Hey everybody! well today is great because for the first time since we arrived it is warm and sunny out at the same time. so that makes me happy. not much has been going on here...same old same old. the weekend was pretty good...uneventful but good. friday night we had the cabaret/talent show thing...it was kind of cool. some people from our class 002 performed a rap song...it was really funny. after that everyone went out to the bar bellevue to celebrate the last weekend. it was a lot of fun. saturday, i slept in until supper...literally, charis woke me up for supper. sunday was relaxing...didnèt do much...read the bible...slept. good times. today was class again...the beginning of my last two weeks. my atalier this afternoon was great. we went to the parc daventure de basques where we went on this field trip to this museum. it was really boring. this lady talked about whales for like ever. though i got a cut-out model of a boat. im pretty sure everyone is jealous of me. our atalier has changed alot. we feel like the special class...its like being in grade 1 / kindergarten again. the other day before our walk in the forest we had to do phonetiques in the school while we waited for the bus. it was super funny. we all were sitting in a line on a bench with our lengths crossed and we all had our schoolbags and coats and shoes on ready to go on the field trip. we had to listen to two words and put our hand up if we thought they sounded the same or keep our hands down if we thought they were different. yah. it was quite a site. never mind two days earlier when we went outside and sat on the pavement to play concentration in french. meanwhile all the other ataliers were outside just doing there thing around us and then staring at us and laughing as we played this dumb game. what made it worse is that we couldnt even play it because we cant say our numbers fast enough in french - like who can say vingt eh un in like 1/2 a second?
whatever. anyways...otherwise nothing much is up...ill keep you posted. out.

So...i have officially completed half of my thing here at trois pistole and i can say that i am learning alot. i don`t have a huge vocabulary or anything...but im getting the grammar stuff and today i received my test back which i wrote yesterday....90%. don`t mind, don`t mind. so people here are really cool...interesting...last night at the bar 3 pistoles i ended up having a political discussion over separation with a couple from london, a professor of english or something in that area at the university of guelph and this french bumm off the street that is really smart yet looks like like a bum. it was tres bizarre...only at trois pistoles. so yesterday was the first day that it was sunny since we arrived here at trois pistole...it was still cold but at least the sun was out...today it is warmer...tomorrow should be even better...yet it still is like sweater weather. ummm on the weekend the BFF club (consisiting of amy, liz, ryan, sierra, shannon myself) and matt and charis went to new brunswick to get out of trois pistole. we went to edmunston which pretty much is the biggest town/city in the province. so it pretty much had nothing...we shopped for like 15 minutes...went out for chinese and walked down the bridge and visited the fort...nothing much for a 2 hour drive...but at least i can say ive been to new brunswick now. plus the french accent there is even worse...like i thought i had a hard time understanding hick french...no this was indiscernable. on friday night charis, matt and i went to the local piscine and swam some laps, relaxed in the hot tub and stuff...good times. pretty much everyone here has a cold...ive had a cold since ive arrived here and i can barely speak every morning. so tonight there is another spectacle obligatoire where this fou homme is going to sing about love and compare it to an apple or something...i dunno. i think im going to skip. sleeping is so much better right now. my atalier (workshop in the afternoon) is going good now...some kids left because they were complaining it was to easy...and then we got another animatrice named dorthy. she is hot. i think here and yanick (my other animateur) have something going on. anyways...im just rambling...i apologize for the randomness and lack of structure...out.

bonjour mes amis...well its been a while since i last update you guys on whats going on...well im settling into my classes. my schedule usually consists of getting up around 7 or whenever the earliest person decides to take a shower...i generally walk to school (unless it is raining which is almost all the time) which is like 45 minutes...and then i commence school at 8:30 and have class till 12. i then go to madame claudette and monsiour claude`s (another house) for lunch. they are really good cooks...they used to own a restaurant and now are retired...every meal is perfect for a restaurant...crazy. after lunch we have workshop at 1:30 where we use what we learn supposedly. but we don`t really. but things are changing in the class and we are being split up and stuff so i don`t know what to expect anymore. workshop ends at 3:30 and i will either check my email or go home to bed till super. the nights are open to ourselves...either to do homework or visit friends or go to the bar or shoot some pool or dance or whatever. often the school puts on events for the students; some mandatory and some not. so far i took a trip to a maple syrup place where we toured the place and then ate a picnic lunch and then had sugar and danced to traditional folk music...i won a prize for musical chairs...except old school style where each guy had to lean on one knee and be the chair for the woman...wow. i was the last guy standing...my knees were shaking for hours after that. vanderveen knees are bad already. some girls were nice and kind of hovered or lightly leaned on you...some just fly into you full force trying to get onto your knee. but whatever...i won a block of sugar for it so hey...sunday night the town choir sang...kind of boring but okay...last night this famous french musician thomas jehnson or something like that had a concert here...he has really cool beats...but kind of revolutionary/extreme for me...everyone is like dancing to his songs cheering while he talks about dying poor people and corporate america ownership and stuff like that. the problem is i don`t understand much french and the speed at which he sings it was beyond understanding. anyways so that was okay. otherwise the school puts on movies and sports and stuff so there is always something to do. my family is great over here...they are trés chouette. (very cool). i have this thing where im trying to learn french slang, yet there seems to be no word that equals that of sketchy. so ive made it my goal to adopt sketchy into the french language....anyways, we are planning a trip for quebec city next weekend with a whole bunch of friends...it should be good. otherwise thats all for now...see ya

bonjour mes amis! well day two is 3/4s completed and well it has been a long day. After a rough night of sleep we got up nice and early around 8:30 to get ready to leave. We decided to walk to the school which was about 5km away from our house and so 45 minutes later uphill one way (but no snow) we arrived at the school. We found out that today was registration and so we sat in a line up for like 2 hours. After meeting some people we went through our stations surviving on the little French that we knew and signed up for our classes. Once that was completed we went to Monsciour Claude and Madame Claudette`s house for lunch....mmm...it was the best lunch ever...it was like a thanksgiving meal...i was so full (je suis tres pien (sp?)). anyways after meeting more people and digesting our food we went back to the school to rewrite our placement test. yah...out of 200 and something questions im pretty sure i receieved like 25 if any...so whatever. i know im going to be in the lowest class anyways. after that we met up with the redeemer crowd...turns out there is like 11 of us...lol we have our own gang going on...it should be fun. anyways with our new redeemer friends with vehicles we drove home for supper. it was really big too...they always have soup before the meal....its like the apetizer or something.. Once again i was tres pien. After supper we had the reading of the rules (and translating into English) and I memorized some words concerning time ou day. Then we left for the supermarket and bought some laundry detergent and came to the school here to use the internet. and now here i am. I don`t know what`s going on tonight but i will tell you tomorrow. bon soir!

Well today we arrived at Trois Pistole. The stay at Matt and Chariss uncle and aunt in Laval was great. After going to the morning worship service at the Eglise Reformande de Quebéc (spelling?) we left. It was an uneventful trip but we really found out that Trois Pistole is pretty much the hickest town weve ever seen. As we came within 20km of the town we were terrified because all we saw was just old run down houses and barns and these scruffy scary looking people outside of them...we sat in silence for like 10 minutes in fear...we arrived at the sketchy looking school and no one was there...our foster father (it sounded strange to us too) picked us up and brought us to his house. It turns out that the family (Viateur and Chantelle with there kids Felix and Audrey and their dog Fripon (spelling?)) is super nice and the house is really beautiful. Also, charis, matt, amy, and I were allowed to live together. Along with us for we have a new roomate from Saskatoon named Michael...hes a cool guy. So after a steak and french-fry dinner dinner (and Amy translating the parents words into English for us) we left for the opening ceremonies. It was interesting...the entire town came out for the event. There we met up with our fellow Redeemerites Kevin and Jake vanDorp. The guy explained to us (who didnèt know any French) that three things happen when you attend this place: 1. you are referred to as the blank faces (because you dont understand what or even if people are talking to you); 2. you have nightmares of everyone speaking french and you not understanding them (or even worse you speak french in your nightmare and you dont understand yourself); 3. by the end of the five weeks you dont know english or french as you begin to mix both french and english words into your conversations making some sort of hybrid language. He also warned us that we would be run over if we walk on the road...we arent supposed to expect cars to slow down for us as they do in other parts of the country. After a brief introduction to our profs everyone met in the social hall for some spiked juice.. it was great. We met the guy who runs it...he already labelled charis as special, lol. Our foster mom (mere) and dad (pere) then proceeded to give us the brief run around of the happening places in Trois Pistole. Once we arrived back home, (strange how im calling it that already) we just chatted it up for a while...it was nice. And well that was my day. Tomorrow is registration and from then on we cannot speak any english at all - not even to each other. The spies are watching us. Except for when im on the computer. But im excited for these next five weeks...Im surprised at how im learning already for as i typed this post up i kept on wanting to translate and speak in French...this should be a good trip (bon vogage)! Bon soir!

Bonjour mes amis...it is official..i am now a Quebecor for the next month. I'm staying in a little town called Trois-Pistole in the middle of no where. To top it off I cannot speak English at all. Anyways, the trip was good. The picture below is of the group that I am with from Redeemer. Tonight we arrived in Montreal at the Byl's uncle and aunts place for the night. Tomorrow we leave for Trois Pistole after church. This should be an exciting trip...From left to right: Matt Byl, Charis Byl, Amy Parmley, and Me! (I hope to communicate mostly through my blog while I am here at Trois-Pistole as internet availability is very scarce). Au revoir! 

Here is a picture of the kitty murray boys on our last night as a dorm....awww.... :(

So I have successfully moved into my new house in Hamilton and it seems like it will be a good year coming ahead. I live on a quiet side street; full of old people who seem to go to bed around supper time. My neighbours to my left are the only exception as we are all pretty sure that they are part of the underground Italian mafia around here. The only disadvantage is that our street does not get plowed during the winter. But than again, winters in Ontario are nothing really. Anyways, so we just had internet hooked up today but I have to hook up the router first and get it working. I am leaving for Quebec on Friday and Saturday to start my month long immersion program there and I'm hoping to report back every once in a while throughout the trip. So until then, see ya!