3daysinquebec

It suffices to say that a lot has happened in the last three days of
my life. I went up to Quebec City this weekend with my French class.

We were a very touristy bunch, which kind of brought me down at some points. The thing is, is that the waiters and salespeople could instantly tell that we spoke English, from the bags on our backs, or from scraps of conversation that they picked up that indicated we didn't speak their language. So when we tried to speak to them in our fractured French, they insisted that we spoke to them in English. And it kind of made me realize that we Americans were contributing to the destruction of their culture. While 98% of the people in that city speak French as their native language, it's also required that they learn the English language, because they're such a big tourist spot. There could be a point one day, where it could become an English speaking city, and then slowly turn into nothing more than another victim of America's cultural reign of terror. And I'd feel partially responsible for that.

In any case, what we saw there was beautiful. Here are various pictures of what we saw.

^Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica^


^Montmorency Falls^


^Chateau Frontenac^


^Me with a ticket for a chin^

The buildings were ancient and gorgeous. There were street performers who didn't suck. (I saw a harpist, a pianist, and a guitarist all at different points throughout the day) There was no such thing as an unfriendly person. I don't know. There was something about those streets. I'd kind of like to live up there one day if I can get the money/speak French well enough. I'm definitely going back there sometime soon, by myself, so I can actually speak French.

The one REAL down point of the trip was on the first day. Pretty much as soon as we started our walking tour of the old city, there was a group of kids on top of a wall, who laughed and pointed at us, loudly. It kind of bugged me for a while, but I got over it eventually. Immature children like those deserve no one's attention. A few hours after that, while we were at a cafe, some girls from our group swarmed a waiter and took about 30,000 pictures, which caused a huge scene. The employees were clearly not amused. Nor was I; it was just kind of embarrassing.

But everything outside of that was great.

On the last day, we went into the Galeries de la Capitale for shopping/whatever. I went on the (nothalfbad) indoor rollercoaster there, and picked up two CDs by Canadian bands. Broken Social Scene's self-titled (I didn't get Forgiveness Rock Record because I've previewed some songs and it's nothing great) and Japandroid's Post-Nothing. I'll post my opinions on those later.

I also got an original watercolor painting in this alleyway, an Asterix book, and an alright T-Shirt that says "je me souviens" on it. And also, some really, really good poutine.

Overall, we did 14 hours of driving. 7 hours there, 7 hours back. It was dull, but I made the most of it. Watched a couple of movies, listened to a LOT of music, talked to a lot of people, played Apples to Apples.

Here are some more pictures, then I gotta go do homework and sleep. I'm still kind of bus-lagged.




ALso, before I go, I have to say that there's been a weird coincidence. There's a kind of hazy smoke hanging over the head of my town right now. This is actually from the Quebec wildfires that have been going on. Even though it's 7 hours away, it's still bringing its presence over here Symbolic of something? Probably.

Au revoir, mes amis.

~-~