Yesterday was another semi free day as there was nothing on our schedule until today. Although Canada Day was officially Sunday, the University observed it Monday... slightly complicating things but oh well! We slept in and then a group of us walked around campus to check everything out. Most buildings were pretty empty as it was the holiday which gave me a good opportunity to take pictures of things before everyone became painfully aware of the fact that I am a tourist.
By far our coolest find of the day was the tunnels that connect a majority of campus during the winter. Because Quebec gets so much snow they've made it easy for students to get around despite the weather limitations. I thought the tunnels would be creepy but they were awesome! Student organizations painted portions to promote their specific groups and then other students just painted...
Entrance to the library tunnel
One of my favorite quotes!!
The 2012 Explore program is essentially what I am enrolled in. I say 'essentially' because technically that is the program for the Canadian students participating. There are around 560 students in this session and around 330 are from different Provinces throughout Canada. The goal is to promote French as a spoken language because although French is an official language in Canada, it's use is largely concentrated in Montreal and Quebec.
After exploring campus we went to a meet and greet for the program students. It was cool to meet other students and definitely interesting to be considered in the minority for once. Everyone was shocked to hear we (the Nebraska girls) were "from the States"- I guess they thought it was only a Canadian program. After clearing up a few humorous stereotypes, we chatted about our upcoming 5 weeks.
The most interesting part of the night was the snack offering... juice boxes and chips (ketchup flavor to be exact!) Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about juice boxes, but something about these red chips was somewhat off-putting. They had a really strong flavor- I wouldn't say it was ketchup but perhaps that's because I didn't learn that that's what they were until after we left.
Ketchup chips in the back.... yahhhhh
Today was orientation! All of the program students were sent to one of the main buildings where we received our registration packets and class schedules. I went to my first class (Langue orale et ecrite) but only to check in because the foreign students were all required to return to the registrar's office to present our passport and verify our identities. It felt like being at the DMV... taking a number and waiting for it to flash on the screen.
I finally made it back to class with about a half hour left (way to make a good impression...) and immediately started taking notes trying to catch up. My teacher seems nice and her accent wasn't too hard to understand which was nice! Once class ended, I strolled back to my dorm (took a few pictures of campus along the way) and rested until our next mandatory session in the afternoon.
This is one of the walkways from my dorm to my classes. Tis quite nice. I took a few embarassing selfies that I'm sure will show up later :)
Our afternoon meeting was an introduction from the students and administrators that planned our program. Everyone was very nice and enthusiastic which sort of pumped me up for everything we are going to be doing (I will admit I'm easily inspired...) One of the main coordinators looked like Ryan Reynolds but younger and with darker features... if you can picture that haha.
The UNO students stayed after to meet with our coordinator Dr. Proulx and then headed upstairs to have our id pictures taken. One of the student coordinators asked to see my passport (and the two other girls with me) because in Canada they aren't allowed to smile for their pictures. We were all smiling and the girl told me I looked like I was from Beverly Hills... I think that was a compliment but I'm not sure. She was laughing so I laughed along...
After getting our ids we ran a few errands on campus and then made yet another trip to the Metro (grocery store) before going to dinner at the "Pub" on campus. It was finally a real mealllllll (as opposed to the pb and jelly sandwiches I had be serving myself)!! Our waitress was very nice and tried working with us in French but switched to English if she could tell we were confused. We have classes again tomorrow and then I am finally going to try to head downtown! YAY! I will leave you with a picture of my dinner because it was delicious and because I am proud of the artsy angle I used.
Au revoir!!
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