Vendredi

Whew, two exams, a party, goodbyes, shopping, and packing. What a day. These two exams were actually two of the easiest, I think because they required more synthesis than her other tests. After we finished those, everyone headed back up to the classroom for a final get-together brunch with muffins, coffee, fruit, chocolate (mmm!), and this awesome peanut butter/cinnamon apple dessert that Megan made. Of course, we exchanged Facebook names and took tons of pictures. I think my favorite part, though, was giving Suzanne her card and gift. We had all donated a few dollars to buy her a nice gift for her time and effort in teaching us over the last five weeks. She’s had a rough time of it, since her father has been in the hospital for most of that time, so the spa package that Lindsay chose for her was perfect.  

It was pretty funny: Suzanne also took the opportunity with me and Megan to gossip about the few students who weren’t there who had evidently driven her crazy throughout the session. It was slightly awkward and probably inappropriate, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t already come to the same conclusions. Some of the Anglophone Canadians in the program didn’t bother to study or even to respect the professors because the government was paying for everything. It was just a chance for them to party. Oh well. Whatever. It just goes to show that if you don’t earn it or pay for it, chances are you won’t value it. And, more importantly, if you don’t really want it, you won’t work for it.

So, Megan, Amy and I had to say our goodbyes after lunch, and then David and I stopped in at the farewell picnic with the animators and some of the professors. I wasn’t interested in going, but a couple of our classmates told us to check it out because my name had been called in a prize drawing. I did, indeed, win a CD of Québecois music. Then, they started passing out souvenir ‘license plates.’ And a few minutes later, they started handing out tickets for another drawing, and my number was the first one called. It was crazy. The prize was a nice hardcover book about Québec, which I was more than happy to get. So…after I’d won just about everything I could win, I headed over to the campus store to grab a hoodie, and then I walked home – in the rain again. Lol 

Mme. F is so thoughtful : she gave me a book about Québec to help me remember all of the places I visited, and a calendar with pictures, so that I could see it every day. :) I think I know what I’m going to send her as a thank-you gift for taking care of me: a recipe book. She adores cooking (and loves looking up cooking-related vocabulary), so I think it’ll be perfect. Oh yeah, it was really amusing watching her make a list of fish and seafood in English. Half of the vocabulary was so specific that most Americans would never use it. I’d never even heard of a couple of the types of fish. But, whatever!