Quebecdays.

Day 1

What a crazy day!!! Basically here's some highlights... when I arrived at the airport and checked my luggage, there was some lady with a dog in tow and a handful of luggage. She kind of caught my eye and came running up to me and asked me to hold her luggage while she fetched her kennel...so, of course I said "yeah sure!" So she went running off and came back ...this time a giant kennel in one hand and the dog in the other....I didn't know what else to do so I said "What airline? I'll walk with you to do your luggage check" I got to the counter and the woman explained the entire thing to the Westjet folks and they offered me a job!!! So funny! In case you're wondering... I declined as they were clearly sarcastic. THEN once I reached customs I found out that I'm just a massive sketchbag (like my father who has this happen to him every time he goes through customs) and I got a patdown!! Most awkward thing ever!!!

Once on the plane I had the privelage of sitting beside two incredibly..... how do I even put this.... worldly? people. I was able to drown out their conversations (you don't wanna know what they were talking about) with music, God, annnnnd my homemade colouring book!! Loves it. Then we began landing...of course my ears being as ridiculous as they are didn't pop until 8 hours later....it kinda sucked.

Our first stop of the trip was Montreal's underground city...it was kinda neat, apparently it spans like 3/4 of the city....so it's like HUGE. The only way I can even think to describe it is like a mixture between Winnipeg Square (downtown) and the Forks...so yeah, it was sweet with all the frenchies. So we just got a little bit of spare time THEN we got an unforgettable tour of the Bell Centre. we saw absolutely eveything. From the arena, to the news reporter's seats (they're suspended in the air) to the press rooms, old timers lounge, players wives' room, the doors to the dressing room, and a super suite (box lounge...it goes for like $7,000 to $11,000 a game)

Next was Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was sick...kinda loud, but still neat to actually be in one ya know? It's located in the downtown area of Montreal, and I must say, downtown Montreal is absolutely gorgeous, you don't feel super sketchy about roaming around like you would in the Peg ya know? I mean yeah there's a lot of homeless out with signs asking for money, but they aren't all in your face about it. They're quite funny actually, I was chatting with a few of them. So yeah! After dinner we got to go shopping on St. Catherine St.!! So fun, I saw some sweet kicks at Puma that I so badly wanted, luckily they didn't have my size:) AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH H&M..... I've wanted to go to that store FOREVER and I finally was able to go :) <3

Some memories with the gals

- "Heh, I'm a doctor!"

- Amanda lost her phone charger and looked everywhere for it because she JUST took it out....ALEXI TOOK IT AND PUT IT IN HER BAG.... (the rest of the trip...I CAN'T FIND MY ________ "Alexi has it!"

- Oh! You just go to St. Amont and pick one out!

Day 2

Today we went to the Olympic Stadium tower and rode the Funiculaire to the top. From there we were able to catch a fabulous birds eye view...and of course, a trip isn't a trip until someone hits on some foreign chick , so Dejan made is way over to an Aussy girl and made a little conversations with her...quite humourous. Then we got to go to the biodome! It was phenominal! There's just animals roaming around and they have 4 different rooms of the different climates in Canada...the first one was like the ... i don't know, not tropical but something like that .... it was SO bloody hot that I was stripping and rolling up my pants...there were monkeys hopping around and whatnot...it was sweet! Then there were the penguins (always entertaining) and alligators and turtles....lotsa fun stuff!

For lunch we went to the underground city, grabbed some subs and Christine and I went off to shop. We were able to snag photos of DKNY and Dolce&Gabanna.... Oh so Fab!

We then headed down to an archaeologic museum. That was super sweet! We went underground and saw all the first foundations of old Montreal... like the walls are still there and whatnot! There's also little like diaramas in the floor at one point... yes, I know what you're thinking and you're right...I did pretend to be a giant.

After, we were able to head out on our own and take a look at Vieux Montreal. It was absolutely breathtaking. There were street entertainers with just crowds of people around them, cobblestone streets, old buildings, horse and buggy rides...it was amazing! To see the history right in front of you is something you will truly never forget! Oh! Always a good thing to mention... Some of the others definately found some random French boys in front of the Legistature building and had a good game of soccer with them! Quite entertaining!

We all met up after our free time and went for lunch at a chinese buffet. Once our bellies were full and hurting from laughter we carried on with our adventures and went to the Imagine exhibit at the art gallery.... it was a tribute to John Lennon's and Yono Oko's bed-in for peace that happened in Montreal 40 yrs ago. It was quite interesting, but there was one piece of Yono's artwork that stood out to me...it was this apple.... the simplicity was so.... inviting. The only thing I could truly think of was back to the roots of humanity.... The roots of Adam and Eve and that one bite of the forbidden fruit. I was standing there in front of the fruit and it seemed so inviting. Sitting there just calling out I suppose. I don't really have words to describe what I was feeling at that moment...but like I said...the simplicity of it all was just so intriguing!!

Some memories with the gals

- the buffet ppl are CRAZY...takin my food before I'm done...what is this.

-New goal: Jump in as many photos as I can

- Nifty Noodles!

- "If I pay you 4 dolla I take bomb on plane"

Day 3

Today we headed out for a bus tour of Montreal before making the 3-hour treck to Quebec City. It wasn't that spectacular, but we certainly saw something you will only ever see once..... a walk-by window at McDonalds...yupp you heard me....funniest thing I've ever seen!!! We also went to see Notre-Dame Basilique. It was absolutely gorgeous. The artwork was so intricate...it just stopped you dead in your tracks. I was awestruck as I took in it's beauty. Seriously, the catholic and anglican churches in QC are gorgeous. If you ever get the chance....go in one!!

After going to that church we began our drive to Quebec City. Our first (and only area of the city we saw) was Vieux Quebec (translation: Old Quebec) It was absolutely breathtaking, I couldn't believe it's peacefullness. But anyway, we climbed a million flights of stairs to the citadel site... I felt like a fat kid by the time we made it to the top, but it was totally worth it!! The view was super great! And, Lauren slipped down a hill and got all muddy, so it was quite hilarious.

After some time just walking around, we went to Rue de Tresor (treasure street). It's where all the artists set up and sell their paintings of Quebec City. I definately bardered a few of them down and brought em home!! Just need to get some frames and they'll be up on my walls in no time:) I MUST tell you folks a funny story though.... The first guy I bought from said "Have a nice stay" ...my reply was, "Thanks! You too!!!" Then I thought about what I said and looked at him and said"Oh wait, you live here" Alexi and I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for 10 minutes.

The day was finally over and we headed to our hotel... it was half an hour out of town, but we soon discovered it was a ski resort! It was a great hotel, our view every morning was the mountains full of snow....really beautiful. And...here's another funny story, when we got into our room we discovered that the 2nd shelf of our cupboard was crooked, so Christine tried to fix it but ended up making it worse...then Amanda intervened and completely broke it. THEN Alexi tried to fix it for like 20 minutes and succeeded!! Me? I documented the affair.

Next funny story of our room... Amanda knocked on our connecting door and they answered "Hello??" AC - "What school you from?" They open the door, amanda looks in and is about to say something and they shut the door in her face... "How rude!" says Amanda right before she collapses on the floor in a heap of laughter!

Some memories

-Alexi "QUEBEC!! WHAT THE F!!"

-Madame and her baton -- goes into the store and shoves it in her sleeve

- Madame "What's the poop?"

- Amanda thought the 'you are here' sticker was the peep hole

- Amanda's sleep noise (whale/alien) -- MMMmmmmmMMM *cluck* urrRRR

Day 4

Happy Easter!! How I long to be home on this day!! To be home to celebrate this magnificent day with my fellow SHOP-ers .... sigh. All day long I will be thinking upon my One. Thank you....thank you...THANK you.

Okay... major highlights of the day.... Musee de civilation... sounds boring, but there was an alien exhibit.... first thing was GREAT.... the rest was boring...the last thing...GREAT!!! The first thing was this GIANT alien queen..super sketchy looking... I laughed. Then the LAST thing made you feel like you were in star trek or something crazy like that. Basically what they did was design an entire planet with characteristics, etc and placed animals(aliens) on this planet with their own characteristics. They had all of this displayed on a canvas and you could touch the canvas and a box would open up with the plant or alien that you clicked on and all the information you needed to know about that specific creature...it was so sweet!

After this we basically got free time for a majority of the day. So, Alexi and I went on our own little adventure! We saw loads of cool stuff, like where the shoreline was in the 1600's... it was a few miles up the road compared to where the shoreline of St. Lawrence is now. And then we stopped in a random restaurant called Casse-Cou for lunch and we fell in love with our waiter. his name was Guillame and he was hilarious! First, he asked if we were here for lunch and when we replied yes he said "Good answer." THEN when he came back to take our order he snuck up behind Alexi and said "boo." ... Here's a list of some more funny things this man did.

• "It's brown, bubbly and tastes like sugar" - describing coke
  
• "I'll have the B-F-L-T" (Alexi)... "The BFLT...mmhmm" (G)
  
• "See that man there... Ee is FAT" (G)


• We wave him over to take a pic with him and he flailed his arms...when we actually TOOK the picture, he put his arms around us and said "I love this job!"

After all of our adventures, the group came back together for a tour of Chateau Frontenac....WOW what a beautiful hotel! It was really cool to be on the inside of it. It's super old and whatnot and no two rooms are alike... I bet you didn't know that! Cause I sure didn't. Our tour guide...Beatrice, was super cute...she was all old fashioned and told a lot of fun stories to go along with her role playing. I also found out that the hotel was built in sections, as they needed to continually add on to the hotel because it quickly became extremely popular with the new railway. And when the Normandy plans were made in that hotel, they kicked everyone out for a week or whatever (didn't reimburse them for their money or anything) and used only one room in the hotel....but didn't sleep there...wierd hey!?

Some memories with the gals

- "It's rude to say UUHHHHH" (Elizabeth) "Yeah...I guess that WOULD be rude if someone said it." (Alexi and I)

Day 5

Today was our 'outing' day. We didn't stayin Quebec City at all, we simply headed out of town and our first stop... Montmorency falls. It was really pretty!! Of course...most things are in Quebec I've realized. But seriously...breathtaking view. We stared at it for a little while, then I surfed down some snow on my feet, and we threw sticks into the falls, and noticed the change in water-excitement-level... (the water was incredibly calm right before it plunged down the cliff)

Apres ca, nous avon allee chez Marie. It's a bakery... it was sweet and old and cute! Smelt really good too!!! But on our way there our tour guide pointed out the smallest chapel in Quebec .... we almost missed it cause it just looks like a little shed... I wanna get married in it! But yeah! I wanted a picture, but couldn't get my camera out fast enough so I yelled "STOP THE BUS" and Guy (our bus driver) slammed on the brakes and started to back up...it was super funny cause I didn't actually think he'd do it.

And we finally arrived at Ste. Anne de Beaupre. This was one of the sites that I had been dying to see while I was in Quebec. It's known as the miracle church because there's millions of crutches just hanging off walls and what not. It's sweet. But because it was Easter, when we got there, there was a mass going on, so Mme and I decided to wander around the twelve stations .... it's like the story of Jesus' crucifixion in statue form...it was amazing. I didn't think they would have as much affect on me as they did but they did! I was okay up until the statue of the Roman's nailing Jesus to the cross. It was at that moment that I felt my Holy Spirit just cry out in longing and tongues of fire just rushed into my mouth. It was sweet.

Anywho... some fun stuff happened after that...but mostly inside jokes that I really don't feel like writing out... but yeah! Then we went to a Copper museum annnnd the best part about that is that we got to make copper carvings!!! I made a cow and it was super duper cute!

Our next stop was a chocolaterie...but it was closed, so instead a few of us went for a walk and found a bridge that you could jump over to land on abeach...so we jumped over and walked to the St. Lawrence River. Yupp, that's right! I touched the St. Lawrence River with my left hand.

Then it was off to Le Cabane au Sucre (Sugar Shack) for a delicious traditional meal and classic dancing (so fun). We had bread and pea soup, tourtiere, beans, salted pork, ham, hashbrowns and crepes (yumm yumm). These are just a few funny things from dinner involving Guy most won't understand this.... but it's for those who will.

• "Have some of this with your meat pie...it's fruit ketchup" (Guy)
  
• "What the Heeeeeeeeeeelllllllll" (Guy) ... imagine this witha crazy french accent.

After dinner we made sugar popsicles..they were disguisting...but mostly because I have an extreme dislike for Maple Syrup. But as I was standing there waiting for some others to finish making theres, a random smoker came up to me and asked if it was my first time and where I lived. His reply was "Oh! That city is a beaut! I lived in Alberta for 6 months...blah blah blah...have a nice trip!" It was super funny and crazy wierd.

Some memories with the gals

- Frakish....WHAT DOES THAT MEAN...I told you what it means! Salt/Fresh water

- What's a Cyclorama? Well...it's a cyclorama...exactly what it says!

Then on the sixth day we came home - The End-

Some other sweet pics.

==Cee.Gee==