Quebec, Quebec

Niki and The Ankle: The Struggle

Act One: Scene 1

Ankle: You better just hangout at home, you can hardly walk.

Niki: No, that's- that's not true, I just need to try.

Ankle: No, you're just a worthless pile of guts, there's no way you'll make it to Quebec City!

Niki: Shut up! You're just a worthless talking ankle, I don't have to listen to you, you big fat grapefruit!

Ankle: (Ankle gasps and seems offended) Do not bring my size into this! This is about you and your inability to walk! Don't try and blame this on me!

Niki: Of course I blame this on you, you're the one who gave way at the metro, this is your fault! (Niki appears storm off but her ankle is attached to her)

Ankle: Wait! We can work things out, listen to me!!

Niki: It's not about you, it's about living life to the fullest! Jumping in the lake one more time! Dammit, I'm going to Quebec City! And another thing-

Katimahousemate: Niki! Stop talking to your ankle and pack for Quebec City already!

Niki: Ok, cool.

[end scene]

How about we catch up a little more. This week not much happened due to the ankle, but I can share with you an most enjoyable highlight. Wednesday, we packed up to visit the Ville-Ray house for an evening of murder mystery, and a potluck! We brought sandwiches and salad, while they had made Chinese pancakes, stir-fry, and spring rolls. Yum. There was the obvious difficulty of getting there, naturally we had to take the metro, but the real problem was getting in and out of the metro, and for that matter getting to the Ville-Ray house. By 5 minutes out the door with the crutches I was exhausted. After the first stair case at Monk metro Etienne took on the ultimate supportive role a PL can have, which was in physically supporting me. He piggy backed me to the metro, and off the metro, and to Ville-Ray house. And a special thanks to Kyle who piggy backed me back to the metro. And another special thanks to Francois who carried me at Lionel-Groulx so we would miss our metro. The struggle of getting there was worth it when we discovered the sheer size and luxury of the house. It's more than double the size of our house. Dining room, two living rooms, giant kitchen, spare bed rooms and storage rooms, three bathrooms, and a laundry room. The had three dining room tables and enough seats, plate and cutlery for everyone. This could never happen in the Ville-Emard house. The event itself was a resounding success. Nicole from Nova Scotia in the Ville-Ray group had written a murder mystery ad assigned everyone a name, persona, and objective. We socialized, negotiated, interrogated, and made up total lies for over an hour. Until our police had narrowed it down to two suspects, both turned our to be innocent. We had a lot of fun.

On Friday there was brief excitement for the house managers and myself while the new CEO of Katimavik, Daniel Lapoint, paid us a visit to ask some questions to us about what we thought of the program. I made sure to mention to both him and Guilluame, our Project Coordinator, what a great Project Leader Etienne is, and I mentioned how grateful I was for the piggy backs.

Now for the chaos! Cody and I going to Quebec City. Cody bought the bus tickets earlier in the week and the plan was to get on the bus with Marie-France and she'd get off just outside of Quebec and we would get off in Old Quebec on Friday Night. This took a turn for the worse when I casually asked the ticket collector if I should have a return ticket, because I only had three tickets, and two of them were receipts. It's good I cleared up this up in Montreal and not in Quebec City, it did cost me an extra 21$ but I was too excited about Quebec City to care. If the ankle can't hold me back, no way is this ticket thing gonna hold me back. So Marie-France boarded the 5:00pm and never figured out why we didn't follow her on. The ticket confusion meant we got on the 6:00 pm bus. Subsequently we had to find the hostel in the dark. However this was a stoke of brilliant navigation for us, the directions Cody had printed off worked perfectly. We would guess more or less which direction the street was in, and we got it right every time! The hostel was very accommodating, in fact we got a private room for the first night for the same price as the dorms. Now for some cool pics of the hostel:

The private room number.

The private room.

My double bed, how I miss it so.

For dinner on that first night, we went to Chez Ashton, home of the sausage poutine. It was love.

We had a nice sleep and then got up for 8 the next morning because we had some living to do. We switched into a dorm room on the second floor which was a little better for my big fat ankle. We ate our free breakfast and took off for The Plains of Abraham. Here's a lower part of old Quebec City known as "Le Petit Champlain"

After this it was a significant walk over and up a massive flight of stairs to the Plains of Abraham and the citadel. The plains themselves were rather plain, namely because the historical glory had been coated with thick wet slush.

Those of you who don't remember early Canadian history are probably a little confused about "the Plain of Abraham". No, it is Canadian history this has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln to the South. During the 7 years war there was a British attack on Quebec City headed by General Wolfe. Despite the defensive measures off the French, the English were triumphant. Now you may indulge in this humourous sticker that I discovered just outside of Old Quebec City.

I took on the role of Samuel Champlain himself as I trekked through the snow in search of spices. Unlike Sam, I eventually found my spices, a long walk took us to Cosmos Cafe, a place you should visit if you visit Quebec City. This is me and my apple and Maple syrup burger. Yes, I know what you're thinking and I'll have you know it was magic.

That day was finished off by a little meal at St. Patricks Pub and a little music down stairs. My ankle was done by the end of the day, so when we woke up the next morning it was a little tourist shopping and a walk to the bus terminal. Now it was Cody's turn to loose his ticket. Advice for any future Katimavictim planning a trip to Quebec City, DO NOT LOOSE YOUR TICKET. It is expensive.

The bus ride was long but worth it, returning to see my katimafamily was more than heart warming.

That week we met a Katimavik Alumni who invited us to an improv show at her school. We treated her to dinner, she treated us to ice cream, and we all left for Berri-UQAM to watch what was probably way funnier than I was aware of. The comedy was all in French, but humour is not bound by languages. This blurry shot was from some of the hilarity.

On the Thursday of cette semaine we were invited to an event at the YWCA through Jessica's workplace. It was in eco-craft sort of thing were we created rugs by cutting up t-shirts. Mum already knows I love this sort of thing. Right now she's thinking of all the socks I cut up. Yeah....

Then came Manic Monday Friday. After a long day of work, I left to see 4 text messages waiting for me, all the messages were the same:

"where r u?"

Apparently we were supposed to be home by 4, and I was leaving work at 5. This was for the trip to Quebec City and Volunteering at Red Bull Crashed Ice, a project we'd been planning for far too long. Tabernoosh. So, I texted Francois what I needed, Andrew packed it, and everyone jumped in the van to pick me up at Lionel-Groulx. All that panic but we actually arrived on time to see our movie at the Quebec City IMAX. Usually Katimavik wouldn't pay for something like this, if it wasn't that we saw "Mars Needs Moms" in French. On that note: I love you, mum.

Afterwards there was a quick journey to the Katimamansion of Quebec City. This was possibly one of the largest house in Katimavik. Not entirely a good thing for group dynamics, and honestly this house was pretty creepy. The first floor was quite livable. Big front hall, big dining room, living room, a cool room with an organ (creepy) and a fuse ball table, a giant kitchen, a bathroom  which had a separate room for the toilet and a separate room for the shower and two sinks, A two person bedroom, a three person bedroom, a six person bedroom, a humongous room for the PL, and an attached bathroom. The down stairs was where is got creepy, there's a storage garage basement, an empty room with dolls hung up in the corner, a garage sort of thing with power tools and beer bottles, a bathroom in the hall way, a couple clean empty rooms, and an entirely normal laundry room. The house was huge, there was even a scooter there  so you could scoot through the halls. There were countless scary things and a lot of us actually had a difficult time sleeping. Here's some pictures of Chateau Scary:

 Dining room Living room.

The six person room.

 The Rec-room.

The haunted basement of no return.

Marie-France demonstrating how simple it is to just scoot through the hallways.

The next day it was time to see Quebec City. We started out with a surprise from Etienne, the Montmorency Chutes. Which was an incredibly majestic waterfall, and it was especially beautiful to see it partly frozen as if if winter was only bothering it a little. Etienne wanted to be in the group picture, so this took some skill.

After we expressed our enjoyment of this activity Etienne offered to show us another of his favourite spots. In case I forgot to mention this, Etienne lives in Quebec City, so we got a real tour of the place. This was one of his "Hang-out spots". If it weren't for the great people in the way you might see a great picture of Quebec City skyline.

The next step in the journey was a mini-tour of Quebec City provided by Etienne himself. Then we made our way to the volunteer center for Red Bull Crashed Ice. We were divided in between Francophones and Anglophones. The Francophone got to work in the VIP area. As for the Anglophones it was our job to get the skaters back to the start line. They get in a small vechicle that takes the to a funicular which takes them back to the top. However the streets are full of people and it take some effort to get people out of the way for the vehicles. So that was our job. To blow a whistle and shout "Desplacez-vous, sil-vous-plait!" and if they don't listen "Tassez-vous!" and when we have to take out the big guns "Deguage.". The really cool part of this is I got hugs, high-fives, handshakes, and nods from the athletes. The job had a walking component and by the  end of the night I was pretty beat in the ankle. So, Francois and Etienne decided to lend me a hand, literally.

....And another trip highlight is born.

The next day we started with a trip to the Quebec City aquarium, where I met a lovely seal named Nicky.

The Aquarium itself was very interesting, it showcased local species, ranging from salmon, to polarbears, to shrimp, to an octopus, to a walrus. Check out these species:

Then the munchies set in and we went to a Quebec City Classic, yes, I returned to Chez Ashton. This time Katimavik is paying, they cover 11$ of a cultural meal, so bring of the largest poutine money can buy. I finished it. "J'ai fini, mais maitenent, je suis fini."

I'm so proud of this.

That pretty much wraps up my trip to Quebec, Quebec, and my trip t Quebec, Quebec. What a great time, what a great city...