All these things that I have done

First of all- shoutout to the Killers for this awesome song. Never fails to pump me up.

Second of all, as I was mulling over the fact that I am approximately, wait no, exactly one week behind on posting updates I started to stress myself out. Then I realized that I only have one follower on this blog (shoutout to #momo) and it will eventually be for my own benefit rather than for the benefit of my fans. Although, who knows- one day maybe I'll be famous and this blog will be regarded as my second bit of 'published' work (my first of course being the graphic novel I created about the Creighton Shuttle). Long story short, I stopped stressing and have decided to do what I do best- share my ~adventures~ via this web interface.

Last Friday I took a trip to the mall and came back with a snazzy pair of sandals from a store that I would describe as a combination of Walmart/Target/Kmart/Payless all into one department-ish store. They were cheap and are cute so I will start wearing them as my other shoes have slowly started to wear out. The cobblestone's around here are wreaking havoc on my feet and sandals. After that excitement I received another visitor! My friend James arrived after a few delays to the wonder and beauty that is Quebec City. We caught up over a very nice dinner at Cafe du Monde. I don't know if I was trying to prove that my language skills are vastly improving but I asked for the menu in French... luckily our waitress was onto my scheme and relayed the English message as well. The food was incredible. I had a delicious salmon dish and James got a three course meal- featuring out of this world shrimp and cheese fondue (more of a mozzarella stick in my humble opinion) and the chocolate mousse.

Saturday was welcomed whole-heartedly in my book as it was the 14th of July known otherwise as Bastille Day!! For the past four years my friends and I have celebrated together so I was bummed to have to miss out this year. Unfortunately Quebec City does not really take part in celebrations of any sort for this day so James and I did our own Frenchy things. We rented bicycles from the campus rental place and after receiving a very rushed and confusing set of directions as to how to make it to downtown, we were off. We got crepes at the Vieux Marche and then biked along the river.

 Yayyy Vive la France!

It was another beautiful day in Quebec and all was well until we realized we needed to head back to campus before the rental place closed. We had missed the street to take back towards the main road (from the bike trail) so we backtracked a bit. Unfortunately we didn't find the right street and ended up confronting the steepest hill in the world to make it back to the main road. I didn't even attempt biking it. We pushed our bikes up the hill and hung our heads in shame as people twice our age breezed past us up the hill/mountain.

At the observation point where we realized we were lost- pretty backdrop though!

Fear not though. we arrived back on campus and returned the bikes without any issue (well, we were two hours late which meant we couldn't use the bikes for two days... yah). We rested up a bit and enjoyed some brie cheese (again trying to be as French as possible). We took the bus downtown a little later to see Cirque du Soleil!!! Each summer, Cirque puts on a free show in the City and it was so amazing! The stage is set up outside underneath the Auto route and it was one of the most creative uses of space I have ever seen. The crowd all rushed into the arena once the gates open but we got pretty good seats on one of the side hills. There were multiple acts filled with unbelievable individuals that could manipulate their bodies in fairly unnatural ways.

Trapeze artists- did lots of tricks in the skyyyyy- this was great

I liked all of the acts and everything was so entertaining but one of my favorites was when then unrolled air mattress/jump pads over a portion of the stage and pretty much had a free-for-all flip contest. It was really great. I couldn't believe we got to go for free too! I think I will go again before I leave!

Flipz on the matz

After Cirque de Soleil we walked towards rue St. Jean to try one of the bars there, Sacrilege. It was very busy but we got seats on the church pew benches that helped to fill the bar's interior. After some time there (where the Quebecois version of happy birthday was loudly performed) we headed back to campus, quite content after a very full day!

More to come soooooooon!