3, 2, 1 ... Terre-Neuve!

3 days, just 3 days!!! The packing has begun as of Tuesday night. I simply couldn't wait any longer. My justification was that Friday would be too busy and Saturday is the day I leave, so naturally Tuesday night made the most sense, packing-wise. Today (Wednesday) I continued on and have over half of my things ready to go. I think this is the most organized I've ever packed coming home from a trip. I guess that's because I'm only too happy to be leaving.

Okay, so the organization isn't really obvious in this picture, but I swear, those suitcases are packed down to a science!

It's interesting to note that everyone I've spoken to thinks it's ridiculous that I have 4 suitcases. Apparently, that's not normal...

Over the past week myself and two other students have been working on a project for our Educational Games workshop. The project is called a "Chasse aux Photos" which basically means we have a list of stuff we need to take pictures of, with us in the the pictures too. It's a lot of work with no real value. Lovely.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures of the project:

On our hunt we found this little monster. Over 10 lbs!

I touched it! Kayla was too afraid.

And finally, the sign with which every Anglophone visiting the region of Clare wants a picture:
(*Note: I totally just rearranged the previous sentence so it didn't end in a preposition. My French grammar skillz are transferable apparently, although I am forgetting how to spell in English lately.)

Grosses Coques

This is hilarious to English-speaking people. In reality "coques" are a type of seafood famous to the region.

And that's all for now!

THREE DAYS. NOT EXCITED AT ALL.

really.

:)

L'organisation, ça fait rien.

Well, there's only 5 days left and I am anxiously awaiting my return to the rock.

This weekend was okay; it's wasn't great but it also wasn't totally awful. Aside from the fact that the university is unable to effectively organize or plan an outing, I'm not completely sorry I went. On Saturday we went and saw the whales. They were pretty amazing and I'm not much for marine wildlife. They're definitely better than the ones we see in NL. Much more variety here.

I was cold... surprise.

The whale was slapping his fin against the water.

Here he's rolling over.

Blowing off some steam.

On Sunday we went to Port Royal and Grand Pre (two famous Acadian sites). The trip was LONG. A total of 4 hours on a bus and I was ready to lose my mind. The historical sites were all right; I've seen better but I'm not sorry I went.

Port Royal: A reconstruction of the first Acadian settlement in NS.

Grand Pre: A church erected near the place where the Acadians were deported.

There was Acadian festival going on. Good French music!

And finally, last night the head monitor, Luc Tardif, who is a well-known Acadian singer/song-writer played for us. The concert was great!

That's all for now. See you all on Saturday night!

Ici nous acceptons toutes les alcooliques...

Two looonnnggg posts coming up! One today and one Sunday night (Monday at the latest).

This week our entire residence went out for supper in Yarmouth for our residence party. We went to a place called Rudder's which is a lovely seafood restaurant on the bay. Here are a few pictures. The one of the table is only half of our group. There was another table exactly like that one. I'm sure there were well over 40 people there.

Also this week I managed to take a few pictures of my classes. The second one is of my grammar prof dressed as a cheerleader. Someone from the university newspaper dressed him up for the photo. I'm not sure why...

Kayla, myself, and Brian. He's an American teacher who's just beginning to learn French. He's such a nice person.

And this evening we went again to Lance aux Belliveau for seafood, wine, and music. This first picture was a bit of a joke as all the Newfoundlanders here drink their wine straight from the bottle (no glasses required). Tres classy, n'est pas? This one bottle of wine has lasted me over two weekends and I STILL didn't finish it. I'm such a lightweight. One glass of wine = bedtime for me.

The second picture is of François, my prof, playing with the band while his 2-year-old daughter watches on. 

Awesome car dad would LOVE.

And finally, a little clip from the always entertaining information sessions. This was taken today. Tomorrow night is Halloween night and the monitors gave a little demonstration. Enjoy!

Talk soon,

Robyn

Le brouillard partout

This week flew by really fast and thankfully so did the weekend. On Saturday night there was an 80s party. Some of the costumes were quite good and definitely hilarious. Here's a few pictures:

Rockin' the scrunchie

Kevin, the monitor in our residence Beaulieu 1.

Luc, the head monitor for the summer program.

Attractive, I know.

Today I reluctantly tried the beach again and my to my surprise (and contentment) it was foggy! It was really strange because the weather was warm but there was such thick fog it was hard to see the water. Once we walked out into the fog we couldn't even see back to where our towels were.

I discovered in addition to being unable to run, I also can't jump.

                       

There are people in that fog! This would give the East End a run for its money.

And so begins week three tomorrow! Only 13 more days until Newfieland.

Les petits bois

In the woods near my residence I have discovered some super friendly, super competitive squirrels. A friend of mine told me about them the other day. She said she had been feeding them from her hand, so of course I had to go check this out for myself. Here's a video of myself and her attempting to feed the squirrels. Make sure you turn your volume up all the way for this one! Enjoy!

On another note, the bites continue... at least not at night any more. When I went to feed the squirrels today I wore long pants, a sweater,  and insect repellent and STILL got 2 bites through my jeans. I swear, these mosquitoes up here are mutant. I'm sure they have some sort of long-lasting poison that they inject into you because the bites are extremely irritated and last for days...even more than a week sometimes. I also got another one on my back today and it's huge! I feel like I'm living in Africa not Nova Scotia.

Mes matins sont vraiment fous

The best part of the day here at Universite Ste-Anne is the information session at 10:30 each morning. The monitors put on a bit of a show for us while providing information about the day's events. Here's a couple of videos from my typical morning:

C'est tellement amusant!

Allez-y!

I had such a fantastically exciting day today that I just HAD to blog about it! *Can you sense the sarcasm here?*
After class today I went to Foodland, which is the equivalent of Walmart here... that is if Walmart was a quarter of its size and sold underwear in the canned fruit aisle. Anyway, I did manage to get some souvenirs  out of it (there was a reasonably large souvenir section... I guess this is the only store of it's kind in the entire region of Clare). However, the best part was the home hardware store next door because it sold ..... DRUM ROLL PLEASE.....

BUG SPRAY! Now all the baseboards, doorways, and crevices in my room have been thoroughly de-bugged. Hopefully this will end my ongoing stand-off with the lovely little critters. (I had some personally satisfying choice words to insert here but this is a family-friendly blog.)

I also bought something special for Nan today that will definitely cement my position as #1 granddaughter. This MAY even temporarily bump Rick out of his top spot, it's that good (I know, I know that's crazy talk you say!). At the church on campus I saw a statue today of her favorite saint (St. Theresa) which I hadn't noticed in the store before. Of course, I had to buy it. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's actually quite nice and I know she'll love it. (Don't tell her by the way.)

And finally, last night we had a feu de camp (camp fire). It wasn't that fun but there was free food. Here's a picture:

That's all for now! Only 19 more days until (relative) civilisation!

Robyn

La semaine infernale

So, it's pretty boring here most of the time. The week days aren't so bad because I have 3 scheduled classes to eat up my day, but the weekends are horrendous. To make matters worse, my newfound paranoia of insects is impeding me from going to the beach... or anywhere that involves spending any amount of time outside. So I'm pretty much stranded here on campus. At least I have a book and a coffee shop, but there is no way I am EVER coming back to this place without a car. EVER.
Here's a run-down of this week's events. Earlier in the week the musical group Le Grand Derangement came and played for us. They are an extremely well-known Acadian group who have played all over the world. Their music is very similar to Newfoundland music, except they have a traditional Acadian dancer. Here are some pictures from the show:

                     

                                     

On Friday evening we went to an outdoor picnic area near the beach where they cook up fresh seafood and desserts. I tried lobster for the first time and it's disgusting!! The next day we returned to the same place where they have a little Acadian market. It's really sweet. I bought some homemade socks and a few other things. Here's the socks:

Last night we had a Soiree Hawaiien. It was pretty good. I had one drink and was ready for bed, haha. Here are some pictures from that:

And finally, if you'd like to see some pictures of the horrors I've been living through this past week take a look at the pictures below. I do warn you though, they aren't pretty!

These bites are on my elbow. There's some big mosquitos here that we don't get in NL.

Rash on my foot that's really my own fault. This appeared after I went to the beach and was digging my feet in the sand.

Difficult to see in this picture, but there are three large bites on my foot and they itch like crazy.

Big ol' mosquito bite on the side of my foot.

There's the run-down of my week. Needless to say I can't wait to get back to NL. The only redeeming part of this trip is that I get to speak French all the time, and that's the only thing I enjoy.