Adventures in Ville-Marie

Hellooo everyone!

Well we've been having a great time so far in Ville-Marie, I haven't started work yet but I am super excited to start. I'll be working at La Marais Laperrière, which is a swamp.. It's actually more of a natural interpretive centre, so there's an inside part with displays and stuff, and then outside there are 6 km of trails around in the forest and to the swamp. The place is absolutely beautiful. It's very, very green, and it kind of reminds me of Vancouver area in parts because there are lots of ferns. My jobs there are all over the map - here are a few of them. I get to drive around the trails in an ATV and perform upkeep of the area, mow lawns and feed birds, welcome classes and other people to the place and show them around the indoor displays, and take them on tours along the trails. This part will be pretty hard, I think, because you also have to remember that all of this is in French. I get to learn all these names of species of trees, plants, birds and other swamp animals and facts about animal behaviour, all in French, and present them on tours of the place. So, the learning curve is going to be super steep for the next while, but I think it'll be a really cool experience, and I am so excited to finally have an outdoor job! I'll try to take some pictures of the place soon, because it's really cool, and you just gotta see it.

First of all, our next-door neighbours have a dog named Molly, and they asked us to help them out by walking her, so we take her for walks every once in a while. Here are some pictures of Molly, and some gorgeous sunset pictures of the lake, from one of our walks with her.

Other than that, we have been up to a few things around town... and the weather is finally getting nice!! We had a few days of rain - yesterday being the craziest. I was just sitting inside and all of a sudden we got hit with a wild rainstorm outside - so Max and I ran outside to enjoy it, and immediately got soaking wet!! This was no light rain, folks. And yes, we set up my camera and took random pictures...

Also I had just gotten my hair cut that morning, so it's shorter but you totally can't tell in these pictures from all the rain. It looks like I just had a shower outside in my clothes.

This morning we had our third French lesson, and that went pretty well, and then we went for a swim in the pool. The public pool is in the Town Hall, about a 30-second walk from our house, and we get in for free because we're in Katimavik. So, in other words, we're pretty dang lucky. This afternoon, we also got a tour of the local Chocolate Factory, Chocolats Martine - yep, I am not kidding, we have our very own chocolate factory in town. They even sell their chocolate all over Québec, and they said they're about to start selling it in Ontario, too. So this is top-notch chocolate we're talking about!! The place also held the record recently, for a three-month period, for having the world's largest chocolate bar. 'ere she is....

Yeah, they just stacked the world's biggest chocolate bar away in a corner, under a bunch of boxes and surrounded by office supplies.... It ain't no thang.

So I know this seems like a lot happened today, but I also have pictures from this evening. It was totally gorgeous out today, so Pam, Ashaya and I spent the early evening at the park by our house.. and we made our first friend in town!! C'est un petit garçon qui s'appelle Zakary... He came and started talking to us, and then he saw our cameras and turned into a little photographer. He was showing us around the park and telling us where and how to pose for the pictures he would take of us - get us to lean in, smile, pose on our knees or with our chins in our hands. Probably the cheesiest pictures we've ever had taken of us, but it was really cute and also pretty fun. Those ones are on Ashaya's camera, but there are a few on mine. Here are some of the ones from my camera. You can also see my new haircut!!