6/09/2012
The day began at 6am when all the Assistants piled into two yellow school buses that took us in to town to get our health insurance cards. The offices had opened early especially so that they could deal with all 60 of us at one time.
After this we had lot of meetings about what we were going to be doing in Quebec and our role as an Assistant. We went through dos and don’ts and played a few games that we could use in the classroom.
We finished at 4.30 and I called up Daphne immediately, grabbed Jen and Anika and we headed off to Mont Royal. The shuttle bus from the hotel to the metro station wasn’t working, but luckily Daphne had shown me how to get the bus from the hotel and we were with Daphne within 15 minutes. Daphne bumped into another son of one of her friends on the bus who was studying Political Sciences. This was quite a coincidence since at the meetings we had been strictly forbidden from talking about the political situation in Quebec. I’m still not entirely sure what the entire extent of it is, but something to do with some people in Quebec not wanting to be a part of Canada anymore. From what I gather from Stephane (my mentor), Quebec is quite Conservative.
We took the bus up the mountain after the boys’ recommendation not to try and walk up it. After a short walk through the wilderness we reached the view point, which allowed us to see over the whole of Montreal. We also found some racoons while we were walking! Stephane told me I should have shot them and made a hat out of them!
(I don't know how to make the photo portrait on here!)
We walked further along the mountain and by the time we had reached the next view point, it was sunset and we were lucky enough to have a front row seat to it. Daphne got chatting to some men that passed by and they were all keen to talk to us in English and about what we were doing over here.
After this we went to ‘Le Platau’ at Mont Royal, which was quite similar to Camden in the way that there were lots of boutiques and arty cafés. We tried Putine here for the first time as it is the national food of Quebec. It consists of chips, gravy and cheese. I can’t say I totally enjoyed it as it was really stodgy, but at least I tried it!
(Annie and Jen eating Putine)
Anika, Jen and I then went to the Irish bar where we met the other Assistants. It was called Hurley’s and was at Metro Guy Concordia on Rue Crescent. It was nothing like an Irish Pub at home. It was on 3 floors and was incredibly spacious with some kind of guitar band practice going on in one of the little alcoves, which was pretty cool.
We left the bar once the other Assistants had finished eating and headed back to the hotel. The ERASMUS students amongst us headed to the off-licence for some wine/vinegar. Ahhh…memories! We went back to the hotel and ended up in the boys’ room doing voice overs of slapstick Indian/American films that were on the hotel’s TV channel and learning the Northern Irish equivalent for standard conversation. Plus, one of the guys was from Belfast, which made it even more amusing. Perhaps this is one of those moments that you had to be there for.
Here’s the link, just for giggles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unGtpBP83as
After we had exhausted the Irish accent and were feeling the effects of the early start, mountain climbing and a few at the pub, we all kipped in.
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