A Quick and Dirty Summary from Thursday Til` Now...

...which is a bit sad, because a lot of stuff happened...

so Thursday, woke up at 6:30 ish to get ready for work. Yes I know I am a house manager, and I am not supposed to work, but Claudie told me about this giant event in the cafe where there is a debate/discussion between the candidates of the election in the Lac St. Jean area and they would need help. Not wanting to miss out on this cultural discovery event I got my ass up and worked from 7 to 10. Didn`t need to work too hard, the event was interesting even though I don`t really understand all the French (by the way the most charistmatic candidate there, Alexandre Cloutier, is unfortunately from Parti Quebecois and is leading in the polls...this should be interesting), and in fact I made TIPS! Yes tips...$7.50 I think. Even though I am not supposed to and Claudie knows this.

Went home, asked Valerie for money to buy groceries to make food to freeze in the freezer so when we all came back from billeting, we won`t need to panic for having no food like last time (although I put a stop to this in Blind River before it happened). After 3 hours of chaotic work between me/Stephen/later on Cheryl (she stayed home because she caught something from the kids at work and threw up Wednesday night) plus a slight panic attack on my part because I haven`t packed by 3 pm and my billeting family comes to pick me up at 4. But all worked out and at 4 pm a car with a man smoking inside comes driving in. Everyone panicked because no one is really ready and they all thought the man is here to pick them up. Me...smoking man? no....but turns out the man is here to pick me up. A quick bye bye, and off I go.

The man - a 25 year old man named Billy Lemieux who has a beautiful girlfriend, a young child (1 year old) named Noah-Kim (very funky name even for French, in my opinion), and a cute dog named Paul He works as an insurance seller. Unfortunately, he lives relatively far from Alma...in a small village/town named Labrecque, 20 minutes outside of Alma. The closest person to me is Stephen, who probably lives a 15 minutes walk from my house right now. Billy reminds me of my uncle, goofy and good-natured, good sense of humor.
This should be an interesting experience...the family is really nice and full of love at the moment, but they have 3 things that I don`t like in life - 1) kids (and my room is next door to the baby`s room, and I have been told he wails at night, as I have tasted on Friday morning) 2) dogs (although the dog is cute, he climbs onto me all the time) 3) smoking - both Billy and Sabrina are heavy smokers, yuck.

That night after supper they brought me to their friends who leaves nearby...another young and unmarried couple with a baby, plus the guy`s sister. Hung out a bit, tried to understand the French conversations, they offered me beer, I declined, then went home because baby needs to sleep. That`s when I found out Billy knows Alexandre Cloutier and dislikes him as a person...and therefore would not vote for him despite the fact that Billy is a separatist.

Watched A Good Year with Sabrina...really a good movie. Went to bed, baby woke me up at 5 am Friday morning. Got out of bed at 6 am.

Friday - Went to work and found the cafe much busier than usual...damn and I was thinking of playing hooky since Claudie thought I was still doing house-managing. So after 3-4 hours of working (with me sometimes being in the way of Claudie, in my opinion), all was done...and man I made tips again???? $5.00. Claudie said if I wasn`t there, she couldn`t have served all the people by herself (I disagree). I think I am going to save my tips and see how much I earned at the end. Right now it`s $12 something. Billy came in and had coffee...apparently he was a regular and Claudie was extremely surprised to find out that I was doing billeting with him.

Returned to billeting after work...oh yes wait Sabrina picked up me from work with Noah-Kim, and on the way she saw a hitch-hiker...and picked her up! Yes. First time in my life where I saw that happening, I guess it`s a small town thing. The lady Sabrina picked up thought I was Sabrina`s daughter....?!?!?!?!?! Um...let`s see...she is 24 (and looks like that), I am 20, she is white, and I am Chinese...hello????? But it was quite funny...and in the evening we went to another one of Billy and Sabrina`s young and unmarried friends with babies (Jonathan and Majorie)...and had dinner there....raquette (kind of like fondue, very fun and yummy), red wine (had some, mixed it with 7 Up)...it was fun despite that I can`t really understand all the French plus lots of drinking and smoking. The red wine made me very very sleepy and lethargic...so I had to ask Sabrina to drive me home at 11:40 pm (more like a convenience ride since she and Majorie were doing their routine smoking drive). A bit of Jay Leno in the house, didn`t bother to brush my teeth and shower, went to bed...

...and got woken up by the biggest stomachache. Ran into the washroom, ended up puking, took a shower, brushed my teeth, felt better...and found Billy outside with a questioning look..."are you ok?" "Yup, bonne nuit.." Went back to bed.

Saturday...woke up at 11 pm, thought I felt better. Was going to go shopping with Sabrina but my stomachache came back. Had to cancel dinner and slept for 12 hours. At the end I ended up loafing on the couch and watching The Simpsons in French.

Sunday...did feel better, wrote a bit in my journal and in the afternoon Billy`s brother brought me to do ski-dooing (like snowmobiling)...a lot of fun, went through a couple of villages around, hung out in this ski-doo bar and chatted with him (both using franglais) and got to drove for a bit at the end. Went out for dinner to eat poutine in Alma with family, learnt a bit about real poutine, and spent the whole night watching TV. Fun stuff...

Now...gotta go back to work! Tata! Elections today...fun stuff.

House Managing so far

So...so far house managing with Stephen has been interesting...

Monday - did grocery shopping at 12 something with Valerie. 1 hour later - $216 for 3 -4 days worth of groceries. Valerie had different ideas on how to shop, and personally I would have gone to Maxi (like Superstore, but bulk) to buy things because it`s cheaper...but whatever. She also tried to convince us not to buy the cheapest margarine, saying 100% soya-based margarine is bad...
Came home at 1:30 pm, still had to clean the house/bake bread/cook dinner...everything was done by 6:00, with dessert in the freezer too (orange jello)

Tuesday - 3 interesting/funny things happened because of bread-making.
1) Our house has 2 stoves/kitchens, and I was letting the bread rise in the other kitchen. After that was done, I flung the towel that covered the bread onto the stove and brought the dough into the actual kitchen. Ten minutes later, I walk back in and saw that the kitchen was kind of smoky...I thought "why is the kitchen kind of foggy? Or is it just my glasses getting dirty...then I saw the towel turning kind of black on one corner...immediately I shouted "oh my god Stephen come here", and opened the door to let the smoke out...I lifted the towel and I must have fanned it a bit because the towel started going up in flames...I freaked out, ran out of the door and flung the towel into the snow. At the same time, the fire detectors started ringing and so did the phone...it was chaotic.
Stephen`s theory - whoever last used the stove (which he believed was Cheryl and Charles making beans a couple of days ago) did not turn it off, and I was just unlucky to have the towel on there to find out that they didn`t turn it off. I find it a bit far-fetched that no one knew the element was on for so long, but whatever.

2) The bread I made (new recipe, trying out whole wheat bread), after an hour of baking (recipes calls for half an hour) was disgusting...centre was uncooked. I love the faces of people as they tasted a bit of it...and I found this out at 9 pm. Because there`s no more bread (even though Stephen and I made some on Monday) I had to make more...and on average bread takes 2 - 3 hours to rise and bake...I didn`t get to go to bed until 12 -1 pm.

3) Later in the night I realized why my bread was screwed up...I thought the oven was in celsius rather than fahrenheit...pretty much I didn`t cook the bread, I was heating it instead...uuggghhhhh...
Stephen was highly amused by all 3 events and kept making fun of me for them...

Gotta go...time to do dishes and clean the house...it`s almost 12 pm.

Side note: Why does people in the house keep inhaling bread and cheese like there`s no tomorrow? The 2 loaves I made yesterday are almost all gone already...frick I have to make more (must talk to Stephen about this). Damn white people and their bread (KIDDING KIDDING)

Quick Summary of Sunday

It`s 1:43 am here...I should go to bed but I think I will write a blog before I do that. After all, the competition for the computer here is fierce...

So Sunday - I left the cafe around 12:30 pm, because there seems to be an activity going on at the afternoon...plus I don`t want to do another walk-in to the house and see everyone eating without me...fortunately that didn`t happen, but apparently the cheese factory tour (which was cancelled earlier) was back on, so at 1:30 we left the house and drove 30 minutes or so to this town/township called Hebertville...there`s this cheese factory/farm there which specializes in 3 different types of regional cheese - Valbert, Pikouka, and Kegaomi (pardon my mis-spellings). Except for Kegaomi (sharper and more interesting in taste), the other two are sweet and mild - the Pikouka won prizes before. Pretty much everyone went crazy with the cheese tasting except for Zach (and Mike kind of), since they don`t really like cheese that much.

Next we were shown their barn, which had lots of cows in there, plus some pigs, chicken, 1 lamb, some kittens...plus who can forget the barn dog? The cows were all female, different ages, and very gentle and curious...they pretty much follow you with their eyes whenever you go, and lick your hands if you held it out (I didn`t do it). Pretty much all the girls had a good time oohing and ahhing at the animals, plus taking pictures. During the time we were there, I got to see the process of cows urinating, farting, and excremating (misspelt properly, excuses-moi)...as well see Cheryl walking in when a cow was swishing its tail (needless to say it was laced with excrement and hit Cheryl straight on the head). Anyways we ended that with a couple of people buying cheese from the farm. Then we drove on, and I thought we were going home but nope, we went to another cheese factory (en francais - la fromagerie)...this time tasting 5 to 6 different cheeses. My favorites - this one that smells like feet but is extremely creamy and sweet, another one that resembles a cross between sour cream/yogurt/cream cheese, mixed with a bit of honey, and mozeralla cheese curds...yes it`s quite something, it feels like chewing on rubber styrofoam but the flavor is good enough that I had it again and again...

Finally we started heading home...but not before Cheryl coxed Valerie to drive us to Lac-St. Jean (which was on the way anyways) for a view...and what a view...it`s all white and frozen...it would have much more gorgeous in the summer. But by then we would be in BC, and the lakes are much more beautiful anyways, hahaha.

Prep for dinner/dinner/house meeting ran by Cheryl (Valerie would like us to run our house meetings now)/free time/bed

Oh yes before I end this, I finally talked to Maxime about her weird behaviour during the week (she has been crying all of a sudden every now and then, and leaves the house to be alone). Summary of that - she didn`t want to talk about it, but she is feeling much better (although the fact that I brought it up made her think about whatever made her unhappy, which was bad) and (I hope) she is glad that I was concerned. So my lesson here - when Maxime is upset, stay away from her.

Yesterday`s Events

So what happened on Saturday, March 18 - St. Patrick`s Day?

Overall, it was a pretty good day. We had an excursion to both Chicoutimi and Jonquiere (because both places are so close to each other) and we didn`t even need write an excursion plan because it was within our pentagon, according to Katimavik conduct. Anyways we were all supposed to leave at 9 am, but most of us (Zach, Rebecca, Cynthia, Rebecca, Cheryl, Charles, me) were a tad late with various reasons and when we got out of the house...that`s when we found out she drove away with Mike, Maxime, and Stephanie. We all waited for approximately 25 minutes before she came back and during the time we all thought she drove away to prove a point to us, because she is a stickler for punctuality and we thought she was doing that to give us a taste of our own medicine. Personally I thought she just went out to pick up some stuff...and if she really was then she is not using the right method, haha...because I didn`t feel punished in any way shape or form. But she came back...and we drove off into the distance, with gentle snow softly cascading the surroundings around the van...oh yes I found Maxime`s fake ID and bank card (she lost her wallet last Saturday) tucked in a pack of gum when I crawled into the back seat...I was like "Who the heck is Alexandria Cynthia Fortier?" loudly in the van, and Cheryl who was sitting next to me said "Psst, that`s Maxime`s fake ID" and immediately told Maxime that we found her ID, which made her happy (something she needs a lot of these days)...and I took 2 pieces of gum from her since I didn`t brush my teeth that morning, hahahaha

1 hour later - we arrived in Chicoutimi, and we first went to the look-out point where we can see a good part of the city. On this viewpoint there`s this giant white cross with a red heart in the center...kind of creepy in my opinion but the view itself was pretty cool. It`s basically trees, then houses, then buildings and churchs and other things plus a river and bridges...plus it was snowing which made it look like winter wonderland, although the cloud factor kind of ruined it.

We then went to La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, which is this old mechanical pulp factory back in the day turned into a museum of the city and region. It was pretty cool, and they featured things about the history of the city (the forestry and pulp industry), to architecture in Quebec (such as the Montreal City library, which I have been told is extremely cool looking), to artists in town (apparently this famous Canadian artist named Arthur Villenvue lived there...and he painted his whole house with his art...his whole house is in the museum and they showed how they transported his house into the museum, which was pretty cool. Although honestly, I am not a big fan of his art...I much prefer his son Michel Villenvue, which was also displayed there. We must have spent almost 3 hours there before we left, and I personally could spend another hour there (only because I really take my time when I go to museums).

After that we drove to La Petite Maison Blanche, the only house that survived a flood with pressure as strong as the Niagra Falls back in the day...so that pretty much made in the oldest house in the city. Unfortunately we couldn`t go in because it`s not open to the public in the winter, so we just took some photos and left.

We drove to the Jonquiere Katima-house for lunch, but we didn`t lunch with them because they were off in an excursion to Quebec City (which Maxime is working on, thank you very much!). So lunch happened...chickpea salad and one slice of bread (sometimes I feel like we are the orphaned kids in Oliver Twist with free labour and limited food)...but Valerie/Cheryl/Cynthia came back with pizza...yay! Then after I was done lunch (I was the last one as per usual) I offered to shovel the driveway in order for us to be able to clear out. I did that but I had to go back out again and shovel the driveway wider because Valerie doesn`t think she could get out...finally that was done and then we all left the house to go to our next destination...but not before Valerie had trouble backing out and we all had to get out and push the van out of the driveway...Katima-effort, I tell you!

So next we went to this art gallery with this exposition by a lady named Helene Roy...the art was interesting, abstract, a bit dark and mysterious...left a lot of space for us to question things. Zach/Rebecca/Me/Stephen kept trying to guess what we saw in the pictures and what it means. After half an hour, we left the exposition and originally we were supposed to go on a small hike at this park but because we were running late (it was already 5 pm when we left the exposition and we were supposed to head out at 5), we decided to skip that and go to a cafe in downtown Jonquiere instead. The cafe we went too was really cool, and although the ambiance is not like Cafe Sofa (it doesn't quite feel like a place you want to lounge in), their selection and prices are better and greater, plus the music was rather electic (they actually played a chinese pop song, hahaha). Everybody got tea (one tea selection for 3 people...the anglos chose Chocolate spice and St. Petersburg), and played games offered in the coffee shop (first it was UNO, then Dominos which Stephen taught me at home before...Zach picked up the game very quickly and now can kick Stephen's ass). And yay, the tea is covered by Katima-budget!

We left the cafe at 6 pm and drove him...while in the van in downtown Jonquiere we kept waving to random pedestrians, who were pleasantly surprised (for the most part, there are some that give us weird looks) and waved back. We got home around almost 7, and then we had tacos for dinner that night (courtesy of Rebecca and Charles). Originally I planned on tagging along with whoever had plans that night (watch some form of music performace, bar, dancing, whatever) since it's St. Patrick's day, and I really should party more and stay home less. But after finding out the cafe that usually has performances didn't have anything happening that night, plus rejecting Cheryl's invitation to the bar (I was planning to tag along with Rebecca/Cynthia/Mike/Zach to a bar/dance place) and after no one ended up going to the bar/dance...I just chilled at home and read a National Geographic, took a shower, and went to bed at 11 something...yes I know I am so boring, but might as well because I intended on waking up early...and I did! 6:30 pm...

So there...and now it's free time and I am just chilling in Cafe Sofa

1) Starting tomorrow, Stephen and I are house managers...should be fun and interesting, since we get along really well and we have different work styles
2) I can't believe it, starting this Thursday we are doing billeting. It's so early! And I think Valerie found a family for all of us already. So 2 weeks of billeting, then right after we take our 72 hours...I plan on going to Montreal to visit a friend of mine and just enjoy the city...ethnic foods...can't wait!
3) Oh yes, I have uploaded more pictures and even created a video account in Google Videos...I am not sure when you can see the videos but check them out! I probably need to do some clean up on them though...

Later days!

Work and Other Fun Stuff

Anyways I am on "break" right now at work, so I figure I should work on this a bit...

Nothing much worth mentioning so far, except:
a) A "bad" incident happened at work on Tuesday, which I felt turned out for the better. Claudine was doing some admin work and after 2 hours of sheer boredom on her part, she asked me to help her fill up the rest with postal codes (she was working on labels to paste on envelopes). So anyways I did one page of that, and as I tried to continue on with the next page, I couldn`t find the next page anywhere. So I saved the work and closed the window, thinking perhaps if I reopen the file everything will be there, plus the work I saved. However it didn`t work and instead windows popped up (in French, no less) asking me if I was the admin and I need permission for things. Because the logical part of me is convinced that since I saved the work, it has to be somewhere within the computer. So I kept looking and Claudine pops by, asking how I was doing. I then explained to her what happened, and she immediately tried looking for the file, with no luck...so pretty much the files were lost (although I am still convinced it`s somewhere within the computer) and she was frustrated. This is totally understandable and I felt bad (because come on, we all know how it`s like losing an essay we worked on for hours) but this is where I felt the problem is. Instead of venting her frustrations to me in a healthy manner, she simply said, "ok Angel I will take care of it" and after half an hour or so she comes back to me and said everything is fine now. I know it sounds like I am thinking about this too much and I am complaining for nothing (which Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia said I am) but it feels like Claudine is being overly polite and patient with me...as if she is not very comfortable with showing herself with me. And I don`t want that to happen with people I work with constantly.

So despite Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia`s idea of ignoring the situation, I decided to talk to Claudine about it the next day as I was doing dishes. I explained to her what I felt, and she actually said that no, she was not being overly polite or patient with me at work, and she is very happy with the way I worked (some days I think otherwise). She just didn`t direct her frustrations with me because there was an obvious solution and there is no need for me to get those frustrations. On top of that, she said she is impressed enough with my work ability that she is trying to train me as "one of them" so when there are opportunities to serve 50+ meetings, she doesn`t need to get someone to come in and instead it could just be me and her...and at the end the tips will be split. This is quite a big deal and honor, so I was quite happy to hear that...although I am actually not allowed to take tips due to volunteering...but would that day of me taking tips ever come?

Oh speaking of work, today was a bit of an interesting day. 3 things happened:
1) I come in at 8 am, and I see a crowd of women (about 8) chatting. Then I say Claudine, who was feverishly preparing food...she was like "Angel I need your help, now...can you give me 6 fruit plates?" So for the next 15 minutes or so we were just working straight. After we were done she told me that she came in at almost 7 and unfortunately couldn`t open the door because it was frozen shut. So she had to go next door to Cafe du Clocher and ask for help (unfortunately no one was there). And then she drove to Annie`s house which was 8 minutes away, and they both had to go back and try to unfreeze the door, which they did by blowing water to the hinges...by that time the ladies were waiting outside the cafe and the rest is history...quite a little adventure she had.

2) Poor poor Aurelie...she came into work and I asked her how she was doing...she then told me that on Sunday, she was cleaning the toaster oven and a small piece of metal entered into her eye...first she was fine but Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday she had terrible headaches and she thinks the thing entered her optic nerve...and looking at light kills her (throughout the hour I was with her, she kept pulling down her tuque so it covered almost all of her eyes...it`s funny in a tragic way). And she finally decided to go home...hopefully she will feel better.

3) At the end of the day I was sent to do my usual grocery trips. This time it`s to La Maison du Pain (The House of Bread) and instead of having Annie call them in advance for food, I decided to go there and ask for items myself (Annie wrote me a list). I wanted to challenge myself and speak more French, and I was pumped to do it...however within 30 seconds of my talking the lady behind noticed I had a list and wanted to see it...and she starts packing me food based on the list. A bit disappointed...

4) One of my ideas for this blog/emails is to dedicate something especially for Mike, a "Mike moment" kind of thing where I talk about something he said that day that's extremely bizarre. Anyways...Yesterday night the group and I were in the cafe...they were doing a film event and we were watching a documentary by National Film Board called "Histoire de Sable"...anyways there's this scene where a bunch of African men are working hard...Rebecca told me that Mike turned to Rebecca at that moment and asked if those guys were slaves...just because they are "black and working"....oh my god...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

5) Oh yes before I forgot...I think I got invited by Aurelie to her art exposition. She says she is going to have a party for her art at Cafe du Clocher...should be fun. I saw some of her stuff and it's pretty cool.

A Chinese Girl in a Foreign Land

Sometimes being Chinese outside of populated cities brings some interesting "adventures". Here`s 2 stories that happened to me recently in Alma that I would like to share...

1) This happened on the first Saturday I was here (which was just last week, haha). I was walking down a street in downtown, trying to find the mall. I walked past a building where the entrance kind of dips inside, and it provided a little shelter for smokers to hang out (believe me when I say there are lots of smokers in Quebec...). There was this middle-aged man smoking, and as I walked past him he looked at me and started asking me something in French...I couldn`t fully understand what he is saying but I caught fragments such as "chinois" and "koreanne"...which I summed up to "What kind of asian are you? Chinese? Korean?" So I just quickly answered him "Je suis Chinois" and continued walking...he laughed and said something like "ah chinois! Le Chine!"...or something like that...he could have also said "la chienne" which pretty much means bitch, I cannot decide. But the idea of people stopping you and asking that is just strange...which brings me to my second story...

2) This happened yesterday after I got off work. Again I went to the mall and entered into a store called "Potpourri" which is like this kitcheware store that sells lots of funky kitchen gizmos (I am into stuff like that, haha). So I go in, and the lady was like (in French), "hello, how are you, can I help you with anything?" And I said, "no, I am good, I am just looking"...and she goes, "ok". But this is where it gets interesting (everything is pretty much said in French):

Lady: Just wondering, are you Chinese?
Me: Um, yes...
Lady: Excellent, can you help me with something?
Me: Um...sure...
(Lady drags me to almost the back of the store, which there is a bunch of cheap Chinese knives hanging. She pulls one out and flips to the back, which there is Chinese writing on what the knife is for)
Lady: Can you read this? And can you tell me what it means?
Me: Ok...(starts reading...I was done in 30 seconds)
(Me at this point is thinking how I can tell her the information with my lack of French)
Me: Can you speak English?
Lady: No, not at all...
Me: Ok that`s fine, I will try to explain...(whips out a English/French dictionary. Lady starts laughing)
Me: Yeah, I have to...(thinking how to say "stainless steel" in French)
Lady: (perhaps getting a bit impatient) Can you just tell me what this part of the knife does? (points to a funky blade on the knife)
Me: It`s for scaling fish (only I don`t know how to say "fish scales" in French, so I summed it up to fish skin instead)
Lady: Grubwejrk?
Me:....oui....(I have no idea what she said but it sounds about right, so yeah...then for verification I looked it up in the dictionary and showed her)
Lady: Oui, grubwejrk
Me: oui..
Lady: Ok, what about this? (points to something else)
Me: That`s for opening wine
Lady: This?
Me: For cutting open the chicken`s stomach (l`estomac de poulet, hahaha)
Lady: l`estomac de poulet???
Me: Oui (giggling)
Lady: And this?
Me: It`s for vegetables, fruits...
Lady: (Finally satisfied) Thank you very much
Me: Your welcome, it was...interesting...

- Fin - (for now, let`s see what happens in the future...)

Mar/8

Just want to share a short little something on today...

Work today was quiet...man this job really reminds me of IHOP...I was sent for groceries almost 3 times today (the only reason I didn`t need to go was because one of the places did not have what we want until tomorrow morning, which means I will have to brave the cold again tomorrow...-22, and including windchill -33). By the time I finished groceries my thighs are pretty much all rashed up from the cold...I have to start wearing 2 pairs of pants.

Today I met:
-Annie, one of the 3 people who works in cafe sofa. Therefore I met all the cafe sofa employees (not including the office people, which I am sure I will eventually). Like Aurelie, she pretty much only spoke to me in French.

Today I learnt:
-How to make cafe au lait, chocolate chaude, cafe viennoise, plus le croissant dore...

Learnt some French along the way...

Oh and I got off work and decided to deposit 2 cheques which I haven`t had the opportunity to do because there is no Bank of Montreal in Blind River...so went there today and prayed that either my French is good enough to do the job or someone there can speak some form of English...well neither of that happened and even though the money went into my account, the lady tried to explain in French that I will not get my money until March 19...which I understood no word of and after 3 minutes of blind confusion I figured out what`s going on...she gave me a bit of a scare...French + Bank = not good. Don`t you just love language barriers?

Oh yes last night the anglos finally got the first French class. The lady (Lucie Duval is her name) came over (thank god) and we had to write a multiple choice exam...I understood most of the exam but the last page on reading kind of stumped me...and after that Lucie got to know us in French (meaning we had to introduce ourselves in French). She is a really nice lady, and I think French class will be fun.

A bientot...Stephen is in the cafe right now with his laptop and he said dinner is at 5:30...it`s now 5:26 and we have meeting later.