Finding My Feet. Ish.
So I left Montreal on Friday just after lunch. To tell you the truth, I was pretty gutted. Whilst I hadn't fallen in love with Montreal the way I kinda expected I would, I'd totally and completely fallen for the group of assistants I met. It's crazy how much you can bond with people in three days, when you're all thrown into the same situation: you don't know anyone, you're in a foreign country, the locals don't speak your first language (even though we could all speak French), you have an interest in languages. Within three days, I felt like I'd known people for months, we even had in-jokes. But we're all like a million miles away from each other now, so enough about that.
So I was picked up on Friday by my 'responsable', the teacher who will look after me whilst I'm working at the school. I've stayed with her for the past couple of days. She's such a nice woman, and she speaks to me in English, which is a relief. I've heard so much French these past few days, it's nice to come home to English. She is from South America originally, so the house speaks a mixture of French and Spanish, and also English now I'm here. Her husband speaks English too, though like me with French, he is sometimes a bit shy to speak it. She has three young kids, who, typically, scream and shout a lot. And I mean, a LOT.
Anyway, so my first night there, she offers me tartare for tea - raw beef. So I end upeating raw beef with fries (surprisingly good), before her friend arrives with a Canadian assistant. I even managed a sentence of French, so clearly I need to drink before I try and speak French. Anyway, I got to meet Glenna that night, who comes from Manitoba. She invited me out for lunch, so I invited Alice, another English assistant along.
So we had lunch in this super cool cafe called Cosmos on Grande-Allee which is like this crazy long street with lots of pubs, bars, restaurants and night clubs. I had 'crepes divine' - pancakes with strawberries and bananas covered in chocolate sauce. Good, but N. American portions are so disgustingly big. I was defeated big time by it.
Anyway - then we went to the "mall". I will never get used to American lingo. Anyway, the shopping over here is pretty decent. The Michael Kors shop might destroy my soul though. Too many beautiful handbags.
On the way home, I didn't know what I'd be doing for food - so Glenna offered to cook for me. I ended up at her place, where she's staying with a teacher too. She cooked some good Indian food for me, then gave me my first ice cream sandwich - for all you Brits, it's like an ice cream between two soft cookies. So amazing. We also watched the first Sex and the City movie - in French. Surprisingly easy to follow. I then had to find my way, for the first time, from the bus stop home. In the dark. It started thundering, it was not ok. (I have since done this journey a couple of times and it's not scary anymore).
Then today Alice and I met up with Myriam, a French language assistant in Britain last year. She gave us a tour round Old Quebec. Old Quebec is so beautiful, but also incredibly French. Plus we have found the Irish bars, so I hope to visit them at some point. Or all the time. We then had our first house viewing together, which we loved and we're moving in tomorrow! It's not that it isn't nice here, because it totally is, and my teacher is so so nice, but I'm not really feeling at home here. I don't cook for myself, and I can't let myself in the house or anything, so I feel a bit like a spare part.
ANYWAY
I know this has just been a bit of a rant but it's just to fill in on what I've been doing the past few days. I'll try and blog with more fun stuff. Traaaaa
So I was picked up on Friday by my 'responsable', the teacher who will look after me whilst I'm working at the school. I've stayed with her for the past couple of days. She's such a nice woman, and she speaks to me in English, which is a relief. I've heard so much French these past few days, it's nice to come home to English. She is from South America originally, so the house speaks a mixture of French and Spanish, and also English now I'm here. Her husband speaks English too, though like me with French, he is sometimes a bit shy to speak it. She has three young kids, who, typically, scream and shout a lot. And I mean, a LOT.
Anyway, so my first night there, she offers me tartare for tea - raw beef. So I end upeating raw beef with fries (surprisingly good), before her friend arrives with a Canadian assistant. I even managed a sentence of French, so clearly I need to drink before I try and speak French. Anyway, I got to meet Glenna that night, who comes from Manitoba. She invited me out for lunch, so I invited Alice, another English assistant along.
So we had lunch in this super cool cafe called Cosmos on Grande-Allee which is like this crazy long street with lots of pubs, bars, restaurants and night clubs. I had 'crepes divine' - pancakes with strawberries and bananas covered in chocolate sauce. Good, but N. American portions are so disgustingly big. I was defeated big time by it.
Anyway - then we went to the "mall". I will never get used to American lingo. Anyway, the shopping over here is pretty decent. The Michael Kors shop might destroy my soul though. Too many beautiful handbags.
On the way home, I didn't know what I'd be doing for food - so Glenna offered to cook for me. I ended up at her place, where she's staying with a teacher too. She cooked some good Indian food for me, then gave me my first ice cream sandwich - for all you Brits, it's like an ice cream between two soft cookies. So amazing. We also watched the first Sex and the City movie - in French. Surprisingly easy to follow. I then had to find my way, for the first time, from the bus stop home. In the dark. It started thundering, it was not ok. (I have since done this journey a couple of times and it's not scary anymore).
Then today Alice and I met up with Myriam, a French language assistant in Britain last year. She gave us a tour round Old Quebec. Old Quebec is so beautiful, but also incredibly French. Plus we have found the Irish bars, so I hope to visit them at some point. Or all the time. We then had our first house viewing together, which we loved and we're moving in tomorrow! It's not that it isn't nice here, because it totally is, and my teacher is so so nice, but I'm not really feeling at home here. I don't cook for myself, and I can't let myself in the house or anything, so I feel a bit like a spare part.
ANYWAY
I know this has just been a bit of a rant but it's just to fill in on what I've been doing the past few days. I'll try and blog with more fun stuff. Traaaaa
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