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| Breakfast at Dorothee's with Maria |
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On the way to Quebec I hit a maze of exits in Montreal. I ended up south of the St. Lawrence river instead of on the north side. Once I realized there were no more signs directing me back to the road I needed, I stopped off at a McDonald's, hoping to find someone who spoke English. Only one worker knew enough English to help me. He looked at my google map, asked me to wait a minute, and came back with a new map in his hands. He had gone to the office in the back & printed me a new google map in English. It had directions from the McDonald's to my host's house near Quebec! This was my first taste of Quebecois kindness.
Dorothee, my host, lives in Sainte Foy, a suburb of Quebec. She has a spacious colonial with all the modern amenities. She is a petite lady who's probably in her mid 60's. She has a accounting business and works from home. She feeds us breakfast and dinner, and she feeds us well! (See Maria at breakfast) On my first morning, she walked me to the bus stop on the edge of her neighborhood and gave me a sheet of paper with perfect directions to the school. My route to school passed by lovely stone and brick houses. Most had beautiful doorways and shutters with old world elegance. I soon discovered there's a love for beauty here akin to that of the French. My bus stop turned out to be just outside the wall of the old city. It was much older than I anticipated! I passed through Porte Saint Jean, an old gate to the city. Along the brick street of St. Jean are cafes, creperies, restaurants, pubs, boulangeries, patisseries, and every kind of shop imaginable. My school, Bouchereau Linga, is located in Le Promenade du Vieux Quebec building. It's on a square facing the grand L'Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and it's not too far from Le Chateau Frontenac. La ville est tres belle!
Bouchereau gave me a very brief placement test, all one minute long, and placed me in the advanced beginner French class. Sylvie is my teacher. So far, I have only one classmate named Gozde. She's from Istanbul, Turkey. Normally the classes have a few more students in them, so I thank God for placing me in this small class. I have lots of individual attention and time to speak in class! Ma professeure est tres stricte. I have to ask her for help in french. Gozde is warm and kind. She's shown me around the old city. Here are some pictures of the city.
This week, I had two housemates who were also students at Bouchereau, Julia from Switzerland and Maria from Denmark. (See the picture of Maria and Julia in front of the Chateau Frontenac). I could only understand about 25% of the French they spoke at dinner. But they, along with Dorothee, were eager to teach me new words. Julia just left on Thursday to begin a new job elsewhere in the Provence. Tomorrow, Maria is going back to Copenhagen to begin her semester of Masters classes. She's also looking for internships in West Africa through the Danish embassy. I'm hoping she'll get one in Senegal. Then, we might be able to see each other sometime in 2010 or 2011 while I'm there. :-) Thank you Maria for your awesome pictures! Now, I can actually show my friends Julia (I never got her picture) & some cool spots in the city.
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