Comings and goings

There are a lot of comings and goings these days. I went for a stroll in the old city and saw signs of a few things to come:

 The Patrick’s day parade (Défilé de la Saint Patrick) – set for March 22. Quebec is a little behind other places that had their parade today (March 16).

There is also a Red Bull Crashed Ice context next weekend. A crew was putting together the stage and track.

According to the Red Bull web site the track starts further down the old city and it goes over walls, around corners and includes a 9 foot gap here by the finish line. The race itself reminds me of roller derby – but on ice.

 

I am going to my first concert this coming week. It is scheduled the same night as choir practice – which is too bad, I enjoy the choir. But - in a stroke of luck - I found out today that our choir practice had to be moved to Thursday so I won’t miss it after all! 

At school there are comings and goings as well. Two new students came to the “5-7” (cinq à sept) pub night. One is a teacher from Windsor and the other a doctor from San Francisco. Both are on vacation for the week and decided to spend it here. We also met the new director of the school on Friday. I think there was some kind of shake-up in the administration. Some of our class times might change as well a shift within the classes. 

A few classmates said “au revoir” this week. Luciola (centre) went back to Brazil on Monday. She hopes to immigrate to Canada in a year’s time or so.

 

And Keyla (2^nd from left) finished class on Friday. She is staying in Québec for the next couple of weeks to see more of the area and visit friends in Montréal before going back to Brazil.

 

I think of the people who have come in and out of my life, too. I have so much to be grateful for. Each person has contributed something to me. And perhaps I have contributed something in return. Luciola commented on how hospitable the Canadians were to her. Maybe that’s something that is part of our psyche – welcoming others.

A sign of that appeared this weekend. One of the reasons I came to Quebéc was because Mom’s family settled here from Normandy. They were looking for a new life, too. Walking down an unfamiliar street I came across this place.

 

 The whole street is filled with old homes turned into mini hotels. Now that the old families have gone, their homes are still a place of hospitality to strangers – 350 years later.

Notre Dame Basilica is marking this 350^th anniversary with a series of event – one of them being the installation of a “holy door” this past December. I have been in the church a couple of times, but never looked for the door until yesterday.

There is a simple “garden” leading to the door – pictures of different virtues to meditate on before entering the door.

 

 

 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but the door itself is really very simple.

On the other side of the door is another series of images.

 

You go through to a small prayer chapel that contains a reliquary in front of a large statue of Jesus.

 

 

(For those who don’t know what a reliquary is, it is a small container that holds something from a holy person as a perpetual reminder of them). Two plaques listed the names of some of the people connected to this area and I suspect that some of their relics are on display.

 

 

I have been here just over two months. The studies are going well, even as I realize it is more challenging than I thought it would be. We are still doing work on pronouns. I get the theory of it – tonight I worked on a chart formulating different sentences (affirmative and negative) using direct and indirect pronouns in the présent, passé composé and futur proche tenses. I understand their structure  (which was the goal of the exercise) but using it in conversation will be the challenge. This really is a key piece to the language.

I have spent time watching tutorial lessons on the internet – on TV5 Monde. There are different levels of study with a large variety of lessons. Each lesson contains a video clip and different exercises. Again the most difficult part is understanding the spoken word. I replay the videos over and over again to get the sense. There is a written transcript as well when I really can’t figure it out.

Being here is the best way for me to learn the language. Being surrounded by all things French and with people who really want to learn and others who really want us to succeed it a great blessing. A good week.