Canoes, Cirque, Cleaning

 Okay, so my blogging hiatus did not last long. I got internet in my room and since this is now a bit more accessible, I'm excited to be back at it in the blogging world! And I look forward to having time to catch up on all your blogs as well!

I have now been here for two months!!  Crazy how time flies!  August and September have been a whirlwind and have been difficult but wonderful all at the same time.  During the end of the summer, I enjoyed all the different conferencing groups we had in, and enjoyed a lot of free time. Our 17 students have now been here for almost two weeks and so as I am readjusting to a new schedule, I am loving getting to know the students and becoming more and more comfortable with my role here. 

I live with three other girls and am blessed to get to know them and become their friends!  I love our impromptu night chats, song making up, cleaning parties, pickle eating fun and prayer times together. 


Because there's a million things I could write, I decided I would just post a few pictures from the last few months and let them tell a bit of the story of what I've been up to. Enjoy! And keep your eyes open for more posts from me in the future!  (And Elsie, I would love to be your pen pal, just email me your mailing address!)

Hanging out with my amazing roommates and enjoying a large cleaning party of our new home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with the kids around property

Taking as many pictures as possible of this little munchkin.

Having photoshoots with canoes, people and dogs!

Hanging out with Jenn during her visit and celebrating her engagement to Dave!

Connecting with wonderful friends visiting in Montreal

Showing visitors around the amazing and beautiful Quebec City

Enjoying FREE outdoor cirque de soleil under an overpass during the summer in Quebec City

Visiting with a good friend in Montreal

Hanging out with the kiddos who take much better underwater pictures than I.

Enjoying the Fall colours changing and the incredible beauty of the endless hills of mixed colour!

Getting to know my roommates and going for drives to enjoy the Fall.

Enjoying this little munchkin and all the other kids!

Make-Out, Montreal, Mounds

Another aspect to Quebec that I absolutely love is the culture and the fact that I have some wonderful friendships that I have built there over the years. What I love about most people in Quebec is they are who they are. They are fairly open and honest about who they are and aren't ashamed of it. Their life motto is "Joie de vivre", the joy of living. Love it.


So when we first stopped for a bite to eat at Wendy's upon my arrival, I had to laugh at the couple that was making out at their table for the entire thirty minutes we were there.. Seriously, people? I had to take a photo...


I stayed with my friends and outside the window I always had a wonderful view of whatever fresh snow had come down the night before.


There are some great restaurants there, including a Thai place that is everyone's favorite. Good to see friends from Montreal and hang out with friends from Capernwray as well.



While I was there, the students were taken on the annual trip to the cabane a sucre, which means sugar shack, where they make the maple syrup. They have traditional Quebec dinners where you put maple syrup on everything. Starts with pea soup, then there's scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, crepes, and maple pie. Talk about a sugar high.






After the meal you get to enjoy tire, which is boiled maple syrup poured on snow. You take a popsicle stick and roll it up on there for a tasty treat. When I was in elementary school, we always did this in our studies of Quebec at their annual festival of Carnaval. I was in French Immersion so we got neat opportunities to learn about such things.




Another thing I love about Capernwray is the honesty and openness of people there. I love that you can meet someone and suddenly be friends and conversations can be really open and honest.


Brandis and I started and finished a puzzle which was a lot of fun. Kind of crazy with all the people in it, but we enjoyed it.


I was able to help out a bit with the men's retreat as well. Fun to do dishes and clean-ups again and gave me a glimpse of different aspect of life there, especially during the summer. For their retreats, they always do a pie phenomenon with a coffee bar and a pie bar. Incredible.

Me and some of the female staff.

Lisa putting the final touches on the blueberry pie.

We decided to make up fruit of the spirit exercise poses. And for some reason, everything seemed extra funny that night. Love those moments.

Pies!

And thus concludes my time in Quebec. It was a wonderful two weeks. A great mix of relaxing, working, playing with kids, connecting with the staff and students, visiting friends in the community and sitting in on classes as well. I can't wait to go back and actually be a more permanent part of the community there! :)

Precious, Personalities, Pictures

One of my favorite parts of visiting my friends in Quebec is that a lot of them have kids that I absolutely adore. I have been able to watch them grow up while I was a student there (the first few) and then scattered on my visits.

Anyway, I stayed with a family there with four kids and love each of them so much and their unique personalities. Here are some pictures of some of our two weeks together. :)

Didn't like the moose toque much, but I managed to snap a quick pic while she still had it on!

I remember how fun it is to have your hair all in braids as a kid!

A delightful sight to wake up to every morning. in fact I quite miss it.

After the braids were taken out :)

Fun in the mornings. :) Yay for pajamas.

Precious.

Brandis and I got to take the youngest to the mall for a few hours in Montreal which was a lot of fun. Such a good baby. And always full of smiles.



And when it snows a ton in Quebec, what do you do? You try and jump off any high point possible into piles and piles of snow!! Obviously! :)


And snow a lot it did. Intermixed with a bit of rain and freezing rain. But it reminded me of how much I love Quebec winters. And I'm excited to actually have proper winter gear for next winter!


And of course, the kids had to jump off the balcony as well.. the porch wasn't enough!

And sometimes it's a little hard to get out of the snow.. especially when boots get left behind!

Taking a photo with all the kids is not always the easiest, but this was one of my faves from them all! :) Although each is precious in its own way because it shows their personalities so much!

So here's a little bit of a glimpse of my time in Quebec and time that will be yet to come as well!

Heartland, Home, Hearty

Back to photos from my cross Canada trip.

And here are some photos from my time in Quebec. Also called my "heartland" because I love it so dearly.


I spent a week at the Capernwray in Quebec and it was so wonderful and refreshing. So good to connect with friends, make new friends and to connect with God in new ways. And to begin thinking about how life would change as this would become my new home in less than a year.


And the snow. Oh how I love it! In all its sparkly diamond shimmering wonderfulness. And it's not like our snow, heavy and wet. It's light and fluffy and when it's really big, it sits on top of each flake and piles up and you can see the detail of every snowflake-it's delightful.


And piles of plants half buried in snow. Trying to stay above the snow but not managing, yet beautiful in itself. I love how snow covers everything and makes all things clean and new. It's magical. And awe-inspiring. And somehow, because it mutes all noise, it brings you back to a place of stillness and peace. I can't wait for my next winter to be a real one!


And here are a couple of the wonderful staff there. So great to be in a place that you can have deep, meaningful conversations with upon first meeting them. You can be real with one another and just be totally honest. Love it. It inspires me.


And had I actually had appropriate winter clothing, I might have taken more pictures of the snow and outside, but it was freezing, so all I could manage was to fling the door open, take a few pictures and run back inside.


Ah Snow! I'm headed back to Quebec in a couple weeks and hope to enjoy some more of the white stuff before winter is quite done.


And always good when friends are willing to blow on piles of snow on behalf of creative picture taking. I love the snow blowing photo because it makes me think of the magicalness of the snow and brings me back to a place of wonder.



My week there was filled with lots of visits with friends on the property, and also friends in town. I have a couple of pen pals there as well that I keep in touch with that it is great to connect with whenever I visit.


And another one of my favorite things there is the kiddies. Love them. Only half of them were there this time around, but I LOVE them. They warm and melt my heart every time. I feel like I've been able to see glimpses of them growing up and was there when the oldest ones were born and started growing up, so it's a neat connection. And always wonderful to snuggle up on a couch on a cold, wintry day to read a book together. Or play travel. Or go outside and freeze our buns off in the snow, wind and cold.



There's a Chinese restaurant nearby as well that we always go to. My friend Jenn and I went there back when we both lived out there and the tradition continues on. We mainly go for the owner because she is wonderful and full of life! I can't wait to continue seeing her on a more regular basis and maybe even playing some tennis together in the summer!


So off to Chinese we went and it was great food and great fellowship as well!


And then Dave and I went for our traditional poutine. True Quebec cuisine. The best is from 'La Belle Province' and it has smoked meat on it. You feel disgusting after eating it, but during the process it is wonderful. And the tradition must be upheld of course. Dave and I both did our second year at school together and we were the only two second year students so we got to know each other quite well. So it's always been great to go and visit and hang out together.


And so ends my trip to Quebec! Oh, and I stayed with my lovely friend and penpal Steph and we enjoyed some good Thai, a movie and chats and did not take photos, so it is not documented in photograph form, but it was a wonderful time nonetheless!

Hope you enjoyed a little sneakpeak into my "heartland". I'm sure there will be many more photos in the future to come as I introduce you to the Quebec I know and love!