Sunday 9th September 2001 Things are starting to look up here and I'm feeling more positive. I've been exploring all weekend and walked for miles between the main tourist attractions - the old lighthouse, the salmon observatory and the bus stop (if that counts). I also went to a party on the beach last night which was really nice - there are 12 Peruvians staying in Matane at the moment (?!) and they were playing music around a campfire. It's been really hot this weekend (apparently record temperatures for September) so it was lovely sitting there by the sea. Then I met one of the Canadian monitors, Fiona, who was really nice and also knows June and Ross (from our happy clan of monitors). She's living at the CEGEP, whereas I ended up in an apartment after all - don't know if this was a mistake or not. Anyway I've been down by the sea most of the afternoon, then went and looked at the Claude Picher art exhibition "Couleurs de la Gaspesie" at the cultural centre. Then my landlord asked me over to his for a BBQ, which would have been nice except I didn't understand a word of what he was saying - his accent is so thick! This posed a particular problem when he started asking me questions, since it meant a response of more than just "oui" was required. After a series of stutterings and stammerings and misunderstandings on my part, he finally turned to me and asked: "Vous desirez combien de [incomprehensible word]?" I gave my standard response of "Pardon?" and he repeated the question, adding "Un, deux, trois?" Still not understanding what this word could be, I chanced it with, "Oh, trois s'il vous plait." It turned out the incomprehensible word was "chien-chaud" (or rather "chaaaaaan chaud" as the Quebeckers say), which meant three revolting greasy hotdogs ended up on my plate, and claiming vegetarianism at the point would have seemed a little bizarre. Luckily I had a little helper hiding under the table, in the form of my landlord's dog, and he didn't seem to much care that this delicious snack might have been derived from one of his relatives. This constant struggle to understand is quite exhausting. Not only is the accent impossible, but the fact that perfectly simple words such as 'le hot-dog' are changed to something completely different doesn't help much either.

Quebec - a year out

Settling in...

Tuesday 18th September 2001 The Wolf River adventure! Went to Riviere-du-Loup this weekend and stayed with Terry and Lisa and lots of other British/Irish monitors. It was brrrrrrilliant! Truly sooper Boff! We went whale-watching on Saturday and saw hundreds of Beluga whales and seals and heard the whales singing! It was just so wonderful! Then we went out of Saturday night and Terry, a Canadian monitor called Leila and myself stayed out till 3 in one of the nightclubs in Riviere-du-Loup (yes! It actually has more than one!!!)