Bienvenue à Jonquière!

Salut! Maintenant, je suis en la ville de

Jonquière! French, French, everywhere! It has been quite the adventure so far. I took the bus Saturday morning from Montréal to Jonquière, and said sad and nervous good byes to my parents and Michelle and Franz. Thankfully, I met several people on the bus also going to the Explore program, and they were all equally nervous and excited.

We changed buses in Québec City, and wished we didn't have so much luggage, as it prevented us from exploring. Oh well, I am looking forward to the trip there with the college!

So, we arrived at the bus terminal in Jonquière. And it is a small place. We got off the bus and were greeted by monitors in red vests, then taken to a large van. Unfortunately, the combination of luggage and bodies filled up the van pretty quickly, and a second trip was made for the suitcases. We arrived at the college around 6 pm, and it is really a beautiful building! The rest of the monitors met us in the entrance area and gave us a brief orientation. They are all very young and fun. The students who were going to live in residence left, and the rest of us waited for our host families to come and pick us up while other students arrived.

So, host families came and went, and the people I met kept leaving. I was wondering where my family was, and was told that they hadn't picked up the phone when they were called by the college to be informed of my arrival. So I waited. And waited. The college kept calling, and I kept meeting more people as students passed through. There was one girl from Louisiana, and another girl all the way from Ireland! By 8:30 pm, they had left for their host families as well, and I was the last student left. One girl who was living in residence walked in and we talked, so thankfully I had company! But I was feeling very abandoned. At last, someone picked up the phone at my host family, and the daughter of my family, named Emilie,

came for me at 9 pm. The mom was out, and Emilie had a friend's birthday party she had to go to, so I was all alone in the house! An unusual welcome. As it turns out, they hadn't been expecting me until Sunday at noon, which explains the confusion and apparent abandonment!

On Sunday, I got a better taste of what the family is like. I slept in late, and ate breakfast before getting a ride from Emilie to the college, where I met up with some friends. We walked around the town for a couple hours, and got a little bit of an idea of what Jonquière is like. Rather small, but not ridiculously so. We enjoyed watermelon lemonade at a café in the downtown area, as it is incredibly humid and hot here. Hot and humid as in, tomorrow's (Tuesday's) weather forecast in the afternoon is for 29ºC, feeling like 35ºC, with a humidity index of 62%. Wow. Quite the departure from Kelowna's dry heat. Despite the humidity and heat, it was fun to get to know a few people a little bit better. Most people here

are from Ontario, especially the Toronto area.

Jonquière has some beautiful old churches. I love that about the Eastern part of Canada - there is so much more historical architecture, and it is beautiful!

I walked back to my home a little later, and ate dinner, as we awaited the arrival of the other student who is staying with the same family with me. Dinner was positively delicious! My host mom made potatoes with a sort of pie crust, spaghetti, and pan-fried sole! C'était tellement bon! In my host family there is another daughter besides Emilie, and she is older. Her name is Marie-Julie, and she is very nice. She has done a lot of artwork that is hanging around the house! I really like some of the pictures she has painted. After dinner, the other student arrived. Her name is Megan, and she is from Montréal! She is practically fluent in French already, but is hoping to refine her skills here, and be forced to speak French all the time. It's been great getting to know her over the past day and a bit.

We went to bed at a decent hour Sunday night, as our classes today started bright and early! But more on that later.