... same old weather. It seems I can't escape snow in any country at the moment! For anyone that has been living in outer space for the last month or so, Europe is currently experiencing a phenomenon often referred to as "winter". This means that temperatures drop, often below zero, and that sometimes it might even snow. For anyone worried by said phenomenon, it is probably not the next ice age, climate change or punishment from God. So have a cup of tea and calm down.
Anyway, sarcasm aside, the cold spell didn't prevent me from returning home to the loving arms of my family for Christmas. In fact, I was extraordinarily lucky that on the day I was travelling, I managed to get on the only plane to Manchester that wasn't cancelled and made it home a mere 20 minutes late. Quite a feat when others were stranded for days on end, eating airport food, sleeping across plastic chairs of pain and using those chewable toothbrushes from the vending machines.
I had a very relaxing 2 weeks in my new house, lots of time spent with family, in front of the fire and watching the snow and of course - eating far too much. 'Tis the season after all! The new house is wonderfully warm and cosy and very quiet. It was good to see the family again, I hadn't realised just how much I had missed them. So I was quite sad when my 2 weeks were up and I had to pack up again and fly back to Canada.
However, I was given a stay of execution of sorts, when my trip back to Quebec went less than smoothly (that damned "winter" thing causing problems again). Tom and I were supposed to be travelling back to Quebec, via Paris, on a morning flight on Tuesday (5th). We set off at 5am, ample time to get to the airport, check in and spend obscene amounts in the duty free shop. However, it was clearly not meant to be. It had snowed overnight and of course, the roads hadn't been ploughed, accidents ensued and it took four hours on the motorway to do the usual one hour journey to Manchester airport. In an ironic fashion, it was quite lucky that the airport was closed and all flights were cancelled, because had they not been, we would most certainly have missed ours due to snow delays on the road and had to pay through the nose for new tickets. As it was, we eventually arrived at the airport and were herded into a queue for another 4 hours to rebook our flights. As the next available flight was not for 2 days, we headed back home.
Thursday came and went, and by the end of the day we had made it as far as Paris. It seems Manchester airport only have one plane de-icer for the whole airport. Of course our plane was last in the queue, we missed our connection and ended up stranded in Paris. Luckily Airfrance put us up for the night in a hotel (dinner and breakfast included). After a night in the most bog-standard of hotels, we navigated the chaos that is Charles-de-Gaulle airport (no logical layout, no facilities, lots of overpriced handbag shops) and finally, 4 days later, made it onto a plane to Montreal. The flight itself was great - only on a French airline would you be presented with smoked salmon, camembert and as much good red wine as you can drink!
Since coming back to Quebec I have been extraordinarily busy, although I have only actually been into school for 3 days in the last 2 weeks, I've had one class and even that was team teaching, so required very little effort on my part! So what have I been up to, you ask? Well, I have moved house, from the charming (but ultimately lifeless) village of Beaupré to Quebec city, buzzing capital metropolis! I am now sharing a quirky and thoroughly impractical little flat in Vieux Quebec with Nick, another underworked and over-partied language assistant. It's been an interesting first week in my new place, as on the second day our toilet blocked, overflowed and all the water came gushing through the kitchen ceiling! The landlord, a charming French man (is there such a thing?), has refused to do anything about this, so for the last week we have had to resort to using friends houses, petrol stations and restaurants! I will never take a working toilet for granted again! It's been such a pain to have to plan everything we do around where might have toilet facilities! But anyway, I don't want to go into too much detail about that, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it either! After lots of phone calls, angry emails and enough plunging to tire the muscles of a professional bodybuilder, we should (touch wood) have a plumber coming round this week to fix it.
As if that wasn't enough, the kitchen cooker is a beautiful specimen of 1950's technology and it has an annoying habit of smoking for no apparent reason, which sets off the fire alarms. This in itself is a nuisance, but even more so since the fire alarms are connected to the city fire brigade. So if one of us burns some toast, or the cooker smokes when we try and make a cup of tea (old fashioned kettle!) 20 burly firemen are liable to burst in and shower us all in foam and water at any moment!
As well as running around with buckets and desperately wafting smoke as the flat falls down around our ears, we have somehow found the time to have a bit of fun as well. Last Saturday I decided I want to run away and join the circus. We went to see a matinée performance of Alegria - Cirque du Soleil, which was mind-blowingly and utterly incredible. I was mesmerised from start to finish.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/show/about.aspx
If you ever get a chance to see Cirque du Soleil perform, I highly recommend you do. It's an experience not to be missed!
Now, if all else fails, I have my backup plan. I can join the circus, probably as a clown and tour the world. I'm not bendy or bouncy enough for the acrobatics or contortion! On second thoughts, why have that as a backup plan? That's much more fun than being a teacher!
One thing I've been doing a lot of recently is ice skating. Canada, obviously, is big on its winter sports and there is a free outdoor ice rink 5 minutes walk from my flat. I bought myself a cheap (but beautiful) pair of second-hand white figure skates and I've been skating almost every day since then! Now I'm never going to be the next Jane Torville, but I can at least hold my own on a rink with Canadian children, most of whom have been skating since before they could walk. At least I knew how to skate before I came here. Skiing, in which I am having my first lesson next week, is going to be a whole different kettle of fish. Nick, my flatmate extraordinaire and seasoned skier is taking Laura and I to the mountain next weekend for our first lesson. Watch this space for the broken bone count! Assuming I don't get caught in an avalanche and have to be rescued by mounties first!
A bientôt!
Since coming back to Quebec I have been extraordinarily busy, although I have only actually been into school for 3 days in the last 2 weeks, I've had one class and even that was team teaching, so required very little effort on my part! So what have I been up to, you ask? Well, I have moved house, from the charming (but ultimately lifeless) village of Beaupré to Quebec city, buzzing capital metropolis! I am now sharing a quirky and thoroughly impractical little flat in Vieux Quebec with Nick, another underworked and over-partied language assistant. It's been an interesting first week in my new place, as on the second day our toilet blocked, overflowed and all the water came gushing through the kitchen ceiling! The landlord, a charming French man (is there such a thing?), has refused to do anything about this, so for the last week we have had to resort to using friends houses, petrol stations and restaurants! I will never take a working toilet for granted again! It's been such a pain to have to plan everything we do around where might have toilet facilities! But anyway, I don't want to go into too much detail about that, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it either! After lots of phone calls, angry emails and enough plunging to tire the muscles of a professional bodybuilder, we should (touch wood) have a plumber coming round this week to fix it.
As if that wasn't enough, the kitchen cooker is a beautiful specimen of 1950's technology and it has an annoying habit of smoking for no apparent reason, which sets off the fire alarms. This in itself is a nuisance, but even more so since the fire alarms are connected to the city fire brigade. So if one of us burns some toast, or the cooker smokes when we try and make a cup of tea (old fashioned kettle!) 20 burly firemen are liable to burst in and shower us all in foam and water at any moment!
As well as running around with buckets and desperately wafting smoke as the flat falls down around our ears, we have somehow found the time to have a bit of fun as well. Last Saturday I decided I want to run away and join the circus. We went to see a matinée performance of Alegria - Cirque du Soleil, which was mind-blowingly and utterly incredible. I was mesmerised from start to finish.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/show/about.aspx
If you ever get a chance to see Cirque du Soleil perform, I highly recommend you do. It's an experience not to be missed!
Now, if all else fails, I have my backup plan. I can join the circus, probably as a clown and tour the world. I'm not bendy or bouncy enough for the acrobatics or contortion! On second thoughts, why have that as a backup plan? That's much more fun than being a teacher!
One thing I've been doing a lot of recently is ice skating. Canada, obviously, is big on its winter sports and there is a free outdoor ice rink 5 minutes walk from my flat. I bought myself a cheap (but beautiful) pair of second-hand white figure skates and I've been skating almost every day since then! Now I'm never going to be the next Jane Torville, but I can at least hold my own on a rink with Canadian children, most of whom have been skating since before they could walk. At least I knew how to skate before I came here. Skiing, in which I am having my first lesson next week, is going to be a whole different kettle of fish. Nick, my flatmate extraordinaire and seasoned skier is taking Laura and I to the mountain next weekend for our first lesson. Watch this space for the broken bone count! Assuming I don't get caught in an avalanche and have to be rescued by mounties first!
A bientôt!
One imagines that you are not in the mood for toilet humour, so I'll close the lid on unnecessary puns and flush all thought of them from my head. As you can see, your situation presents two very serious worries: Number one... and number two!
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