hm...slight change of plans
Alright, it is 615 here, and we have decided not to go out and watch the fireworks. We are just going to stay home and watch movies (in French of course).
But hopefully, I will put some pictures up from our little trip to the Aquarium tonight.
The past 4 days.....
hi everyone,
I know i haven't blogged in 4 days. That was because I spent most of my time studying for 3 midterms (2 oral, 1 written). Thanks for all your prayers, God gave me peace during my exams, and we know how i did next week.
Today, my housemates and I are going out to see an aquarium and a museum. Later tonight, we will go and see fireworks.
Monday...............the day of reviewing French in preparation for the Midterm!
That is my life today....i spent some time reviewing french and spending time with some of the people here.
Sunday.....
Alright,
Yesterday I went out to Old Quebec, and that was fun. However, that wasn't the only activity that i did, because we went out again after dinner to see some fireworks! Every year, Quebec City hosts a fireworks contest that representatives from different countries compete for a prize. Last night, the team who put together the fireworks were representing Spain. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will see other countries like Canada and China competing to win the prize. (i have no idea what the prize is).
Pictures in general
I know many of you have facebook, and thats where I will put the majority of the pictures now because there is no bandwidth limit. I will contiune to put the important and carefully chosen pictures on Flickr.
WOW,,,, haven't posted in 4 days.....
HI everyone,
It has been a while since i blogged. Let me tell you that life has been pretty busy here. My
schedule this week was: Waking up/Devos,BF, School, LUN, doing activities @ school, DIN, hmwk, sleep. I wish i was exagerating, but this was my life this past week. I can definitely tell you that my French has improved, but I haven't been able to go out much because of all the work I had to do.
Thankfully, Saturday came along.
Today I was able to go to Old Quebec and take a couple hundren pictures. I will choose a few and put them on Flickr. (They have a bandwidth limit per month). It was cool to see a bit of history here, many historical sites have been here for over 200 years.
One final note is that on weds or thurs, I will be doing my midterm, it is a oral presentation! Please pray for me!
So......tired....
hi everyone,
The last
couple of days were quite busy with French homework, but today... we got much more to work on! I like learning French, but right now I am quite drain from all the French homework and learning that I did today.
Hopefully,, Tomorrow I will get more time to blog and put more pictures up.
Well, today was just one of those days where I spent time learning French and trying to use it in daily life. Not much is happening here at the moment, although it is raining.
Sunday updates....
Hi All,
Today, I went to one of the Alliance churches here. It was a small church held inside a school. The service was not different from the other Alliance services that I have been to in the past. What is so neat about this church is that it is all in French. I of course, do not understand French, so it was difficult for me to understand when we were praying, doing communion, etc. Of course that is expected, and that's what I have been trained to expect, but to be there and listen to 2 hours of French and not understand more than a word or a phrase at a time is quite frustrating. It was also a bit embarrassing this morning, because when I went inside the church, I went up to a group of people and asked them if they spoke English! I keep kicking myself after that because what I should have said was "hello, my name is Wilbert, and I speak English" in French. (I could say that in French). The hardest thing to do here is to use French because I can always get by with English, and people are very understanding. However, my French is not going to improve if I speak English. It is so hard to speak French when you know you have a backup language that you can use.
One week mark....
hello everyone,
Today marks the first week that I have been in Quebec City! It has been exciting and fun so far....exploring the French language....The one thing that has crossed my mind is that learning the language is quite slow. I can only say a couple of phrases at the moment and my responses to questions are very limited. Nevertheless, i do notice an improvement everyday to French.
Pictures!
Hey all,
I have upload a few of my pictures on to Flickr
you can check out the link here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9846792@N04/
More on the way!
some changes....yes....
hi all,
After two days, my class switched teachers, classrooms and class schedule! To say the least, I was a bit suprised because I didn't expect so many changes to happen in one day. O well, Life is still the same. I am starting to understand some more phrases and a few more words.
Aside from those changes, today was quite uneventful. Other than doing some homework and speaking French, not much is happening here.
I had a soup and French toast for dinner tonight. I do not cook my meals here, my host has to prepare the meals, but to be honest I was expecting a little more French style food. Nevertheless, the food here is good.
Bonjour, Je m'appelle Wilbert! (hello, my name is Wilbert)
Hi all,
Today, was just another usual day with school and just spending time with the people that I currently share the house with. French is quite difficult for me, but God has given me great French teachers who help me everyday. By teachers, I do not mean just in the classroom, but just everywhere I go, people are friendly and very patient with my very limit phrases. I know I wrote this in my last post, but learning another language enables me to understand the ESL students better. All the grammar, sentence structure and pronunciations take so much time. My host was SO happy when I said "hello, my name is Wilbert" in French!
I took some pictures of Laval, which I will upload sometime this week. It is a huge campus. I was talking with someone that goes to the UofA and he said that this campus is bigger! Of course, the building that I am in most of the time is already bigger than my university!
Ow....my head hurts
The first of many classes started today. I was in the beginner class and the professor spoke French the entire time. I have help teach ESL classes and I have attended many seminars on language study, so I understand that creating a French only speaking environment is the only way that I will understand and speak French. It is still quite a slow and hard process (hence the title).
There are two French Programs that Laval offered this year, one was the French immersion program (It is the one that I am in) and the other is called Explore. The neat thing about Explore is that you get a $2000 bursary so your entire trip is paid for! (not including Reg Fees and flights) So if your interested in learning French, all the details are here: http://www.jexplore.ca/english/program.html
ah...Monday.
hello Everyone,
Today, I went to Laval University to do a placement test and to get a photo taken for my ID card. I had never taken French before, but I still had to do a placement test. I am learning a few french words here and there, but not enough to form a complete sentence, hopefully, I will be able to say something at the end of this week.
The people who I live with are very helpful, they would say a phrase in French and then repeat it in English so that I'll understand. I live with an older lady who has taken 5 French students (including me). To give you an idea of how big this house is, there are 3 washrooms, 2 kitchens and about 10 bedrooms!
It is hard learning the language, I started
writing words down so i could
pronounce some of these words/phrases better. But to be honest, I am not use to writing down words. O well, it does enable me to understand the words better.
Bienvenue Ville de Québec!
hello everyone,
At 915pm (local time) yesterday, I arrived safely at my host's place in Quebec City. One thing that stood out immediately was that most if not all the public signs were in French! I was told that it was like this in Quebec City, but to see it first hand is quite different. I do understand some of signs but I am not used to reading French words everywhere i go.
Taxis, Buses and Intersections
The taxis and buses here go really fast! I took the taxi from the Airport to the host's place, and we were going about 36km over the speed limit! The buses aren't slow either, I had to hold on to the railing every time we made a turn, or stop. I have noticed a few differences with the lanes here. They have a specific lane just for bikes! I think that is so cool and we should get some in Alberta! The way that traffic works here is also a little diferent because when pedestrians cross the road, all the cars stop, even if the cars are going the same way as the people. I found that a little strange because I am not used to looking at all the cars that stopped so I could cross the street.
I am truly blessed to have Internet access at this home for the next 5 weeks. So I will try to blog daily. Tomorrow I will be at Laval University for registration, and doing my placement test because apparently they lost my other one. Laval sent me an email link for the test and they said I would only have to enter and exit the test if I was a beginner. I don't know how they could have lost that, but O well I'll just tell them that my French consists of "Bonjour".
Almost there.
hello everyone,
It has been a while before I updated this blog, first of all, i am leaving in 2 days to Quebec City. Praise God that i have a place to stay during my French studies and after my time at Laval University. I am almost packed! This is going to be an exciting experience!
