pain pizza bandera" meaning in english Bandara Bread. Then the next task was trying to pronounce it and ask for extra sauce. They never understood my extra sauce part due to my french skills are very bad, but I`m learning. I learned Caterpiller and Butterfly and Spicy (épicee). Thankfully Alexandras family loves me enough to say that, "Perogy épicee" was Spicy Perogy pizza otherwise my mouth would have died. After dinner we went to Wal*Mart for Shampoo, conditioner, rasoir (is that french spelling or english... i can`t really remember), binder, pens, pencil, sharpener, paper... etc. Basically everything I needed that I couldn`t bring on the plane because of weight restrictions. Ohhh and my pencil case is the best. Its yellow with rainbows and suns on it... Its pretty much the best thing next to sliced bread. Anthony, Alexandras brother (the one who I`m staying with), just laughed at me when he saw me pick it out, but whatever it works. After we went back to Alexandras dads house, watched Valkyrie (which was in english... took forever to find though) and now going to bed. Its 12:00am. Good night!

p.s. TOMORROW IS MY HAIR CUT AND MONDAY I GO TO THE SCHOOL!!

August 26 (english is starting to get mixed up and can't remember how to spell most words)
I thought the time change would really hit be me but it hasn't. Quebec has got to be one of my favorite places on earth now. Not only is it my new home, but its beautiful. I guess you don't need mountains for a town to be beautiful. Today I went to an amusement park with Alexandra and her friends Steven, Chris, and I forget the girls name. Note to self... people in quebec drive incredibly fast. I'm not used to slow driving... well it would be a big shock to my mother (hi mom!). Yeahh the slowest people go is like 90 or 100... I'll give it 100. No one drives standard that i've seen, there fore I can't drive because I'm to scared to ask anyone if they will let me drive their car. I practiced my french skills today and found that I suck badly. Afterwards we went back to Alexandras, got dressed, then went out to dinner to some resturant and her brother, anthony, play hockey. His team lost in over time 4 – 3. It was kinda funny. There was one guy trying to syke Anthonys team out by yelling like he was George of the Jungle. It gave Alexandra and I a good laugh. Then the parents were yelling at their kids in french and it just amused me because I never understood anything they said besides “bete!” pronouned like “bite” , in the english language, meaning STUPID. I was like, ohhh snap.
For dinner I had poutine with BBQ sauce instead of gravy. It was actaully really yummy. I recremmend it to anyone that goes to Quebec, but once you get full, don't try and finish your plate otherwise you will end up with massive stomach pains. I was the lucky one to experince it. At the game felt really sick and had massive stomach pains but me being the smart one left my ibuprofen at the house I'm staying at. After the hour long drive back to the house I felt fine for around 10 minutes. Then the pain came back and I ran and got my drugs. They are basically my life saving heros now. Now I'm going to finish putting music onto my phone and then go to sleep.
Peace love and baby gap from QUEBEC!! my home land : )
p.s. Do you know how difficult it is using facebook when it is all in french?

Soon to be my blog

I have all my posts saved on my computer and i shall post them on here once i get to school. Here you can see how i`m doing and what i`ve been up to.

Choi!

august 25

Today I started my adventure to Quebec. I spent 2 days in Prince George with a friend, Alexis, that I met/staffed at cadet camp in 2008. When you're staff you aren't supposed to be friends with your cadets, but I just clicked with her and we became “secret” friends. This summer I saw her again and it was great fun. When I found out I had to go to Prince George, I called her up and asked to stay there and then it was set. My brother got married on August 22 and I left the 23rd with my sister Jen. I didn't cry leaving Terrace and saying by to my parents, due to it not really hitting me yet, but when Jen dropped me off in Prince George at Alexis's house and was saying by, it really hit me that I was on my own now, done with my teenage life, and finally realized my adult-ish life was starting. When Jen started holding me, I started to cry, not just a normal cry, but the ugly cry. The one where your eyes just pour out tears and your nose starts to run and you can't breathe properly... yeah that one. I miss my sister. Growing up we always nattered at eachother.. wait they nattered at me. I was the angel :) But really, now that we are older I get along with my sister and brothers. It was hard seeing Brandon get married because now I'd never live with him again, (well I would but it wouldnt' be the same... maybe i'd live with them depending on where they are living.) But yeah, I'm super close with my siblings. Its super sweet talking to them and hearing about their stories of when they were teens and then them giving me advice on what to do with relationships and hard times.
On the way to Prince George Tamara was talking about Prayer and now helpful it is. I was telling her about how when I get to Quebec I need to find the right bus that will take me to Ste-Foy where my friend Alexandra, I'll explain her in a minute, was going to pick me up. Tamara told me to just pray to God and hope that He will take care of it. So I sat in the back of the van and prayed asking him to provide for me all the people and the vehicles necessary to get me from Montreal Airport to the bus station and then to Ste-Foy bus station. After Jen dropped me off at Alexis's I went inside her house, put down my bags, and then got a text message from Alexandra saying that her uncle and aunt were going to pick me up from the airport and bring me to the bus station. I was like, AMEN!! So Alexis and I hung out for the rest of the day, went quading the next, and the next I left. This morning we got to the airport at 6 am. Early much? Yeah I know. When I went to check in my bags, the good looking man at the counter looked at me and was like, “Erica?” I looked at him and was like, “(you know my name? You're good looking!) Yupperz” He possibly knew my name since I had just told a person I knew (my uncles girlfriend/fiancee.. not sure what she is) that I was going to Quebec, and I was probably the only one flying out of Prince George that was connecting on another flight and going to Quebec, BUT THATS BESIDES THE POINT! He knew my name :) Anyways, I then put my bags on the weight scale and one weighed 46 pounds and the other was 58 pounds.... HOLD THE BUS! THATS A TON OF WEIGHT!! I was like ,uhh how much is that going to be with over weight? He said $46.00. :O hollla. He was then like, “I'm not going to make you pay because you'd just switch over the weight and it would be to much of a pain, and I know you will have to pay more coming back, so I'm just going to let it slip.”
Not only is he hott, but hes nice too! I knew that it all happened because of prayer. Tamara is my hero. My prayer hero. So yeah. I hoped onto my plane, and took off to Vancouver. I sat in that Airport for 2 hours before boarding my 30 minute delayed airplane for my 4 hour 25 minute plane ride to Quebec. I'm not going to lie, it was the most boringist (that even a word?) plane ride ever. I sat there while the person beside me, not knowing if she spoke english since not many people did on my flight, listened to her ipod and read her VOGUE magazine. She was super pretty and had aviatior frames with glasses lenses in them. She had just gotten foot sergery and was out for a year, not able to do much exercize, and she was wearing a Air-Cast (ie. Moon boot). On the plane ride i look 50 pictures, and watched 3 shows. Britians next top model, where they had a photo shoot nude, Cyberchase, where hacker had gigabit and was trying to make him come back to life with the sun, but then the measly-metal-headded kids saved the day by blocking out the sun and Cyberchase was saved... like it always is. Then I watched some Franklin and some baby show where the lady couldn't have the baby properly so they took these tweazer looking things and put them on the baby's head and pulled out the baby. Then I listened to my iPod and fell asleep and woke up to the sound of my Favorite flight attendant telling us we were starting to land. Why he is my favorite?? His safety speach is so funny. He was like, “Unless you're a pony or a horse, you will need to wear your seatbelt.” and “The floor will light up if there is a fire, or else if we just want to have a runway” and “Now you're safety breifing will be done in french. Sorry if it is a bit high pitched as I do have a bad cold.” Then he clicked play for the french to come on and mimiked it as though he was doing it, when it was a woman speaking. Yeahh pretty much he is my favorite.. His name is Carmen and he seemed very female I would say. When we landed I found my way around the airport to the bag recovery place and found my bags, one that was beaten and zipper handles missing off of it, and then went out on a search to find Alexandras Uncle and Aunt who were picking me up from the Airport. They were super nice people, but the Uncle knew slim to none english and the Aunt knew some. People there kept speaking to me in french, even though I didn't understand and told them so, but i found the bus station, got a bus ticket, didn't have to pay for my bags there either, and hopped on the bus where I sat for 3 hours. Then I arrived in Ste-Foy where Alexandra was. It was great seeing her again.
So how I know Alexandra? In grade 11, 2007/2008, the grade 11's that were going into french the following year and the grade 10's that were in french, got to go on a french exchange with the SEVEC program. Alexandra was my twin (french partner in crime) and we were really good friends. Out of all the people that went on the exchange I think we were the only ones that kept in contact. Shes super nice and is going to hair cutting school.
Well that was my adventure of the day. Couldn't have done it without prayer!
I'll try update this blog as much as possible.