These are a few of my favourite things!

Hello everyone!

It's been more than two weeks since I've updated my blog. I bet you guys are wondering what I've been up to. It's been quite the experience living here. I'm not going to lie, it's been challenging for me, but I know that I am learning so much every day and that I will be so prepared for adult life in Canada when I get back. I've been doing my own grocery shopping, washing my own clothes in the sink and making myself delicious meals for breakfast lunch and dinner. (No mom, I'm not starving :) I've been outside of Winnipeg for two and a half months! That has been enough time for me to reflect and think about all of the simple things that I took for granted while living there.

Like hockey, snow storms, the sun, the flat landscape, refrigerated milk, my family, my friends, and speaking a language quickly and being understood. 

Hockey - I'm not the only one missing hockey this year. I'm coming home for Christmas(the secrets out!) and hopefully I will get to see at least one game at a local rink to quench my thirst of no NHL this year.

Snow storms - I love the feeling I get when it snows for the first time. I feel like a kid. I get excited and always hope that it will snow so much that everyone gets a snow day. It's the best when you get to stay inside and relax, huddled under blankets knowing that you can't go anywhere. It's great when there's no wind and the snow is light and fluffy. It feels like you're inside a bubble when you go outside because the snow takes away all the noise. I never thought I would say this, but here goes, I miss snow! The leaves are just turning colour and we get clouds almost every day with either fog or rain. Which brings me to my next topic.

The Sun - It's hard to feel energetic and awake when you don't see the Sun for days. Although Winnipeg is way too cold in the winter, at least there is sunshine!

The flat landscape - I always took for granted the flatness of Winnipeg. It really is amazing how flat Winnipeg is. I live right now in Chateau-Thierry. A town that is just outside the region of Champagne. There are many vineyards on rolling hills in valleys. The scenery is beautiful, but it makes walking around a challenge. If I want to go shopping, it's not that far away...on the map! But on the plus side, my legs are getting in shape walking up and down the hills every day. Also to keep my legs strong, did I mention I live on the 4 floor without an elevator as well. But the funny thing about the 4th floor in France, is that it is actually the 5th floor! They call the 1st floor(aka ground level) the rez-de-chausseé. 

Refrigerated milk - I found out shortly after arriving that the majority of the milk in France and many other places in the world, is UHT treated. UHT = Ultra High Temerature. This increases the shelf life and also means that it does not need to be stored in the fridge until opened. It was so weird the first time I saw crates of milk sitting in an isle unrefrigerated. I've tried it and it's just not the same. Lucking there are two brands of fresh milk. You pay a little extra, but it's worth it. I read a little bit on the internet about UHT milk after finding out about it and heard there might be a conspiracy in America that all of the milk is UHT treated, but kept in the fridge for marketing reasons. After tasting the difference, I don't think this is the case in Canada anyway.

My family - Kirsten, Mom and Dad, Nick, Lisa and Dave, Kevin, Danielle and Kona. I think about you guys every day. Can't wait to see you soon! I love all of you and can't wait to hear the exciting stories from Kevin and Danielle travelling around Thailand on their honey moon.

My friends -  I miss all of you! I'm trying my best to stay in contact with everyone. Making phone calls is especially hard because I'm in bed well before evening time in Canada due to the time zone difference. If I don't talk to you soon, I'll see you when I'm home for the holidays :D

And lastly,

Speaking a language quickly and being understood - My French is getting a lot better, but I still have to take time to plan what I want to say, and strategically find a way to say it with words that I know (or gesture to things that are around me). And when I speak English, I've noticed that even those who are fluent don't understand the language the same way that a native speaker of the language does. With all the slang, idioms and proverbs that are second nature when speaking English, I have to take the time to think of sentences that are basic when conversing with people in my language.

It is a great experience being in another country and I am learning so much every day. I am very thankful to have this opportunity and I am very grateful for everything I have back home in Canada. It's getting late and I need some sleep, so I'll leave you with some pictures of my town and Kirsten and I. I have a lot more to say about my last month here. I will try and get some more posts up here throughout the week.

À bientôt!

Stephen

Enjoying the double rainbow!

The school

Guard dog

One of the students plays on a Rugby team. He invited Kirsten and I to come and watch

See you soon!

Paris je t'aime!

I've been in Paris with Kirsten since Friday. We have seen so much in such a short amount of time. I have learned a lot about this city. It's been cold, busy, educational, entertaining, wine filled and at times overwhelming. We are still alive and have met a lot of really great people through couch surfing and will be meeting more tomorrow at an improve show in downtown Paris. We have so many pictures but there's only one that I have time to post right now. It's late and I'm going to sleep right away.

This picture is on the first day of Kirsten and I doing touristy things in Paris. We got some "cougars" to take our picture. They said "Sure, under one condition, you must kiss in the photo, or I'm not taking it." So, voila!

PS - I didn't judge the ladies and call them cougars because of the way they dressed and all the make-up they had on. It was the fact that one of them had been to Paris before and we asked if she knew all of the good places to go, then the other one responded, "actually, she knows where all of the good men are ;) ;)"

Hope you like the photo,

Bon nuit

Stephen

Laon then Paris

Bonjour!

I just got to a town called Laon. I have to see a doctor tomorrow to complete the paperwork for my work visa. We got here late in the evening and it was very quiet at the train station. We had met a couch surfer online and she told us to take what we thought was a train. It turned out to be a train that was more like a roller coaster! Best ride ever. It took us all the way up to the top of a mountain where the couch surfer lives. I will have more pictures for you soon. I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog, and it doesn't help that my vacation starts tomorrow and I'll have even more to talk about after my time here and my time in Paris!

Check it out. It's called the POMA.

À toute à l'heurre!

Stephen

Getting settled in Château-Thierry

Bonjour!

It's been 2 and a half weeks since I landed in France. I almost have all of the paper work done and I'm starting to teach some classes here. It's been really busy figuring out everything about life and teaching in France. Living life here seems fairly normal on the surface, but there's so many difference that you wouldn't notice at first. And those are the things that throw me off the most. Like looking for loose leaf paper and only being able to find graph paper. Trying to find three ring binders and only being given the option of 2 or 4 rings. Finding milk in the grocery store that is not refrigerated. These little things add up.

All the staff here are really nice, but I've noticed it takes time for the people here to warm up to someone new. I'm doing my best to introduce myself to everyone, but I need to spend more time in the teachers lounge and give them opportunities to get comfortable and approach me at their own speed. I've heard that this is common in the French culture, but it is even more pronounced living in a small community. I feel like everyone here knows each other and I think it's hard not to with only 14,000 people in your town. I go out shopping and for dinner and usually see someone from the school, be it a student or a teacher. If you think about it, there's 700 students at the school plus about 50 staff which means that just over 5% of the population is here every day. So, it's really not surprising.

The job itself also has quite the learning curve. I don't have a lot of experience in front of classes and it takes some time getting used to the French school system. The teaching style of the teachers is a lot more strict than what I've seen in Canada as they have a very strict curriculum to follow throughout the year. It makes it hard for the students to open up and learn at a pace that works for them. I've found they really like designating someone as the translator and he or she answers the questions for everyone. It's going to take some work, but I think I'll get them all speaking :)

Aside from getting accustomed to all the different aspects of life in France, I'm enjoying my time here. Thankfully I have a lot of support from family and friends through emails, the two other assistants that I live with are also going through the same struggles. The best part is that Kirsten is here with me through the first month, so I have someone close to relate to while the town gets comfortable with having the new guy around.

And now for show and tell.

Here is a picture of my bedroom. There is a desk a bed a sink and a wardrobe. It is in the high school and it is very much like a student dorm. There are four separate rooms and we share a bathroom, shower and kitchen.

Here is the front door of the school as seen from my balcony.

On one of my first days, the fog rolled in and I thought it was so cool! After a couple days of fog, I realized this is normal weather for my region. It's not cool anymore, I miss the sun!

On my second day here, there was a street market. Many locals had tables set up selling their old junk. I happened to find a lot of children's books to help me learn French. I also found the one thing on my shopping list that I was hoping for. A guitar! I paid 15Euros for a 3/4 sized classical guitar. It wasn't very good, but I put brand new strings on it and it sounds great now!

Here I am with all my purchases in hand.

Here is Vicente with the game of Scrabble that we all bought together. We play it only in French. It makes the game really difficult.

 Here is Nicky with a bunch of books that she bought at the street market. Her French is a little more advanced and she bought some Dan Brown novels and such. I'm quite content with my Goosebumps in French and my French comic books.

Here we are on the only bridge in town.

 And here is the town square. Up on the hill behind the fancy looking building are the remains of the castle. There are quite a few restaurants here and a tiny movie theatre as well. But because the town is so small, a lot of places close early.

I have two more weeks of classes and then I get holidays for two weeks over Halloween. I guess they really like trick-or-treating in France. I'll make sure to get some pictures of Kirsten and I in Paris during our time off. Until then, there's not a lot more to show you from the town, but I'll keep you posted as I experience new things around France.

À plus tard

Later

A day in Paris

Hey everyone!

So as you all know, I made it to Paris, but I was unable to load my pictures. Here are only a handful of the pictures I took while in Paris. First off, thanks again to Yacin for welcoming Sean and I into the country. I don't know what we would have done without him. Here he is in the car waiting for us to grab some tourist photos. He showed us most of Paris in under a day. I was so tired and jet lagged that every time we hopped back in the car I would fall asleep. Thanks again Yacin, we had a great time!

The traffic in France was a crazy experience for me. I'm glad we had a local driving us around, because although there are traffic laws in France, people generally ignore them. Those lines on the road don't seem to mean anything especially for people on motorcycles and scooters. It was hard to capture the ridiculousness of the traffic, but here is what I got. Yacin's "chill" expression while a scooter zoomed around him going into oncoming traffic, then squeezing in between another car and the median. Apparently this is normal and after a couple days here, I see it all the time.

The roundabout that goes around the arc de triomphe is another example of crazy traffic. This roundabount is about 10 lanes wide and doesn't have any lane markings. But as I learned from earlier in the day, no one would use them anyway.

Arc de triomphe

Next is the Notre Dame de Paris. We didn't get a chance to get out of the car and say hi to the hunchback. Maybe I can stop in the next time I'm in Paris.

Next we went to the Luxembourg gardens. I got a nice picture with the sun shining on the building and a storm cloud behind. It started raining on us a few minutes after I took this picture.

Here is the bridge with all the locks on it. Couples get their names engraved on the lock and them lock it to the railing on the bridge. You can see a lot from here, but they go all the way across the bridge. I have holidays at the end of October and will be visiting this bridge with Kirsten to put a lock on the bridge with our names on it. :)

Next the classic pictures in front of the Eiffel Tour.

 

Here I am trying to push over the 3,300 year old Egyptian obelisk called the Luxor Obelisk. Because I am so jet lagged, I cannot make it move an inch!

And the last picture that we got during our day of sight seeing in Paris is of the Louvre at night. Yacin took this beautiful picture while we were driving through the courtyard at night.

Arrivée en France!

Bonjour tout le monde!

After 1 month of travelling I have finally made it to my final destination. Château-Thierry, Picardy, France! I am getting so used to speaking in French that it hurts my brain a little bit to write this blog in English. Never thought that would happen!

I arrived in Paris yesterday morning and it already feels so long ago. I am getting settled in the town where I will be teaching for the year. I have met my co-workers who will be the language assistants for German and Spanish. Nicole and Vincent. Here they are sitting in the local Mcdonalds. It's the only place that we have internet access for now. Hopefully we can use the school's wifi once we get everything set up.

This is a picture of the view from my room. I'm living in a dorm for the language assistants that is provided by the school. It happens to be on the top floor of the school. They tried to sell it to me by saying it's on the 4th floor with a beautiful view, but their's a basement which means we have to go up 5 flights of stairs! Gonna get my exercise. But to be fair, it is truly a beautiful view!

When we arrived in Paris, we were welcomed by a friend of Kirsten's sister. His name is Yacin and he taught French in North Dakota a year ago. He is such a nice guy and we couldn't have asked for a better introduction to France. He welcomed us into his home and his city. After we got of the plane, all tired and jet lagged, we went on a tour of Paris. We saw almost all of the monuments and historic sites in under 8 hours. Here are some of the best pictures from the day.

Having trouble with the internet. But one of the pictures was supposed to be a bridge for lovers. I don't know the name, but you put a lock with your names on it. There are soooo many locks. Soon there will be one with Kirsten + Stephen. That's all for now as we have to catch the bus. I'll try and get back to mcdonalds soon to show you all the pictures.

Bye for now, hope to talk to you guys soon!

Québec, Québec! and more

Hello again, it's been quite some time since I've updated (Almost 2 weeks!). Things are going great, I am having an awesome time and learning a whole lot about the travelling experience. Since my last post I have been all over Québec. Last you heard, I was in Montréal, then Sean and I headed to Québec city, then Saguenay, 3 hours north of Québec city. After one night in Saguenay I decided that I needed to travel on my own for a while and headed back to Montréal. Sean stayed in Saguenay with our friend Gui and thankfully, Kylie allowed me to stay with her for the week in Montréal. It's been great here so far. I now have a feeling of what's it's like to live in this city since I've been here for more than 2 weeks in total already. It really is an awesome place to be. Great people, great public transportation, lots of cool local shops and interesting things to see around every corner. The last couple days there was a movie being filmed right outside Kylie's apartment. Very cool to have a behind the scenes look at a movie being made right from the living room window. We found out that it was for a movie called Red 2 with Bruce Willis, and right as we figured this out, I looked out the window and definitely saw him walk by!

It started with a warning being posted on the apartment door notifying the residence of controlled explosions that would take place during the weekend. Then on Friday a crew showed up to build a large structure in the parking lot, which was followed by countless trailers and a green screen. This is really the only picture that I got since there were trees blocking our view.

While I was in QC, I stayed with my friend Francis. I met him at Festival du Voyageur last winter when he was volunteering there through Katimavik. He stayed at my place for one weekend and was happy to return the favor while we were in Québec. As a student living in a dorm he didn't have a lot to offer, but we were happy to have a place to lay down our heads for a couple nights. 

Here's where we slept.

 My bed is where Francis is standing. 

Sean slept where he is lying.

Francis was in the bed just out of the shot on the right side.

The last picture that I want to share is what my future dog will look like. I have been looking at different breeds and decided in the summer that a Husky/Lab would be really cool. It just so happened that Gui's roommate JM had a Husky/Lab that was 4 months old. Her name is Maggie.

I have two more days in Montréal, then it's off to Toronto to hop on our plane to France. Sean's coming back to Montréal tomorrow and I'm interested in hearing how his week was with Gui. I won't have time to write an update until I'm in France, but, once we get there, I'm definitely going to have lots of stories and pictures to share.

Thanks again to everyone so far who has let us stay a night, or crash for the whole week. This trip wouldn't have been the same without your hospitality.

Until France,

Stephen

One more day in Montréal

Montréal

Hello again, not much has happened since my last post, but there were some pictures I wanted to show you. Last time, I showed you a picture of the tiniest rodent on the streets of Montréal, but I forgot to mention the 3 giant rodents that are in Stephane's apartment. Here is Stanley, the white rat. It was named after a street in Montréal by Sean and I as I was typing this paragraph. I think it suites her.

Stanley

Here is a high rise in downtown Montréal that has remnants of an older building that was once beside it. It looked really cool, so I took a picture. You can even see the chimney if you look close.

Next is a picture of an old cathedral in Montréal. These types of churches are every where in Montréal, so just like the CN Tower in Toronto, you stop taking pictures of them after a day or two because they are so common. I stopped to take this picture on my bike ride home last night because the lighting was epic and the clouds behind it gave it a lot of depth.

Lastly, here was the meal that I prepared tonight. An egg and orange pepper omelette with pasta and some cherry tomatoes. I really liked the way it filled the plate perfectly. Mmmmm, it was so tasty.

Tomorrow's the last day in Montréal for us, and we really don't want to leave. I'm definitely going to make an effort to come back here again. After tomorrow we're on our way to Québec city. I can't believe we're almost half way through our trip around eastern Canada, then it's off to France. 

Au revoir for now,

Stephen

Montréal

Montréal

Bonjour tout le monde!

The last couple days in Montréal have been really great! I love this city. Sean and I have been using Bixi bikes to cruise around the city. Bixi bikes are a rental system that has stations to pick up and drop off the bike that you rent all over the city. It's great because it's SO EASY to get around Montréal by bike. There are bike paths everywhere and so many people on bikes.

Cruising around on Bixi bikes

The first night I got back into Montréal after the meditation retreat, I was having a little trouble sleeping. Stephane decided to get out the nightlight, which casts a glow on the ceiling that looks like waves on the ocean. Sean decided to take it a step further and grabbed a ukelele, then Stephane found some lei's to really set the mood. I was then serenaded with some Hawaiian sounding music. This picture captures the mood.

Here is a random picture of the tiniest rodent in Montréal.

Here is a Montréal pylon with very complementary colours. It stood out to me. 

We spent yesterday walking around downtown. It was crazy windy and raining. Below is a picture of Sean pretending to be Marry Poppins in the wind. While we were out we saw a lot of the town. We also tried to find a pen store for Sean but ended up going to St. Catherine's East instead of St. Catherine's west. This put us in the heart of the gay community in Montréal then it started raining harder than I ever seen. We sought shelter in a coffee shop until the rain cleared up.

This next shot is a piece of art work that has a standing platform to line up all the words properly. If you stand even slightly off center, it is impossible to read.

Later in the evening after we grabbed some dinner, we found a street festival in the Latin quarter and stumbled upon the most hilarious entertainment I have ever seen. It was a group of 3 people all dressed up like really old people. They were amazing actors, great musicians, and had overly detailed props and costumes. They played songs that were well known but with geriatric themes. The coolest prop they had was a crutch that had guitar strings and a pick-up screwed onto it. It actually functioned as a musical instrument! They also had a walker with a keyboard on it and a wheelchair drum set. Check out the pictures to see what they look like. You'll get a taste how awesome it was. Sean and I talked to them after the show and got our picture taken with the "crutch" player.

That's all for now, just gonna be relaxing today. My feet are getting sore from all the cruising around town. I was thinking of watching the Blue Bombers vs. Rough Riders in the Banjo bowl today, but the score at the Labour Day Classic was 52-0 for the Riders. Maybe they can turn things around? Either way, it will be nice to take time to relax then see more of Montréal tomorrow.

Peace,

Stephen